Charades and Pictionary

In our Villa the sink drain is partially blocked, so we decided to buy a plunger to clear it. The plunger was very inexpensive........about A$1.40 at Hardy's, a department store in central Sanur. We had a bit of trouble with the language and had to resort to Charades and eventually Pictionary to explain what we were after. The Charade of me washing my hands and the sink water not going down didn't work, so I did a charade asking for paper and pen and drew a plunger...Bingo!

Yesterday we hired a van and driver to do a tour. Our driver, Adi, is a good driver and a most pleasant young man with a good sense of humour. By the time we arrived back at the villa he was most proficient in some of the more common base Australianism. We enjoyed his company and gave him a generous tip.....something we are not accustomed to.


Off to market

First stop on the tour was Nusa Dua and we paid dearly for what promised to be a good small tour to Turtle Island, feeding fish and coral viewing through the glass bottom of the boat. It was a ripoff. Turtle Island has a number of turtles as you would expect, but it also has a few birds in small unkempt cages. We were told that a small donation of about R5000 was obligitory...we gave R35000 and were pressured for more. Then on to the the fish feeding where we tossed bread over the side to attract some very small fish. We thought we would see some interesting fish, but no. Then we were supposed to go coral viewing, but the boat took us back to shore. The boat tour was supposed to be a 90 minute excursion, but it as all over in about 50 minutes and to be honest, we were happy to get off.

Adi, showed us around the Nusa beachfront and the very expensive resort hotels. We had a beer at a roadside bar where I bought a couple of T shirts to keep the owner happy. No Bintang Beer T shirts for me.

Next we travelled to Ulu Watu to visit the temple on a bluff. The temple area is home to hundreds of monkeys and they are bad boys. There were, what looked like a couple of hundred tourist of many nationalities. People were warned to secure all their small property such as glasses, cameras etc. Never-the-less several people had glasses ripped off their faces and hats stolen by very fast monkeys. The retrieval of the stolen property was done by bribes and a little judicious violence. The goods were retrieved and the monkey men paid off.

We didn't stay for the Fire Dance and went for an evening meal on the beach at Jimbarin Bay. There are quite a few beachside restaurants at Jimbarin, all looking much the same. They are seafood restaurants and at this one the fish is selected by the diner and then prepared and served on the beach. It was an expensive meal for Bali and I have never paid that much for a meal before. Sanur eateries from now on!
Also, yesterday, Helen and James had another massage and other treatments done in Sanur. Helen asked what exactly the 'Ratus Vagina' item was. It was explained to Helen that it was an infusion of special smoking herbs into, yes you guessed it, the vagina which would make the female like a virgin again. Red faced Helen at that one. She didn't opt for that service.