Wednesday, June 02, 2004 ~ 3rd Day
Met a fellow Aussie traveller at breakfast named Michael. He's from Adelaide and was there with his buddy Gary. He heard about my shopping mis-haps and decided to make it his personal mission to show me “fixed-price shopping”. He took me to the Kuta Beach MatiHari – a huge shopping centre with air conditioning & fixed prices. I will go back there tomorrow and buy some stuff, cos I couldn't really shop with him there.
Iketut SMS'd me about 8 times before 10am!! I sent him an SMS saying that I didn't want to go on his bike to Nusa Dua, which was what he was trying to get me to do. Very much regretting giving out my new phone number to him, but I couldn’t really say no as he was with me when I bought the damn thing.
Today I’m going to meet Ama (local from Denpasar) and his friends at Papa’s Café. I met Ama on an internet site “The Hospitality Club” where you can stay at people’s houses for free and you let people stay free in your house. I started to walk to Papa's Cafe, which is along the beach. It took nearly an hour to get there. On the way, I met a guy named Made. He apparently was speaking to me the other day, but I don't remember him. He walked me to Papa's Cafe after asking if it was ok. “Yes, as long as you don’t want any money J”. 
While waiting for Ama, Made & I had a juice. When Ama showed up, we both asked Made to stay with us for lunch, both intending to pay for him. Ama ended up paying for all of us! We all had the same thing - Nasi Campur (cham-pour)- Boiled Rice, Veg (mm), Tempeh, Tofu, Chicken in Satay sauce, beef, shrimp - it was delicious.
Ama is a cool guy. He gets paid Australian wage from a job he found via the Internet (he has a masters degree) and lives in Bali, so he's wealthy compared to most of the locals. Now that I've figured out he's not an axe-murderer, sexual deviate or desperate for my tourist dollars, I will stay with him in Denpasar in his village later in my trip.
We took a cab back to Bemo corner. I tried to offer some money to Ama but he wouldn't hear of it - he said, "Give me 1 million US dollars or nothing". He's funny and cheeky and more "himself" than others here.
Tony piked out on the Sunset Dinner cruise, so I went alone. It was definitely worth the money. The dinner was nice; it was a buffet of all sorts of food – but no Indonesian food. They had an Indonesian singer to start the night off while we ate (singing Dido, Norah Jones, and Japanese songs). She had a knack for getting people up and dancing. I spoke with Japanese passengers all night. None could speak English. They were all very friendly. I took their photos with their camera, and they took mine with each other. I also spoke with a group of Aussies, although mainly just one guy who was there with his wife and 7-month-old baby, and a few friends. After the Indonesian singer had finished, they had a live Cabaret show that was fantastic. 7 colourful dancers bopping away to cabaret songs and Madonna.
The drive back to the hotel was daunting. The driver couldn’t speak English - he was a bloody maniac on the road with zero consideration to the safety of others on the road. I left claw marks in his seats.
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