Sunday, June 06, 2004 ~ Denpasar
Ama slept longer than me so I got up and started watching a DVD (2 weeks notice). He got up about 1/2 way through and made me a fresh brew of coffee and some fruit.
We took a taxi to Marcus's house then we all took a cab to have a Javanese lunch in Denpasar City. That was the first time I was sure I would get sick. I was scared to eat the food, but I ate it anyway. The restaurant is open with plastic chairs and about 5 tables. The food was already cooked and sitting behind glass on plates for us to point out what we wanted. Some of it was scary looking - dried Piranha fish with teeth still attached? The others didn't seem to notice the look of horror on my face :)
I chose a selection of vegetarian dishes and rice. It was cold and probably full of millions of bacteria just waiting to attack the stomach of an aussie gal like me. The food was nice though, pretty yummo, would've been even more delicious if I wasn't freakin` out :)
Joni called Ama and said that he would meet us at Marcus's, so we headed back in the same cab that was waiting for us while we ate. Ama & I got into Joni's car - very nice car - and headed to go to a town past Ubud. On the way, we stopped at a silver makers so I could order some custom-made jewellery that I designed on-the-spot for my friends.
We didn't make it as far as our destination - we got as far as the largest Art/Craft Market in Bali, and all of a sudden, people on the streets were pointing to the back of our car, and trying to get our attention. Ama jumped out of the moving car, cos he thought the car was going to blow up - I thought the car must've been on fire. Everyone looked panicked, so when Joni slowed down a bit more - I also jumped out of the moving car. 
Turns out that Joni had been driving the whole way with the handbrake on, so the wheels were smokin`! The people were very scared but came out to try and help, not that they could do anything. Joni parked, and the Police told him to stay there until it had cooled down, so poor shakin` Ama and I went to look at the markets. Ama was too scared to continue our journey, so when we were safe to continue, we headed home, constantly re-assuring Ama that the car get us there safely.
We got back to Ama's and I got to meet his cleaning lady. She comes in every 2nd day and gets paid 50,000 R per month. Ama & I then sat down and chatted about life for a few hours, then Ama, Joni, & I took a taxi to Sanur for dinner. We went to a restaurant on the beach called Bonsai Cafe. It was really pretty, all the tables are outside, on the sand, with lit candles. The meal was yum, I had vegetarian noodles, Ama had salad, and Joni had chicken cashews. I took a pic of them eating :) Finally Ama allowed me to pay (100,000R) for dinner. We then went home and watched a DVD.
Monday, June 07, 2004 ~ Denpasar
Woke up around 6am... knew Ama would sleep in as he was watching a movie after I went to bed, so I tried to sleep longer. Got up around 7:30am and got ready to go to the market. Ama said he'd join me in the city (kota) later. Took a taksi to the laundry then to the Denpasar market.
 
Ama sent me an SMS warning ‘not to let any guides show me around as they will pretend to be the owners of the shops and set the price’, I SMS'd him back with "No Worries", but it ended up being a lot harder to lose them than I expected. Had to do some sneaky manoeuvres to shake them off, as just being polite doesn't seem to work in Denpasar.
Bought a couple of long, African-type black wooden-carved masks for 20,000ea, no bartering... I thought that was a bloody awesome price, but later I saw that that's the going rate in Denpasar!
Had lunch at an expensive place (25,000 Nasi Goreng). Walked the main streets of Denpasar. I um... didn't like it. Everyone watching me all the time - staring, I can feel their eyes stare right through me - not so many smiley faces in this town, not so many westerners either, only saw about 6 for the whole day and were they pretending they couldn't see me? :)
I found myself cornered by street-sellers… about 8 of them, all shoving different things at me. They watched me while I ate at the restaurant and lined up outside so that as soon as I left the restaurant they had surrounded me. It's like I'm the queen or something. Or a bit of meat for a pack of wolves to fight over? I must be so rich here... funny to imagine that being that I'm jobless at the moment. I managed to lose a lot of them by being a bit more stubborn than usual, they were really getting to me actually, as I said no about 20+ times, which is ridiculous. I got it down to just 2 following me around, then 1.. then after talking to the final one (Ali Babah was his name... hehe... no shit!) he realised that I seriously wasn't interested after he offered the watches for "free cos he likes me", and I still refused. I hope Ubud is not like this - I go there tomorrow.
I bought a hair straightener from a normal electrical sales store for about AUD$11, and some anti-frizz lotion from a hairdresser. I'm sick of my hair looking like a dried out wig of hay. The water here, or maybe the weather, or “something” definitely isn't agreeing with my skin and hair in Bali.
The weather here is stickier and hotter than Kuta. Ama said it's about 30 degrees but it feels hotter, but then again, my clothing still isn't very appropriate. I thought I would be able to buy clothes in Bali, but with so many "eyes on you" all the time, passing you 10 new things at once to look at as soon as you show a bit of interest in one thing. Buy, Buy, Buy! Buy MORE, Buy MORE, Buy MORE!! Buy ONE more! Buy ONE more! ONE more!.. arrrrrgh.... hehe, I haven't succeeded.
In Denpasar, I think I would get irritated with the pushy salespeople as they are less considerate here, and at least they are friendly in Kuta (even if they are faking it - it's nice to get fake friendly than no friendly at all!)
Ama picked me up in taksi with 2 of his little friends from the village (young school-aged children). They chose KFC for lunch. KFC is almost the same as in Australia, except the menu is slightly modified (it's cheaper too, but still very expensive for Bali, I could've fed the whole 4 of us elsewhere, for the same cost of my meal). The spices taste the same on the chicken, but the texture is not as fatty, and the chickens don't look like they have been pumped full of steroids like they do in Australia ;)
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