August 4th 2004 in Seminyak Bali

My first job of the day today was to ride over to the Bali Agung Village in Seminyak to check on their American breakfast for a customer. My contact there was on vacation and I knew nothing would get done over the phone.

This morning I rode down to Sanur to the food stand where I lost my camera yesterday. Wayan the owner was busy cooking food and I asked if she had my camera. She said that she didn’t but 2 people sat where I had been sitting after I left.

I think Wayan is honest so I don’t expect to ever see the camera again.

Back in Kuta I noticed high tide was around 11am but I didn’t see too many surfers on Kuta Beach for some reason.

I surfed the net at Internet Outpost, ate masakan Jawa at Warung Nikmat then went home to do some work. Arriving I met the new pembantu’s, mother and daughter team Made and Wayan. The lady who helped me at one of my parties, Wayan arranged these 2 as Made, the mother is her sister. No worries they know the drill and are locals too.

As I was booting up my machine the phone rang, it was one of the guys from Internet Outpost who wanted to take me to Denpasar to look at used cameras. I shut down my computer and rode down to Kuta. Robbie and I then zoomed up Jl. Imam Bonjol via a network of alleys and I did my best to keep up with him. I always end up with these ’speed racer locals’ whether it be a woman of a man. They just can’t help overtaking everything on the road and taking chances at every opportunity. I said fuck it and hung back going at my own pace. I’m not going to kill myself over a second hand camera.

We checked out 2 places, 1 used cameras, the other new. Both were overpriced so I came away without one. Robbie surprized me as he was interested in getting a new phone. His old one is like mine, cheap and cheerful and is worth 400,000rp. He wants a new one for 600,000rp. I asked him why and he said he wants a phone that plays tunes. The average local earns 400,000rp per month and he’s going to blow 200,000rp so his phone can play tunes!

As for the cameras I saw there were 4 and 5 mega pixel ones used for 2.5m rp and up. I don’t need 4 0r 5 mega pixel neither does anyone else using the web. My photos are usually 70,000 kb and take a few seconds to download. If I used a 5 mega pixel shot I’d have to crunch it big time before it was ready to be used.

The old Canon A60 was a good camera as it was just 2 mp and had plenty of scope for manual control.

I bought a couple of bottles of red wine from Bintang supermarket today and this evening sipped a glass of each. One was from Spain (90.000rp) the other south Australia ( 70,000rp) both were disgusting. On a positive note it will keep me from drinking a lot, one glass at a time is all I can handle ( as long as I have a chocolate bar ( or bunch of grapes like today) to kill the taste.

A decent wine they have at Bali Deli is Yellowtail from Australia. I’ve had it before for 120,000rp. The Bali produced wine is something you’d use to drown the cockroaches in.

This evening my phone rang and a traveler from Holland wants to meet me tommorrow evening. I’ll try to remember and give good info. I wonder how Angie is getting on. When we met at Warung Nikmat she told me that she and her business partner ( female ) were planning on renting a motorbike and sharing it, neither of them having ridden before. I suggested that a car would be a better idea but they are going for it. Hati hati ladies!

• Camera Shopping in Kuta Bali
• Bombing interviews in Kuta Square Bali: Mega
• Indonesian election update in Kuta Bali
• Saturday August 7th 2004 in Kuta Bali
• Sanur installs security cameras

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