Cooler weather in Seminyak Bali

The 4 days of torrential rain we had recently gave away an obvious clue…

cooler weather was heading our way. I should of expected that because when one warm air mass collides with a cooler one you often get heavy rains. Before the rains I was using my AC and fan at night, waking up at 2am to turn the AC off after the house had cooled. Last night I used neither but did use the blanket I bought in Lombok!

Its very pleasant I must say not to sweat at all to cover up with something heavier than a sheet.

I got to Global Xtreme this morning as it was opening and enjoyed one of their big Bali coffee’s for 6,000rp. No Earth shattering things for me to deal with this morning so I can get on with tasks at hand. One of those was to deliver payment for my motorbike rental to Nyoman, husband of Nyoman and father of Nyoman.

They live along Jalan Drupadi, ther small lane where my old house was. Nyoman is a pretty young looking guy but is already up to 3 kids…whoa boy! His small local convenience store has undergone a transformation and now features and petrol rack and clothes which weren’t there before. I asked him how business was and he said quiet. At least he has locals to rely on. They aren’t going anywhere and were always his main stay, the other business coming from ‘bules’ like me who drop by at random.

How did I rent my motorbike from Nyoman? I basically talked to him and negotiated a price of 400,000rp per month which is good, ask any local that’s what they expect to pay. My 110cc Honda Supra gets a spot check once a month from Nyoman and a clean. He comes round my house and takes the bike for an hour. It was funny when I moved house and recieved a panicked call from him one morning “Nick where are you, where is bike.” I didn’t tell him I took the bike to Lombok a couple of months ago either reasoning that any future problems with the bike will be blamed on that ‘extra long trip.’

My lunch today was at Warung Gossip. I can’t seem to break away from that healthy food which today contained bbq fish, chicken, greens, veg and eggplant. I sat out back next to the rice paddies and my food was delivered by Iluh. My other friends Wayan and Ketut who gave me the ingredients for the bbq were also working. My bill including a fresh OJ was 26,000rp. By the way for those interested Warung Gossip is staging Bali’s first flea market next door on June 4th from 11am-11pm. I would of thought flea markets would be right up the Balinese alley.

Last night riding home from Kuta I decided to swing by the beach and zoom up Jl. Pantai Kuta. After I made my turn out of Poppies Lane II a motorbike cop pulled me over. Technically Poppies II is a one way street even though everyone in town goes both ways. I showed him my fake licence which is now several months out of date and handed him the 13,000rp of change I had in my wallet. “How long you been in Indonesia?” he said. “One week” I said “and that’s all the money I’ve got.” “Where are you going?” he said. “I’m going home, okay?” I said. I think the rule of thumb is a 20,000rp note will get the job done. Don’t resist, don’t get pissed just act like you’ve been there before and know the drill, the cops all do. If you jump up and down panicking that shows them you don’t know the rules and they will try to get more money out of you. Don’t you love law and order!

Here in Kuta the staff at Internet Outpost are trying out a new jazzy rock album. Its pretty good and beats last year’s Eminem which was played to death.