I was so happy my water was working today that the sun seemed to shine just a little bit brighter.
Feeling a little bit groggy after a late night which started out as 1 beer at Aina’s bar on Jalan Oberoi and turned into 4, sitting with Aina from Austria and her husband Agung from Tabanan.
My sleep was interupted by my intercom twitching intermittently without anyone talking. Maybe this was Jack the Balinese Ripper at the door trying to get me to open up. Anyway I think it was an electronic fault and disconnected it today.
A stint at Internet Outpost was followed by a set of meetings with sales-managers at large hotels talking to them about advertising. I got to visit some of the people I have seen over the last 3 months and ask them how business is and how they are. One manager told me her occupancy is 18%, that’s not good, but it will pick up sharply in December.
For me living in Seminyak close to the main road and bypass means I can access the hotels in this area and zoom all the way to Sanur in 35 minutes.
I got a call on my cell phone from Par who has just arrived in Bali with Trisha. We agreed to meet at Benny’s at the beach in Legian at around 5.15pm first though I had to take a shower. Hurrying quickly to get out of my clothes I turned on the faucet and guess what? The water wasn’t working!!! Yeah I know I could roll around on the beach and cover myself in volcanic ash or whatever they do Downunder, but I only had 20 minutes. Using a pint of my drinking water I did a ‘Balinese-Polish shower’ with soap and plenty of that smelly stuff I bought at Bintang supermarket that pretends to be cologne.
Benny’s is only 5 minutes from my house and I got down there pretty much on time. Par and Trisha were waiting and we sat at a shady table and got to know one another. We’ve never met before which is a cool bonus of my job, meeting new comers all the time.
I did my best to answer the typical cultural and logistical questions that newcomers ask and we got along very well.
As the sun was setting Par suggested getting something to eat and we moved next door to Zanzibar, an Italian owned restaurant with an assortment of pastas, pizzas, salads, sandwiches and Indonesian food. I ordered a club sandwich for 23,000rp which came with fries. It was pretty good and the great thing about Zanzibar is you are close to the beach, sitting out under the stars and in a fairly lively atmosphere.
Our conversation covered American, European, Asian culture, worklife and food. Both Par and Trisha are from Texas originally now living in San Diego. He is a biologist studying ways to beat cancer and she is a nurse. Trisha told me she likes to have her accomodation sorted out before a trip whereas Par prefers to wing it. They are in Bali for 2 weeks and I encouraged them to venture to the mountains and east coast.
I think they are a very cool couple for taking the initiative and coming to Bali especially as their neighborhood in east San Diego is at fire risk. Par said that his neighbors have instructions how to handle the animals if the forest fire gets too close. I like their spirit (’where were you when your house burned down?’…’I was watching it on CNN in my hotel pool in Bali’.)
Par asked me to invite them along to anything cool that happens in the next 2 weeks and I will.
We paid our bill and they called a cab to take thm back to Kuta, while I turned left off Double Six road up to Seminyak.
I’m eager to hear their stories of interaction wth locals and misunderstandings.
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Why don’t you connect a long hose to the next door neighbour’s tap and use their water!.
That, or sink a bore in the ground!
The neighbor’s house runs off the same pump as mine. It fixed now again.
By the way the temperatures over here are getting up there again, no more cool nights, I have to use my fan and cn feel myself getting sticky during the day.
Poor Nick (*_*)!
That water pump need a good substitute!!! I wonder how is your toilet? Maybe you should go to Bintang supermarket again to get some baby wives,just in case…. that would do good he he (@.*)
BUGGER, about the water hey!