Meeting Chimene and Jana in Globe Cafe Kerobokan Bali

Living in Bali I get more than my share of visitors and now apart from Sean and Chris I am getting my first repeat visitors.

Chimene is from the Bay Area in California and I have known her since 1988.

Last time she was out here here Bali she came over to my old house with her friend Rudy from Singaraja whose sunglasses I still have (there here if you want them Rudy). This time she called me and we decided to meet at the Globe Cafe just off Jl. Raya Kerobokan around the corner from Global Xtreme. I stopped at Angie’s guest house Poppies Inn in Kuta to say hello and by chance Arif was there and we had a few laughs.

Getting out to the Globe took about 20 minutes as traffic was thick in Kuta and we got there round 8pm.

Angie is getting darker by the day, I look like the tourist and she the expat. When we pulled up Chimene was sitting right there with her friend Jana also from California. Both of them do some exporting of clothes and jewelry and Jana lives here for part of the year.

They both have spent considerable time in Sumatra, Chimene living there for a total of 5 years in Bukit Luwang. As many people will be aware of Bukit Luwang was hit with a massive flash flood a few months ago that wiped out most of the village and killed hundreds of people. Chimene was very active in fundrasing from the US and thanked BootsnAll for donating.

Angie and I ordered a couple of strong arak madus and the conversation flowed. One topic that we covered was the dating scene here in Bali, the culture clash and the different expectations. The ladies have Balinese friends who are just friends but some people assuming more than that. I echoed what an Aussie told me recently that as far as the men are concerned a foreigner should look for a girlfriend who can speak decent English, has a job and doesn’t go to nightclubs.

We ordered dinner, mine was Neopolitan fish, with a tomato like sauce for 25,000rp, very good.

Globe has an attached internet cafe and bulletin board for houses and other expat items for sale.

We got on to the subject of bungy jumping and I told everyone that I could get them a jump at AJ Hacketts in Legian if they were up for it. Anige was dying for it, Jana was so so and Chimene was definitely a no go.

We said goodnight and I dropped Angie back in Kuta. I have another old face coming soon and look forward to many more.

Here’s a look at the street outside Made’s Warung on Jl. Pantai Kuta, its a similar scens all over Kuta, Legian and some parts of Seminyak.

I’m getting ready for my visa run to Singapore tomorrow. I’ve picked up my air ticket I bought through Arjuna in Kerobokan. They do ‘visa run special packages’. My ticket was $225 on Garuda. Wati the secretary at Arjuna is on the ball and kept reminding me to get 3 pasport photos and noted the phone numbers for Garuda in case I have to change the return flight. I leave Bali at 6 am and due to a flight cancellation have to go Denpasar - Yogyakarta - Jakarta - Singapore, arriving around midday. My flight home leaves at 6.30pm so I don’t have much room to maneuover. Got to make contact with a new ‘agent’ who is based somewhere in Changi close to the airport.

I’m getting a multiple entry business visa which costs 1.5m rp to start. I will be given 60 days on arrival and can extend 4 times for 30 days each time for 500,000rp twice and 600,000rp twice. If I leave the country right at the end of the 6 months I can make this set of paperwork stretch for a total of 18 months.

Next update will be from Singapore.