Meeting Chrisitine and Stewart in Kuta Bali

I woke a bit late today and took off to Cafe Moka for the bread and coffee. Yesterday was the day I had a reminder in my organizer to visit Arjuna immigration consultants in Legian.

So after the coffee I rode down Jl. Legian to the BNI bank located just after the loop on Jl. Legian, where my safety deposit box is.

I keep my passport and fortune here and it takes no time to park in the lot under the bank, run up the stairs and get to the vault.

I rode straight back to Kerobokan where Arjuna is located and without an appointment was able to fill out paper work and hand over the passport to be processed. I’m on a business visa wich after my initial 60 days in the country can be renued for up to 4 times, 30 days apiece. This whole thing is baloney to be honest as you need a sponsor who you are doing business with.

Arjuna takes care of everything and earns a tidy sum in the process.

After Arjuna I went to the Globe cafe in Kerobokan to put up some more of my stickers and to check e-mail. This is another cool little cafe which along with GlobalXtreme understand that providing a comfortable environment and serving good coffee helps to bring in customers. Globe has a restaurant too.

I stopped off at the house to see if our toilet was still working. After heavy testing I decided to continue and visit a hotel called Resor Seminyak for info on their place. Riding along Jl. Oberoi I passed my familiar walking route and outside Resor Seminyak could feel my cell phone going nuts in my pocket. I pulled over and the caller was Ika from Internet Outpost. ‘Nick, someone here to meet you’. It was Stewart, poster on the Baliblog who was in Kuta with his wife Christine. I did an immediate U-turn and shot down the bypass to I/O.

Stewart is a big friendly guy. Actually he wants to be known as the ‘Biggest Bloke on the Blog’ . No arguments here. We chatted for quite a while at the internet cafe sharing a beer or 2 and then all cruised down to Made’s Warung in a Blue Bird taxi. I suggested nasi campur which we all got. They’ve decreased their portions by about 30%…………..what’s going on Made?

It was still good and was something new for Stewart and Christine. They are staying at a resort in Seminayak and have been in Bali for a few days already. They’ve visited Ulu Watu and Kintamani and say they will definitely come back to Bali.

I suggested renting motorbikes an exploring the island. Stewart is an expert bike rider ( just like Mick is an expert vodka drinker ) and advised me to accelerate round corners as the g-force glues the tires to the road………what do they teach these Aussies in high school?

It was cool sitting at Made’s on Pantai Kuta because of mixed bag of people who pass by. One guy rode past on a scooter with about 20 ft of pipe.

We chatted for hours and Christine and Stewart kindly bought me dinner. Getting a fresh point of view is heakthy for me. Once agian Stewart commented on how much stuff is for sale and asked an obvious question that I had not thought to answer before……can you bargain in a warung / restaurant? The answer is no. Feel free to haggle in shops without windows, on the street, in guest houses, for free lance taxis, at the market. Shops selling clothes with glass windows and price tags won’t budge and you’ll piss off a waiter if you start negotiating.

Seems obvious when you’ve been here for a while but must be weird to a newcomer.

We had a chuckle at the language misunderstandings here and I learned something new. No kidding. When someone asks you ( you’re male ) if you like kareoke and gestures as if he’s singing into a mic, he isn’t singing.

Christine and Stewart are here for 4 more days and I hope we get together before they leave.