Wednesday I had an important appointment. Jayne Clark a travel reporter from USA Today wanted to meet me and find out more about the tourist scene in Bali.
I arranged to meet her at Starbucks in Kuta at 10am. I got there around 9.40am and ordered a cup of house coffee and a blueberry muffin. I like the stuff Starbucks serves but I can eat a couple of good Indonesian meals for the price of a tall coffee.
Our scheduled time rolled around and no Jayne. “No worries” I thought, “typical chick.” I am getting used to Ika’s 7 step shower process so got comfortable and read most of the International Herald Tribune.
When Jayne arrived I picked her out immediately due to her notepad. We got acquainted and she’s a cool lady. Based in Washington DC she gets to write destination specific pieces for the paper. Jayne told me how late the newspaper world adapted to computers and only 6 years ago she was working via a main frame computer and had to call the ‘tech guys’ for an internet search.
Jayne’s ‘hook’ for her article is ‘how Bali is recovering 2 years after the bombing’. I had previously sent to her Jack Daniel from Bali Discovery as he is an excellent ’stat man’ and could give her the cold figures.
I was planning for her to meet Hendra, the manager of Internet Outpost who is super connected in the local tourist scene and also to Dallas Finn, the founder and flamboyantly gay organizer of Bali Peace Park.
I didn’t fancy walking around town in blazing sunshine so brought a spare helmet. We hopped on my motorbike and I showed Jayne the former Sari Club and Paddy’s on Jl. Legian.
I am super happy with my new camera and Jayne has similar model. The only thing is the ‘photo guy’ at USA Today told her “someone dropped this off the desk and the screen doesn’t work.” Poor Jayne can’t see what settings her camera is on and has to use ‘Auto’. Fancy a big paper sending their people on a world trip with junk for hardware!
While viewing the Sari Club I felt somebody was about to climb over my shoulder and it was Dallas. He exceeded his billing and was ‘extrovert supreme’. We all walked over to Maccaroni on Jl. Legian to get out of the heat and talk more. Dallas unloaded the history of Bali Peace Park on Jayne and I checked my email on Maccaroni’s free internet terminals. You have to stand up to use the terminals and the mouse pads are virtually useless, but for checking a few pages its okay.
I rode Jayne over to Warung Nikmat on Jl. Bakung Sari in Kuta for some good Javanese food. Javanese is not super spicy (pedas) and can be sweet (manis). Jayne told me it was spicy enough for her though and she didn’t need any extra sambal. Her meal was 8,000rp, mine 14,000rp because of the 2 meat items. Great stuff though.
Sitting next to us was a couple in their 50’s speaking Dutch, he Indonesian and quite dark skinned, her a European but similarly dark, with sandy blonde hair. “Have you seen a film called ‘There’s something about Mary’?” said Jayne. “I know exactly what you’re thinking.” I said. As we left I started singing “There’s something about Mary.” Which gave us both a giggle. The similarities to the movie were quite freaky.
Jayne and I parted company at Internet Outpost where I had arranged another meeting for her. We will check out Paddy’s bar tomorrow night and see if we can capture some of that raw ’straight outta Sydney’ energy.
Late in the afternoon I rode into the parking area of Ade Rai’s Hamerhead gym in Legian and as I passed the Quiksilver office all the staff rushed out giggling. In the parking area another 40 people ran outside shouting and laughing. ‘Must be someone’s surprise birthday party’ I thought. At the entrance to the gym a staff member told me there had been an earthquake. I didn’t feel it of course as I was riding. There was no visible damage and things continued as before.
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News to me that newspapers don’t care much about the tools their reporters need to get the job done, well.
A good shot of you and Jane.
Smart thinking on your part to get that extra helmet for Jane so you could cover more ground. She’ll write a good one because of you.
You are in your element, Nick.
Nice touch with the USA Today journalist. I’d also like to read her report on Bali, so please post a link whenever possible.
Please advise when they run her article in the USA Today.
Terimakasih!
Ooooh. If you can post the url of this article, when it gets published, please do so. Would love to see your quotes. And yep, newspaper do not care much about their reporters. I remember lugging a bulky old model of a broken lap top while travelling.