Bali attracts many kinds of travellers and living here I get to meet a lot of them, some of which turn out to be very interesting people.
This weekend I met 2 people who love Bali and took the time to tell me about themselves.
The first was Peter Botha from Melbourne Australia. Peter, (originally from England) and I arranged to meet close to his hotel in Kuta. He was fixing a computer in a local salon and gave me the directions over the phone. The area around Jl. Bakung Sari has so many little back street warungs and shops that I really have no idea where someone is talking about, not having visited them myself. We finally met up and sat down for some local food. Peter’s hobby is tutoring and he has helped many students through university via the internet and in person. He has also adopted children from more than one country and paid for them to go through university. Quite a fellow but you have to remember Peter passed his degree at the age of 58 after a ‘resigning’ from his job.
A computer hardware expert and private pilot, Peter is very well known is the Bakung Sari / Matahari Square area and while we were walking several people shouted out after us. Peter has been coming to Bali since 1980 and said the place has of course changed a lot, the Balinese however are as friendly as ever.
Peter has been around the world 3 times and likes to meet up with locals. One of the things we found out by chatting is that we have been to many of the same places including Eugene Oregon and Santa Barbara California.
He will be staying for another month before returning to Melbourne.
Another nice person I met this weekend was Elizabeth Clark from Dallas Texas. Boy does she have a good ol’ acceeent. Elizabeth first came to Bali 20 years ago and said at first she was disappointed this time by the amount of development. Since arriving she has already made a trip to the north coast of Irian Jaya on the north coast of Papua and will be heading for Kalimantan next week. We met at Santa Fe on Sunday afternoon and I drove us to Blue Ocean beach for a juice. A couple of hours later we rode over to Rumours for dinner. Elizabeth really impressed me with her attitude towards travel and also the places she’s been, which include hiking to Everest base camp, spending a year in S. America, travelling across China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and exploring Africa. One of her favourite experiences was a canoe expedition down the Zambezi in Africa. Elizabeth said they’d be canoeing past crocodiles, elephants and hippos during the day and sleeping under the stars on the riverbank at night. One of her hair raising moments was when 2 of the 3 canoes came loose one afternoon and started to float downstream. Elizabeth being a Texan dived in and chased one canoe down bringing it to shore. She then dived in again and got caught in the main current of the Zambezi, only then realizing there were crocodiles on the banks. “I just wanted to drown right there rather than one of those crocodiles getting me.” she said. Fortunately she caught up with the canoe and lived to tell about it.
Elizabeth loves Brasil and said the people are simply wonderful, it’s a vibrant culture and the music is terrific. She calmly told me about one time where she was robbed at gun point in Rio. Two guys came to her apartment showed some fake ID then pulled out a gun. Elizabeth and her 2 friends were then bound and gagged while watching the 2 crooks sort through their belongings. No violence occurred though and everyone lived to say ‘We’re now ‘Carioca’s, we’ve been robbed like everyone else.’
We discussed the Balinese way of doing things and what we enjoy about travel. It was her birthday today so I paid for dinner. I didn’t ask her age though or who she is voting for but I’ve got a pretty good idea.
Hope to see more of Peter and Elizabeth in the future.
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Now now Nick,you have a nice lady already Buddy. I know you probably admire this dynamic adventurous lady as a fellow traveller with a tale to tell and a tale to listen to. Either that Nick or she is a good bull shitter. No only joking as i am jealous if i am honest. Sounds like the lady is a dooer
though…certainly led a full life…just though suprising she hasnt ended up bit in two by a hippo and swallowed by a croc or had holes put in her by a cracked up Brazillian mugger.
Regs Mark
G’Day Nick,
Peter is an admirable guy. Good on him getting his degree at aged 58!.
Elizabeth is a definite honey!.Damn’d if i’d be chasing a canoe in croc infested waters. Ya gotta admire her for her courage and tenacity.
Sounds like you met a couple of more interesting people, one of the nice aspects of doing Baliblog.