Barrie gave me my morning phone call today and told me there were 2 guys looking for me from New York.
No I wasn’t about to leave town in a hurry, I chatted to Sam on my cell phone and arranges to meet at Internet Outpost at 12.30 for lunch.
Sam and Chris had seen the Baliblog and wnted to meet. They have been in town for a couple of days and are staying in Sanur. They got an unbelievable deal online which included return airfare from NYC and 5 nights accomodation in Sanur for $750 each!
Zooming down the bypass I was pulled over by the cops ( patroli polici ) in their Jeep. After checking my fake licence they said I was good to go, so I carried on to Internet Outpost where Barrie, Chandika, Josh, Sam and Chris were. Barrie and Chandika wanted to try out a new restaurant so the 4 of us went jalan jalan around the corner to Bamboo Corner on Poppies I.
The place was about 40% full so we got a table easily. Being independent travelers able to make our own minds up, we all ordered a watermelon juice (3,000rp) and nasi goreng super ( 7,000) with chicken and shrimp. Seriously it was a good choice and I reckon Josh and I have brought Bamboo Corner so much business its amazing.
We chatted about the eccentricities of diving in Indonesia, the price of food, t-shirts, electronics. Chris asked me about buying property here in Bali and I relayed to him the stories told to me by various expats I’ve met. Basically you can’t own land in Bali ( there are a couple of exceptions ) and most people end up signing land to a local friend or signing a 25 year lease.
I suggested the guys get out to the east coast and explore on their motorbikes which they will probably do. It definitely takes a while to slow down and step out of the fast lane and their trip is only several days long. I hope they get a chance to check out the small viallges.
Chris and Sam are heading up to Ubud tomorrow and I suggested they stay in one of the many small guest houses on Jalan Hanuman.
After our meal we strolled back towards the direction of Poppies II passing a variety of t-shirt vendors. Josh spotted the cockfighting was in progress so we stopped over there for about 20 minutes. This place was a frenzy of shouting, waving and betting. While the handlers revved their birds up the banjar guys walked around shouting out stuff to the crowd.
We saw 3 fights which lasted maybe a minute or 2 max. Each bird has a blade attached to its left leg and usually a chop to the wing or leg means game over. Its free to watch and the fights go on at 1pm weekdays.
The guys will make it out to Seminyak to party like crazy men on Saturday so hopefully I’ll see them.
Josh and I came back to Internet Outpost where we are working away on our own travel guide projects.
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Hi Nick
Saw in one of your earlier reports this month you had a meal at a restoran in Jl Sahadewa. Suggest you return to the yellow brick road and check out Indo - National bar & restaurant. I’ts bagus sekali. See Milton &/or Kerry and tell them Gary & Chris from Newcastle in Oz sent you.
Say G’day to Desa for us please when you go
Dunk,
Great ot hear you ar coming out. I look forward to meeting you and will buy you a Bintang. If I had to make a choice I’d probably go for November. I was her in February and it rained pretty good. Looking at the weather chart you’ll notice that February get twice the rain as November. If you come in the early part on the month it will be way less too.
http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/climatology/monthly/IDXX0019
Actually this year the rain took a while to dissappear.
Gary & Chris, thanks for the tip, I’m adding this to my ‘to do list’ and will say hi to Desa.
Chris is a dead ringer for Ian Crosswhite, resident Aussie on the Oregon Ducks basketball team.
Hey Nick/Barrie,
just a quick note to say my Aussie visa came through (my wife and i are moving from Canada to Australia for a couple of years - she was born in Sydney, so the visa thing wasn’t a problem) which means we are definately on for Bali.
We can’t leave until Nov at the earliest - but my question to you: If you were to choose Nov or Feb, for a month in Bali, which would you choose? Obviously it is rainy season and we are prepared for a daily downpour, but we are currently deciding whether to come 1 month before xmas or 1 month after…
Have a Bintang on me - I’ll pay for it when we meet ya!
D.