Putu and the art of motorcycle maintainence in Seminyak Bali

One nice aspect to having a cleaner in Bali is that sometimes they arrange your mess for you.

Yesterday Putu was hard at work cleaning up the gecko poop and leaves that had accumulated and when I came back after a couple of hours she had cleaned all my cupboards out and rearranged my clothes into neat little stacks. I tell you my bedroom has never looked so neat. Between Baliblog readers and Putu there’s not much the world doesn’t know about me.

Here’s a view from my top window.

Life as an expat has its advantages for sure and yesterday I talked to an American guy at Internet Outpost who has been living here for a couple of years. Like me recently he is now looking to save money and move into a smaller place. My old place was 38M rp per year, the new place is 25M rp per year. He asked me to look out for ‘a cute little place’ if I see any and said he’s got to find a way to live cheaper. He told me he goes to Kori restaurant on Poppies II every night and spends $20. “That’s the myth about living in Bali,” he said, “that everythings cheap.” “Its actually more expensive.” I related to him how I have previously gone out to Jl.Dhyana Pura with friends and started buying drinks, it can get expensive real quick! I tell myself its about about where I hang out and that any meal where I’m eating local food means I’m staying within budget.

One funny thing out here is that food can be cheap and mixed drinks can be expensive. I been in the situation before where someone bought my dinner ( nasi goreng…30,000rp) and I offered to buy drinks afterwards ( 50,000rp a pop). Be carefull what you offer, sometimes its better just to buy your own dinner.

As I was talking to Angie yesterday afternoon my phone rang and I got a frantic call from Nyoman, the guy I rent my motorbike from. He had been around to the old house to do a maintainence check and discovered I no longer live there. It was quite funny to sense the momentary panic in his voice. I told him no worries, I’ll bring it round for him to play with today. Nyoman is a good guy but he couldn’t tune a motorbike if his babi guling depended on it. After his maintainence my bike should run a great deal slower and the emissions should be up to bemo level.

Lovely day here in Bali, a little breezy in Seminyak and no sign of impending rain at 2.30pm.

Here at Internet Outpost I bumped into fun loving Angie who was busy checking her email and website.

Here in Kuta they are having some internet problems but it is possible to get online.

I had a couple of tourists ask me this afternoon about how to get a Business Visa and pointed them towards Arjuna in Kerobokan. I think many long term stayers will start looking at this option. The owner, Kurnia Hidayat told me the other day that I will still get 60 days coming in with a Business Visa and can extend 4 times for 30 days apiece.

High winds on Pantai Kuta today blowing the sand all over.

Ever get a message you should stop drinking? I opened my first beer of the day a short while ago, sat down to type and a fly decided to drown himself in it. I’ll take the hint today.