Sunday bbq time again in Seminyak Bali

Sunday morning Donovan and Carrie rented a Suzuki Katana from a place on Jl. Dhyana Pura for 90,000rp per day with insurance.

As we were loading the car with their gear one of the male staff of the place I live came up to us and handed me 2 forms. “You must complete this and it is 10,000rp each.”he said. Indonesia has a control mentality about a lot of things including foreigners. I have to let the police know whenever someone stays in my house longer than a couple of days. I still haven’t filled out the forms but will get Donovan and Carrie to when they return from their trip.

After we had got the car loaded and filled up with gas (hire cars will always arrive empty in Bali) we headed for Sanur. Their plan was to explore east Bali and I told them I would lead them to the turnoff for the coastal road. Not knowing their way around would make it a giant pain otherwise.

Donovan seemed to be getting the hang of overtaking motorbikes and moving in and out in the traffic. At one traffic light on the Bypass I went through and didn’t see them for a while. I was hoping everything was okay when they finally came through. “We got pulled over by the cops” they said “and gave them 100,000rp.” Oh no! Its Murphy’s Law that they are on their maiden voyage and the corrupt cops take advantage.

Anyway I led them to the coastal road no problem, waved goodbye and watched them zoom eastwards. I hope they have a great time.

Back home I had a bbq to get started and went about organizing food and drinks. It was due to start at 5pm and my first guest was Miranda from Holland who showed up around 4.30pm. We were well prepared with plenty of food and drinks and I bought a regular and strawberry margarita mix to help my bottle of Sauza tequila along. Meat consisted of steak, chicken and tuna steaks…enak!!! Seasoning was simply some salt, pepper, lemon, garlic and soy sauce which I applied to each then stored in Tupperware boxes.

We had a great time with Miranda supplying some wine, Margarita the music, Angie the moonshine arak (delivered in a plastic Aqua bottle). Many people brought friends and there were 4 kids there too. One lady named Ayu brought her twin 3 year old girls Stephana and Margarita who had a wonderful time picking the blooms off of the bushes in my garden and presenting them to people.

Around 7.30pm as the food started to come off the grill I had to make a dash out to Jl. Legian to meet up with Erwin and Jenny from New York. He had called me on the phone 24 hours earlier from NYC and said “I’m coming to Bali and want to make your bbq.” Hats off to both of them for having the energy to be social after a trans-Pacific flight. I’ve got friends who live 100 yards away who can’t find the energy to make my bbq’s.

We also had a couple of very nice guys from Germany (Joe and a friend who’s name escapes me) along and this was great as the male-female balance was in need of some adjusting. My surfer friend Frida brought them over and they told us they are learning to surf.

We wrapped things up around 11 or so and some of the ladies headed down to Kuta for some more fun. Great bbq and in all 28 people showed up. Countries represented : Indonesia, Germany, Holland, USA, Spain, Australia, Taiwan, UK.

This morning Wayan is busy cleaning up the mess from the night before and I am sporting my new ‘I love NY’ t-shirt.