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Seminyak: October 30th 2005

This morning in Seminyak I said hello to my brother in law Brahma, who is visiting from Java right now. The Idul Fitri celebration is coming up which celebrates the end of the month of Ramadan. I am leaving for the US this week and it's a good time to leave because Idul Fitri is a crazy time, the roads being clogged with tourists from Java. Today at Cafe Seminyak I sat next to 2 other expats who own businesses here. One of them told me his bead shop was down 98% and he hopes to offset that with online business. "In Bali we have a lot of challenges." Said the other guy. "The government, corruption, etc." He also mentioned the proposed new law requiring foreigners to put $50,000 in a bank account before being able to marry a local. This is not the law yet, but we all agreed if it becomes law it makes life easy for many playboys who can simply say "Darling I love you, but tidak ada uang."

Visiting Arjuna immigration consultants in Kerobokan, I asked for my passport. They had put it in to immigration for processing and I started to sweat. The staff told me I could get it back after the week long holiday which would make life hard for me seeing as I am leaving on Wednesday. The staff told me to return on Tuesday to retrieve it as she had the cell phone number of a contact in immigrasi. The way things go over here they charge $20 for each day you are over your visa. Mine expired on the 25th so had to be processed, its just Murphy's law that a public holiday falls when I need it back. No worries, things will work out and I will be enjoying the frigid Oregon air very soon.