My First Day in Bali

I don't feel too well... no, it's not Bali Belly; I haven't yet had the privilege of eating.

It's been a big day.. left for the airport at 4:30am with only 30 min sleep due to a bad asthma attack which I think was caused by something psychological.

On the flight, the headphones for the movies didn't work, so I tried sleeping or I spent my time chatting to the guy next to me (Byron) who was also travelling overseas for the first time by himself. My ears wouldn't pop, and they were so painful.

I arrived at Bali, got through the Visa process fairly easily, and then promptly got ripped off by the porters. :( I was pre-warned about them, and even had small change just in case, but I handled it badly and they ended up getting 50,000 Rupiah for taking me about 5 steps! Lesson learnt.

[Note: If you are going to Bali... Bring lots and lots and LOTS of Aussie $2 and $1 coins and you will have a bartering tool that will be useful EVERYWHERE you go. You can buy clothes, DVD's, or other jewellery with it, and more. Why? because they make jewellery from our gold (and silver) coins, and those locals that don't sell or make the Aussie-dollar jewellery, will still find a use for them - they get the makers to custom-make their jewellery for free "if they provide the coins".... if I had've known all this, I would've brought a large bag-full and used it at EVERY opportunity to barter with.. including those pesky porters at the airport!]

Went outside and found the man with my name on a sign, crammed into a van with 5 others and headed off through heavy traffic to drop us at 3 different hotels. Even though the traffic isn't half as bad as I expected from all the stories, I was amazed that we didn't kill at least 30 people on the way, they get sooo bloody close to riders and other cars and don't seem to worry about people on the roads either - however, somehow, there were no casualties. Hold your breathe and close your eyes!

I've organised with another guy from the shuttle, Tony, to go on the dinner cruise with me, and invited the other guy from the plane, that should be fun.

I arrive at the hotel - not as nice as it looked in the photos, but it's clean enough for the 5 days and I'm not unhappy. I have two beds, my own little bathroom with a western-style toilet/shower. I have a tiny fridge but the room is so cool from the air conditioning that I just have my water bottles sitting in the bathroom :)

I headed to an internet cafe first off to email Byron (guy from plane) and to let my family and friends know I had arrived ok.

Then I thought I would try and find a phone shop to pick up a Sim card, but the first shop that "caught" me, was a guy pestering me to look at his silverware which I'm not really interested in. He then pointed to his paintings and said 1dollar, only 1dollar. Got my attention as they were incredible. Although I didn't come to Bali for paintings, he took me out the back of the shop and laid them all out, he was very proud of his work (and so he should be, but it made it harder to say "no"), I chose 2 that I liked, and he gave me a price of 750,000 Rupiah ! (approx AUD$115). A bit more than $1 huh! - I cheekily brought up that fact, and he said that he was only joking about the dollar, that "they" only joke about the $1, and to name a price. I said that I didn't want to offend him with a price because I was expecting it to be $1. After a few words, I ended up offering $10 each. He put it up to $25 for the both, and we had our first sale by bargaining. So now I've spent $25 on something I didn't want in the first place. Another lesson learnt.

He seemed a nice guy after we got talking, and he decided to walk me around the town a bit to practice his English (although he spoke it very well). After assuring me it won't cost me anything for this tour, we headed into the main streets looking for a phone shop.

I bought a SIM card for 75,000 Rupiah (50,000 Rupiah credit). They set up the phone and left it in Indonesian - argh... later in the hotel, it took me ages to find the "English" setting but I found it :)

The guides name is Kapuk or Pakit or something like that.. I'm sure I'll see him again.
Anyway, this headache needs a rest, so does my ears which have refused to clear since the flight :(

I had to wear my jumper to sleep cos I couldn't figure out until the early hours of the morning how exactly to turn off the air conditioning, so that damn jumper which I thought would be a waste of valuable space, turned out to be useful afterall :)

Love Ches