7th June - Monday - Denpasar

Woke up around 6am... knew Ama would sleep in as he was watching a movie after I went to bed, so I tried to sleep longer. Got up around 7:30am and got ready to go to the market.

Ama said he'd join me in the city (kota) later.
Took a taksi to the laundry, dropped off my clothes, then to the Denpasar market.

Ama sent me an SMS warning me not to let any guides show me around as they will pretend to be the owners of the shops and set the price, I SMS'd him back with "No Worries", but it ended up being a lot harder to lose them than I expected. Had to do some sneaky manoeuvres to shake them off, as my being polite doesn't seem to work in Denpasar :)

Bought a couple of long, black Masks for 20,000ea, no bartering... I thought that was a bloody awesome price, but later I saw that that's the going rate... amazing since they are so cool. If I buy anymore, I know to pay less now... I'm such a tourist sucker hey ;)

Saw some incense holders that would probably sell well in my sisters shop, bought a sample for 7000, wrote down the wholesale prices, grabbed a biz card, etc.. but then she told me I could buy them cheaper in Ubud.

Had lunch at an expensive place (25,000 Nasi Goreng)

Walked the main streets of Denpasar. I um... didn't like it.
Everyone watching me all the time, not so many smiley faces in this town, not so many westerners either, only saw about 6 for the whole day and I'm not sure if they were the same ones over and over or not :)

Bought some perfume for 40,000 for 3, Poison, Tommy Girl, and Red Door. They are imitation but they look and smell real. Even the packaging is identical to the original.

I found myself cornered by street-sellers.. about 8 of them, all shoving different things at me, it's like I'm the queen or something. I must be so rich here... funny to imagine that being that I'm jobless at the moment. I managed to lose a lot of them by being a bit more stubborn than usual, they were really getting to me actually, as I said no about 20+ times, which is just getting ridiculous. I got it down to just 2 following me around, then 1.. then after talking to the final one (Ali Babah was his name... hehe... no shit.) for a little while, he realised that I really didn't want his damn watches. Especially after he tried to give me a couple for free "cos he likes me", but I didn't accept them.

I hope Ubud is not like this - I go there tomorrow.

I bought a hair straightener from a normal electrical sales store for about AUD$11, and some anti-frizz lotion from a hairdresser. I'm sick of my hair looking like a dried out wig of hay. The water here, or maybe the weather, or I don't know, but something isn't agreeing with my skin and hair, and I feel really ugly, so I'm hoping this will solve my problem a bit ;)

It won't work in Australia, so when I've finished with it, I can give it to a poor hairdresser in Kuta or keep it for next time.

There will definitely be a next time. :)

I checked the DVD's that I bought, they are all perfect, except "The Day After Tomorrow"... bugger, was really looking forward to watching it. I will take it back to the place that I bought it when I go to Kuta and see if they can swap it for a better one, he charged me more for it and didn't tell me it was crap quality. There are 2 grades that you can buy, and now I know what to look for, those that have the number "9" are good quality, if it doesn't have "9", then it's probably crap.

(I later found that some of the crap ones have forged the 9 on them too, so you can't even trust that, but it's still a better guide than none at all... )

I just finished watching Phone Booth on DVD.
I think today will be the last chance to enjoy technology for a few weeks. I hope I am able to get online later and update this diary one more time before Ubud.

I pick up my custom-designed bracelet tomorrow - I hope it ends up being nice after all the trouble trying to describe to them what I wanted, it was more than I expected, but still cheaper than you can get in Australia.

Next time I come to Bali, I will have a look at what I want them to make, take lots of photos, and bring them with me.

If you don't have to change anything, it's very very cheap. For a Silver bracelet with 3 x Moonstones = AUD$38-$50 - must take a known local who won't take commission to get the lowest prices, else they will give a good commission to the "guide".

The weather here is so sticky and hot. More so than in Kuta. Ama said it's about 30 degrees but it feels hotter, but then again, my clothing still isn't very appropriate. I thought I would be able to buy clothes from Bali, but can't with all the "eyes on you" all the time passing you new things to look at as soon as you show a bit of interest in one thing. Buy, Buy, Buy! Buy MORE, Buy MORE, Buy MORE!! Buy ONE more! Buy ONE more! ONE more!.. arrrrrgh.... hehe

In Denpasar, I think I would get irritated with the pushy salespeople as they are less considerate of you here, and at least they are friendly in Kuta (even if they are faking it - it's nice to get fake friendly than no friendly at all!)

Ama picked me up in taksi with 2 of his little friends from the village (young school-aged children). They chose KFC for lunch.

KFC is almost the same as in Australia, except the menu is slightly modified (it's cheaper too, but still very expensive for Bali, I could've fed the whole 4 of us for the same cost of what I had).

Fried chicken and Crispy strips and Chips = virtually the same
Boiled Rice is available instead of bread rolls, and it seems that most people order Rice with anything from KFC.
Spaghetti Bolognaise is available
Perkedel = potato mash with spices (side dish)
There is no corn.
They have twisters and sundae's, but they don't look the same.

The spices taste the same on the chicken, but the texture is not as fatty, the chickens don't look like they have been fed the same amount of steroids as those in Australia either ;)

I had 2 x crispy strips (about 7,000R) and a Perkedel to try (very yum, tastes like um.. fried KFC mash potato with herbs)

There are visitors here now so Ama entertaining while I sit here, we might finish the movie Monster later.

Cya in a week or so probably!