Thursday June 24 - Kuta

Today is not a good day so far. My emotions are all over the place due to "that time of the month" (yes, again, my hormones must be confused!).

The day started out with pain, so I went down, had breakfast (pancake!) and bought some ponstan for 14,000 (for 6). Dropped in my laundry and then I waited at the Aquarius restaurant for Putra. He told me I couldn't do the tour tomorrow unless there is someone else that chooses to do it with me, so it will have to be the next day. Bugger.

I got ripped off bigtime by a brave, but soon-to-be-hurt paperboy. He sold me a Bali Post for 35,000 R!! I thought it would only be about 2,000 R, but he showed me that the paper said 35,000 , which it did, so I just assumed it was "tourist price" and even though I was reluctant to hand over the money, I actually did. Under his thumb, which I didn't notice til he was wayyy gone, was the real price - 2,500R. I hope he comes back tomorrow, I want to scare him. At the same time, I want to just kick myself for not trusting my instincts. Each time you get ripped off in that way, you lose more and more trust for the Balinese which is sad.

Well, I guess that's another motivator to learn to read Indonesian before next time!

Breakfast was Enak! (delicious).

I walked up to Maula DVD, who I had SMS'd over brekky to say that I will turn up at 11 and pickup 2 of the large DVD holders.

I turned up, and lo & behold, they weren't there. The brother of the guy I spoke with, rode off on his bike to go and get them, so I waited at the shop for about 1/2 an hr. He came back empty-handed and said that they are going to go and get them from Jakarta and to pick them up at 5. I will go back about 7. I wish I didn't want them so much, but the larger cases are better in the long run, I hope it's worth all this hassle.

Next stop, to pickup the custom-made bracelets I got made out of Australian Gold Coins from the shop where 15 guys surround you like a pack of hungry wolves.
You try and tell em that you need your space and that they make people too uncomfortable to go to those places, but they didn't learn - I took a photo of a couple of them "attaccking" a poor Japanese tourist.


My bracelets weren't ready yet, but they said they were, just "5 more minutes".. every 5 mins they would say the same thing. My back was really starting to pound now, so I stood up and started massaging it myself, not that it helped any.

One of the guys (Eric) decided he would try and help, although he wasn't very good, it was still more comfortable having him do it than me...


30 mins later, still no bracelets. They tell me it will be another hour, as they aren't ready! I should've guessed.. all Balinese "5 mins" means 30 mins usually, ok in this case, a lot more. So I headed back here to eat stale (old) but soft chocolate, drink Red Bull, roll around in pain and feel sorry for myself.

I know I've mentioned already somewhere that you should bring your own tampons to Bali, but I can't remember if I said what an absolute rip-off they are to buy here - WORSE than home! Tampax (the only "trusted" brand of tampons here) is more than 62,000 R for a pack of "10".. .10!! Which makes it about AUD$1 per tampon. Pads are heaps cheaper to buy here though - less than 6,000 (less than $1) for 10 good quality and about 3,000R for "cheapies".

I'm liking the "security" of the hotel right now.

Something has "kicked in" and I no longer feel any pain. I'm listening to Shaggy, 50 Cent, and other pop/funk songs, lying on my bed under a ceiling fan, wondering how I was in such an emotional state in the street earlier. On the way back to the hotel, I watched the ground the whole way, making sure not to look anyone in the eye, people were trying desperately to get my attention:
"transport miss?"
"yes, transport?"
"where you going?"
"heeyyyyy honnneeyy!!"
"plait your hair??"
"braid your hair darlingggg??"
"paint your nails?"
"x-ten-si-on?"
I nearly screamed! Most of the time I am so light-hearted about it all, and would cheekily say something back or at least acknowledge them, shake my head and smile, but PMS had overcome me - coupled with the misery of my morning of being ripped off / things not going my way, I was about to burst.. if I hear ONE MORE THING...

and BAM!!

Some guy grabs my hand. I shake him off and start crying saying something about not being able to trust any of YOU people!

A bit of an over-reaction considering all he was trying to do was say Hi, or perhaps going to eventually try and sell me something.

In any case, back here in the hotel, everything is ok now, and I'll try to "behave" better "out there" later, now that I know that PMS "rules me" today.


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It's now about 10pm.. the rest of the day was great.. having shopped til I dropped, spent a fortune buying "real" dvds, picked up my big DVD holders for 150,000 each, had Nasi Goreng at the Aquarius (wasn't as nice as usual - had to add chilli and sweet soy). Putra called back to say that I can go on the tour tomorrow afterall. Went to tubes and had a bali cider but felt "out of place" amongst the aussies - I prefer being around the locals now.

I will have another cider at my fave street bar.. "art goes" ? (i think it's called), and then have an early one since it will be an early one tomorrow - they are picking me up at 9am for a tour of Bali.