bali: the hi's, lo's and everything inbetween

deery-lou.
the bali trip was amazing. not a place i would have chosen on my own to visit but i'm so glad i did. as i've said the beaches especially at sanur aren't the greatest but there is so much other cool stuff to see. all of the temples were beautiful. i think this is the first time i didn't get temple burnout. instead of writing a day by day account [which will probably bore you to no end] i'm going to do one of my famous lists. so sit back and enjoy the memorable and not so memorable moments of me in bali.

bali highlights
1. telling the shopkeeper [mimi] it was too dark to shop since there was no electricity
2. mimi telling me if horace bought something i had to buy something too [nice try, mimi]
3. statues with penises for some random beach bar
4. space cadet [my new favorite drink made with a banana liqueor]
5. watching the children jumping off boats and swimming
6. christmas morning breakfast with strangers [mostly australians]
7. a little christmas present on my plate
8. sally asking me if i wanted a coke during breakfast
9. meeting jan and peter [owners of flashbacks] and their friends sallly and rodger [who live there]
10. bat flying by my head
11. small offerings to the gods everywhere you look
12. stray dog running across the street with some strange piece of meat in its mouth [it kind of looked like a skinned rat or something]
13. local hangout for the motorbike crew [kind of looked like a run down rest area with shacks, i so wanted to investigate but didn't have a motorbike handy]
14. cows munching on grass
15. taxi driving wanting to take us to a fetish bar
16. bali boys with mohawks and bleached hair
17. children playing volleyball with ducks on the court
18. women carrying giants baskets, sticks, etc on their heads
19. people bathing in river
20. woman standing in an open section of the sidewalk doing her laundry
21. all the villages i passed in the van
22. man standing on the side of the road in the pouring rain pissing in the street [classy]
23. a motorbike going up a trail from the waterfall with a passenger on the back
24. the waterfall
25. watching all the water pour from the stairs of temples, roofs of villages, etc. during the rain storm
26. daily rainstorms
27. monkeys [they were sitting on the guard rail watching the cars go by]
28. the giant fruit bats [how cute were they]
29. some "g"-drama during breakfast
30. little boy waving to me from the side of the road
31. fried meat pies of tastiness
32. avoiding getting run down by jetskis, boats, etc while swimming in ocean
33. getting called "boy"
34. being asked if i wanted a sarong every 5 minutes
35. being stalked by a shopkeeper my first day at beach
36. waving to shopkeeper from restaurant telling her "no"
37. caving in and going to shopkeepers store but telling her "just looking"
38. buying a wooden bunny for $2.50
39. realizing a couple of days later that my wooden bunny was missing a foot
40. tall beers
41. clove cigarettes
42. lunch looking at a volcano [for that matter all the great scenic views while eating lunch]
43. the amazing temples
44. taxi drivers asking if i needed a ride, when said i no then asked if i wanted to go somewhere special, or if i wanted some girls
45. taxis, vans, etc. beeping at you to see if you wanted a ride
46. motorbike riders wearing ponchos in the rain
47. our driver made [marday] making our tour even more awesome
48. the alila hotel which in the middle of rice fields
49. wandering around ubud
50. cocktails with the gang from flashbacks
51. waterfall in the pool at parigata
52. circle k
53. dinner at bumbu bali where we had to get "the wand" before entering
54. waiter at bumbu writing a note to horace asking if he was gay
55. not getting bali belly
56. making an offer at a temple then being asked for money
57. someone at temple trying to get me to give them some won for his collection
58. getting out of the holy hot springs and being covered with a yellow tint
59. the tombs at gunung kawi temple
60. pura dalem sidan [temple of death rites]
61. all the cool demon like statues
62. beach club resort [sounded fancy but was a bust]
63. bad lounge singer at the flambouyant restaurant that was part of the parigata
64. spending my last $3.00 on two bottles of hot sauce and a coke at the airport
65. trying to get my coke for 80 cents [she didn't bite so i had to borrow money from charlie]
66. having my own row of seats on the flight back
67. bad buffets with fried bananas that tasted like rubber tires
68. the friendly people
69. all the swimming i did [i love pools, especially cool pools]
70. sitting at the beach at night listening to 5o foot wave [the band] not the actually waves

all righty. i think that about wraps it up. my head is spinning trying to recap the whole experience. i'm sure i left some things out but you get the general idea. bali is an amazing place and hopefully tourism will pick up again. its definitely worth checking out.

be well…