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Latest Bali Journal Entry:
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Last China Journal Entry: CLICK HERE |
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November 2001 |
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Sorry this
update took a while to get out. But, I've been both busy
and sick. Yes, one can get sick in Paradise. So,
perhaps this is not THE paradise, 'but I think I can see it from
here'.
All
went well moving into the new place last week. It is
furnished with a huge king size bed upstairs and a wardrobe,
plus night stand and 2 tables; downstairs has a queen size bed
and coffee table; the front porch has a table and 4 chairs and a
lounge chair. Craig, my next door neighbor will be giving
me his computer desk and chair, and a bookcase when he
leaves on the 15th to return to the states. So, I'm set in
terms of furniture. Since last Monday, I've been busy
adding the other items I need - some candle holders, nice
sheets, towels, a second phone, some lamps, etc. It's been
fun shopping for these things. Bill Dalton, when he was
here, showed me his 'World Radio' (www.worldspace.com).
Pretty neat, it gets stations (CD quality, digital sound) from a
satellite, so I purchased one of those and set it up. Now
I can listen to good music while I relax or read or just sit and
enjoy the sights and sounds of my new home. I also found a
nice little stereo and have set that up to play my music here.
So those things, along with the DVD player in my laptop are all
I need for entertainment. My housekeeper is a real gem.
She does everything for me - cooks my breakfast (always a huge
fruit salad, tea, and then either a fried egg and toast, or
french toast and honey, or, today, pineapple and banana pancakes
with honey. This keeps me going through the day. She
also leaves me more cut-up fruit and fresh squeezed juice
(orange or lemon) and even makes rice for me to have as a snack.
She also cleans, does my laundry, irons, shops, and is helping
me with my Indonesia (I think I have NO ear for this language,
but I keep plugging away at it as I really want to get it).
I've visited several of the local eateries and have had some
wonderful meals for under $3! I'm also meeting neighbors,
both visitor types and locals. Everyone is extremely happy
and friendly. I have been really enjoying falling asleep
at night to the sound of the rain on the roof; or the chorus of
frogs that live in the rice patties that surround the house; or
even watching the fire-flies as they flit about in the darkness.
(Two things we don't have in the SF bay area are fire-flies (had
them in Texas when I was growing up) and thunder storms, with
all the trimmings - lightning flashes and huge claps of thunder.
Very exciting.) So as my knee slowly heals, I've been
staying home and reading or just relaxing and enjoying the
sights and sounds of my new place. Seeing the many birds
that visit my beautiful garden or watching all the fish in my
pond (they seem to be like my cats in that they love to pretend
I have not feed them, so maybe I'll feed them twice - very funny
to watch). (I've attached a panorama photo of my bathroom
- enjoy).
I've
been resting my knee so it heals completely from my little
MC and asphalt adventure. It's almost healed, so I think
I'll be ready for some SCUBA diving this coming week. My
visiting friends Jim & John have just returned from living
one of Jim's life long dreams - visiting the Komodo dragons.
They had the time of their lives! Jim said it was even
better than he had imagined it to be - and he's had this dream
for more than 30 years. They spent 5 days and 4 nights
visiting Komodo island and an adjacent island. They met
local people, slept 2 nights aboard a boat (they were the ONLY 2
aboard, so they had the entire staff and cook at their disposal.
I think this coming week, after they rest up a little, we'll go
to the north coast and do some diving in an area I had not
visited before. It's on the NW tip of Bali and is a
national park. All underwater and is said be some of the
best diving on Bali. Again, while we're gone, I'll be out
of internet range, but keep the mails coming.
After I get back
from diving I start my rounds again of visiting the nice local
hotels with my t-shirts and my little story about helping Bali.
I have an appointment with the owner of one who placed an order
and I need to make a second call on another to show him the
final product, now that I have them to show.
On
the visitor front, my wonderful friend Becky will be
visiting in a next week for perhaps 4 weeks. That'll be
fun. She has never been here before and I know will really
enjoy it here and appreciate the Balinese people and sights and
sounds here. She'll be much more into the cultural side of
Bali than Jim & John have been, so it'll be fun going to the
dances at the Palace with her. So, the rest of you, please
let me know when you think you might be coming, so I can set the
time aside and you all won't get here at the same time. I
think my Mom and sister Sandi are planning a visit soon, also my
sweet sister Kathy and her husband Joe are planning to arrive
soon, as well as some other friends. So keep me posted as
to your thoughts and schedule, please.
Things are going well
here. My wonderful friend Becky arrived last Thursday and is
having a ball :-) She's a 'shop till I drop' sorta gal and
is really having fun.
I am close to buying a
car. Today I actually DROVE A CAR ON BALI! Wow, it wasn't
too bad. No one killed and no one injured and no property damage!
'So I got that goin for me, which is nice'. I should actually
purchase one in the next day or so, soooo 'look out Bali, Bruce is on
the road'.
I'm getting ready to
send out an email to my friends in the Bay Area and family in So. Calif.
Becky said she would be kind enough to bring back some 'UBUD On The
Island Of BALI' tees. These are really well made with very high
quality material. They come in Maroon or Teal and sizes S, M, L,
XL, XXL. So if you are interested email me with how many of which
color and size you want and I'll start putting it together.
Everyone who has seen them here really loves them.. The material, the
workmanship, and the logo design. Unfortunately, there just aren't
too many tourists right now, so places are reluctant to purchase
ANYTHING. I think (and hope) that everything will pick up by
summer. So in the mean time, I really only need 10 or so tees of
the 100 I purchased to show people. So please help me by letting
me know that you want to buy some. They are really pretty and your
purchase will help the Balinese people, the Balinese schools, and Big
Bali Bruce :-) So please email me. I need to charge only $12
per.
I'm still losing
weight. I've attached two photos to this email, both taken at
the same place, wearing the same clothes. One was taken when Jim
and Kelly were here in late September, the other taken today. You
might notice 'less Bruce' in the later one. I think I've lost
about 25 lbs :-) So I think I'm on track for my 1/4 to 1/2 lb per
day schedule.
My sweet Mom sent me
some cookies that arrived on Saturday. Everyone has been enjoying
my 'Home Made By Mom' cookies (thanks again Mom).
It was
close to dusk and I was sitting in the only Mexican Restaurant in
Ubud, perhaps in Bali. It's called Kura Kura. The restaurant
sits at a "Y" shaped intersection that was also under
construction (or repair). The left portion of the "Y" is
one-way going up, the right portion is one-way coming down, while the
bottom is two-way. So it was very interesting to watch the
tourist pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists - some with whole
families on them, cars, vans, small trucks, Air Conditioned tour buses,
and huge gravel trucks make it through this intersection. A real
'study' in Balinese cooperative driving techniques. Everything was
going very well, no accidents, not even the squeal of brakes. Then
I heard them. The 'honk, honk, honk', of a family of ducks coming
down the edge of the road. The mother and 6 little ducklings.
I thought "oh, oh". I was hoping they would just
continue down the road on their side of the road, but no such luck.
Prior to their arrival, a beautiful Balinese woman had placed an
offering in the very middle of the intersection. It consisted of a
small square of banana leaf with some grains of cooked rice and some
flowers on it. So, of course, the ducks thought this was an ideal
snack for them. Here they slowly came into the middle of the
intersection, honking the whole time. I'm thinking "oh boy,
this should make for some excitement, AND some Duck Sate, as well."
As I watched in horror I was amazed at what I saw. Not only did
the little family of ducks make it slowly into the center of things and
slowly eat the rice; but afterwards, they continued on their journey
down the road. ALL the vehicles saw them, slowed down, and went
around them or waited for them to get across. It was another very
sweet example of how things are so different here than other places in
the world I had been. You can imagine what would have happened in
your neck of the woods. Screeching brakes, much swearing, much
honking of horns, and several dead ducks. It was so sweet to watch
the reactions here :-)
After the ducks
successfully had their snack and continued on their journey it occurred
to me that I was in Bali, sitting and having dinner at a Mexican
Restaurant that had very good food. Then I realized that really
ALL the ingredients for the fajitas grow in Bali. The corn for the
tortillas, the hot peppers, the onions, the chicken, the beans, the
rice; it all grows locally. Even the cheese was local.
So life sometimes
presents interesting sites AND great food. Ah, life is good
here.
Well I am now a DRIVER
on Bali. After seeing 5 different cars and test driving 3 of them,
I finally purchased the very first car I had seen. The man who has
the company that makes my t-shirts had a '95 Suzuki Katana for sale.
However, he was asking $5500 for it and I didn't want to spend more than
$5000 and was really hoping to get something closer to $4000. But,
in the processes of looking, I discovered that the '94s and later, all
had power steering and brakes. This makes them more valuable AND
easier to drive AND safer AND better at keeping their resale value AND
easier to sell when I'm done. The Katana is the smallest car
around, both in width and length, so it's the safest for me to drive on
these narrow roads. Since there aren't any freeways here AND I'm
never in a hurry, I feel real safe in this car. It's a beautiful
maroon color, with A/C, a great stereo, and several upgrades like a
metal 'cow catcher' in the front, side steps, and more. It turns
out that Darta (the t-shirt guy) had been offered $5250 several times
but was holding out for $5500. Then he (or his wife, who really
runs the show) decided to buy some land, which is a good investment here
right now. He had put down $200 (2,000,000 rps which sounds huge)
that was non-refundable. And, of course, no one was making any
offers on his car. So he called me and I said that $5000 was the
highest I could go. So we settled for 50,500,000 rp. which
is actually $4800!! I had searched the internet and downloaded a
'Automobile Bill Of Sale'. I customized it and we both signed it
at the Post Office where it was notarized. (I've attached a
picture of the car and myself....that's me on the left)
The A/C was a little
weak, so I took it to an AC place and they dis-assembled the AC, cleaned
it really well, checked for fluid leaks and recharged the system....wow,
you could keep ice cream cold in this thing now; hmmmm, there's an idea.
Next, I wanted to see about moving the rear speakers. They are
really good Boston Acoustics speakers that had been put in an enclosure
and placed behind the 2 front seats. This worked great for short
Balinese folks, but I needed more leg room. So I had a place move
them to above the rear door (this car has a HUGE amount of headroom).
Oh boy, they sound fab. AND I have enough leg room and the
passenger seat even reclines now. The cost for the A/C work was
$19 and for the speaker work it was $14. Wayan, my driver, had
accompanied me to both places, as he had used them both before AND I
wanted him to critique my driving, offer suggestions, etc. (He
(and I) was amazed at how well I drove. But, I had been trying to
absorb the local 'rules of the road' since I had my MC). While
we were waiting for the speaker guy to get all done, I said let's grab a
bite. We walked up to the local outdoor market, about 3 blocks,
and had some chicken sate and coconut milk. We each had about 15
sticks of delicious sate with rice and some fresh coconut milk drink.
I watched the woman as she cut open the coconut, poured the liquid into
a large glass jar and then scraped the inside of the coconut and added
the meat to the jar. She then stirred the whole thing up and
poured us each a glass. Total cost ...... $1.10 for us both!
AND it was really good!
Today,
I took the car back to the local mechanic who had looked it over before
I bought it. I had him do a complete tune-up, change fluids,
filters, etc. Then tomorrow, Becky and I are off to Menjangan
Island on the NW corner of Bali. We hope to be joined by two other
visiting friends, John & Jim for some great diving and snorkeling.
It should be fun. We'll only be there for 3 days. Then John
& Jim will get transport back to Ubud as they are planning on
leaving for Thailand by the end of the week. They've been fun to
be with. Both are VERY outgoing and really good people.
Yesterday was Jim's birthday and the entire staff at Oka Wati's (where
they've been staying for a month) gave them a beautiful flower
arrangement and a little party. They had only meant to stay on
Bali for 3 weeks, then spend 3 weeks in Thailand. But, the
folks at Oka Wati's have been soooo nice (of course) to them, and they
have enjoyed the shopping here soooo much, that they just kept staying.
I think they'll end up being here for 5 weeks!
The
four of us had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at a place called 'The
Dirty Duck'. It's one of the best and oldest places in Ubud.
Just a beautiful setting overlooking the rice fields. Very
attentive staff and great food. Becky & I had the roast
Duck, which must be ordered 24 hours in advance. It was very
tender and not greasy at all.
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