Thursday 19 November 2015

ubudder believe it - 19/11/2015

The second pack is always the hardest. That first move from the first place you stay after you arrive to the second, as you struggle to fit everything you had initially packed into exactly the same space, but no where near as easily. Last night I took a bag full of laundry to the express cleaners just down the road from the next place I am going to stay so I didn't have to find room for it in my bag in the morning, but  even without those items the repack was still tight. God only knows how I'm going to get it all squeezed in for the next move, but maybe thats the point, I probably won't.

It's probably already time to jettison some of the bulk and the first item that crosses my mind are the Jeans. I was wearing those from the U.K and they do take up more space overall than a couple of pairs of shorts and my mankini, and its unlikely I will be wearing them here in this heat for a while to come yet. But experience tells me that they are an item I should keep around. Many temples across Asia and Indonesia expect you to cover up as a sign of respect (the mankini doesn't cut it, well...not in that respect) so until I track a cool pair of longer trousers, the jeans get to stay.  More likely to go will be t-shirts and socks which I think I packed far too many of anyway, erring on the side of caution as I so often do. White t-shirts in particular are in abundance and having been here 4 days already and not worn a single one, I think 5 may be a little excessive. My knee high socks can also go, or they could if I had brought any. In hindsight maybe I should have brought some just to make the deselection process a lot easier at this point of the trip.

The last couple of days I have been mostly stumbling around, getting over the time difference and trying to regain control of the diabetes, which seems to have hated the journey down here as much as I did and is like a naughty child refusing to behave completely, sat there with its little moody downturned lip refusing to play nicely. In myself though I am feeling pretty good after just 2 full days, which when compared to last time where I was quite badly out of sorts for a good week or so, is a much more positive start. I feel as long as I can get myself eating regularly enough, it should help my diabetes cheer up quickly and it's hardly been a chore to eat here. Part of the problem when your not feeling 100% is your lack of appetite. Luckily here there is an abundance of food types on offer so even when your not feeling like eating, you can usually find something appealing enough to give it  a try. At every place I have eaten so far I seem to declare at least one of the dishes as "the best I have ever eaten". The food here, both in quality and the choice is really just absolutely incredible. Not everything is sweet either, with iced tea coming with a little jug of sugar water as separate side, so you can add to taste if you like, which makes managing my naughty child a little bit easier.



Apart from eating I have also had the pleasure of seeing a Balinese long tailed macaque weeing on a tourist at the Monkey Forest and have had time to take in a couple of the museums and temples (of which there are many). Balinese art (both modern and traditional) seems to vary in style quite a bit, from being very distinctive and dark in its subject matter and stylistically unique to this region, through to pieces that display quite obvious similarities to art from other cultures, such as Japanese masked demons or images of hinduism.  



A quick note about my first hotel stop, Initially it looked great but the cracks started to show over the coming days and the only things  I cant really fault there were the staff and the bed (very comfy) I came back on the second day to find a puddle of water in the room under the air con (bad news on a tiled floor), the answer to which was to turn the aircon off and mop the floor. The water pressure was tempermental to say the least changing from super fast to literally non existent, one time shutting off completely in the middle of a shower and another taking about 2 hours to fill the cistern back up in the toilet, not really ideal. As for the advertised Wi-Fi, I'm guessing that it was attached to a 28k modem and feeding the multiple guest rooms that were on site making my decision to buy a sim card with 6gb data allowance a wise move indeed.

So a wise move is what I need do next, I have booked a place to stay which is nearer to the centre of Ubud than the previous affair (which would take twenty minutes to walk in silly degree heat). The ratings and reviews online have been very positive so hopefully it will be an improvement on the place I have just left. Just for reference, Puri Garden was booked at the time of my flights by the travel agent in the UK at 25 pound a night, this next one is rated much higher and will cost me 1,200,000 IDR for 4 nights, which roughly equates to just under 56 uk pounds, or half a night at the luxurious Travelodge, Hengrove Park.   



So Todays plan is to get checked in, then go and find a couple of tours and excursions to get booked onto for the next couple of days, maybe one to take in the more interesting places in Bali and another thats a bit more physically demanding to see how this old body is holding up. It's definitely not a luxury model, and it's had it's fair amount of scrapes and repairs, but all things considered, for a battered, bruised, chipped, fractured and generallyabused example of 1970's origin, it's doing pretty well*.



*apart from the knees, shoulder, eyes, pancreas and wrist and dealing with heat. Remedies sold separately, packaging may not be as described.




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