Easy like Sunday morning

Sunday. Day of rest. We are both up with the larks (well, sparrows actually round here) and raring to go...  to go shopping. Usually a fiasco as we go armed with a list of staples and come back with a weird selection of alien vegetables, probably toxic fruit and a bag of fish gristle.

No need to worry mum, Amanda always manages to turn it into a nice cottage pie, Spaghetti Bolognaise or apple crumble.

While I was away last week Amanda was steadily breaking in the bike - think I'll start calling her Rossi or Agostini (for those of you who remember). Hovever, the thought of the by-pass turns her into a quivering wreck so I drive her to the mecca we call Makro. 

Can only get fish gristle in 25kg sacks so leave with just a tin-opener and a wooden spoon (oh, and a membership card).

After lunch we nip out to our local for an iced tea and discover the recently-opened hair salon next door. Amanda goes in for a quote and comes out 20 mins later looking like this! (for less than the price of the tea)

Mmmm

So even if you haven't missed us I certainly missed my husband (ooh that's still strange). He swanned off to Komodo for a week (likely to see those big M.... fish - without me) while I discover the true delights of food shopping at Hardy's. There still seems to be absolutely no logic in how they've laid the shop out so it takes about an hour to find the half a dozen "basics" to live on - looking forward to a tasty, fresh stir fry with a pile of fluffy rice.

Basic number one is of course rice. How complicated could that be? Not surprisingly an entire aisle is dedicated to this staple. Which one do I get? The cheapest one in the smallest packet obviously. Beras ketan putih. Go on, look it up, Google translator does Bahasa....

...at least the stir fry was tasty.

Made friends with a bunch of French diving folk so I have managed to get some plongeing in while Adrian was away. Can now name most of the equipment and a few fish en Francais. (good job too as my CV says I can speak French).

Fab time back in Tulamben: ribbon eels, baracuda, jackfish, nudis a gogo. And then to Nusa Penida. OMG. We have been diving for 15 years. Chased all over the world, I check where we go, what time of year to be right to see them. And have we? Must be jinxed. But now here we are. A mere stonesthrow from my back yard I can sit in the swell for an hour at 10m of slightly chilly sea while 1/2 dozen or more of these magnificent creatures enjoy the services of the cleaner wrasse. I've seen them, MANTA!!! Then a second dive in search of the other M. Not disappointed. 2 mola-mola come up from the depths but are too soon frightened off by some other inconsiderate divers - b****y amateur photographers.

Small pangs of guilt now enter my head. What if Adrian's little trip hasn't been as productive...

The 'M' word

Hello loyal followers. Did you miss us?

I've been away at sea to visit Komodo (there really are dragons there). The downside is that I was out of range of the mobile network and hence no internet. The other downside was that this is the longest time that Amanda and I have been apart for 31 years (honestly - we behaved like a couple of pining teenagers). The upsides are numerous and include my first Manta experience.

On the voyage I met some lovely people including a chap from Manchester called Terry Swinhope who swears he knows Clare & Keith from Twinings [confirmation required]. He and his lovely wife? Tracy would sneak me a stiff G&T to console myself in my lonely cabin.

Back in Sanur Amanda consoles herself by talking to French people.

Normal service now resumed - Rum in one hand, laptop in the other - I'll probably make more sense next time.

2 Wheeler Dealer

Have wheels! in the form of a 2003 Honda Karisma. Swing by accessory shop on test ride to pick up $11 helmets and $2.50 rear view mirrors. She's a beaut (we haven't named it yet - suggestions on a postcard please).

The Honeymoon is over

No spaces for us to dive, so we hire a moto with full tank of fuel for about £6 for to explore Lembongan.   Driving the thing comes back very quickly to Adrian, (mis-spent youth), Amanda is still rubbish at it.but a great pillion.  We spend a happy few hours riding past mangroves, up & down very steep hills, and a lot of paths that seem to go nowhere with stunning views. Pretty much covered the lot.  So we get back to base on our quiet road and Amanda heads off again on her own to practice, leaving Adrian looking anxiously as she speeds into the distance...

Some 1/2 hour later she returns on the back of someone elses bike.  Adrian still looks anxious.  It's OK,  Yeoman kindly brought her back for the money to buy fuel.  Yep, remember if you are going off on your own, check the tank, take some money & a telephone, doh.  I may be rubbish at driving the thing but I can push them for miles!!

Passage back from Lembongan to the mainland a little late but uneventful until we landed in Sanur - to the grand finale of the village festival, having cleverly missed the entire 4 day event.  People, kayaks, jukungs, kites, everywhere on the beach, in the sea & every restaurant in town had some kind of live entertainment.  We opted to go back to the MataHari on the beach for dinner as remembered the wi-fi connection was good and the food reasonable. (These are our main criteria for selcting any eatery at the moment until we get in to our own condo with wi-fi on tap.) Except for today as special eat as much as you can buffet with entertainment thrown in all for 4 x the price.  Oh dear, we get up to leave.  But fear of losing our custom the manager allows us to go a la carte (very reasonable).  We have ringside seat for the very loud 9 piece gamelan orchestra accompanying the very cute traditional balinese dancers.  They were enchanting so caught up on the emails in between sets. Adrian can't resist spotting Clare on-line gives her real time skype view.

The Staff at the Puri Kelapa seemed happy to see us back again (for the third time) as we settle in to yet another room.

So this is reality now,  the Symbiosis itinery has ended, up to us. We hit the street to visit another batch of centres on the list and see what the shops have to offer if you actually want to live here.  Hardy's is THE supermarket. This is supermarket the Balinese way.  A kind of department store with very few of the departments you'd expect to find.  Yes it has food & clothes.  And stationery and some homewares and endless aisles of decorative artefacts.  All thrown together in a most haphazard way.  But no linen or crockery or cutlery or anything particulary useful. Although Amanda manages to leave with a new pair of shoes  - how did that happen?  (they're only flip-flop type things in the sale)

Time to change rooms again...  Our new home for the next 3 days is opposite a nice coffee shop (with wi-fi of course).  Over elevenses, make friends with Leo, who runs the place.  He's a dive instructor with large SSI centre and he gives us loads of helpful gen and says to come back later as there'll be free whisky, mmmmmmmmmm

Before that we have to go to town, as in Denpasar, as Amanda's phone SIM is dead, defunct completely kaput. Poo. You have to go to Telkomsel HQ if you want to keep the number.  Which as we've given it to everyone is important.  Arrive, take a number for the queue - 306.  Take a seat.  "Now serving number 241" OMG.  It's 2:30, they shut in 2 hrs...  Whatever you do at this point don't give up and definitely don't fall asleep.  You have a very short window of opportunity to notice your number being called before they move on to the next - several people must have done as there seemed to be an emergency queue of red faced bods either embarassed or angry,  hard to tell.   4 o'clock our turn.  Hooray.  Determined to make good use of the Customer services. New sim, register both to us for security, pump for info on using GPRS & small Bahasa lesson to boot.

Back to the coffee shop.  The party is to mark the passing of 3 new SSI instructors.  We are joined by the examiner and ex PADI rep for the area.  As we polish off I don't know how many bottles of Jack & Jim we note that Koreans really aren't very seasoned drinkers - most amusing.  And so to bed...

Mola-Mola

Nusa Lembongan: Manhandle luggage across sand & water onto taxi. The rest of the passengers & crew do the same. Oh dear, 50% of the super high speed shuttle power is broken. The Ozzie girls break out the vodka & hand round peanuts. A new hamster is brought on board but obviously ate the wrong kind of rice. More hamsters are called for. Meanwhile everybody off for free beer while we wait for the crew to work their magic on the ouboard. Plugs replaced but still sounds rough (Ady thinks leads 2 & 6 are swapped but daren't say anything).

Eventually leave only 1hr or so late & it's only a 30 minute ride so the sun's not down yet. As everyone disperses we are left on the beach alone hoping the pick-up will arrive soon. It does in a manner of speaking. It's a moto. Amanda goes first, pillioned with the big bag and a backpak. Then back to collect Adrian who arrives with his arms 6" longer as he had to carry a dive gear bag in each hand while the last case is tucked between him & the driver. Welcome to scootering in Bali. Ride to hotel did flag up 3 internet cafes though. Room lovely so dump everything and head for the dive centre. John & Sue give us a warm welcome and Sue gives us the gen about living here. It's still early so we go in search of the internet. Sounds like Nikki has managed to transfer the rent money much to our relief.

Diving: Tide's out so have to wait until 11:00 to leave. 12 divers - various levels - 3 groups of 4, make friends with our group and some others. Dives are a bit tame so no photos (think they want to check us out). Come back to write up logbooks over a beer with our new friends. Keep chatting until dinner time. Sweedish couple are lovely and the Kiwis keep us amused with their stories. And so to bed.

Air con is a bit pathetic and we fall asleep with it on. At 3am it kicks in and we snap the icicles to turn it off.

Next day and it's a late start again but we're on the speedboat today. Just 4 of us and a guide. 15 mins to get out of the atoll and 5mins to the site. Current is stiff and takes a lot of effort to get to a sheltered spot. Worth every second though as we have a great dive. See many Marbled and Eagle Rays, Schooling Tuna, a Snake, a Turtle and to top it off our first Sunfish (Mola-Mola) which is immense (look it up).

Busy Day

Breakfast with the nice Dutch family who are cycling round Bali, we first saw them at the opposite end of the island. Lots to do today so pack bags & go out. We must 1: secure a room for later. 2: see if estate agent has found us accomodation. 3: Milk ATM again. All by 13:00 when the boat leaves. 

Start with ATM - easy bit. Then the estate agent who has nothing then look at a few hovels but find nothing until the Swastika (no, nothing to do with the 3rd Reich, it's the symbol for the 9 gods) which is nice. It's now about 10:30 so we stop at free wi-fi bar and have tea - at 11:00 the phone rings and it's the estate agent. He says "you come double quick". We (reluctantly) close our internet connection and go. He takes us by car (10 mins to enter traffic jam, 3 mins to destination) to the most delightful little complex of 6 new bedsits. It's now 11:45, remember we have to have checked out of our room and left by 13:00. At 12:00 we're still negotiating the price & availability, at 12:15 we shake hands and at 12:30 we leave with a house for 2 months.

Agent drives us back to the hotel just in time to leave for the boat, or so we think...