Time share is not for me!!
Trip Start
Nov 28, 2009
1
8
18
Trip End
Dec 13, 2009
Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Cool and bali don't really go together!
We had banana pancakes today! yummy! The whole banana is slices into 4 and fried with the pancake.Delicios with runny honey. The flavours here are much nicer...interesting to try familiar foods like pancakes, milk, honey, orange juice and bananas and find they are foreign to your tastebuds suddenly!
w relaxed by the pool today.I typed out my travel blog that had been neglected until then.Rich and the kids had a swim, which I later discovered I was cooking in the sun!!
One side of my body had been baking for over 2 hours..sunblock did not work, or perhaps I did not put enough on.Either way I look very lopsided! Maybe it could be a new fashion statement?!
In the afternoon we decided to take up the hotels free transport offer to Kuta. I was quite keen to take the kids to Water Bom Park and also have a llok at Discovery Mall for cheap dvds and ice cream!
The drive to Kuta was both fun and nerve wracking! So many near accidents, it amazes you more don't happen in Bali!
The driver dropped us in Kuta where we suddenly realised we had forgotten to pack togs in our rush to share a car with fellow hotel guests...oh well:)
We proceeded to cross the road to go to the mall, when we had very personable man approach us.HE was a wonderful sales man and wanted us to pick a card each and reveal what they said.Escher and Khailana got free tshirts and I made his day for getting 3 stars (i swear he acted like he had just won lottery of $5 million...priceless).It explained that he was from East Temor and was now going to get $100 US because I won this rare thing...the catch....could we come in his car to claim the prize.We had a real hard time trying to say NO.His personality was delightful, and I could see how excited he was to win some money for his family. The deal for going to the hotel he represented, was a free lunch and drinks for all of us, free shirts and water bom tickets, to use anytime...we decided to go! I can't explain why, but he won us over. I spoke to a security guard/policeman who assured me this man was ok to go with...so we agreed to go! The thought of him NOT geting the $100 was not good , so we though, Oh well,t, its a free lunch...we might win more prizes yet (i had a chance of winning 4 things , cash, digital cam corder, discount book on tours or hotel for a week in Nusa Dua....what did we have to lose?
Well what a funy time we had next!
This personable man was talking NON STOP to Nusa Dua...a good 20 minute drive! HE was talking about how important we are to this country, how much bali suffers when tourists are unhappy, etc.He was such a laugh!
His driver friend hardly said boo, but did laugh at things that were saying. Like all Bainese people, they are very keen to hear about what country you come from and how long you are staying!
We arrived at the very swanky hotel...well apartments as we were about to find out! A man called David came out, all upper teeth missing, so it was hard to not wonder where they had gone. Hewas a young enough guy..an expat from England.
We got our free lunch plus delicious watermelon juice..bonus! So far everything was legit.
Then David opened his mouth and we knew this was not just a lunch and prize..it was a man trying to sell time share opportunities in this particular place called Peninsula...I kind of internally switched off once the speil started. Don't get me wrong, the idea has some good points.I sure wouldnt mind having an appartment anywhere in the world, anytime I wanted it.Cheaper than hotels, much bigger.The catch....pay us $9500 US and it is yours to use...at a cost. hmm.no thanks!
I was impressed with Davis honesty though...he admitted only 5 out of 100 will buy in, so that is alot of lunchs, t shirts and free transport to give away!
I left wondering if David lost his teeth, after a 'prize' winner didn't like the spiel:P
We left with our free shirts, discount book for tours in bali, full bellies and disgruntled faces for not getting our free water bom tickets.,Why....the driver had not written waterpark tickets on the stub, he only wrote lunch. I am not being greedy but it was the one thing he kept promising the kids, when we were hesitating about going!
So....2 hours later we arrived back in Kuta where we started off.We had taken 2 steps out of the car and another man approached us from East Timor, We had to think fast to get rid of him. It happened another 3-4 times on the way up the stairs...unbelievable.They all gave us the same story that this questionaire we had to fill out would give them $10,000 for their food etc.
One man was very persistant and even located us upon leaving the mall! Khailana was worried we would bump into him for a third time so we went around the back entrance to leave the mall!
I am glad we did because the beach was lovely. we found a puppy whimpering in the dark, so that was a nice suprise for the kids:)
We decided to go home after the mall.We had a good look around but only saw a few things that caught our eyes. Khailana got a lovely hello kitty bag, all of $7. I found dvds and some wonderful balinese snack foods.The man in that shop was amazing, handing us everything he saw us eye up.... we brought 6 100g bags ...... spiced for Rich and I, and sweet , or onion crackers for the kids. A real novelty was seeing dried sardines with chocolate tips!
We had so many crackers and dried things we decided to have a drink.We found a lovely place called 'flapjacks'...a lovely place reminescent of the happy days tv show restaurant! We ordered some pretty wild drinks, such as bokchoy and kiwifruit smoothie! The fun part of this place is all the cabinets with artifical food on display.Each meal on the menu has a fake plate to match,....it is funny!
..... impressed with the security here.! I needed to go to the ATM to pay for the drinks, and a security gurard escorted me to the Atm building. He waited outside and then
escorted me back..brilliant! The government must be very proud of their efforts to keep Bali safe. there is a security guard for each 10 people now! They are stationed everywhere!
We flagged a taxi down after paying, and I swear it took less than 5 seconds! He tried to charge us $100,000 but I explained we had already had a taxi to the hotel we would not pay more than the $50,000 we had paid previously.It worked...he knew he couldn't win :)
We came back and had local food.The staff at the hotel offered to buy us some Warung food.Nasi
Goreng it was, egg fried to perfection on top. We were in the pool when it arrived so we were amazed to see it served up with napkins, water to drink and so on...very nice staff! I can't rave enough about these people!
I really liked the meal.I gave the staff $50,000 for 3 people.They returned with meals and changed of $32,000...amazing! $18,000 for 3 meals.That is wonderful to feed 3 for the cost of $2.60...all up!
I love this place!
Bedafter watching some Balinese comedies ... one man was very expressive...so we could laugh at the right time without too much trouble!
tried the dvds brough in Kuta....10 for $100,000....$14 and you get 4 free.A bargain alright.
The discs would not play on my lg dvd write thingee I brought, so we have decided to ask for replacements tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
