I set off on Saturday like a little intrepid explorer, off to practice my haggling in Bahasa Indonesian. The end result was getting three Bemo's. One into Denpassar, One to the other side of Denpassar and then one onto Ubud, at the grand total of 40,000 rupiah. Despite haggling this is still the same amount as the Perama tourist shuttle bus, that actually drops me off near my house and is much more comfortable, but I can say it was an experience. I also wont be doing trips like this very much, as it cost 40,000 Rupiah. In England 40,00 is about two pound fifty, but when you are living on 130 pounds a month, this is a lot of money! Managed to find myself a little home stay just outside Ubud called Biang's, as recommended in the Lonely Planet. Owner was lovely, and understood my very strange Bahasa Indonesian sentence construction. In Ubud saw Monkeys in the rain, watched the 12 hour thunderstorm, mainly from my patio, as the thunder was loud could not sleep, sounded like an airplane was coming though my room, and enjoyed my hot shower!!!! not had one of those since leaving England, only difference with this hot shower, was the room had no roof, so all the wildlife got to see me naked, not just once but twice.
Needless to say Ubud is at higher altitude than Sanur so it does rain a lot, but I managed to choose one of the wettest weekends in Bali history to make my journey, and got thoroughly soaked. Most entertaining part of the day was when I thought I was following a footpath, only to be chased by an elderly gentleman who could not speak a word of English to tell me I was heading towards the rice paddy field, and it was flooded and if I did not get back in the road, I was going to get very muddy and find it hard to get home.
Sunday night watched England loose to Germany, an occasion that I hope to forget quite soon, which referee did not think our second goal was not a goal, it ruined everything. So had loads to drink and went to sleep. Woke up the next day feeling a bit ropey. Now going to support Holland, as loads of Dutch people are here. (Because it used to be a dutch colony) and they are playing Brazil tonight.
Big thank you to Anne who is letting us use her big screen at her house for Lau's Karaoke for his birthday and then world cup footy afterwards. Beer will be flowing. Not too much though as that costs 20,000 Rupiah for a bottle - 1 pound 25.
On Monday went back to school to get introduced to the concept of transitive verbs, lets just say on Tuesday I was not so keen to go back. Some of the Indonesian is starting to make sense, but this is definitely a long and sometimes painful learning process. Tomorrow starting the motorbike training.
As people who know me know, I have had 10 car driving tests in the UK and failed them all. So when I told people I was going to be riding a motorbike in Indonesia people looked at me like I had gone crazy. Well whilst in England I went to Crystal palace and passed my CBT, basic competency on a 50 cc moped. You know those lawnmower's as that do not go over 30mph. Tomorrow I start a course on my bike. The bike is a slightly more powerful bike. It is a 160 (means nothing to me) But they look big and the top speed is apparently 120 mph. I think this my be slightly more powerful than the one I tried in London, so watch out people of Bali when I hit the road on Saturday afternoon, after my briefing the transport police of Bali.
Needless to say Ubud is at higher altitude than Sanur so it does rain a lot, but I managed to choose one of the wettest weekends in Bali history to make my journey, and got thoroughly soaked. Most entertaining part of the day was when I thought I was following a footpath, only to be chased by an elderly gentleman who could not speak a word of English to tell me I was heading towards the rice paddy field, and it was flooded and if I did not get back in the road, I was going to get very muddy and find it hard to get home.
Sunday night watched England loose to Germany, an occasion that I hope to forget quite soon, which referee did not think our second goal was not a goal, it ruined everything. So had loads to drink and went to sleep. Woke up the next day feeling a bit ropey. Now going to support Holland, as loads of Dutch people are here. (Because it used to be a dutch colony) and they are playing Brazil tonight.
Big thank you to Anne who is letting us use her big screen at her house for Lau's Karaoke for his birthday and then world cup footy afterwards. Beer will be flowing. Not too much though as that costs 20,000 Rupiah for a bottle - 1 pound 25.
On Monday went back to school to get introduced to the concept of transitive verbs, lets just say on Tuesday I was not so keen to go back. Some of the Indonesian is starting to make sense, but this is definitely a long and sometimes painful learning process. Tomorrow starting the motorbike training.
As people who know me know, I have had 10 car driving tests in the UK and failed them all. So when I told people I was going to be riding a motorbike in Indonesia people looked at me like I had gone crazy. Well whilst in England I went to Crystal palace and passed my CBT, basic competency on a 50 cc moped. You know those lawnmower's as that do not go over 30mph. Tomorrow I start a course on my bike. The bike is a slightly more powerful bike. It is a 160 (means nothing to me) But they look big and the top speed is apparently 120 mph. I think this my be slightly more powerful than the one I tried in London, so watch out people of Bali when I hit the road on Saturday afternoon, after my briefing the transport police of Bali.
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