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Re: Japan and Bali
The next morning, I made plans to get outta Kuta. I was booked in for one more night at White Rose, and I planned to do some shopping for sarongs and other souvenirs before I headed to Ubud. I called a couple of tour companies and finally reserved a private driver and tour guide for the next day. It would cost me around 25USD for a transfer from Kuta to Ubud anyway; for an added 30USD, I could get 12 hours worth of around the island. Sounded like a good deal to me.
Transportation worked out, I left White Rose (no thank you to breakfast after that horrid room service experience) and started walking down Poppies II to the beach. Talk about overstimulated senses. A million impressions were forming and disintegrating in my mind, the overriding one being that Poppies II should be renamed Little Australia. What does it say that the most numerous businesses are surf shops, restuarants, souvenir stores, internet, ATM's and tattoo parlours (and who goes to a third world country to get tattooed anyway?
). I got caught up in a little shopping frenzy before too long. Did not know that Bali had it like that: bring $$$$, the shopping is out of this world! And there was a range of quality, it wasn't all "made in China".
When I finally made it to the beach I was parched and on my way to being sunstroked. I was underwhelmed by the long stretch of sand. I've seen prettier (Negril, hello!), but I may have been less charitably inclined because of the heat and my exhaustion. Room service the night before had kind of scared me off Balinese food temporarily, so when I spied the Pizza Hut across the road from the beach, I was
During lunch a hot and scruffy looking surfer dude was giving me the eye, but like a dork I paid the check and ran
. Look but don't touch was my vacation motto 
. I mention this encounter now because a couple of sticky situations came up later because I was too slow to realize that <span style="font-style: italic">I</span> was supposed to be Stella, and some of these dudes were fully expecting me to find a vacation man. 
The White Rose grounds
Kuta Beach
Just to say I wuz here
The next morning, I made plans to get outta Kuta. I was booked in for one more night at White Rose, and I planned to do some shopping for sarongs and other souvenirs before I headed to Ubud. I called a couple of tour companies and finally reserved a private driver and tour guide for the next day. It would cost me around 25USD for a transfer from Kuta to Ubud anyway; for an added 30USD, I could get 12 hours worth of around the island. Sounded like a good deal to me.
Transportation worked out, I left White Rose (no thank you to breakfast after that horrid room service experience) and started walking down Poppies II to the beach. Talk about overstimulated senses. A million impressions were forming and disintegrating in my mind, the overriding one being that Poppies II should be renamed Little Australia. What does it say that the most numerous businesses are surf shops, restuarants, souvenir stores, internet, ATM's and tattoo parlours (and who goes to a third world country to get tattooed anyway?
). I got caught up in a little shopping frenzy before too long. Did not know that Bali had it like that: bring $$$$, the shopping is out of this world! And there was a range of quality, it wasn't all "made in China". When I finally made it to the beach I was parched and on my way to being sunstroked. I was underwhelmed by the long stretch of sand. I've seen prettier (Negril, hello!), but I may have been less charitably inclined because of the heat and my exhaustion. Room service the night before had kind of scared me off Balinese food temporarily, so when I spied the Pizza Hut across the road from the beach, I was
During lunch a hot and scruffy looking surfer dude was giving me the eye, but like a dork I paid the check and ran
. Look but don't touch was my vacation motto . I mention this encounter now because a couple of sticky situations came up later because I was too slow to realize that <span style="font-style: italic">I</span> was supposed to be Stella, and some of these dudes were fully expecting me to find a vacation man. The White Rose grounds
Kuta Beach
Just to say I wuz here
). And so here is the other reason that I give a big FAIL to White Rose Hotel: I called down to the front desk to ask just how much it would cost to go from Kuta to Legian. The clerk quoted me 150 000 Rp plus another 50 000 Rp for the driver to wait for an hour. 
So I said, are you kidding me? And he started to backpedal a bit, well maybe it could be less...I politely hung up the phone and went out on the street to catch a taxi. Cost me 33 000 Rp on the meter.
. They had a little stage set up behind the tables and a couple of very pretty ladies were performing some traditional Balinese dances. Unfortunately they had to compete with this AWESOME mariachi band that was going table to table and belting out greatest hits. How awesome were they? In the time that I was there, they sang requests in english, spanish, italian, mandarin, and japanese 
. I was soooo tempted to request a Bob Marley from them, but they pretty much stuck to the bigger tables where they could get more tips. Good on them, they deserved it. 
. We chatted for a bit and I found out that her husband was an engineer working with energy companies, and she has followed him all over the world. "Anywhere my husband is, my home is." 
. I found a way though 
Yumm moment! 
"You don't do Batur treks, do you W?" Nope. "But you do tours to Kintamini and Besakih temple (at the base of Agung)." Yes. OK then.
We got to sample several different kinds of coffees and teas--they have fever grass too!--but I didn't care to buy a pound of Balinese coffee so we went on our way.
. And then it just all made sense, because I was seeing all these plants that were VERY familiar, and then I recalled that the British imported quite a few plants from the "East Indies" to the Caribbean islands to feed their enslaved population 
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