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| Other countries GEORDIEandVIRGINIA visited in Gullibles_Travels |
| Denmark (1) |
| France (2) |
| Germany (1) |
| Indonesia (3) |
| Singapore (1) |
| Spain (1) |
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| Apologies for not replying to any of you sooner. For the last week here we have not been able to access any Australian web sites including my email or yearaway.com My faith has been partially restored in the beaches of Bali. This morning when we went to the beach again we found dozens of Balinese people picking up rubbish and raking the beach. The "tip" we found yesterday was just that. An area of the beach where they were gathering all the rubbish to burn it. Just like us to find the worst bit of beach. The pile of rubbish was so big we thought it was the beach. When they have big rain storms here it all gets washed down the rivers and onto the beach - they have yet to grasp the concept of waste management. We went for a giant walk today from Seminyak down to Kuta - the main tourist center of Bali. So - what's it like? Hot, a little bit humid. Wherever you walk there are poor Balinese people who come up to you and try to sell you things. Sunglasses, bracelets, daughters, Rolexes for a dollar. They try all sorts of ways to get you into a conversation. How are you, kia ora, gidday. We have found that the trick is not to make eye contact. Once you have that it is hard to get away without a massage or postcard. There have been a few times when I have been tempted to ask Virginia to repeat her sari trick. We were crossing the street today and a motorbike pulls up with a pillion passenger who jumps off and wants us to enter a competition. All we have to do is scratch a panel. Lo and behold, I have won first prize (Virginia got 3rd) all we have to do is come with them and collect. We can choose our prize of either $1000 cash, a movie camera or a week in a posh hotel. Oh yeah and we have to watch a 1 hour video as well. Hmmm. Timeshare alert. We pulled the ripcord but the chute failed to fully open and he pulled out a photo of his baby daughter and we hit the ground hard. He would get $50 from his boss if we showed up. For god's sake think of the children!!! That was probably the hardest moment of the day. I think we are getting thicker skin though. If that’s a good thing. Here are some photo's on the left and I will also post some for the last entry. Virginia was trying to be a good traveller and wear a money belt. She lasted about 10 minutes before her kettle started to boil. We sat down on the beach for a moment to do a quick covert money swap from belt to bag but before we knew it 6-7 Balinese women surrounded us and wanted to give us a massage. All of them went for Virginia except for the oldest one (typical). Her hands were incredible. She looked so old and fragile yet while her hands were searching for a muscle in my leg she just about took my knee off. There are very few tourists around and this place seems to be still getting over the bomb. People are desperate to make a sale. Everywhere you go people yell out transport/transport and make crazy driving mimes. When we say no they say "tomorrow then?" A few of them have told us that things are getting a bit better but it must be really hurting them. The travel advisory on the Australian web site said not to travel to Bali. Sue pointed out that they are coming up to an election on the 5th of April. Apparently around election times rival party supporters fight it out on the street and often people are killed. Campaigning this year seems quite low key though. The TV advertisements for the different parties are interesting. All of them are quite militant with lots of raised fists in the air and army uniforms. For some reason they often repeat the ad. back-to-back multiple times like some kind of Nuremberg rally. We asked the cleaner at the hotel who was going to win this year. He said as long as it wasn't a blind, partially deaf cripple like last time he didn't care. G | ||||||||||||
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| 27 Mar 2004 : Bali - Indonesia | 4 Apr 2004 : Bali - Indonesia | |||||||||||
| Shipwreck | Little Lilipution Morsels - gone off | |||||||||||