We asked to go to Turtle Island, which I thought was a beach with turtles roaming. The Uber driver took us to the area and said that we were here. I looked at my fare and it was 4.55 for a 40 minute ride. Whoa - I was surprised on how low it was. We go out and another gentleman greeted us and pointed to a place that looked like a local bar/restaurant on the beach. We sat down thinking, we would have lunch before heading to the beach with the turtles that would be waiting for us! A lady sits at our table and pulls out a guide of "tourist" activities. Scuba, boat rides, etc. It's a trap - a tourist trap and we were right in the smack of it. She spoke fast and could see "Americans" written all over us. They just know.
The rates were expensive and we were not planning on spending money to ride a boat to reach Turtle Island as were were there. We decided to leave and to our surprise, guess who is waiting outside? Uber Huffer Man! I'll get into that more later.
We initially were happy to see him as he could take us to another beach that we had on our list called Balagan beach. He said to request a ride and he should get the ping since he is standing next to us. We hopped back in the car and realized the car still smells like gasoline. We noticed this on the first trip, but didn't really think anything of it. A few minutes later, I see our driver smelling a blue rag every 10 minutes. He was inhaling the vapors or "Huffing" the entire ride, which is dangerous. All we wanted to do is get to the next beach and then we could say goodbye to Huffer Man. We arrive at another spot and he said the beach is down the way, so we got out and were on our way. We climbed down some rocky areas and we saw waves! We had finally reached a beach. There were several local beach restaurants along the shore, so we grabbed lunch before hitting the sand. As were were eating, local vendors would come by offering clothing, jewelry and movies. Nothing was bought...well, at that time.
Lunch was delicious and about 3.00 for each of us. We trotted down to beach to our two lounge chairs and umbrella. To rent one of the afternoon was $7.00 for two people, so very reasonable. We relaxed on the chairs, and did people, dog, surfer and waves watching. The dogs had the right idea. They often would nap under a chair that had a human on it to cool down. This adorable little fellow was may napping friend, staying under my chair to stay out of the sun.
This spot has enormous waves, so popular spot for all surfers. We stayed out there a few hours and locals had me pegged as a sucker to buy their goods. Every so often, someone would come by selling, massages, dvds, pearls, ice cream, sun glasses, clothing. One guy came by and offered valium. Whaaaat?
Kassia rocked at saying no, I would give in after they would keep knocking the price down to make me feel like I was getting a deal. They are big on haggling and always start high and go down. I ended up buying a pair of Oakley sun glasses -- well, minus the "a", so they were Okley for $3.00 and a pretty black and purple sarong for $3.00. I wanted to get one for the temple visits as you need to wear a sarong and sash to enter.
There was a lady who kept going up to Kassia and offering a massage, progressively lowering the price, saying, "It bring you luck...luck, good luck." Started out for $7.00 and think it got down to $3.00 -- Kassia stood her ground and politely said no. I need her skills.
We made our way back up the rocky hill to look for a taxi. We were hesitant to use Uber again as we thought our original Huffer Uber man would be secretly waiting for us to take us home. As we got to the top of the hill, Kassia noticed a blue taxi sitting there and said, "there's a taxi." In 2 seconds flat, a man appears from nowhere and says, "You need a taxi? Where are you going?" We tell him the supermarket and he said, "100,000". Kassia immediately says, "I only have 50,000. Can you take us for 50,000?" He pauses and says, "70,000", so we agreed and headed to a van that had no taxi signs or meter. Umm, doubt this was a taxi, but were were already in the van and needed to get to the supermarket close to the villa. He doesn't kidnap us, sell us into sex slavery or offer us drugs. We feel somewhat safe on the drive -- somewhat. We arrive at the market and out we go! Kassia wasn't feeling so well, so we stopped by the market to get some Sudafed type medicine for her sinus infection. She describes what her symptoms are to the pharmacy and they give her some pill packs for about $1 each. Hrmm...she looks up the medicine at the villa and it seems legit. We'll see how it works over the next 24 hours.
This time, no Uber. We had security at the Villa call us a taxi to go have dinner at Fat Chow which had a menu that looked incredible. We had frozen beverages, a prawn appetizer, chicken cashew stir fry, sweet chili prawn for our entrees, then finished with a Banana BBQ and Green Tea Creme Brulee dessert. Their food was delicious and we may go back here to try some other items.
After dinner, we walked down to look for a cab. A cab pulled up that was hailed by one of the locals. We hop in, tell him where we are going and he says, "100,000". That is $7.00 and it only costs us $2.30 to get there. He has no meter and we tell him we are not paying that and hop out. We asked the restaurant to call us a cab and one arrives in a few minutes. We take the cab home and it's $2.30, the same fare we paid to get there. Unfortunately, the cabs will try to take advantage of the tourists, so you have to be careful.
We got home and talked about going to some temples tomorrow and possibly seeing a medicine man to help cure any ailments that are making her sick. The first thought was to see the traditional Balinese medicine man, Ketut Liyer, known for his psychic healing readings on the island. We researched and found out he passed this year and was 100 years old on his last breath. Nyoman Latra, his only son took over his father's practice. We will look for a medicine man to get Kassia back to feeling 100%. Sampai Jumpa!
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