Legian, Indonesia

Today was the first lazy day I’ve had since I was in Vigan in the Philippines. I woke up early enough, but chose to relax in my room most of the day and to update the website – which is proving to be very time consuming, especially in slow-connected regions of the world. I also got to use the manual-flush squat toilet in my room; this toilet is found throughout much of Indonesia and is flushed by scooping up water from a bucket and pouring it down the squat toilet until all the nasty bits of excrement are pushed down the drain; although I don’t think it helps in water conservation since a big load requires many scoops. Anyway, after 16:00, I picked up my laundry which smelled nice and clean; then I grabbed my camera and finally left the vicinity of the hostel I’m staying at to go see Kuta beach. It was about a kilometer walk to the beach and when I reached it there were still a lot of surfers and people hanging out on the beach despite the fact that there was only an hour before the sun would be gone for the day. Also, the beach had a fairly low grade and was shallow for a quite a distance, more so than beaches I’m used to back in the States, so I was able to walk out a distance from the dry-sand portion of the beach, dipping my feet in to the Indian Ocean for the first time. I then walked north for a short distance, admiring some of the skimpy apparel on display, before walking back inland to find a place to eat dinner. Along the way I found a liquor store, where I bought a bottle of dry white wine produced here on the island of Bali, so that I may enjoy it tonight back at the hostel. I then passed by one bar where a drunk man was holding up a sign that read “Putin is Hitler” and he was shouting out to a Russian couple that was passing by; I just laughed at the scene and walked on. I then decided to eat in a sports bar that had an Australian rugby match being played on one of the television monitors, but my attention was quickly drawn to another television set displaying a game I had not seen before – Australian rules football (sadly, this was the first time I had watched this exciting sport). I ended up staying in this poorly run bar and restaurant just to see the footy (another term for Australian rules football) match between the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn Hawks come to its conclusion (this establishment’s only draw are the sports being shown on screens – there were a number of Aussies in there glued to the TV sets -, it certainly isn’t the quality of food or service or the fact that the circuit broke four time while I was there, shutting off all but one TV before having to be reset each time); I stayed for the last three twenty-minute quarters to see Hawthorn win the game against Sydney, 104 to 94. Since I was there for so long, I ended up eating a grilled mahi-mahi with mashed potatoes and a salad and then fish and chips with a salad – this may seem like a lot of food, but it came in small, non-American-sized, portions (. . . we are an obese people). I also had four Bali Hai beers. After dinner, I walked to Legian Street, found a cafe, and ordered a french-pressed, black coffee. I then went back to my room to enjoy the coffee, as well as that bottle of wine I purchased earlier. The wine is from Hatten Wines and was born in their vineyards located on the north coast of Bali; the particular wine I bought (the dry white wine) is made from Belgia grapes (a member of the Muscat grape family) and tasted surprisingly delicious (I type “surprisingly” because I didn’t think tropical climates could produce decent tasting wines – my mind has now been opened); it was certainly dry, but fruity with tastes of lemon, orange, musk, and flowers; it would have gone perfectly with the grilled mahi-mahi I had earlier. I then stayed up late listening to the Talking Heads and to research tomorrow’s adventure, as well as to try and update the website some more (I am having to reload many pictures I had loaded earlier thanks to WordPress – the free program I am using to build my website – inexplicably causing them to be deleted; oh well, you get what you pay for and since I didn’t pay anything for the program I shouldn’t expect anything).