This was a fairly typical week for us. I went to work every day, and Misa came with me on Wednesday for homeschool and to watch her shows (Modern Family, The Middle, Shark Tank). The other days she did homeschool in the morning and then went somewhere with Katka in the afternoon. Except on Friday Misa stayed home while Katka went on a tour of "The Rocks," part of Sydney that is now a fashionable area with specialty shops, galleries, restaurants, and several museums, but in 1788 was the location of the first convict settlement in Sydney. Thursday night I rented a movie at a self-serve place similar to Redbox in the US, except here it is green and charges $3.50, not $1.
Riding the train to work one day I started to think about our amazing trip to Bali, and recalled a couple of interesting things. On the way to Nusa Dua we had a conversation with our driver about driving in Bali. It seems like chaos, and very dangerous. The streets and roads are very narrow, with no space for parking along the sides. But that doesn't stop people from parking, effectively blocking half of one side of the street. To get around the cars traveling in that direction have to go into the oncoming lane. The streets are also full of scooters (small motorcycles), most going slower than the cars. As there are no speed limits in Bali the cars go as fast as possible, which is never very fast due to the traffic. To pass the scooters the cars have to go partially into the other lane and straight into oncoming traffic. The scooters also don't always use the proper lane, sometimes driving on the right side of the road, and sometimes the left. Of course, like many island nations, they drive on the left side in Indonesia. So as we are driving to Nusa Dua we are constantly swerving into oncoming traffic to go around parked cars, scooters, or trucks going too slow. Of course the cars going the other way were sometimes also passing or swerving, so for a few seconds we would be driving on the right side of the road and the car coming toward us driving on the left. It was shocking that somehow we always seemed to get back into the correct lane just before colliding head-on. And don't get me started on how close we came to all of the people, dogs, chickens, bicyclists, etc. that were traveling on the edge of the road. Organized chaos is almost too nice of a way to describe it.
Our driver asked us if we ride scooters in America, and if we had ever ridden one. I told him no, that I had never been on a scooter, and they were not common in America. He asked if we would rent a scooter to ride around one day in Bali. I told him no, that it didn't seem safe. He said that it is safe, "once you get to know the situation." He went on to explain that traffic flows and follows patterns, and once you are familiar with it you are fine. A few minutes later we saw two tourists riding on scooters; our driver pointed them out and said, "see, they are enjoying themselves, they know the situation."
It was hard to get used to the money in Bali. The currency is the Rupiah, and exchanges at about 9,000 for $1. About every other day I withdrew money from the ATM, and the maximum it let me withdraw was 1,250,000 Rupiah. So every other day I was walking around a millionaire. Tipping was especially difficult, because I never knew what was appropriate. When we got through customs and to the baggage claim there were three porters waiting, each with one suitcase. Although we didn't need help I didn't protest, not knowing the local customs. After we got through customs I gave them $5 ( total, not each) and told them we were fine on our own. Our guidebook suggested 20,000 was a good tip for a driver or guide for half a day, in other words, TWO DOLLARS. When we arrived at our hotel I tipped our driver and guide 50,000 Rupiah, about $5 each, and they were very happy. But then when the bellhop escorted us to our rooms and brought two of the suitcases I also gave him 50,000 Rupiah, which is about what I would give the bellhop in the states (which is hypothetical, because we never use the bellhop in the US). So the driver and guide each got $5 for about 2 hours of helping us out, and the bellhop $5 for 15 minutes. Once I left 20,000 Rupiah as a gratuity, because after you have been in Bali for a while you start to think of 20,000 as quite a bit of money, but when I realized I had left $2 I felt guilty.
After our 30 minute tour of the temple at Uluwatu our guide asked for a $10 tip. He was the first person to ask for a gratuity, and definitely the first person to be bold about the amount. Even our guide wouldn't tell me how much to pay him after he spent the whole day driving me around, and when I tried to give him $40 he said it was too much and gave me back half.
The price of gas in Bali is about $2 per gallon; Indonesia has some oil reserves of their own and the government subsidizes some oil and gas. Gas is sold at regular filling stations, but also at roadside stands in liter and two liter glass bottles, often empty vodka bottles to other clear containers. At the filling station gas was 4,500 Rupiah for one liter, and at the roadside stands 5,000 Rupiah for one liter.
There are no words for our seasons in Balinese (winter, spring, summer, fall). They have only two seasons, wet and dry, so those are the only words they need.
