We're in Ubud

Blog #3 Oct. 22:
Today, our last full day in Lombok I (Jim) took the motor scooter and went off on my own as Lily was having a little GI problem and felt like resting for awhile. I went for miles and miles down a little paved road that I hoped would lead to a deserted beach I had seen on a map. The road turned into a dirt road with huge mud puddles then asphalt again then dirt and mud off an on for a mile or so.  I managed to ride around the mud holes pretty well until I got to a puddle that I didn't negotiate so well. I was only going about two mph when the front wheel slid into the puddle and stopped and I toppled over into the puddle on my side getting totally covered in mud. I wasn't hurt and picked up the motor scooter and pushed it off into the grass while I wiped some of the mud off of me. I gave up on further exploring and headed back so I could wash off. I looked like i had rolled in it and must have been an amusing sight, on the drive back I got a lot of stares and turned heads.

Farewell to Lombok, 23 October,
Lombok in a nutshell is still not an easy tourist destination. There may be some nice hotels, but, still pretty much for the backpacker travelers who don't mind basic and broken down hotels, dirt roads and funky little towns and shops and restaurants.  The beaches were better than Bali, at least in terms of there being remote, unspoiled light brown sand beaches (unfortunately with litter lining the shoreline). There is a beautiful lake at a the top of a 6,800 ft volcano that you can sign up for a three day hike to and lush forests. In every town no matter how poor it looks there are mosques, some quite beautiful, but most still under construction.   In Kuta the surfing is reported to be as good as it gets and it is a destination for the serious surfer. The roads a completely jammed with motor scooters, trucks and cars plus horse carts making travel a slow process.
There will be a new international airport in a year or so and that will bring more tourists and provide much needed jobs, but they have a long way to go with the necessary infrastructure. Maybe come back in ten years.

To Bali:
The roads from Kuta to the town of Lumar for the fast boat to Bali is under construction in so many places in combination with the volume of traffic that it was stop and go for many sections of the road and there was a tropical rain storm most of the way to add to the fun.
We finally got to the "port" (a beach, no pier, dock or anything port-like) where the boat would pick us up just in time and dragged our bags across the sand to a little hut and waited for the boat. The boat showed up, our bags got thrown on and the passage to Bali was uneventful in spite of the rain storm.

An hour and twenty minutes later we docked at the port town of Padang Bai on the east cast of Bali and got off along with thirty other passengers onto a small broken down dock that looked like it would fall apart at any minute; boards missing, broken or loose and the whole thing sagging dangerously off to one side. The main pier was connected to this dock by a rickety walkway that also looked about ready to collapse. People use this to get on and off the boat twice every day?
WARNING: Graphic description to follow
While I am getting our bags out of the boat Lily starts going to the pier with the other passengers and steps on to the walkway, but her foot goes through a board, she falls to the side and bangs her head full force on a big wooden handrail. I hear people making a commotion and someone calls me over. I see Lily being helped up holding her head with blood running down her arm! I run over have a look and she has a one and a half inch bleeding gash in her head on her scalp; ugly looking, painful, but fortunately not serious. Whew! I reassured her and went back for the bags because three of the other passengers turned out to be nurses from Australia and they quickly came to her aid. Her head was bleeding and she was hurt, but bravely toughing it out. One of the boat staff took her on a motor-scooter to the nearby little clinic and I went to the bus area with our bags to wait for her. about 15 minutes later she returned. They had cleaned the wound and stuck a big bandage on it and gave her some antibiotics. It was clear that the wound needed a couple of stitches and there are probably good clinics in Ubud. Lily bought a beer to ease the pain and we got in the van for the two hour ride to Ubud.
We arrived at our hotel, found a nearby clinic and $120 later we left the with two stitches in Lily's head and what looked like a patch of white tape stuck to her hair. it could have been a lot worse.
The next thing was to find dinner except it was after ten and most places are closing. We eventually found a terrific place with a great menu and finally got some food (I love tomato soup and every restaurant seems to have it, but all different recipes and delicious) as we hadn't eaten since breakfast in Lombok. What a day!

That brings me to a topic of the main difference with first world countries and the rest of the world. First, there is no "normal"; every place is either better, the same or worse than somewhere else. It is not normal for things to get fixed or built right in the first place. You have to constantly be looking out for big and little dangerous things like that dock or sidewalks with un marked open holes or rotted railings that would break if you lean against them or people driving the wrong way or running through red lights (actually, I've seen that so much here that might be normal) or little differences between the floor in one room to another that will make you stub your toe or stumble or stairs that are not constant in height just to name a few things that we run into (literally) almost every day.

Oct 23, day two in Ubud:
We bought two Nokia cell phones for $40 each so we can call hotels and each other and that we can use all over Asia. We also found a much nicer hotel to move to and so we did. It seems that that is our process; get a hotel the first night and then the next day find a better one and move. The problem is that it takes half the day to do. The first place looked real nice with a pool and beautiful grounds, but the room was all white with no decorations and had a bare florescent light in the ceiling and no reading light. Who thought that was a good idea?

After we settled in to our new place; second floor with air and a nice pool and right in central Ubud we went window shopping and later out to looking for a place to eat dinner. The problem we have is that I am happy with the first restaurant that has things on the menu I would like (like tomato soup for one) and Lily wants to see all the restaurants before she makes her choice. Lily not only considers the menu, but also atmosphere and if there are other people in there ("it must not be good if no one is in there") and if there is a view and music, etc.  I just want to eat. We call this "dinner death marches". Somehow we always manage to find a place without killing each other.

Oct 25, day three in Ubud: We rented a Honda Vario 115cc automatic motor scooter and it is Monday and the office where we can get our visas extended is open so we spent the morning dealing with that. Then we found an even better hotel so tomorrow we move again (for the last time). It was hot and humid so we spent the afternoon at the pool and I (Jim) got a massage for $8. Pretty Balinese girl, jasmine oil, gamalon music... ahhh.  Sorry, worker bees, but someone has to live like this.
Tonight I am pretty sure we burned up a lot of karma because we took the motor scooter and drove out to a nice dinner spot and as we were eating a tropical storm came through and the rain poured. We didn't bring anything to keep us dry on the motor scooter so we had some dessert and hoped the rain would stop and it did. We paid the bill, wiped off the seat and rode back to the hotel and just as we got back it started raining buckets again. Thank you Shiva or Buddha or whom ever!

Oct, 26 (my 63rd birthday): Moving again. This time to a real beautiful place with rooms that have all the basics; breakfast included plus a beautiful view and wi-fi for the bargain price of $55/night because we agreed to stay for seven days.
Well, off to the pool.   More later and pictures, to; I promise.