Today was a very sloooooow daaaaaaaay. I woke up with a slightly less-than-optimal feeling in the tum, and we had no fixed plans for the day, so we took things as they came, and generally didn’t move far from the hotel.
We had to move rooms today, as when I’d originally booked, the previous room we were in was only available for the first four nights, so we said we’d switch to a cheaper room for the last night. I thought it was kinda strange that only the cheapest and second-cheapest rooms were convertible from king to twin beds, but obviously it’s a couples kind of place! And we had to remind them to swap it over, too…
This room is smaller, and looks out onto a garden rather than the fields. We’re also closer to the road, but currently we can’t hear anything over the gamelan garage band who have been practising next door for the last three hours and seem to be showing no sign of abating. Atmospheric and all, but I’m starting to get a bit of a headache.
To give the hotel time to switch the rooms, we took a wander in the other direction along Hanoman Rd, going out of town. There wasn’t much different to see: the usual “Want a taxi?”, “Massage, Mrs?” and a few souvenir/sarong/tshirt shops. However, in addition to the only “watch you step” sign we’ve seen to help negotiate the treacherous footpaths, we did come across a restaurant which has traditional dance performances, so we will go back there tonight for dinner and a show!
Otherwise we’ve been hiding in the airconditioning with room service (Black rice pudding with a Ginger Fizz drink? Don’t mind if I do!) and lounging by the pool. There’s a thunderstorm about, and the humidity has been so bad even the locals have been commenting on it.
After a rushed dinner to be seated in time for the performance, the dancing show was really interesting. As we didn’t understand any of what was spoken, it was very important to have the blurb that was handed out at the beginning of the performance!
Apparently we were watching the Barong and Kris dance, which is taken from the Mahabharata epic. It tells of two brother-kings who are intent upon gaining magic powers to take over the universe. Sounds pretty much like any superhero-villain story so far! The brothers gain these powers but are foiled by the holy man Sri Bhagawan Wiswakarma, who distracts them by introducing them to a sexy Nymph, Nilotama, who they both want to be his wife. This obviously makes the brothers fight each other, and somehow they are turned into witches, all the better to fight each other to the death. Thus, they all lived happily ever after, except for the king/witches, of course. There are also some amusing asides and comic relief, such as a very large groinal protuberance which turns out (thankfully) to be the character’s tail!
We had our amazing leather goods dropped off tonight – wow! My green coat/boots are looking slightly lighter than I thought the colour was, but hey, I’m sure I can rock Avocado! And the purple… mmmmm! Now I just need to fit them into my luggage somehow…
Although it feels very weird handing over millions of any kind of currency for anything, even fabulous leather work! Now we just need to pack, fit in one last massage, and head off to the airport tomorrow. What a whirlwind trip!
Two Weeks Away 