Bali Day Three-The Beggars come

Dear Readers,

On Day three in Bali High we got up and ate again at our free buffett. Same stuff. At least in Thailand, they tried to surprise us every morning. No surprises in Bali. We decided to head for the beach-yeah. We weren't optismistic. The post cards lie. We loaded up our beach towels and walked down the drive way past the sleeping guards to the beach across the street. The wall that separates the beach from the road is under construction. It's been leveled and there was mounds of rubble, stones, and reinforcement wire blocking our way. We did like everyone else-we stepped over it (climbed the mound) and descended to the beach. Here we found ourselves in the land of the beggers. They arrive early, squatting in camps, planning their attack on the tourists. "Want to buy . . ." We were told to say no thank you as a mantra. It will protect you they told us. The beach was nice, blue, clean. Not even a dead fish. People were surfing, no swimming in the rip tides, life guards who didn't speak English. They just blew their whistles and pointed. The tourists ignored them-they were French, German, or Russian. Those with tattoos were Australia. You could tell the European girls-they took their tops off.

Our guide later explained to us why there wasn't any trash. Yes, we dump our trash in the ocean he said. But it doesn't come back until March. This is the best time to come. What do we do in March? Why we pick up the trash and ship it back out to sea. It comes back the following March. Problem solved.

We actually got sunburned alittle that morning on the beach. For lunch we packed up and went to McDonalds across the street. Yes, we eat in the fast food places in every country. Was it different than Thailand? Well, in Thailand there were those spinach and mushroom turnovers. In Bali there were Kiwi sundas. Seating was hard to come by. A Bali dog had one seat-we let the sleeping dog lie. The good news is the food was the same. After lunch we headed back to the hotel where we tried out the various pools they had. They had a large pool for swimming (or surf lessons as we found out), a small pool with waterfalls. A pool with sand on the bottom and a sand island to go along with it. Before long it was time to change and get ready for our sea temple tour on the very end of the island.

We met our tour driver Mika and drove out of town-took forever. Then we climbed attitude to the where the sea temple is. Again, to respect the temple we put on skirts to cover our legs and most important of all, took off our eyeglasses and earrings. You see there are a large population of monkeys at the temple who are considered guardians. They rip eyeglasses off your face. There were warnings posted in every language and yet we witnessed the monkeys descending on a Chinese boy, rip off his glasses, jump on the roof, rip them in half, chew on the lens and toss the remains in the sea. No Joke. I respected those monkeys. i would have thrown the whole lot in the sea if I could have-eco system or not. They were nasty! We took a long walk down the edge of the cliff (looked like Ireland there) and paused in a field to watch the sun set. It was nice (expcept for ants up my skirt). Then we went back to the hotel to find some dinner. We ended up back at the hotel eatery by the pool. There was just two families there-all tattooed Australians. A so called terrible Mariachi band came down to play and dance with the kids. They came over personally to play for us (you shouldn't have, really!) and I told them it was Steve's birthday. Happy Burst Day to You they played over and over until the staff provided a piece of cheesecake with a candle on it. One of the native looking guys said he was from Brooklyn. Of Yeah, i said, chased out of your own country? A Mariachi band in Bali? I couldn't believe it.

So ended our third very interesting day in Bali.