my last days in Bali

tuesday 12th: went shopping in Kuta Beach, bargained for some tshirts and wrap-around batik dresses and those people are ruthless! you gotta walk away and they'll come running back after you. Laila picked me up at the hotel and we stopped by Ku De Ta, an expensive and fabulous restaurant, bar and lounge in Seminyak that Sari had told me to visit. Kate Moss had a party there when she visited Bali sometime ago. it was crazy windy still, so we just took a pic and headed back to the house. Anchit, Laila and their two boys, Mir and Kavi took me to Ultimo, an Italian restaurant in Seminyak for dinner and it was delicious. Anchit is originally from India and speaks wonderful, proper English and his son Kavi is the most polite little man you have ever met. decided to stay in Bali with Laila until friday the 15th, and so I had to buy a new plane ticket and forfeit the one for the 13th. the longer stay was worth it though :)

wednesday the 13th: woke up with Laila and dropped the kids off at their private school, then hung out at the house. had Balinese coffee and breakfast pastries at Ninih's house. went home and watched the movie Waitress, which I bought in Kuta (awesome burned copy). I highly recommend this movie, so much heart. had lunch with Laila and Irma, her partner at The Bali Services, where they work from Laila's home and organize private villa rentals. one of the maids then took me to Seminyak on her motorbike (yes, I wore a proper helmet this time), about a 15 min ride and dropped me off. did some browsing and when Laila and Irma picked me up a few hours later, I had a birthday card for Kavi and started blowing up ballooons in the car. we sang for him and had a birthday dinner and chocolate cake, which Laila shoved into her son's face while laughing hysterically. he had apparently seen it done to someone and requested that for a future birthday it be done to him. we then watched a bootleg copy of Across The Universe, the Beatles movie, which was wonderful. great songs and story and everything.

thursday the 14th: happy valentine's day! places do celebrate it, but we didn't so anything special. dropped the kids off at school, Laila drove me to Denpasar to go to the market and see all the stalls and fruit and such. bought some snake fruit- the outer shell feels like snake skin, but it is sweet and tasty. spent the rest of the afternoon at the house lounging and then got dressed and we headed to The Beach House at Echo Beach for dinner. I picked out a snapper filet on the seafood bbq buffet and it was delicious. Ninih joined us, as she had decided to move to Solo to join her fiance, so it was a tearful goodbye for Laila, as Ninih will be moving while Laila and Anchit are in Singapore for vacation through the end of next week. oh! and I got a drink called Arak Attack, which is Balinese Arak (rice alcohol), sprite and lime juice and it was delicious. and I forgot to mention that all of this dinner took place in the middle of a monsoon. it was crazy windy and rainy like no other. definately would not have made for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner since you practically had to shout to the person across the table from you.

friday the 15th: finished packing, driver picked up Anchit, Laila and I to go to the airport. they were flying about an hour after me for their trip, so we shared a car. stopped at the Bintang supermarket and I bought some goodies to take home, along with some Balinese coffee (completely ground, you put it in your cup and add the water, stirring the coffee powder in- it's delicious and doesn't need milk once you add the sugar. it's black as death though) and a bottle of Arak. had to pack it in the bag and thankfully it didn't break in the luggage! got to the Air Asia counter and my bag was 27kg OVER THE FREE BAGGAGE LIMIT of 15kg. so at Rp 20.000 per excess kg, I had to pay Rp 500.000, which was a little over $50. I was also told that they have a baggage limit of 32kg, but they let me go anyways. I have no idea what I would have done if I couldn't get that bag home. I went crazy shopping on presents. AND I had to carry a painting and a woodcarving on the plane. few hours later I was back in Jakarta and it started to rain the moment I got into the house. WELCOME HOME! spent the evening with Sari, who is still being cared of by her parents. she gets yelled at if she gets out of bed.

saturday the 16th: had to take Sari to the hospital for one more blood test. then we went to Sari's grandmother's house (Sari's mom's mom), who I previously saw at the family reunion in Bandung. she was extremely happy to see me and tried to feed me even more than Sari's mom does on a regular basis. we had lunch, but she kept insisting (in English) that I have some of the chicken soup with chicken feet. I told her they scared me. she still loves me though, as she told me I have to come and stay with her the next time I come to visit. "when will this be?" she asked. "when Sari gets married again". this got a chuckle out of everyone. now I am posting this in Sari's room as she sleeps and about to check on the laundry I just put in the washer. tonight, Jutu (Sari's boss) is taking me to their friend's wedding reception and for a girl's night out. looking forward to it :)