A hotel room in the good old days – 1985

Aaaahhh, back in a good hotel at last. I’m now in the Mercure, Sanur, and only 70m from my future villa. Right now, in my room, I’m right next to the beach and it’s wonderful. They’re still firing skyrockets too.

I had to wait an hour for my room to be ready so I wandered over and had a good look through the villa. It was a warm, sunny day today, so I stripped off (literally, I had no bathers) and swam in the pool. Komar, the housekeeper, showed no signs of embarrassment, even though I warned her I was going to disrobe.

But I’ve got a serious problem. I couldn’t lift myself out of the pool using my legs. I had to sit up on the wooden decking, then try to get up and I just couldn’t. It took about 20 minutes for me to find a sufficient handhold and haul myself up. Komar had gone out, so there I was, a wet ball of naked blubber, crawling around.

However, eventually I made it. My thighs seem to be getting weaker by the week.

I had no towel or way to dry off, so I walked around the villa all wet, looking and thinking. Quite a few simple jobs to be done, like better grouting and a bit of paint trim to be fixed. The tiles are a bit rough in the bathrooms. There’s still a bit of builder’s rubbish left. Nothing that can’t be easily fixed.

Komar came back while I was still nuddy but took it in her stride. I suspect it’s not unusual in village society to see nakedness. Good, ‘cos that’s the way I want it.

Sanur kids

I reckon I’d like to stay in the villa for my next visit, so I’ll start looking for a bed and mattress and sheets, and a fridge, and a chair or two. That’s all I need.

Internet access is again problematic. This hotel has wi-fi (I’m using it now in my room) but it’s only 1 hour per day allowance! Each extra hour is Rp55,000 = $6.20! No way. I protested and they’ve given me nine vouchers, one for each day of my stay, but that’s not going to be enough. More protests needed, I think. I’ve also got the USB modem, but it seems to be incredibly picky about whether it’ll let me connect. Ho hum.

Too tired to go on. Malam.