0430 and I’ve been awake since 0245. I had a good sleep from 10pm, so it’s not too bad. I want to be awake for the sunrise, you see, and it’s got me alert so as not to miss the alarm.

I’ve just had a look outside and I can clearly see the lights of Trunyan and a very bright star to the SE. It’s not sparkling, so it must be a planet. (Tues – It’s Venus, you idiot.)  It’s very bright and clear, so the sky must be clear. Bagus!

But it’s 0430 and the trucks are roaring their way along the road just below my room on their way to the job. Noisy, in other words.

WTF?! Sitting here at the end of the bed with headphones on, I suddenly heard a commotion from the bathroom, like some animal running around. I carefully looked but can find nothing. A rat? From where? The noise came and went. Bloody ‘ell. I’ve got the door to the outside wide open and I can hear, intermittently, an insect flitting around. A big moth, I suspect.

I should add that you can’t lock the doors to the room. They don’t meet properly, so the mortise lock just can’t engage. The key is useless. Oh well, I hope no thief would want to come all the way down these steps to rob me.

0600 I’ve been outside standing behind the tripod waiting for the sun to rise and it’s all over. Not much of a show, I’m afraid. There’s too much cloud around and the air’s quite misty.

The mozzies are out too, swarming around although they don’t seem to bite me. That’s good.

0630 Now that the sun’s up, I’ve realised that it’s risen much further to the right (south) than I thought it would. My photos are not much use, in other words.

I’m afraid this location is hopeless. I can’t move around. Getting up those steps is too bloody hard, and that’s only the first set. To get up onto the road and then onto the main drag is impossible. Oh well.

Had a good shower, took a few more photos then hit the bed again at 0730 for one hour. Brekky brought to the room, thank goodness. Mixed fruit juice, two boiled eggs (I asked for poached, cooked in water, and they misunderstood), a nice big pancake but with honey and chocolate sauce drizzled over it.

So, to paraphrase Ogden Nash:
I eat my eggs with honey
I’ve done it all my life
It makes the eggs taste funny
But it satisfies the wife.

There aren’t many words that rhyme with life: wife; strife; knife … ?

I thought I had internet access for a little while; I was able to connect and load my blog, but when I try to upload my text, it just constantly drops out. I’ve tried again and again, but it seems hopeless.

1300 Aaaah, good sleep. I know I shouldn’t sleep in the daytime but it feels so good, and how can something that feels good be bad for you? Well, … don’t answer that.

The guy has sprayed Baygon on the curtains to try to control the flies.

The morning started out beautifully sunny but it clouded over and we had a heavy rainshower. Now the thunder’s rumbling. Plus the trucks are still roaring through the gears as they slog up and down the road just below. Roosters are crowing. Motorbikes are crackling. This is a noisy place.

Now that I’m connected to the internet, I can see that my posts have got mixed up. I’ll have to fix it later when I have a more reliable connection, sorry.

1600 I finally decided I had to “go up the mountain”, i.e. climb the steps, to arrange tomorrow’s transport. I asked Dina (Balinese name Putuh Made) to phone Yanick and arrange it. She was at pains to ask me not to say that her driver is Rp.300,000 vs Yanick’s Rp.400,000. Anyway, it all worked out. We didn’t even mention the price. It would have been crazy for him to drive 2hrs up here just to drop me at Ubud anyway, so he’s better off.

I had a good chat with Dina. She’s 23 and not yet married (Belum). I thought she was part of a family owned hotel, but no, she works for a boss as they all do, but they like him. We talked about food and they all eat the same, usually vegetables with rice. Well, that’s what she told me, but it must be more than that. Good diet, anyway.

I complained about the flies, how they are attacking my sore toe, and she said, Oh, it’s OK. Flies in Kuta are bad (i.e. unhealthy) but here, “No problem.” Oh yeah? No way.

So I’ve got their Baygon spray and I sprayed my feet. That fixed it. But just as I was finishing my beer, I found a fly in the dregs. Uuuuurrrrgh. Too late.

There are 18 steps between me and the dining table/bar. They’re going to bring my food down – sayur urab – steamed veges with grated coconut Rp.20,000, plus sate babi, pork sate, Rp.30,000. Plus I had two Bintang besar @ Rp.40,000 ea, plus French fries @ Rp.20,000. No lunch, you see. Too hard to go up those steps.

I admit I’ll be happy to leave tomorrow. It’s been nice here due to the friendly staff, but it’s no place for someone like me who can’t “climb mountains”.

 1800: Dina came to the room and asked me to pay. It had to be cash, no credit cards. The bill was Rp,1,570,000. I didn’t have that many rupiahs, so I asked to pay with US$ and A$. It took a while but we worked it out. I got Rp.40,000 change, or was it Rp.400,000? I can’t remember.

Dinner in the room was Sayur Urab, green veges with shredded coconut, and sate babi, pork satay. I find it a little difficult to say I’m eating babi. After the meal, cukup! I was full. I had a small Bintang poured but I couldn’t drink it – most went down the plughole.

And so to bed.

Sorry for the lack of photo. Returning soon.

I’m at Kintamani now, at the Batur Mountain View Hotel. It rained heavily at Kuta overnight and it was still raining when we left at 10am. It’s grey and pretty cloudy up here, but no rain (yet). A big mist/cloud rolled in across the lake just after I arrived. At 9pm it’s cool! I was sitting in a table area open to the view and it was chilly, and I don’t mean chilli.

I’ve been driven here by Yanick, my friend Geoff’s Balinese transport man. His car is a new Toyota Fortuner 4WD, quite an expensive vehicle, I think. How do these Balinese guys afford to drive such cars? They’ve all got them, flash, new, shiny SUVs. Making money from us tourists, obviously. It cost me Rp.600,000, A$60 to get here. I was hoping that might cover the return trip, but no such luck.

The hotel girl asked me how I am getting back on Tuesday. I said, “Yanick, at Rp.400,000.” She offers a driver for this trip to Ubud for Rp.300,000. Bargain, bargain, haggle, haggle,

We got here at about 3pm and wow, I should have expected it, but steps! This hotel is built down a steep slope and there are steps everywhere. I’d estimate I came down about 30 steps to get to my room and there are about 12 steep steps to get back up to the dining area. I find this very tough going. My right knee nearly gives out on me (sharp pain) and I have to be super careful of my balance. Therefore I won’t be venturing far from my room tomorrow. Huh, I had visions of walking up to the main road and along, looking for photos, but we’re a good 500m down a steep road. I just can’t handle many steps and steep slopes, I’m afraid.

It’s lucky there’s so much to see, then. Trees are in the way, but I can see Trunyan way in the distance (30Km?) on the other side of the lake. I’ve got some good shots already, I hope.

No photos, but fireworks are going off on the far side of the valley. At first I wondered what those red flashes and intermittent bangs were, but then I saw a sky rocket and click!

I had a sleep when I got here and I slept two hours! I was awoken to the sound of loud, LOUD, crickets, or a frog. I suspect a frog, because there were regular BINGs, but the hotel people say no frogs here. I find that hard to believe.

We stopped on the way at a coffee and tea plantation, where I tried Kopi Luwak for the first time. This where the raw beans are given to civet cats to eat (I have photos) and they shit the beans out as indigestible. The beans are then cleaned and roasted and are supposed to taste better. Oh yeah. My palate is not good enough any more to tell, I think. I tried both Luwak and normal Bali coffee together and sure, there’s a difference, but I don’t think either is as good as my Italian capsule coffee at home. The cup of Luwak coffee cost me Rp.50,000 ($5), by the way.

We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant, near Mas, I think. I was just enjoying the Balinese music playing on the speakers when LOUD music started up on the grassed area below, Western style music. Huh.

So now I’ve eaten, omelette for starter, then nasi campur, and a BIntang besar, and it’s time to try to find a TV channel to watch. Crumbs 60 channels, but most of them empty, blank, and all the others local Indonesian programs. The PayTV box captions show that there should be CNN etc available, but nothing shows up.

As for internet, sure, I can wi-fi connect to their router, but it just shows “No Internet”, so forget that. To ask, I would have to go back up those steps. No can do. No phone in the room, no fridge, power point near this table to charge the laptop, no lamps next to the bed to read by. Light switch on wall opposite the beds. Only one small glass in the bathroom. No bottled water. I’d like some hot water to make my chamomile tea, but how do I ask? There’s no phone, so am I supposed to go outside and shout? Bit annoying for A$50 per night. Oh well.

Sorry, pics coming I hope. When I find card reader etc.

I’m at Kintamani now, at the Batur Mountain View Hotel. It rained heavily at Kuta overnight and it was still raining when we left at 10am. It’s grey and pretty cloudy up here, but no rain (yet). A big mist/cloud rolled in across the lake just after I arrived at 3pm. At 9pm it’s cool! I was sitting at a table area open to the view and it was chilly, and I don’t mean chilli.

I’ve been driven here by Yanick, my friend Geoff’s Balinese transport man. His car is a new Toyota Fortuner 4WD, quite an expensive vehicle, I think. How do these Balinese guys afford to drive such cars? They’ve all got them, flash, new, shiny SUVs. Making money from us tourists, obviously. It cost me Rp.600,000, A$60 to get here. I was hoping that might cover the return trip, but no such luck.

The hotel girl asked me how I’m getting back on Tuesday. I said, “Yanick, at Rp.400,000.” She offers a driver for this trip to Ubud for Rp.300,000. Bargain, bargain, haggle, haggle, I think I’ll take her offer because it doesn’t seem sensible for Yanick to drive all the way up here again, just to take me to Ubud.

We got here at about 3pm and wow, I should have expected it, but steps! This hotel is built down a steep slope and there are steps everywhere. I’d estimate I came down about 30 steps to get to my room and there are about 12 steep steps to get back up to the dining area. I find this very tough going. My right knee nearly gives out on me (sharp pain) and I have to be super careful of my balance. Therefore I won’t be venturing far from my room tomorrow. Huh, I had visions of walking up to the main road and along it, looking for photos, but we’re a good 500m down a steep side road. I just can’t handle the many steps and steep slopes, I’m afraid.

It’s lucky there’s so much to see, then. Trees are in the way, but I can see Trunyan way in the distance (30Km?) on the other side of the lake. I’ve got some good shots already, I hope.

It’s too far and too late for photos, but fireworks are going off on the far side of the valley. At first I wondered what those red flashes and intermittent bangs were, but then I saw a sky rocket and click!

I had a sleep when I got here and I slept two hours! I was awoken to the sound of loud, LOUD, crickets, or a frog. I suspect a frog, because there were regular BINGs, but the hotel people say no frogs here. I find that hard to believe.

We stopped on the way at a coffee and tea plantation, where I tried Kopi Luwak for the first time. This where the raw beans are given to civet cats to eat (I have photos) and they digest the coating and shit the hard inner of the beans out as indigestible. The beans are then cleaned and roasted and are supposed to taste better. Oh, yeah. My palate is not good enough to tell any more, I think. I tried both Luwak and normal Bali coffee together and sure, there’s a difference, but I don’t think either is as good as my Italian capsule coffee at home. The cup of Luwak coffee cost me Rp.50,000 ($5), by the way.

We stopped for lunch (for me only) at a nice restaurant, near Mas, I think. I was just enjoying the Balinese music playing on the speakers when LOUD music started up on the grassed area below, Western style music. Huh.

So now I’ve eaten: omelette for starter, then nasi campur, and a BIntang besar, and it’s time to try to find a TV channel to watch. Crumbs 60 channels, but most of them empty, blank, and all the others local Indonesian programs. The PayTV box captions show that there should be CNN etc available, but nothing shows up.

As for internet, sure, I can wi-fi connect to their router, but it just shows “No Internet”, so forget that. To ask, I would have to go back up those steps. No can do. No phone in the room, no fridge, no power point near this table to charge the laptop, no lamps next to the bed to read by. Light switch on wall opposite the beds. Only one small glass in the bathroom. No bottled water. I’d like some hot water to make my chamomile tea, but how do I ask? There’s no phone, so am I supposed to go outside and shout? Bit annoying for A$50 per night. Oh well.

Singapore cranes (C) PJ Croft 2015

Hooboy, walkin’, walkin’, tired. I’ve walked nearly 3Km today. Many people would say, “Is that all?” but for me it’s hard going and way beyond normal. I slept well last night and that helped, but I soon tire, within 5 minutes.

I walked from the hotel off Jl. Bakung Sari to Discovery Mall on Jl. Kartika Plaza, looking for an SD adapter that will let me get my pics and video off the Panasonic camera. No luck, of course. I even tried an Apple computer store in case the all powerful Macs might do it, but, nah. Therefore, sorry about the relative lack of new Bali pics, but at the moment I can’t access them.

Then about 1345 I asked at the Kura Kura (KK) bus counter when the next bus was. Ooops, just missed one, next one is 20 mins away. OK, I’ll go and sit down in the mall.

15 mins later the girl came and found me to tell me the bus was there. Wow, very pleased with that service. That’s the thing here, everyone wants to help, to be polite and friendly. I wish there was more of that at home. One Perth airport woman bordered on the sarcastic to me last Sunday morning. It wasn’t friendly and polite at all.

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I caught the KK bus because I wanted to do a big loop as a sightseeing tour. Good plan, but 2½ hrs later  I just wanted to get home. The tour was instructive, shall I say, but we were just bogged down in heavy traffic all the time, travelling at walking pace or less. The seats were small and hard, the vision was obstructed by a low window line and the KK music was repetitive and boring.

I was amazed at the Legian/Seminyak areas. I had a mental image of um, “normal” width roads and relatively widely spaced shops and hotels. After all, it’s 35 years since I was last up there.  Instead I saw narrow, traffic choked streets, Kuta mark II; endless shops jammed side by side all selling the same things; tens, no hundreds of thousands of motorbikes both on the streets and parked, like rows of sharks teeth; and traffic jams. It’s almost impossible to get around. Oh well, seen it, that’s enough for me.

Had a chat with an elderly Dutch couple on the bus. He’s driven a camper van from Sydney to Melbourne, then to Uluru, then flown to Cairns, all on a holiday. He knows Australia quite well. He learnt to drive in Surinam, a former Dutch colony in South America, where they drive on the left. Curious (about driving on the left, I mean). Japan does too, and here in Indonesia, and Malaysia, and India, and Singapore, and the UK and Australia. So take that, USA.)

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Singapore yellow (C) PJ Croft 2015

Ooops, 7pm and I nearly fell asleep. Time to walk out for dinner. There’s a restoran right next to the hotel entrance.

I bought a Blu-Ray movie today, Lone Survivor, just to see if they’re really Blu-Rays. I can play them on this laptop. The price was Rp.50,000 or $5 approx. Plus two normal DVDs, Left Behind and Last Knights. I’ve belatedly realised that I think I’ve seen the latter one. Oh well, at $1, too bad.

I can’t be bothered finishing San Andreas. What a waste of good plastic.

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Normal Karma will be resumed as soon as possible. (C) PJ Croft 2015

Another sleepless night! Not entirely sleepless, I guess, I do vaguely remember dreaming, but I felt awful when I got up at 0730. Had my first shower in this tiny, claustrophobic shower recess. No bath mat, slippery tiles, move very, very carefully. Not good. At least the bed’s comfortable, though not soft.

Then found I hadn’t asked for paid breakfast for the room. They want $7.50 for buffet, choice of Corn Flakes or Corn Flakes, watermelon or honeydew, brown or white bread. At least there’s cheese, but it must be local – it’s bland and tasteless. If I want bacon and eggs, that’s extra. I think I’ll walk out onto the street for my remaining brekkies. I’ll get better value, I reckon.

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I went back to bed with another valerian and I feel better now at 1230. Rain! Beautiful rain. Heavy and steady for about an hour, I think. Nice and cool now. I love it. I think they need it here, too.

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To make myself tired I watched the movie San Andreas at about 3am this morning (on the laptop, my bought DVDs). It’s another ‘camera in a cinema’ illegal copy. The quality is awful! A shadow comes across and repositions the camera at times.

But the movie is a joke anyway. It’s terrible! Badly acted, based on a love story and the search for the daughter among all the ruins of LA and San Francisco. No attempt whatever to show anything about the social and political effects of a massive 9.5 Richter earthquake that ruins California. It’s the equivalent of a cat-up-a-tree fire brigade story, all emotion and gooeyness. Don’t bother. The effects are done purely because they can, I reckon. Way overdone. It’ll go straight into the bin when I’ve finished it. If I finish it.

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… baby that was years ago,
I left it all behind for my,
Cheap wine and a three day pass
Cheap wine and a three day pass
Come on, come on, come on

Cold Chisel

i went to Bali Mall Galeria this morning and bought a three day Kura Kura bus pass. $27 for unlimited travel today, tomorrow and Sunday. Trouble is I’m being taken up to Kintamani at 10am on Sunday, so that day will go to waste. I got this bus back to this street from the Galeria, so I’ve used it today. I’d better do some serious bus travelling tomorrow.

The ‘Cheap Wine’ is actually cheap spirits. In the Galeria, spirits are half Perth prices, I reckon. Average prices for whisky, gin, vodka, bourbon etc US$21 or A$27. I didn’t buy any – I’m not a big drinker any more, but it’s an eye opener.

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Crumbs, there are two women sitting virtually outside my sliding doors to the pool and they are talking, talking, talking non stop! Bloody hell. There is just no break in the conversation. Loud. I hope they pack up soon.

Combined with pool noise, loud bangs periodically from somewhere out the back, a wailing, yowling cat (all night last night) and music from the bar/dining area and this hotel is noisy.

Sanur Bali (C) PJ Croft 2015

Glum, glum, gloom.

First, when I checked out of the Aquarius Hotel in Sanur this morning, they charged me Rp.650,000 ($65 approx.) per night. I was sure when I booked it was Rp.500,000 or thereabouts, and for the past few days I’ve been considering what I should write for a review based on that price. To be charged a higher price is very annoying. But I had no way to prove it – my laptop was in my bag and I didn’t have the printout of my booking sheet. I just had to make a polite protest and say I’ll come back to them about it. That upset me right away.

Then I taxiied to what I thought was going to be a good standard hotel that I’d booked in Kuta, The Oasis. I was going by the photos on the internet. But when the taxi arrived at the Kuta address, we found the hotel’s down a lane so narrow that the taxi couldn’t go in. No problem I guess, there was a guy there to pull my bags. (Gawd, is that all he does all day?)

The lobby looked a bit gloomy as soon as I walked in, not the standard I expected. Then I’d asked for (booked) a first floor room, but there’s no lift. I’d assumed from the internet pics that there would be one. OK, ground floor, but that costs another Rp.50,000 (it’s only $5!) a night.

As soon as I saw the room I felt bad. It’s smallish and the bathrooms are tiny. Bathrooms, plural? Yeah, shower on one side of the entry, washbasin and toilet on the other. And I have to sit at an angle on the toilet – there’s not enough room for my legs, and I’ve got short legs. An Aussie 6-footer would hate this!

The fridge is small and I thought it wouldn’t be cold enough for my insulin, but after a few hours, it’s just adequate. It’s at max cold, though.

There’s no table or easy chairs! I’m writing this at a small pullout table just big enough to take the laptop, and sitting on a plastic chair from outside. The table is too low. My back is hunched and it’s awful. I’ll have to ask for a table to be brought in.

Aaaah, thank goodness. When I first plugged my UniPal universal battery charger in, the plug kept falling out. After a few of these power glitches, the charger wouldn’t power up. Disaster. I need it for both my cameras and my phone. But I’ve just fiddled with it yet again and suddenly it’s working. Phew!

Oh, I forgot to mention, this hotel required payment up front. Yeah, in advance. Grrrrrr. That means if I complain, I’m stuffed. They’ve got my money. This is bad enough that I’d consider moving somewhere else, but that would be difficult now.

OK, bad start to the day. Walked out along the alley, 25m, and I’m in a street just chock full of shops and restorans. Including a Circle K mini market right there. Good, shampoo.

Lunch of nasi campur and a small beer, then back to the room for a 1hr nap, then a swim. Boy, this pool was made for water walking. It must be 50m long but only 1.3m deep, max. That means you can just walk the length and back. This is good for me, the exercise my doctor recommends.

It’s 6pm and loud disco style music is blaring away. Uh oh. I’m in a room closest to the reception and restaurant. I hope this isn’t going to be a problem.

And, the bathroom (basin and toilet section) floor is wet. It’s a leak from that awful douche device, I think. I hate this. As well, there’s nowhere to hang the towel. No towel rail or hooks at all. There’s no wardrobe – at first I thought there were no coat hangers, but I’ve found a kind of chromed prong sticking out from the wall in the room with about four coat hangers. No ice cube tray in the fridge either. No kettle for my chamomile tea. This is terrible! They’ll get a bad review from me. I wouldn’t stay here again in a fit.

I’ve just spent an hour trying to find an acceptable wi-fi internet speed and this one seems to be just acceptable. There are six choices, I assume spaced along the block. One of the weak ones seems the fastest. Here goes.

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I forgot to mention: I finished The Martian movie last night. It’s good, and I’ll buy the Blu-Ray version and watch it again, but it’s nowhere near as good as the book. The book is one of the best I’ve read in years. It’s not literature, but it is great writing. It’s the stream of thoughts of an astronaut who’s accidentally left for dead on Mars after the other five have to an emergency blast-off (oh twaddle – I can’t believe it would have happened and the scientific opinion of the movie is that a dust storm that fierce couldn’t happen – the “air” is too thin).

Anyway, he survives for nearly two years, growing his own food, generating oxygen, making water and so on, solving real scientific and engineering problems. This is the best thing – new problems come up and he thinks it through each time, coming up with credible solutions. It’s a bit techo, for sure, but to sustain this through 450 pages or whatever is great writing, I say. I highly recommend reading the book. Probably before you see the movie. I dunno.

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Oooooh, this is so uncomfortable. The plastic chair is cutting into my legs. I don’t know how I’m going to survive 10 days in this hotel. I hate it already.

Cool dog Minnie.

I’ve just been reading about dogs. Someone commented on the origin of dingoes.

As in: “Didjer goada the rices Saddy?” “Nah, dingo”.

I laughed out loud.

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I’ve just had lunch at the Sports Bar across the street. One of the regulars, a big Aussie woman who I’ve seen there each night, came over and asked me how I am. I said, “Good thanks.” She said, “You seemed to have a tummy upset the other night.” I said, “Oh, I’m fine now, it was nothing. You seem to like this place.”

She said, “I’m the owner.”   Aaaaaah.  Her name’s Carol.

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The hotel staff are cleaning all the pebblecrete paving. They all said hello as I walked past and, thinking myself clever, I said, “Santik, ya?” thinking it meant clean, healthy. Hah! So much for my Indonesian. It means flint. Where did I get that from? I seem to remember it from some sign, years ago. Anyway, clean is bersih. (Not cantik. I know that one. I’m thinking it all the time when I see these local ladies. Cantik, cinta!)

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I added a whole, little bowl of raw, full strength chili to my nasi goreng. Now I’m feeling a little bit of tummy upset.

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And now the sun’s out. This is the first time. Maybe I’ll get a bit of that Bali tan.

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A final bit for the day. It’s been pretty quiet and I head over to a different hotel in Kuta at midday tomorrow. Jalan Bakung Sari.

I’ve just heard (on Facebook) of the death last April of a really nice Dutch guy who was the supervisor in charge of film processing and film makeup (inserting the film commercials) for many years at Channel 7. He was unfailingly polite, a real gentleman. He used to bob his head to me and say, “Good morning, Pe-ter”, in his Dutch/European accent. He had a goatee beard and for years I used to think his surname was Vermeer – he looked as if he should have been an artist. It was really Vermazen, Jan Vermazen. I didn’t realise he was born and grew up in Indonesia. He died in April and left instructions that there was to be no funeral and no tributes. Wow, Jan, you really were a self effacing gentle man. RIP.

Sanur beach, Bali, midnight. The weird colour is due to sodium vapour street lighting.

I’m writing this at 5.30am after another sleepless night. I just couldn’t get to sleep! Maybe I dozed, but it didn’t feel like it. I’ll crash after breakfast, but that’ll mess up the pattern. Dang.

Anyway, I’m just reading the ABC News report of the Geminids meteor shower last night and some Australian locations got some good shots. See the ABC News web site.

I actually went down to the beach-front here in Sanur at 11.30pm and sat there for a good hour trying to photograph anything that happened, but it was a waste of time. The air is so cloudy and misty that I couldn’t see any stars, let alone any meteorite trails. The shot above shows what I was seeing.

Sanur midnight.

These are terrible photos. I shouldn’t show them, but you can see the clouds. The title refers to my track record of years of missing astronomical events for one reason or another. This is just another dead duck night. All is not lost, there are two more nights of it to come, apparently. I’ll try again tonight (Tuesday night).

The camera was on a tripod but the shots are still shaky. Why? Because the adapter plate won’t lock firmly into the base, for some reason. It was too dark to see what was going on, so I’ll try to fix it today. Also, I had all sorts of trouble getting my Olympus camera to focus. I only got one or two acceptable ones. The Panasonic FZ1000 seemed much better from what I could see in the darkness, but I still can’t get the pics off the SDXC card yet, not until I can buy a proper adapter. Maybe I’ll go into Denpasar today.

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I went across the road for drinks and dinner last night and the couple I saw on Sunday night were there again. It’s a real Aussie hangout. Gawd, we’re an ugly lot! We’re all overweight, me included, but some are gross. Terribly dressed, ugly people. But we spend the big dollars, don’t we?, so to the Balinese, we’re all walking ATMs.

The lady told me about a homestay place just nearby called the Duck Inn, which she highly recommends at $33 per night. It’s run by an Australian woman and her Balinese husband. Maybe I’ll go and have a look for future reference.

I’ll also go and see if I can find the British/Australian/Perth guy I dealt with in early 2011 over a property here. Really nice guy. I know where his villa is, but I suspect age and infirmity might have caught up with him. Crikey, he was 83 when I knew him. I heard his wife had breast cancer.

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 My run of faulty appliances continues! Last Friday I was in the chemist and noticed a thing called Pain-eeze or something like that. It’s a TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation) pad, about a hand span in size, with sticky pads that you place on any painful area and it stimulates the nerves and muscles to stop the pain.

My right shoulder and forearm have become painful recently, I assume due to prolonged mouse use, so I made a spur of the moment decision to buy one, at $55.

The first time I used it, it seemed quite good. It runs off a CR2032 button battery, and you press +/- signed buttons to set the stim level. It all worked fine on Friday and seemed to help.

I brought it with me and I tried to use it again yesterday, but it’s dead! Damn. No stimulation at all. What’s happened? Maybe the battery has gone dead? If I were at home I could measure it, but here I’ll just have to buy another battery to test that theory. It won’t cost much. But why would the battery run down when it’s not in use? It switches off automatically after 20 mins of use and it’s kept in a hard plastic case, so the switch shouldn’t have been activated accidentally. Maybe it was. See the next exciting installment of this saga.

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 8.30pm: back from dinner across the road. Prawn cocktail $3.50 and chicken curry $4.55. Not bad but nothing to write home about (sez he, writing home about it 🙂 ) One more night here: I must venture further afield. There’s another restaurant about 50m further up the road called Nook. It looks good. Must try it tomorrow night.

I slept during the day to make up for last night, but that’ll mess me around tonight, I fear. I brought a box of chamomile tea with me. That seems to help. I also had another good swim in the pool today, again as the only one. Then a fairly sweaty walk down to Jalan Tamblingan to buy anti-cramp medication (at $7 for 10 tablets, it’s worth a try. Sez he, assuming it won’t poison me or interact with my other meds :-} ).

I found a DVD shop and bought The Martian (for $1), plus a 2-disc set of The News Room; a 3-disc set of a TV series called Dark Matter; and the new movie called San Andreas, about an LA earthquake. Seven discs for $5. Can’t argue with that. I’ve already found an oddity with The Martian: Chinese characters keep appearing at the bottom of the screen and the pictures, although quite good, are a bit soft. Aha, it’s a copy of a pirated copy for the Chinese market. Oh well, I’ll still buy the Blu-Ray version at home when it comes out so they’ll get my money.

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I said I’d go to the beach again tonight at midnight to see if I can see any meteors, but I don’t think so — I don’t think it would be any clearer than last night. No chance, in other words.

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I’m just reading an article about the search for Extra Terrestrial radio signals that’s ramping up in Australia using the Parkes radio telescope. There’s a lot of scepticism, even among scientists, about this. Many think it’s a waste of time and money. Despite decades of searches so far, nothing has ever been found.

To me, it’s not hard to see why:

• The Earth is a very young planet, 4.5bn years old, in terms of the length of the universe, 13.5 billion years. That’s 4.5/13.5 = 33.3%.
• Humans have only been on Earth (since we evolved, I mean) for about 60,000 years out of the 4.5 billion years of the age of the earth. That’s 0.0013% of the age of the Earth. That’s a blink of an eye, nothing.
• We’ve only been looking and listening for about 50 years. That takes our listening window down to 50/60,000 or about 0.001% of the 0.0013% of the age of the Earth. That’s not even a nanosecond, not even a picosecond, a tiny, tiny time slice.
• I seriously think we’ll blink out of existence within another 1,000 years or so. Our decline is happening already. There will be a mass extinction for sure. We will die out.
• That means for Earth, the time slice, the window that we’ve been looking, is infinitesimally tiny, and we’ll disappear soon in galactic terms.
• The distances in the universe are so huge that radio signals, obeying the inverse square law, are so weak as to be beneath the noise floor within a small radius around us. in other words, even though we’re listening hard, it would take a new concept in radio astronomy to hear anything above the noise. Might happen, but not this year or next.
• I seriously do believe we are not alone, and that other worlds have come into existence with intelligent life on them. But they face the same statistics we do: they blink into existence, flare like us, then die away, just as we will.
• The chances of two life flare ups occurring simultaneously, within a listenable radius, are therefore even tinier than the tiny percentages I’ve shown so far. Almost no chance, in other words.
• So I’m sorry to say, although I firmly believe other life has existed and will exist, there’s almost zero chance we’ll meet up with it.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

I slept so well last night that when I awoke, the dawn was already over. I missed that one, but I’ve just walked down to the beach and back and it’s so cloudy and misty that there’s no chance of any good photos.

I walked to the beach, 200m, because this hotel doesn’t have a restoran. They have an arrangement with a beach restaurant so you just present a voucher. (I’m beginning to see why this hotel only has one star. It’s fine. More on that later.)  It was a nice brekky and the exercise does me a heap of good. I’ve seen the pool here and although it’s small and looks shallow, I’ll go in after this.

Technology’s marvellous, ain’t it? I’m sitting here listening to ABC Radio 720Perth as if I were at home. No wires – the laptop connects to the internet by wi-fi with minimum fuss and it’s faster than I get at home.

I took some shots at the beach but I’ve just discovered that my SD card adapter can’t cope with my SDXC UHS3 card. I’ll have to use a cable. Coming up. (Later: Grrrr, I’ve realised that the Panasonic camera uses its own special “USB” connector and I didn’t bring that cable. I’ve never had to connect to the camera before so I just didn’t think of it. OK, I’ll have to find a computer shop and buy a new USB adapter card to cope with SDXC cards.)

I weakened on the way back and made the mistake of talking to a shop owner about T shirts. I didn’t want one, but in a fit of madness, I found myself inside the shop, seated, trying on besar T-shirts, 4XL. Three against one, all the women imploring me to buy. But the opening price was Rp. 380,000. What?! That’s A$38. I said NO, that’s more expensive than at home. No way. I offered 50,000. Ooooh, sad faces. And so it went on. The final price was Rp. 200,000 = A$20 approx. And I didn’t even want a T-shirt! It’s not bad, it’s heavyweight cotton, a pale grey-green Billabong design. Plus, they all wanted a tip – “You give one dollar, mister?” That added another Rp. 30,000. I’ve never done this before. I weakened. It’s Xmas, I suppose.

On the other hand, I was rummaging through the pockets of my venerable shoulder bag at the brekky table and I found 85,000 rupiahs. That was a bonus. I had no idea it was there. Therefore redistributing some of it seems reasonable at Xmas time.

That venerable bag has been with me since 1990, I think, when I bought it at Tang’s, Orchard Rd in Singapore. It’s a great bag, just the right size and obviously well made and durable. Real leather flaps and fittings. Good value.

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At breakfast I was reading the Weekend Australian magazine, an article about the Australian born Lebanese guy in Sydney who drives Ferraris and thinks he can take over an entire street for his wedding reception. The article is scathing in its exposure of the corruption which is going on in these Sydney suburbs which are virtually controlled by Lebanese & Chinese property developers. They have gained election to the council and they just make the rules as they go along, enriching themselves and their friends, ignoring the community. How do they get elected and continue being re-elected? Why does the community allow them to do this stuff? I guess the answer is that people don’t vote in local government elections and the powerful people organise their friends to vote for them. Ordinary people could put a stop to all this if they (1) knew what was really going on, and (2) got off their backsides and voted for decent, honest candidates at council elections.

However, let’s never forget that this Liberal federal government is running a hugely expensive royal commission trying to show corruption in trade unions and to link it to the Labor Party. Trying to damage Bill Shorten.

But they just ignore this blatant corruption by property developers, most of whom are Liberal Party supporters. The former NSW Liberal Government even passed legislation which gave councils and property developers carte blanche to change rules to benefit themselves. Will we ever see the Liberal government trying to expose that? Not likely. These people are in each others’ pockets. Corruption is rampant in Liberal ranks. Bloody hypocrites!

I recommend reading this article. It’s an eye opener.

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Back to this hotel: it’s only rated at 1 star, yet the rate is approx. A$50 a night. I chose it for location, really, and because the photos of the rooms look really nice. It lives up to the photos. The room is big and the bed is a huge four poster complete with canopy and curtains. The mattress is a bit hard, but OK.

As I said, it turns out not to have a restaurant which is a little disappointing, but there’s the Sports Bar directly across the street and a mass of restaurants 200m down the street at the beachfront.

The bathroom is good – all modern, with a good shower. No standing in a bath to have a shower, which I hate.

I’ve just spent nearly an hour in the pool. It’s small, only about 10m x 8m, but adequate. I was the only one there. There are guests here, but it’s very quiet. The pool is good exercise. I just went slowly round and round, using muscles that rarely get used. At one stage both legs cramped, the muscles at the back of the thighs, and they would not unlock for five minutes or more. Oooww. Slowly they came good. I’m really having trouble with cramps.

So far I’d say the price is too high for what you get, but it’s about par for the area. I’ll think about that more, later.

I had a slight panic this morning. I realised I’d locked the safe and messed up the procedure when I set the code, so I couldn’t open it again. I had visions of having to pay a locksmith. But the hotel guy peeled off a label on the safe door and used a special key, then deleted my code so that I could set it all again. Phew.

I also realised this morning that the room has a back door to an alley for the cleaning staff, and the door hadn’t been locked overnight, until I found out after breakfast. Phew again.

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I’ve also found that an 8GB USB thumb drive that I had loaded with stuff I want on this trip is not where I thought it was. I must have left it in the PC at home. Boogah. It’s not vital, but it’s annoying.

Pheeee-ew. I’m in Bali at last. I don’t know that I can handle all the stress of travelling any more. I’ll come back to that.

I’m sitting in my hotel room in Sanur at 4.30pm having had 2½ hours sleep. The problem was, with the plane leaving at 8am I had to be at the airport at 6am. That meant leaving home at around 4.30am. I got three hours sleep from 9.30pm to 12.30am but that was all I could manage, hence I was drooping on the plane. Add on a loooong walk to the immigration desk here in Bali, a long wait for my case to arrive, a nosy bag check man who wanted my suitcase opened even though I went through the green channel, a long walk to a taxi and I was knackered by the time I got to the hotel. Then I had to organise the fridge to make sure it could keep my insulin cold (and the bottle of gin, of course. PS: yes, it’s great), set up my CPAP with power adapter and cord, and I was ready to crash. Too old for this.

To be honest, packing and arranging the details of this trip have been quite stressful. I did what I said I would yesterday, caught bus and train into the city, then walked from the Murray St station to Thrifty Rentacar at 198 Adelaide Terrace. That’s 1.7Km. I had to stop and rest a few times, but I did it, walked all the way. I need to build up my strength as much as possible.

OK, so I got there, expecting to get the Corolla I’d ordered, but what they gave me was a Ford Eco Sport.

“But I thought I was getting a Corolla.” “Oh, we’ve given you an upgrade, sir.” Well, I took it, but what a crap car. Ugly as sin. Brakes grab. Twitchy steering. Tiny figures that I can’t read, in a very small LCD multi-function display. Bugger. I was looking forward to a current model Corolla. I’m going to send them a complaint – don’t substitute without asking me or telling me!

Oh well, I drove home via friends’ place in Scarborough for a social visit, then drove it into my garage, finding both vehicles fitted nicely. This was a good test because I’d wondered whether, and how, a second car would fit. Now I know.

The rest of Saturday was occupied by packing. Kerrumbs, it’s not simple for me. All my medications in their tablet containers, five weeks’ worth to be safe. Just doing that alone (popping the pills out of their blister packs into the compartments) took more than an hour on Friday. Then I realised I’d missed getting supplies of one of them, a diuretic. It’s not vital so I’m not panicked and I’ll probably be able to get it here. It’s a common one.

Then a small collection of bandages and antiseptic stuff just in case I have any leg ulcers. Not likely: I seem to have overcome that, thank goodness. Semi-daily application of Dermeze. Great stuff. My skin on my legs seems to be much more supple and not prone to breaks any more. This time last year, on the big cruise, I’d just had a week’s course of daily intravenous antibiotic and my leg was bandaged when I left on the trip. But no trouble this year. (PS: I tripped and fell on my front steps on Saturday and grazed my first two toes on my right foot. Of all the times for it to happen. Antiseptic soap, Betadine, and my one remaining Band Aid on the worst one. They’re very small wounds, but a diabetic in the tropics can’t afford to take risks.)

Then organising a freezer pack, a foldable, flexible thing that fits into a waterproof bag labelled Sanofi Diabetes, to keep five weeks’ worth of insulin pens cold. It’s just to get them through the flight and into the hotel fridge, but it all adds weight, takes up space and takes time.

Then this laptop and its power stuff, mouse, thumb drives, extra 2TB hard drive, etc etc etc. All adding weight and having to be organised. Camera gear in a separate bag. I’m taking the bare minimum, two cameras with attached lenses and one extra lens, but add the tripod, filters, memory cards, adapters, charger and the weight piles on. I haven’t even mentioned clothes.

Finally, I was so tired that I went to bed at 8.30pm, lights out at 9pm.

I beat the alarm and got up at 3am, unable to sleep. Out of there at 4.45am for the one hour drive to the airport. It’s a long way!

I got to the rental car drop off car park at 5.45am expecting to see a Thrifty office open, but no, it was closed. What do I do? I saw a metal box. “Place keys in envelope provided” and slide box closed. What envelope? I didn’t have one in the documents and I couldn’t see any way to get one, so I just dropped the keys in the slot and closed the drawer. They can sort it out.

One odd thing is that you have to take a ticket to enter that parking area, but what do I do with it? It’s still in my pocket. How are they going to collect any fee?

Then it was a walk of at least ten minutes, towing my luggage, no trolleys that I could see, to get to the International Departures area. It was not too crowded at 6am, luckily. I was checked in and away by 6.05am. My bag came in at 19.3Kg, and my carry on bag was 7.3Kg. Plus my shoulder bag with my insulin. I kept that out of sight.

The downstairs area of the terminal is still a shambles, a year on since I was there last year. When will they ever finish? Even if they do, it’s still a rotten design of airport. Bali is bigger and better.

The departure lounge used to have food available and I was quite hungry, but it’s all gone now. You have to have eaten before you reach the immigration (sorry, Border Force) counters. At least that was fast moving. I got quite a friendly greeting and send off from the guy. I’ve done quite a few trips, to put it mildly, over the years and their computer must know me by now. It’s all new and swish, with new gates, and no longer that annoying walk down steps to reach the aircraft, but it’s barren.

So then a long wait for the gate to open and I was drooping. It was hard to stay awake. I heard them telling one guy his cabin baggage was far too large and with too many pieces and he couldn’t take it on board. He’d have to pay an extra $150 for them to take it as extra baggage. Good on ’em. It’s amazing what people want to carry on board.

So, finally, we were away, right on time at 8am, in a twin aisle A330. But those aisles are very narrow. I had a seat against a bulkhead so I could recline the seat without worrying anyone behind me. Not so the kid in front of me. As soon as he could, he reclined his seat back in my face, almost. I hate that.

But the row spacing was such that I could get my tray table down with space to spare. Luxury. I watched the movie Kingsman. Not bad, a good laugh.

It’s 6.15pm now and I’m famished. More to come day by day in the travel sagas of PJ Croft. Cheers.

9.30pm: I forgot to mention cramps. Aaaaarrrrrgh. This is not new, but very much worse on this flight. My left arm seems particularly badly affected, but my calves and ham strings are bad too. My fingers were twisted up at really odd angles, such that I had to massage my arm. Magnesium, I think, is what I need, and I have a large bottle of tablets at home, but of course I didn’t bring it.

I’ve just walked across the street, literally, to have a drink or two and some dinner at the Sports Bar across the street. I got into conversation with some Aussies (of course!) and learnt that they live here. We talked at length about the ins and outs and I must admit I’m a bit fired up again. There’s no way I would have had that kind of conversation at home.

We talked about pets (there was a beautiful Beagle on a leash doing the rounds of the tables but she wouldn’t come to me). They said even though it’s illegal to bring dogs here, you can do it by paying the money. They brought their cat in this way, even though it was 12 years old and has died now. There’s even a recognised business doing it! It matters not to me now, of course.

The people, the guy, said he’d had medical troubles here but he was very happy with the cardio treatment he got at a hospital in Denpasar. It costs, of course.

To be honest, I worry about how I’m going to cope when I get really wobbly. One answer would be to live here and employ carers. You can’t do that at home. And lease, don’t buy. Just a thought.

10pm: I’ve just read that we’re going through a meteor shower at present, and the further north you are (in Australia) the better view you’ll get. Well, you don’t get much further north than here (in this context 🙂 ). The times are 11:30pm to 1am our time. I don’t think I have the energy tonight, but Tuesday night is the peak.

Next is the reason I wanted to be here in Sanur near the beach – the dawn. Will I have the stamina to get up before dawn and walk down there? Depends how I sleep, I guess, which has been very poorly recently.