Amazing what sleep will do. My sacroiliac/hip is still sore and liable to jab me, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I nearly couldn’t make it back to the room from the restaurant last night, going from pole to pole to support myself. Luckily two hotel guys came past and helped me back to the room. Shit, I was in pain!

But today I felt a lot better, good enough to go the Galeria Kuta to buy a Kura Kura bus pass. I would never have attempted that yesterday. I’m still sore and leaning on the stick, but a lot better. I hope to be better still tomorrow. I’d better take a sickie, though, just in case.

I could have used one of those horses in the photo above today. I was looking so crook in the big store at Galeria that one of the staff members asked me if I needed a wheelchair! To be honest, I would have liked one, but I would have been too embarrassed so I said no thanks. I had to grab any opportunity to sedikit duduk though (have a little sit).

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Yeah, I bought a five day Kura Kura bus pass for Rp370,000 or A$37.95. It gives me unlimited travel on any of the bus lines. One single trip costs Rp40,000 or A$4.10, so it’s equivalent to 37.95/4.10 = 9.25 trips. As long as I do 10 trips or more in five days, I’m in front.

One of the lines goes to Ubud and back. I might do that just for the trip. The only drawback is that you have to wait for the bus to do the complete circuit before it comes past again. This hotel is one of the stops, and Hardys is on the loop, but it’s two hours between circuits, so if I get off at Hardys to pick up some DVDs or something, it’s a two hour wait for the next bus. Could get boring. Still, there are restaurants and coffee shops nearby …

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While at Galeria, I was browsing in a shop called Gramedia, a gold mine for books and computer bits and stuff. “Stuff” includes a huge range of bags, backpacks, wallet bags, sling bags, computer bags etc. There are hundreds of different types, a far greater range than you ever see in Perth.

And what do I see? A magnificent shoulder laptop type bag in chocolate brown with darker brown real leather trimmings, Polo brand but it’s a fake Polo. It’s similar to the very expensive Tumi bag I mentioned yesterday priced at US$335, but this one is Rp1,390,000 or A$142. It grabs me just as badly as the Tumi one, at 1/3 of the price.

I went to have another look at the Tumi bag and realised it’s not that great, so I’ll take my laptop along tomorrow or Monday to check that it fits, and I’ll probably buy the Polo.

Damn, I don’t need another bag, but this one …  I’m like a woman with handbags. I always want another one.

 Oh, the bugs in this WordPress!!!! I copied and pasted those Sam Cooke lyrics at the top from another web site, and for the rest of the page, line feeds won’t work. You may notice the paragraphs are not spaced properly. If I go back to edit and insert extra carriage return/line feeds to separate the paragraphs, they don’t appear on the published page. Grrrr. I could probably fix it by copying all my text to save it, then wiping the page and starting afresh before pasting the song lyrics back in. But, it’s too late.

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Bloody marvellous technology. I was awake from about 2am this morning (although very relaxed and dozing), and at about 5am I brought the laptop over to the bed on battery power, went to the ABC Radio web site and dialled up Radio National to listen to Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue. Just as if I was at home in Perth. The internet – ain’t it marvellous? All due to electronics and computer techos!

Speaking of techos, I had to have lunch today at the Warung Tekko, next door to Ace Hardware. We Tekkos have to stick together.

I didn’t actually like the food much, but at $6 for two small dishes (tofu and corn fritters) and two big mugs of lemon and orange juice, it was cheap. I wouldn’t go back, though.

8pm: I think I’ll eat at the Chinese next door tonight. Yum yum dim sum.

9.30pm: I’ve eaten at the Chinese and it wasn’t that great. Salt and pepper squid was tough and rubbery. I asked for a small fried rice and got white rice. Iced ginger tea was like drinking cold water – hardly any flavour. Vanilla ice cream was just bare ice cream, nothing to enhance it. The bill was Rp130,000 – $13.33. Can’t complain – oh, I just did.

A group of boys came by with a barong costume and a drum to give us a performance. They brought a donation box and I gave Rp5,000 – 50c ! I’m embarrassed now. They didn’t stay.

But I noticed something tonight. A couple of days ago I commented on that warung and said it was called Bu”rst. Well, I was wrong. Hard as it is to believe, I was wrong.

As you can see:

It’s not Bu”rst, it’s Bu “Sri”. It means Bu, short for Ibu or mother, and Sri is her name. So it’s Ibu Sri’s warung Jawa, or Mother Sri’s Javanese Restaurant. My mistake.