I think I forgot to mention that I saved a puppy on this trip! It was on the day of our big tour to the fish market in Lombok. We stopped to buy some homemade rice wine at a village that Awunk (our guide) had recommended. It looked kinda scary and we ultimately gifted it to Awunk. You may be wondering, as I did, why in a predominantly Muslim country, alcoholic rice wine is being produced in villages across the island. The answer, according to Awunk is that it is taken for "medicinal purposes". In my experience, substances that are for medicinal purposes are sold in medicine-sized containers, not wine bottles, but whatevs.**
Anyway, outside the village where we stopped was a litter of puppies so naturally I jumped out of the car to get a closer look. I was focussed on a little brown wrinkly puppy when a little white one strode past me towards Phil who was watching from the car window. This little white puppy then proceeded to cross the traffic-choked road, nearly getting taken out by several motorbikes in the process. Naturally I immediately ran straight into the traffic to rescue the puppy. I think this is what Phil means when he says I can't be trusted to make sensible decisions around traffic. That and the near-constant jaywalking I like to indulge in wherever we go...
Anyway, I snatched the terrified and whimpering puppy from under the wheels of a motorbike and clutched him tight making soothing noises. That is until I noticed that he was CRAWLING with fleas. Well-fed plump little fleas at that. I'd go so far as to say that the fleas had a dog, rather than the reverse. Well, the poor shivering puppy was quickly thrust forward about 30cm from my chest until we got back to safety. I put him in a deep ditch with the other puppies and realized that half the village had gathered to watch - and discuss the drama.
There was a cacophony of voices chattering away in Sasak (the local language). I was really worried they thought I'd scared the puppy into traffic and were angry with me. When I asked Awunk what they were saying, so I could explain myself (how hadn't chased him into traffic and had just been trying to help), he told me they said if I wanted to rescue it that much I could take the puppy!! Poor little thing. Even a total sucker like me held him afar at the first sign of a parasite and the village was happy to wave him goodbye.
Segueing into another animal-related story, The knockoff sunglasses I am currently wearing are not the same pair of knockoff sunglasses I started with. This is thanks to a thieving monkey at Uluwatu (the site of a beautiful cliffside temple in far south Bali) which actually leapt on my back, grabbed the sunglasses right of my face and bounded off with them all in about 2 seconds.
It was no big deal and I knowingly took the risk by wearing them in the first place. You can pay someone to get them back, but it's not worth it. It was actually quite entertaining to see what the monkey did with them. So we watched, and the first thing he did with the sunglasses was take them to a pond to wash them off!! How insulting is that?? He had to get off that nasty human smell, I guess. But even that wasn't enough. He then went and found a leaf and used it to scrub them clean!!! Hard not to take it to heart... Especially when, on the same visit, a baby monkey crawled over to Phil and sprawled out on his back in Phil's lap for ages - very cute. Apparently Phil smells ok to the monkeys.
I wrote a post a while ago about learning a lesson in early morning boat travel. Today I was reminded of one of the other key lessons I have learnt (but keep forgetting) here - DO NOT travel without a small packet of tissues. Anywhere, ever. Because despite the fact that the western style toilet is commonplace, it is far from ubiquitous. And whatever the precise design of the local facility, Indonesian style toilets do not come with toilet paper. Ever.
Feel free to look away if this is veering into the territory of oversharing; I will try and keep this, ahem, clean.... But I feel if I commit this to the bloggersphere, I might actually remember this fundamental rule of travel and help out a traveller-to-be. I am really not that precious about bathrooms and have used, on some occasions, facilities that were not the pristine white tiled mini-palaces one might dream of. If you can remember that scene in Trainspotting where Ewan McGregor walks into Scotland's worst toilet - I have seen worse. Sometimes you walk in, and just have to walk out.
One trick I have learned, and actively employed in such a situation, is to launch straight into some energetic walking directly under a hot sun to sweat out any fluids that might otherwise require expulsion... No, no, don't thank me now for this invaluable advice... it may well come in useful one day...
It turns out that I did semi-destroy Phil's ricoh camera. You might think I'd be a person who is careful with stuff - but I'm not. The camera still works but there is a weird and distracting pattern on the viewing screen. It is insured, but I don't know how easy it will be to get our hands on a replacement... And I am too nervous about the answer to ask... **
As Melbourne warms up, so does Bali. Since we've been here, our pool which is just heated by the atmosphere, has gone from pretty chilly to almost uncomfortably bath temperature warm in two short months. There is a rainy season just around the corner, but at the moment all we have is hair destroying humidity and some incredibly atmospheric evening skies.
I walked down the beach the other day and took shots which I'd carefully scoped out and planned. And some were nice, but nothing special. Then I saw a gorgeous boy playing in the sand and just lowered the camera to hip height (without seeing what I was shooting) to try and take a surreptitious shot without making him self-conscious.
And it turned out perfectly composed...
So much for my camera skills!!
- Posted using a stroke of good luck
** It was probably better we left it given that around the same time a nurse from Australia suffered possible brain damage from methanol in a dodgy rice wine spirit in Lombok - yikes.
** I was expecting some serious GOMP attitude, but Phil was so nice about it and did end up telling me that a new version is coming out soon...
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