Bali: Part One

Bali

Whew. So much to say and no way to start out
...well, that's a start.

I'd also like to start this out by apologising for the last blog, specifically to Elliott, for it's complete lack of anything about Bali. I really, really did mean to spend my two hours of prepaid internet cafe time writing about Bali, but then ended up writing a fantasy conversation with a dude that I don't even like that much for most of the time I had to spend at the internet.

But here's the Bali scoop!

I'll rock this chronologically.

(note: I reserve the right to write that I'm going to 'rock' things at any point that I'm listening to Jurassic 5. Thank you. That will be all)

...so I'm driving back from the hospital, gingerly sitting in the front seat of John's car, when I notice that there is a cop on a motorcycle behind me and one lane over (of the two possible lanes...The widest road Saipan has).

I immediately remember that this car has no insurance, no glass on the back window, hasn't been registered since 2002, and no emergency brake, amoung other problems. However, it's the registration that worries me.

I realize that I'm worrying needlessly. Cops in Saipan are reputadedly easy-going to a fault. I've heard of people being pulled over, but never ever given a ticket for anything.

I promptly got a ticket.

He was like "Ummm...sir, are you aware that this car hasn't been registered...in four years?" I pretended to be amazed but probably failed admirably. I mean, look at this car, sir. Of course it hasn't been registered in four years. It was, however, amazingly bad timing for me to be pulled over. This car has been evading arrest for four years, and I get pulled over, 5 minutes from PIC, with only 15 left minutes to pack for a week in Bali?

This is so like me, I thought.

I sighed and waited and the cop finally finished and gave me a ticket for just no registration (which was only 25 bucks) instead of the 300 dollar "no insurance" ticket that he "should have given me."

In retrospect, he was pretty cool. I mean, I got pulled over twice in three days the very week my registration expired in San Diego, and the cops were all dicks there.

But anyways I flew home, grabbed a single backpack (and a small one...this comes into play later) and stuffed it with a few shirts, one sweatshirt, one pair of jeans, one pair of shorts, some running shoes, a book, my ipod, my passport and my wallet.

I ran out the door as John, Amanda, Mandy, and the driver waitied in the car for me. I stopped. I had no idea where my ticket was.

After gutting my room, I miraculously found the ticket buried in a pile of random papers in my desk (in under three minutes! I rule!) and jumped into the car. We're off.

We flew to Guam for a few hour layover and ran into the Saipan ultimate frisbee team (which in another life where I have more time I play for), which was en route to a tournament in Bali. They (captained by Amanda's boyfriend, Bruce) bought us beers and had a fairly merry time in the Airport.
While we were waiting in line for the security checkpoint, Amanda tapped my arm and pointed at a sign my the U.S. Homeland Security Department that declared that the airport in Bali did NOT meet U.S. Security measures.

"Haha," I said, pretending not to care, and we got on the plane.

The flight from Guam to Bali was...er...uncomfortable, due to the...erm...Boil situation.

that's all I'm going to say about that.

We arrived in Bali around 9PM on Sunday the 9th.

Bali kicks ass. The bus and club bombings that happened in 2002 and 2005, respectively, have contributed HEAVILY to the complete downfall of the tourism industry. Austrailian, American and European tourism has slowed to a complete crawl, and while this was cool for us, this is not good for Bali.

As a result, I'm going to say the locals have never ever treated me ANYWHERE as nicely as the Bali locals did. Sure, most of them were trying to sell me things, but even those who weren't were friendly and helpful, everywhere we went. A few towns we drove through even had a little pack of kids that would run along the side of the car, smiling and waving. I loved the Bali locals.

We were picked up at the airport by our hotel (we had pre-paid for 3 nights at a pretty nice hotel, then were on our own for the rest of the week). A few clubmates from Guam were also on island (Lauren and Jen) and there was a message from them at our hotel that they wanted to go out with us later.

We just crashed instead.