Second day in Bali

Kuta, Bali is a city of motorcycles.

There are more motorcycles than cars. This isn't terrible because, unlike in the USA, the motorcycles are only marginally louder than cars. Motorcycles are everywhere. Reminds me of bicycles in Amsterdam.

The Bintang ("Coconut") Bali Resort is gorgeous, and huge. We keep getting lost. So far we've only eaten at the resort because, why not? The food is (too) plentiful and delicious.

Bintang Bali Resort Our room

Me and my new friend Rindik Paula in room

Bali is truly a tropical paradise. The main downside is that the humidity is always close to 100%, so we are perpetually sticky. I washed out Paula's warm slippers, but they clearly aren't going to dry until we get to Australia.

Our balcony Paula at statue

We're on the second floor. There are two elevators that we have found, but only one of them is large enough to use with the scooter. I kept missing it because it's around a corner from where we are ususally coming from to go back to the room. Paula mentioned that there is a statue she uses as a cue, so after that I haven't had (much) trouble finding it.

The trees in the courtyard nearest our apartment have yellow flowers. Others in other courtyards have pink or white flowers. There are flowers everywhere.
 
Me at breakfast Paula at breakfast

Breakfast at the resort is buffet style, very good, and very cheap. There is no reason to go anywhere else for breakfast. Since my credit card has no pin, I'm signing for every meal and charging it to the room. Here at the breakfast area, and at the "Wharf" restaurant, we only had to say that once, and after that it was automatic for them to bring us the bill to sign.
 
Paula at lunch Me at lunch

We went off to find the PADI dive shop that Paula had located. It was about two kilometers away. Sidewalks were mostly okay for Paula's scooter, but there few curb cuts and I had to carry the scooter across streets several times. Paula got very thirsty, so I went into a convenience store to buy two bottles of water. I couldn't use my card for less than 50,000 rupiah, but they had an ATM where I got 200,000 rupiah (about $13). Shortly after that I realized I had left an umbrella (one from the resort) behind at one of the cross streets, maybe a quarter kilometer back, so I left Paula and went back for it. Happily, it was where I had left it.

The PADI shop was locked--most likely a victim of the two-year covid lockdown with no tourist money coming in.

Street view Good luck offerings

It seems like everyone in Bali is always offering to help. Offering to help get the scooter across the street, for example, or taking Paula's arm as she walked across the street.

Between the shops and the always-helpful people, Bali is a lot like Mexico.

At the ex-PADI shop a guy said that he was a taxi driver, asked what we were trying to do, and volunteered to take us to a "much bigger" scuba shop. This was very clearly the sort of unregistered taxi that tourists are always warned about, but for some reason Paula was eager to take him up on it. He took us to a couple of PADI shops that turned out to be stores only, no diving activities, and finally Paula asked him to take up back to the hotel, which he did. Paula enjoyed the trip, talked a lot to the driver, and kept putting him off for plans the next day. He charged us $50, which I would estimate is four or five times the going rate, but we decided we were both fine with that.


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