We walk down the boardwalk and grab lunch. All the restaurants are American-ized chains and the street vendors are ruthless. A woman offers to give my mom and I massages and gestures to a dank alley.
"Where do you do that actual massage?" my mom asks.
The woman shows us a small dirty room, it's slightly terrifying. Another woman really wants to cornrow my hair, I venomously shake my head no. We continue walking and they all shout lower prices at us and follow us down the beach. We end up making appointments at The Nest, a more upscale (but still affordable) spa.
We walk up and down the boardwalk, my mother desperately searching for the hotel in which Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall tied the knot. It doesn't seem to be anywhere and the vendors are becoming more pushy, following us for ages even when we ignore them, yelling after us, trying to usher us into shops and towards stalls. Clearly it is off-season and the hordes of Balinese women who sit smoking clove cigarettes on the streets, perk up as we pass and call, "Massage miss?"
My mom begins answering their questions in Italian, a genius move that actually deters them. We finally find the hotel, but it's all private residence and the security guy refuses to let us down the driveway. We walk back to the beachside and are able to see into the grounds, they're quite picturesque, an ideal venue for a rockstar.
 |
| We found it!!! |
Dinner time rolls around and at this point, we are so sick of rice and noodles that we decide to splurge on Italian food. We find a spot that has a pretty legit menu so we decide to spend the $10 for a plate of pasta (still a steal of a deal compared to the astounding Australian prices.) We are also so tired of drinking Bintang that we decide vino is a necessary accompaniment to our supper. Here's the catch: imported wine is ridiculously pricey. Our waitress tells us a glass of wine is $10, but thankfully, this restaurant is BYOB. I run down to the bottle shop hoping for better luck, but even a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz is marked at $45. I end up spending $32 on an Indonesian cab sav. My mom and I grimace at the first sip, but by the end of the bottle we're both remarking, "Hmm, this is not half bad!" (funny how that happens.)
I am thoroughly enjoying my dinner, gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce, (even though my dad's is obviously way better) until a massive rat runs in off the street and scurries under our table and close to our feet. I scream and hyperventilate and dry heave all at the same time. Thanks a lot Mr. Rat.
We're not really feeling the vibe in Sanur so my mom suggests we try Seminyak instead.
It's very different from all the places we've visited so far, it's extremely commercial with a lot of posh restaurants and resorts, it's chalked full of tourists and it seems more family oriented. The beach is nice, but pales in comparison to some of the others we've seen.
My mom's excited because she's found a great Expedia deal for one of the pricier boutique resorts in town and she insists we book it and tells me she'll pay the difference (at this point I'm on a pretty tight budget after all my previous splurging.) After all, she will be flying out a couple days before me and wants to be certain I'm 'somewhere clean and safe.'
When we arrive at Mutiara Boutique Resort and Spa, my jaw drops. It's a real hotel with a massive pool beneath beautiful frangipani trees; the rooms have cable; the beds have actual down comforters rather than just itchy sheets; and there's a mini fridge AND a kettle. It's pretty luxe, to say the least.
I accompany my mom as she picks up some souvenirs in the markets and we hangout at the beach a little.
The next day my mom really wants to go to this bar and restaurant called Potato Head. The description in Lonely Planet makes it sound pretty trendy, so I make a small effort to dress up. When our hotel shuttle drops us off, we are taken by golf cart down a massive private driveway surrounded by palms. When we do finally arrive, the outside of the bar looks like a colosseum made entirely of different coloured window shutters. We walk up the looping walkway and come out into an opened bar with it's own private pool and beach. The hostess tells us the couches by the pool are at a 3 hour wait, but we are welcome to sit on one of the mats on the grass... we do the latter.
The cocktail list is 12 pages long (yet they still don't have Caesars!!!) and the only food they serve is overpriced tapas. I get a Passionfruit Pimms Cup and my mom orders some sort of fancy daiquiri. The drinks take 20 minutes to make and arrive in things like conch shells and coconuts... they're not messing around here. We bask in the setting sun and watch the beautiful people get buzzed by the pool. There is a massive group of Aussie men sitting on the couches directly in front of us, the seem to be a bucks party and we can't help but take notice of their drinking... they down bottle after bottle of champagne, order every kind of cocktail, have bottle service, Greygoose and soda no less. My mom wonders aloud how they're keeping themselves so composed.
I shrug, "They're Australian, they know how to drink."
After the fourth 40 of vodka, they're starting to get a little loose. A member of the security team has to come over and speak to them, but they hand him a big tip and he shakes their hands and leaves them to it. One of the guys disappears for a while and reappears with three young Korean women clad only in tiny bikinis. They each pick a man and straddle him, putting on a sort of lap dance. They cuddle with their respective men, but do not speak and are not offered a drink. They are clearly prostitutes. When the three men (one of which I assume is the groom) disappear with the girls, I can't help but feel a little sick to my stomach.
Once the sun sets, we take off in search of some affordable food to chase our overpriced cocktails.
The day finally comes for my mom and I to part ways and I try not to cry when I walk her to her cab and give her a hug.
"I wish you were flying back to Canada with me," my mom sniffles and I can't help but to feel the same way. But I know I still have unfinished business in Australia. We say our goodbyes and I retreat to my room, feeling the full weight of loneliness.
~~~
Luckily for me, I don't have to stay in solitude for long. My friend Katlyn is in Canggu and her boyfriend Seb is leaving the morning after my mom's flight. Since there is an extra bed in my room and we're both flying solo now, we agree that she will come stay after dropping Seb off at the airport.
After a stressful and hectic day, Katlyn climbs into the pool and the two of us get to gabbing. We take it easy and go to bed early and then the next day set off to make the most of our remaining day together. We have an awesome breakfast and head to Medewi (although no one can seem to agree on the spelling) so that Katlyn can book a home stay for when I leave. I climb onto the back of scooter and am amazed as she confidently whizzes and flies through traffic. Katlyn, you are a bad ass bitch, I admire you every day.
She eventually finds a gorgeous room in Seminyak and the two of us are off to Tanah Lot Temple to spend the day revelling in the spiritual splendour. On our way back into town, the scooter lurches and we nearly both bail. Katlyn manages to get us onto the shoulder of the road and we discover the issue: the tire has burst. We push the now heavy bike into the nearest town and are ecstatic when we discover there is a bike shop only a few minutes away. The price for an entire new tire? $5. In no time at all we're back on the road.
We grab some bakso street soup and go for a sunset swim, then the rain begins and we take refuge in a tacky Mexican cantina before heading out for a quick shisha.
From there, I face another tough goodbye (accompanied with a 'see you soon') and before I know it I'm boarding my flight, resolved on returning to Indonesia and seeing everything else it has to offer outside of Bali.
It's been a trip. Thanks mom for helping to make it happen.
