Up about 8:30, went to have a shower, and I had no water. That's not particularly unusual in SE Asia, so I went downstairs and had breakfast, and inquired about renting a motorbike. The guy I asked, had to ask another guy, who asked the owner, who had to get someone else. He told me 45,000 rupiah for the day. I told him it was too much, and another guy at the hotel told me yesterday 30,000. He shrugged his shoulders, and told me there's only one place in the city that rents motorbikes, so that's the price. He did go down to 40,000, but still too much.
Back up to my room for a crap, then after it was all said and done, I remembered I didn't have any water, so I had to let my dump sit in the squatter. I went downstairs and told them I had no water, he told me because the tank is being refilled right now, I'll have water when I get back today, in the afternoon. He told me I could shower downstairs in the common shower, which I did.
Then I walked to the Perama office (tourist agency office) to inquire about shuttles to Senggigi, 15,000 rupiah, and also asked about where I can rent motorbikes. She told me I could rent them from near the post office, and showed me on a map of the city. It wasn't too far from there, so I walked there, and an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver asked me what I was looking for, I told him I wanted to rent a motorcycle, so he gets me on the back of his bike, and takes me a block away to where they rent them. He droped me off at one stall, and I asked the guy how much, and he said 35,000, I said too much, 30,000, and another guy, a competitor overheard me, and said OK, and shoved his keys in to my hand, then ushered me to his stall. Haha. Close competition is great!! The first guy was not impressed, and pushes his bike over to this other guys stall, and tries to impress me with his bike, saying it's better because it has automatic start. The other one has kick start, the automatic start is broken, but I don't care. It was too late at this point anyway.
I got the bike, he took me down the street to get a helmet for me, and I paid him, and gave him my passport (for insurance, common in SE Asia). While he was trying to find change, the original ojek driver and I were talking, I remarked that I wanted to go to Senggigi tomorrow, and he offered to take me, for 10,500. I'm agreeable, so he said he'll pick me up at my hotel at 10:00 tomorrow morning.
AFter getting my change, I was escorted by the ojek driver to the petrol station, then I went back to the hotel, packed my stuff for the day, and took off, about 11:00. I took a wrong road out of the city, and had to turn back and found the right highway.
Along the way, I ran into a police checkstop. The truck in front of me got pulled over, the motorcycle driver in front of me got waved through, then it was me. The officer waved me to the side. Great. It's here that I realized that I didn't bring my drivers license with me. Gulp! Now, Indonesian police have a reputation of being corrupt, and you need to bribe them to get out of situations. I was having thoughts of millions of rupiah leaving my hand. The office spoke excellent english, and he asked to see my international drivers license. I told him I let it at the hotel, and he got distracted by something else, and then turns back to me and asks again. I jump off my bike, open my backpack and pull out the motorcycle registration, and gave it to him, and told him that's all I had, I left my drivers license back at my hotel. He indicated for me to follow him, and I thought I heard him say something about a fine. He took me to another officer standing beside the patrol car, with a ticket book opened up on the hood of the car. He handed the registration, exchanged a few words in Indonesian, then the new officer asked to see my international drivers license. He spoke excellent english as well. I told him the same thing, that I had left it back at the hotel. I told him I could go back and get it, or I could bring it into a police station in the city, but I didn't have it with me. He kind of looks at me like he's trying to figure out what to do with me. He asked me if I do have one, I said yes, I do, then he asked me why I didn't have it with me. I told him the truth, I didn't think before I left the hotel. So, he said to me, "Ok, next time you rent a motorcycle, please remember to carry your drivers license with you, ok?" I responded with a big smile, and said, "Yes, I won't forget again." He handed me back my registration, and asked me where I'm going, I told him Tetebatu, and he extended his hand for a handshake, I shook it, said thank you, and he said have a nice trip, and that was it! While this was happening, the first officer had brought my motorbike from where I had left it at the shoulder up the patrol car. I hopped in, started it, and all the officers waved goodbye as I sped off. I must say, that was a pleasant surprise! They were very professional, extremely polite, friendly, and very easy going. And certainly not crooked, like I had heard.
I kept going, hoping to not run into another police stop.
I got to Tetebatu about 1:00, stopped at a hotel, and talked to a local who says he'll take me to the waterfall and monkey forest for 50,000 rupiah. According to Let's Go, that's the standard price. I had a bite to eat at the restaurant, then I barteredhim down to 40,000, because we were using my motorbike and my gas.
He took me to the waterfall, quite nice, then he apologized that we didn't see any monkeys, other than a few on the other side of the valley. We could hardly see them. I made a remark that we haven't been to the monkey forest yet, and he told me that the 20 minute walk to the waterfalls was the monkey forest. I knew he was lying, but decided to cut my losses and accept it, because to go anywhere else would just end up being more money yet. They even had a mural at the hotel showing the location of the waterfall and monkey forest, and they were NOT in the same place.
I left for Mataram about 3:00, hoping not to find any police stops. I ran into two. But both simply smiled at me and waved me through!
Got back to the hotel about 4:30.
I got a bad sun/wind burn from being on the motorbike all day. I rested in my room, still didn't have any water. Wrote in journal for a while.
Then I took my motorcycle back, then walked back to the hotel and went to the internet for a while, then to McDonalds for supper, then back to my room, and read. My water reappeared this evening, so I flushed my toilet and packed. My motorcycle driver visited me, and he got screwed up on the price, he meant 15,000, not 10,500, but I told him I could get an A/C bus for 15,000, so he relented and gave me the price of 10,500.
Then to bed.
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