Machine Guns

I slept until about noon. Scott came back about 10:15 to take the truck back. He and Louisa stayed out all night, slept on the beach for a couple of hours.

I showered, then went to Matahari department store to buy some new flip-flops. Lots and lots of police around Ground Zero area, most packing machine guns. Security is tight. Lots of people mulling around the spot where it happened, looking at the pictures of the deceased, and reading the passages left by their friends and families. Lots of flower arrangements adorn the area. Lots of television crews too, including CNN.

AFter getting my new flip-flops, back to the hotel, then got something to eat, then went in seach of a birthday card for Kristin. Went to the other, bigger Matahari department store, and they did have a small collection of cards, so picked one up.

Walked back to the hotel along the beach, and watched some guy have to get rescued by the beach patrol. He must have got caught in an undercurrent or riptide or something. He was waving his hands back and forth, and the lifeguard, just like on Baywatch, ran across the beach, and dove into the ocean with a buoyancy tube for the guy in trouble. Yes, he was saved.

Back to the hotel, everyone sleeping, so I went and booked my shuttle out of here for Monday morning. I'm going to Mataram, Lombok, and will work my way up to the Gili Islands, then to the other side of Lombok, where I'll move on to Flores. My shuttle ticket was 80,000 rupiah.

Wrote in journal for a while.

Used internet for a while.

Ran into Kristin and Louisa in a restaurant, sat with them for a while.

At 8:00, the four of us went to the Kori Restaurant for Kristin's birthday. I had a grill-your-own steak, it was awesome.

Later on, three French guys that we had met in Lovina (actually, only met two of them) joined us, and we all sat around until about midnight, when they kicked us out. Our bill was 1,000,000 rupiah. We went to the Apache reggae bar for a while, then finished about 2:00.