To Lovina

Up about 7:45, showered, breakfast, then caught transport to the airport. Malaysian Airlines closed!!! It was supposed to open up at 8:30 this morning (so says the sign on their door), and I got there about 8:45, and it's closed! Ugh! Went over to Air Paradise International, and got my flight back to Sydney from Bali changed to Nov. 13. Then walked back to Malaysian Airlines, and they were open now. Whew! My ticket says I'm supposed to fly at 11:00PM tonight, hopefully I can change it without problems! Talked to the lady, and did get my flight changed, no problems. Fly from Sydney to KL on Dec. 5 (wanted to go earlier, Dec. 1, but all their flights are totally booked up!) Then the flight from KL to LA, I wanted to fly Jan. 9, but everything is all booked up solid. I'm on a waiting list to fly Jan. 9. I have to keep checking back with Malaysia Airlines. I fly NorthWest airlines from LA to Regina (via Minneapolis), and Malaysian Airlines can't do anything on that for me. My ticket says I should be on that flight in 3 days, so gotta deal with that too! She told me that NorthWest has an office in Sanur, at a big resort there.

So, back to the hotel, checkd with Scott to see if Sanur was on the way to where we're going, he told me that we're going to Sanur anyway, because Louisa needs to go there to change her Qantas flight. Perfect!

We checked out of the hotel, and Scott went and picked up the truck at 10:30, we went and picked up Kristin and Louisa, and left Kuta about 11:15, and headed to Sanur, the Grand Bali Beach Resort.

Got there about 12:30, Louisa stopped at Qantas office to deal with her ticket, I headed to the NorthWest office, and it was CLOSED!!! Ugh! The American Express office next door said they are probably close for lunch, and didn't know what time they'd be open back up again, maybe 2:00. We went back to Qantas, and Louisa got her ticket changed no problems, so we headed to the expensive cafe at the resort, and had an expensive snack. Back to the NorthWest office shortly after 1:00, they were open now (whew!), so got my flight to REgina changed. Fly from LA to Regina on Jan. 10. Only fly in the ointment now is the waiting list I'm on for the KL to LA flight.

After that, we drove to Denpasar (capital city) and went around in circles and dead ends, trying to find the highway to Singaraja. AFter more than an hour, finally found the way.

Very nice drive through the centre of the island, we went up over a mountain pass, nice lake, cool weather. Road was very, very twisty and turny. Stopped at Bedugul, up in the mountains, for a late lunch. Then out of the mountains, down to Singaraja. A guy on a motorbike at a red light came up beside us and asked us where we're going, we told him Lovina, he said he works at cottage there, gave us his card, and gave us an escort to his place. They are brand new, nice cottages. Scott and I took one, 60,000 rupiah for a twin, Louisa and Kristin got a double for 50,000 rupiah.

After settling in, Kristin laid down (still not feeling well), Scott, Louisa and me ent to a small bar right beside the cottages, and on the beach and a few drinks, chatted with the locals and a couple of tourists.

As we were sitting there, a bunch of locals were on shore, hauling in a boat with a catch of fish, so Scott and I hopped down and helped out. Then I ran to get our cameras, and took pictures of their catch.

The fish were called sari, a very small (little finger size) fish that they grill up whole. They actually had a fish market right there on the beach, in the dark, all the locals buying buckets or bags of fish, money flying all over. Way cool!

Scott went to get Kristin and we all sat around and played cards and did card tricks and talked with the locals.

Not sure what time Kristin and Scott left, but Louisa and I left at 2:00, we were the last ones there. Then Louisa read my tarot cards, and finally to bed after 3:00AM.