Loaded

Sabine and I stayed over night in Kuta because we (or I) planned to spend 1.5 days in Seminyak to finish shopping in the area. We do have same style: we don’t eat much, we don’t talk much, we walk fast, we decide quick, we sleep in total darkness with open curtain to let sunlight in in the morning,… So far so good.

I awoke in the middle of the night because I felt hot that I needed to kick my blanket. It was dark that I turned the air-conditioner lower. It was funny when I saw Sabine also kicked her blanket and after a while we both looked like cocoon. It happened I turned it too low. Well, I just got up after adjusted the air-conditioner for the second time. It was close to 5:00 and I’d been on-off for a while in bed. I checked my new computer that was still charging for the first time. I wrote my blog-post in the dark. I needed to check my computer before off to Ubud. I found out the space bar is hard to push. It delays my typing speed significantly because I had to return often. Anyway, that’s just minor comment (if not complain) and later I found out I could not browse any webmail, any email service web. I was desperate.

I could not think clearly because I had something undone so I left Sabine at Benny’s bead shop to return to the computer shop. What a joke, like often happen with many things, nothing showed wrong in the web browser. So hard to convince the technician that actually I faced the problem in the morning. Grr… I stayed in the shop for an hour to try my internet ritual to make sure everything works as I want. I was suffocated when I walked out the shop. Cigarette smoke. Ugh..

I joined Sabine at late lunch then continued shopping. We visited a silver wholesaler in old part of Denpasar. We had to walk to get there because it’s a one way street. We were surprised to see the street full of oranges, mangoes, and snake-skin fruit from Java. It’s where fruit wholesalers have storage and traffic. It’s an amazing view. New. And more new feeling when we got in the silver shop which is located in an old house-shop complex a la Chinese. It’s a wow! So the silver shop that has many selections of silver jewelry a la Bali and beads. Sabine and I just look at each other. Overwhelmed.

We stayed in silent on the way to Ubud. I was sleepy and pretty much in my own world. So Sabine, another mirror of mine. We made a stop at my stone supplier and supermarket then went straight home. Too tired. I longed for a hot shower but I hadn’t prepared the house for the new guest. Glad Sabine helped herself so I could check my internet connection – the most important thing for me now. I was in the sky to find the internet working, not only that I’m able to communicate with loved ones but also accept translating work for the rest of my stay in Ubud :-)

We had a very nice Balinese dinner at Nomad. We were yawning alternately. I feel okay and happy to have a guest but in my house, my territory, not in Kuta. Finally, I feel completely at home in a little part of the world.

Photo of loaded baskets in Jalan Ternate, Denpasar.