On the Road to Bali: Crossing the equator to Bali

The first thing B does when we check into our hotel is flush the toilet to watch the water going counter clock wise.

We spend our first morning getting to know our beach...and it's a busy one. Apparently this is where every Indonesian wants to play water sports. I didn't realize that Jakarta is only a three-hour ferry away.

After a relaxing hour-long massage (I have two masseuses work on me at the same time and I still only pay $5 in total)...it's time to check out sarongs and sundresses.

A little further along... the beach temple...

...but we needn't go too far to make an offering as there is also one across the street from our hotel...one beside our hotel...another just a block from that, two more the block after...well in fact, there is a temple just about every two or three houses.

And this is what you do...fill these little (or big) banana leaf baskets with grass, cookies, rice and other snacks and offer them to the evil spirits twice a day...once to ask for protection the second time to say thanks for the protection. You can add cigarettes too if your spirits are smokers.

After the birds, dogs, cats and rats get through with the contents, the baskets end up all over the streets and beaches, get blown among the trees and bushes, clog the rivers and sewers...

Time for lunch...I wonder what our server's going to bring us from inside those containers...?

THIS!!! between the satays, curries and vegetables in peanut sauce, I find it difficult to stop eating. The food is amazingly delicious and ridiculously cheap. Although our hotel room has a full kitchen, it's pointless to bother cooking.

A platter of very interesting fruits await us when we check in. I don't know the name of the seedy one (sweet and refreshing) but the other is called snake fruit because it has an outer skin just like a snake...and hard! I think they're actually wood until Bruno cuts one open. They taste a little like pears.