It seems like I am doing a lot, but really, I'm not. Or am I?
I have to make two blog entries, one for yesterday and one for today.
Yesterday, I started out looking for Sehati Guest House and Spa. I thought I knew where it was, and I did, but where I thought it was was not where it was. I drove around the block three times, down Monkey Forest Road and back down Jalan Hanoman and back to Monkey Forest Road again. Funny thing is I passed it each time because I wasn't looking in the right spot. I stopped and asked some of the guys on the side of the road who say, "taxi? Maybe tomorrow?" and they told me where it was and then I remembered. And then I did one of my favorite things, I said to them, "do you need transport?" - they got a big laugh out of it, and one of them joked, "how much?" as he faked getting on the back of my motorbike. It was fun turning the tables to them and they were good sports about it.
So, I finally found it and had a four-handed massage.
Sehati is not really a spa, it's like a store front. It was a little weird. Also, I prefer men to women. For me, women do not go deep enough and when they try, it hurts. Men seem to be able to apply the right amount of pressure for me and I like the fleshiness of their hands. It's just my preference.
So having two women work on me at the same time was at times annoying and at times very nice. When they were doing long strokes it was great having them work in tandem, but when they were trying to go deep and I felt fingernails or bones digging into me, it wasn't pleasurable at all. Plus, one of the women made a big deal out of me. Everything about me.
"What is your name?"
"Rick"
"Oooooh!"
I don't know what the "ooooh" was for.
They she said things like, "Ooooh, strong body", several times and I felt like she was coming on to me. She asked how old I was and when I told her 50, she said, "ooooh, look like 40...oooooh strong body....."
They offered me a shower, but I just wanted to get out of there and settled for the hand washing and left.
Then I headed to Cafe Wayan for lunch. I had a nice nasi campur and papaya lassi and was planning on a piece of death by chocolate cake, but I was too full, and I am trying not to gorge. So I told them I would be back.
I came back to my hotel after looking around for some souvenirs and buying some expensive sarongs (I remember them being cheaper in Sumatra). I also arranged my transport to the airport on Saturday from the guy I bought the sarongs with. He and his wife ran a little shop up the street, and were very nice. They showed me an Obama button they have for good luck!
I took a little swim, hung out by the pool and did some internet stuff and then went back to Cafe Wayan for my cake.
Death by chocolate is enough to kill you, that's for sure. A really rich piece of chocolate cake, almost like fudge, with chocolate sauce.
The thing is though, afterwards I was still hungry, but I thought the folks at Cafe Wayan would think I was strange for ordering dinner after my cake, so I went up the street to Bumi Bali because they have a cooking school and I thought I'd try their food.
I got some typical Balinese food that wasn't that good. It was okay, but it was a little dry and bland.
Then I came back and got my ticket for the Barong and Kris performance across the street. The lovely woman who hangs out outside of our entrance selling tickets sold me my ticket and at 6:50 I crossed the street for the 7 p.m. show.
It was one of my favorite performances so far, even though I loved the kecak. I liked the venue, which is kind of a temple that we're not supposed to enter without a sarong (they made an exception for the performance), it was well lit, and the gamelan orchestra was not amplified (it was loud enough). Also, most of the performers in the orchestra were really young, like maybe 14, 15 or so (though it's hard to tell) and they were really good, very focused and the music was not bad either.
The performance was great. There were all kinds of weird characters. A big monster, a monkey, two funny guys who did this kabuki like narration, a few other weird characters and a big shaggy thing that was supposed to be evil but looked like "Cousin It" on the Munsters. It was really fun. The costumes were great and the music was bearable. I really enjoyed it.
I came back and hung out in my room a bit before going to sleep, only to be woken up by a major thunderstorm that seemed to last all night. It was really loud and a little disturbing and I ended up having some pretty wild dreams since I was woken up several times.
That was not a bad day.
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