My oh my oh my. Back to reality.

That's for sure. The beautiful crystal blue clear skies with white fluffy clouds are behind us. Dust. The sky here in the Sandbox is full of dust dirt. And there is no one to pick up after us. From having someone come to our villa at whatever time we chose every day to make breakfast for us, serve us, clean up afterward, to having a housekeeping crew come in and make the bed and pick up our towels. Done. Over.

This morning DH made breakfast before he went to play golf. I wandered into the kitchen right after he left and just went, "Oh my. Who is going to clean this mess up?" Ditto for when I got out of the shower and realized the bed was still unmade. Hmmph. Someone has to do it. Guess that someone is me! Have spent most of the day doing laundry. Several more loads, then it is all done. Not complaining about having to do any of this, mind you. These are the things I do every day - along with most everyone else. Make breakfast, do the dishes, make the bed, do laundry, etc., etc., etc. [Yes. I do have Inom - Inam? - to assist me a great deal by doing the stuff I choose not to. That too will end someday when we return to the States. Not quite as politically correct there to have a houseboy, anymore. Such is life.]

We stayed at a little group of fabulous villas, Kunja Villas, in Seminyak. A nice beach town. Our villa was probably a ten minute walk from the beach. The beach was nice. Didn't spend more than just a few days there with so much else to see and do. The area where you park to actually get to the beach is not an area where you can spend time on the beach. That portion of the beach is restricted solely for ceremonies [and I presume from the ceremonies we saw being carried out it is restricted solely for Hindu ceremonies]. It was quite a "beach walk" to get to areas where you could rent lounge chairs and buy cold beverages. Bintang. Indonesia's Favorite Beer. Indonesia's ONLY beer. I am not much of a beer drinker - had a sip or two of DH's and that is it. Plus, with the full humidity [85%] and the absolute necessity for putting sun screen on, any sand you come into contact with absolutely clings to you. There is no brushing it off. We did find several outdoor restaurants bars where we spent afternoons sipping Mojito's and Bintang, though. So, although we only spent a couple of days on the actual sand beach, we had ample opportunity to enjoy viewing the beach from the seats of comfy chairs.

The usual and customary hawkers for tourists were on the beaches in abundance! Buy a hat, buy sunglasses, buy a kite, buy a leather belt, buy a t-shirt, buy a sarong, buy a bra. Yes! One woman was selling bras. On the beach. Other women were offering massages, and manicures and pedicures. All I could think with the women offering the massages was, "Sure. I am covered with sand and sweat and sunscreen [that's a pretty picture, isn't it?]. And you want to rub - with some pressure applied - the sand directly into my skin?! I'll pass, thankyouverymuch." When offered a pedicure or manicure, the fact that these women were carrying around their little tools with which to provide these services and no water with which to clean or any other way to sterilize the nippers and files - ahh, yeah. I'm gonna pass on that, too. One of the kites for sale:

For the most part all of the hawkers were very nice, and hey, they are only trying to make a living. [When we were in certain areas, the hawkers were more aggressive and pushy than at other areas.] More than once when the hawkers found out we were from America they said, "Oh, good president, there." Oops. You just blew it! I wasn't planning on buying sunglasses or a hat or a belt from you - but you just brought politics into the equation so purchasing anything from you is out of the question, now. You are tough out of luck. When another said, "president obama is very good," DH said, "Don't go there." DH knows. I set the guy straight and told him that the jugearedjackass is a horrible, horrible president and that many Americans hate him. The man just looked at me with total bewilderment and finally trotted off.

Have to tell you that the private pool we had at our villa was just so nice that I preferred that to the beach and spent more time there. It was the most perfect pool I have ever had the opportunity to use. I took plenty of pictures so that when we finally build our retirement home in the States [or Bali!] we can do something very similar.

The outdoor area - partially - of our villa [missing the dining area and the couch - which I actually have a photo of - it was interesting - but DH is sitting on it and that has been a rule since I started this blog - no identifiable photos of DH]:

Still do not quite understand the concept of the indoor/outdoor bathroom. Sure it looks kind of pretty and all, but with it so much outdoors there is no air conditioning and thus it is impossible to dry off from a shower or even try to get ready - doing your hair, or make-up - in the bathroom. The half tile, half stone floor? Will never understand that except that you can hose it down to clean it, maybe? Or that it just looks nice? To some, I guess. The concept escapes me.

We didn't get to our villa until sometime after 8:30 on the night we got to Bali. It was probably closer to nine. We were both tired and pretty much ready for a good night's sleep at that point. We went to bed. I woke up the first morning there with my back in so much pain from such a hard mattress that I was almost in tears. I knew there was just no way I was going to be able to endure three full weeks sleeping on such a hard mattress. [Americans are incredibly spoiled insofar as comforts. Our own bed is a king-sized with a box spring and one of those 15 or 17 inch "pillow top" mattresses.] I called the front desk that morning and said, "We have got to do something about the bed. It is too hard to sleep on." Three men immediately came to our villa to check it out. "The bed? What is wrong?" It is too hard. "The bed is too hard?" Yes. My back hurts. Can we put something on top of the mattress to make it not so hard? Like another mattress or two? They ended up trying to fix the problem by putting five or six comforters on top of the mattress and then explained that they were not going to be able to tuck into the sheets like they are supposed to. You know what? I don't care that the sheets cannot be tucked in. I do care that I cannot sleep on this mattress. Oh, and the pillows are nothing to write home about either. "What is wrong with the pillows, Madam?" They are hard. They are not feather pillows. "Only kind of pillows, Madam." Well okay, then. I will deal with the pillows. I was sure that if I complained any longer about the pillows that someone would be out collecting ducks and making different pillows for me, immediately, and I didn't want that. I decided to deal with hard fiber-fill pillows since the mattress had been kindof sortof fixed. More about the sleeping experience in a different post...

Lizard central in the evening when the lights were on. They don't bother me at all. And, they did such a wonderful job of gobbling up all the bugs, what is not to like about geckos? All I could think was how The Boy would be in his glory and would never leave the outdoor cooking/kitchen area of our villa if he was there. He, is, after all, the Great Tan Lizard Hunter.

So many things to tell about our Bali experience... I'm rambling at this point. I'm tired. Tomorrow, more beach. Some random photos and petrol stations. Still have lots and lots to share! Temples. Local culture. Interesting signs. Monkeys and tigers no bears. Oh My.