Friday night in Seminyak Bali

Dinner for me tonight was an ayam bakar (grilled chicken) and rice dish at a place called Yogyakarta down in Tuban, close to Supernova market. I had 3 pieces of chicken, rice, lalapan (raw veg), hot tea for around 35,000rp.

Tonight I accidently came up with a great excuse, which should be filed away, and rolled out in future. Ika told me she was sad, because Nov 10th was her birthday, and I forgot. The truth was I thought it was thursday today, so I told her, that I didn’t forget her birthday was on Nov 10th, I just forgot it was Nov 10th today. Is that an excuse OR WHAT?!!! Guys, write that down and put it in your wallet, you might need it sometime. Ika is all good vibes now, and we’ll celebrate some other time.

Here’s a bit of Bali daily life I saw tonight. The internet cafe I use on Jl. Dhyana Pura, is fairly decent, 12,000rp per hour for okay connection. The young girl who works there is somewhat cute, sits there and smiles sweetly etc. The thing is I’ve always suspected she deliberately screws me on my change. Reason being, is that 25 times in the past, I’ve had to do the old ‘are you sure?’ ‘want to count that again?’ ‘I know you can figure out the change from 20,000-18,500rp’ etc. After complaining about it for so long, she doesn’t try to cheat me anymore, but 30 minutes ago I was sitting here typing, and a Euro guy runs in. “Excuse me, I gave you money and you didn’t give me my change.” he said. She put on an embarrassed smile, and without talking, pulled out his change from the register. Its a constant situation over here, that locals try to keep your change. Tourists should always count the change. I almost got caught with an old trick myself, the other day down on Jl. Benesari. I’d been online for 45 minutes, gave the guy a large bill, he shuffled a pile of change over to me, and said “Okay Boss?” I said “Thanks” and started to leave. Glancing down into my wallet I could tell 10,000rp was missing. Turning around I saw him laugh, “I ask you and you say okay” he said. Its passive aggressive, ‘I’ll screw you, but smile while I’m doing it’. Plenty of smiles in Bali, and most of them are genuine, but make sure you take the time, to look beyond the smiles.