Monday Motorbike Mayhem!!!!

Who cares what day it is:Woke again to more of the same: roosters, praying, barking, tahu,kofi, & tea. I also had to pee really bad! But Dwi had a suprise for us, he had rented a motorbike for Matt to use and would let me use his. Sweet. We were planning on riding them all over Bali for the week BUT Matt kinda screwed that one up. As soon as he got on the bike he had a little incident with a wall. The nieghbors and families ran out to inspect the commotion. Looks of dissaprroval and worry were all around as Dwi told him to take a few trips around the block before making the long haul. He got a hang of it and we soon followed Dwi to the the gas station and book store for a map. Waitng in line Matt had some "tecchnical difficulties" and Dwi said to him "Be-Very- Careful-Matt". Gas is dirt cheap here by the way. Parkimg on the street to avoid the parking charges, which loom everywhere, we purchased the map and choose our path. Ulu Watu then Tanoh Lot.

Dwi left us hesitantly and off we went throught the madness of Denpasar. Dwi even showed us the less crowded way which was still chaos. Cars, Trucks, Buses, People, Bikes, Chaos! The ride to Ulu Watu was beautiful: City , Country , Hills, Forest, we saw it all. Of course more burning trash, ladies selling things, old men digging in fields, families of four on 1 motorbike, trucks pumping exausht into our faces. After about an hour or two of that we arrived at Ulu Watu temple. An old man quickly tells us to park our bikes and pay him to show us around. "NO, lets go to the surf spot first". He replies "There are cops waiting for money". "Ok", i say thinking yeah right. Sure enough as we turned around and went down the road two Polisi were waitng for our money, i mean us. "Lisence", he asks. I pull out my drivers liscence trying not to let him see my cash. "No International Drivers Liscence ?" NO but i have a US one" "ohhhhhhh" He replies. "I MAY have to give you a ticket, $ 1,000,000 ". "Naaw you dont" I say smiling. "How much" was his relpy. "$10,000" was my awnser. "$200,000" was his. "I only have this much" i say reaching into my pocket for the small bills. "How 'bout there" he says pointing to my wallet. Shit. "You name the price". "$20,000 ?" "$150,000". "Dude ive only got $100,000 and i need it for food and gas". Again $100,000. "How bout forty?". "Fifty and its okay" he says. I hand him forty but he motions for the extra ten. These guys dont give change. "I like your hair so i give you good deal". "Thanks, you've got a good racket goning here", i say with a smile. He just smiles and nods.He knows it. Matt ends up paying $60,000 to his guy, who wasnt as nice. They stop every poor sucker on that road, mostly surfers,to Ulu Watu and probably make a damn good living doing it. IDL or not im sure most people pay.



Finaly we make it to the cliffs. Park the bikes, get harrased adn desecen to Bali's "North Shore". Shops are everywhere, we post up in one with a awesome view and enjoy the view while sucking down Papaya & Banana smoothies. Double overhead and neverendign waves. Perfect. After an hour we leave but are again accousted and this time i actually decide to buy something, a Ulu Watu shirt for my buddy Zack but i end up keeping it for myself (Sorry Dude). Back up, pay for parking and were off, to Tanah Lot. Up and down hills, through more villages and city, rice paddies and open roads we end up at Tanah Lot.

Pay more money for entry and a six fingered man makes us park our bikes. More madness, people & shops. They practically (read - do) force you through shoppingareas to get to the main destinations at all of these palces. We decend to swarmsof people around an beautiful temple situated on an island slighty offshore. Very nice, except that everyone else had the same idea we did. To visit Tanah Lot. We sat watching the swarms, wondering whether or not the people who built this massive and beautiful temple would think of its current tourist exploitation. Whatever.
Back through the swarms we bought some weird coconut balls similar to mochi wrapped in banana leaf. MMMM. Followed up with some corn on the cob smothered in sambal. Paid more cash to Six Finger and we somehow made it back to Dwi's house. But thats another tale in itslef. In other words we got lost right at the end, Matt had another incident, and we asked directions at least 6 times. After countless wrong turns and dirt roads we made it home to some great dinner followed by some really bad dreams.




ALllriggghhtt.. im soooo far behind on this thing , i mean im in freaking ,Bandung, Java rigth now sweating my ass off in a shitty internet cafe. ive been here for 2 1/2 hours already. Im done for today !! Ill be in Sinagapore in Two days . Soo much to write soo little time. Thanks for reading ya'll- Z