An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We had breakfast (after waking up when we damn well felt like it) on the terrace of the restaurant, enjoying an Indonesian breakfast (noodles, rice cakes), delicious local fruit, some of which was new to us - snake-skin fruit (not so good), mangostines (sweet and juicy, with a lichee-like texture) and passion fruit (good, once you got past its appearance) and fabulous fresh tangerine juice and fresh honeydew juice (thought of you, NSM!). We then took the 11:00 shuttle into Ubud. We walked all around the town, which years ago began as an artist colony and now seems to have become the Santa Fe (though verging on Woodstock) of Bali — chock full of galleries and shops. Here the emphasis is on fabrics, jewelry and art (and tee-shirts), whereas yesterday we visited villages where it seemed as though every resident was a wood or stone carver. Most of today’s emporiums were worth just a passing perusal, but a few had some quality offerings. We also had a nice chat with a woman from Seattle who owned a store selling beautiful, museum-quality fabrics from all over Indonesia.
After strolling for a while in what was literally the atmosphere of a steam room, we had made a few purchases. True to form, Wendy picked up some lovely silk items, and Milton snared some shorts and a shirt in properly garish colors and patterns. (though the best buys of the day were the honey-nougat Magnum ice-cream bar and the ice cold A & W root beer)
After several hours, we’d seen enough, so we bargained with a taxi driver (down from $15 to $3) and went back to the hotel to find that the air conditioning in the room was now not even working properly downstairs, either. After some consultation with Royal - the head honcho and our new best friend - we were moved to a Siam Suite, a very large bedroom and an equally large living room, connected by a small hallway, and with two enormous verandas. Milton then went to work out while Wendy had a pedicure. When we both returned to the new suite, we found that not only was the air conditioning not working so great in the bedroom, but there was a major-league infestation of ants coming in through, and colonizing, the bathroom window sill. An hour or so of engineers and exterminators later, it was determined that the ants were dead but so was the air conditioner. We just couldn’t move anymore (we didn’t think there were any rooms we hadn’t yet tried), so since the living room side was nice and cool, they brought in a frame, and set up a bed there. Wendy spoke with Shanty, the very nice hotel representative, while the various personnel did the moving, unclogged the shower drain (unfortunately, after Milton’s rushed shower), replaced some light bulbs and apologized profusely. We determined that we were definitely paying a bit too much for this experience, and that a more appropriate rate would be . . . ZERO! So we’ll work it all out tomorrow.
The one consistently good thing here, though, is the food. We dined en suite on salad with warm pumpkin seeds, some Thai-spiced chicken (a dish called “the jungle devil”), and a club sandwich, then the chocolate truffles that had been left as a complimentary treat. As we finally had some privacy (without any engineers and plumbers), we spent the evening reading in our living room/bedroom, listening to another cascading Bali rainstorm.