ahoy! i believe i knew about the sand/planet thing for many years. and in related news: the saying “splice the mainbrace” is a noutical command meaning a tot of rum to all hands.

liv: read you mail and the tale. good stuff, i will get cracking when i have a lesure momant. probably in about 3 days time.

we are in kuta feeling very sunburnt after an ill advised noon beach session. oh well. the day before yesterday we went to a nifty clifftop temple near the bottom most part of bali. we pottered around for a bit accasionaly fending off monkeys who will steal any thing not nailed down. speaking off monkeys: when we were in ubud we went to the monkey forest there, strolled aroung maveling at the wierd humanlikeness off the monkeys. they were quite unafraid and will sit on you and demand food. one enterprising chap sat on my shoulders and searched my hair for ticks and lice, finding none he sttled on consuming my golden locks.he had to be prised of like a limpet!

our days are lesured when not traveling. we go to the beach, read and play cards. we bourt two fresh packs, nothing wrong with mamas but we needed more to play a strange version of Happy that annika knows. this game is interesting as it cannot end. asfar as i can tell it is impossible to finnish the game. we played it for four strait hours when i padanbai andgained no headway. good fun though.
we will probably go to lovina instead of that island place as annika wishes to see the mountains and stuff, and stay at bedegul.

of to see annother temple tonight, one in the middle of the sea!

julio

HAHAHAHAHG!!!!!!!!

those pictures are classic! all three of you standing there like you have a personal problem which might possibly require the aplication of ungents, then waving like dictaters at the populace. and as four that last one! well as i was screwtinizing it aghast and muttering “the face of evil!” under my breath, i notice something uncanny. livs face is turning more and more like dods, minus the wrinkles ofcourse!

well today we went to the beach, this was ment to be a nice beach as it was some way away and not too crowded. quite possibly it was the dangerousely lethal beach dod mentioned in a recent communication. upon arrival it seemed to be swarming with people but on close inspection not too bad. we found a nice spot to sit and read as far from the water as possible as it was quite high. we had already watched in amusment as someones stuff was swept away by a large wave. “it dousen’t matter if we get a little wet?” i said to annika as we laid down on our sarongs. i imagined i small bit of water moistening me toes which were pointing seaward. “not really” she replied. and so we read. i mention at this point that geoff has passed on to me gai jin and it grips like the cold hand of the devil! or something. anyway sudenly there was a noise, as of screaming, and we were waist high in water, had we been standing, which were weren’t so we were in fact under water. annika was floating nearby like a bit of drift wood and foam and beach detritus was every were. i made to steady her as our belongs sailed by on the way to the sea. we got to our feet as quickly as possible and charged to the rescue of our stuff. we didn’t lose anything. but our books, shogun and gai jin, which i had still in my hand and i had used as a makeshift proping devise as i got to my feet, were well, if not truly, saturated. annika was i might irritated, saying i quote “i hate this beach!” but it did not reach me. clavels books seem to have infected me and all i could say was “karma, neh?” and then we went into the sea which was very rough, annika almost drowned and we built a sand castle.

er… as to the funeral thing, we went back with the french guy some time later dressed in sarongs as you were not aload in without them and wondered around the temple feeling somewhat out of place. at some point loads of people came in and sat down(we were the only non balinese) and a large rotund preist conducted a ceromony which lasted about four hours by my reconing. as it consisted of him ringing a small bell and mumbling, i began to lose interest after the third hour. what i did find interest were a collection of very small houses on stilts which ringed the temple. they were just big enough to house a cat or maybe a chicken, as long as it were not too fuusy about turning around. they varyied from a simple platform and what looked like a very small seat to larger brick edifices with deortive carvings. the french guy noticed my interest and said that they were houses for the gods, so that they had somewere to stay when they came to the ceromony. this seemed really cool to me and i imagined a small, fat blue chappy seated in the chair and looking faintly bored. it was tricky to get out as we were boxed in by happily chatting mourners, and it was quite imbarasing when we finaly mustered the crust to escape. it was a lot more interesting the i have made it sound.

i was going to use an imoticon then, but i thought “no.”

the fire and tranbce dance was neat…ish. it consisted af maybe fifty blokes chanting a mildly hypnotic yet irittating tune ans some dancers followed by setting alight to a big pile of coconut husks and an old chap with a hobyhorse charged about on the embers. though i thought that this was quite cool, i was not very impressed. annika said that if it was so easy why did i not do it? unfortunatly i had a bit of jip in the old leg. otherwise i would have done it like a shot.

so far i have killed two extreamly large cockrouches and a monstrouse thing that looked like a mutant moth. at some point i will have to hunt down the cockrouch “nest” armed only with my head torch and my hair brush, still stained with gore and bits of smashed carapace. it would make a good film.

i fell oddly expressive today, has any one done anything to the tael? or have i killed it by my lack of entries? i will check.

the shadow puppets i will tell you about some other time, alright?

i nearly laughed myself into a fit reading your latest e-mail mama! most amusing!

julio

hello!

this is sooo cool! www.astercity.net/~tobik/pingpong.html

yesterday we went to walk the 2kms(we were actuly going to take a bemo(bus) as we were feeling a bit weak) to the musium, when we came across a massive parade sort of thing in the center of town.hordes of balinese possibly 100/200 of them all dressed in finary. flowered dresses for the women and sarongs and the habitual balinese hat for the men. there were two bands one in the front and and one at the back both playing completly different music with gongs and odd instruments. in the middle of the convoy in the center od four people holding massive umrella devices, was a large “ronda” (a evil creture from balinese mythology) head suspended on a pole with thick hair flowing down from it. behind came the “barong”(a nice creture from balinese mythology) this is a bit like a pontomime horse, as it has a bloke holding up the front end complete with a goggle-eyed face and beard, and another bloke holding up the back end. and lo’ you have a suprisingly realistic fuor legged animal. as i watch it amble by i noticed that the “stomac” of the barong, the conecting bit twix the head and bottom, was more realistic than the one on the creture i saw at the dance with tan. more rounded and with a distinkt sag, sugesting heavyness. annika explaned that it contained a dead person and that this was a funerul procession! the seemed more interesting than the musium so we fell into step along side of the horde as it slithered snake like up the road and out of town. i don’t know how long we walked for but it passed quite quickly. we descoved later that it was 4km or so. eventully the procession ground to a halt at a temple in some random village. it had got progressivlysmaller as people peeled of and into the homes along the way. we wondeered around in the milling crowd outside the temple, not quite sure what to do. a chap(he was french and called allan) walked up to us and fixed us with a spectakled eye. i had seen him on and off as we walked the only one af the five or so tourist who had walked from ubud with us. he inquired how we planned to get back, sugesting a shared bemo. we were keen to wait around for the cremation we felt sure was going to accur at any momant. it seemed that he could speak a passible balinese and had descoved that there would be a dance/ceromony from 8 till 10 and possibly the cremation wouild be tomorrow sometime. as it was 4.00 we walked back slowly with him keeping our eyes peeled for some transport. this felt a little strange! were ever you walk in bali you will be continualy acosted by minions saying “hey! transport! yes!” then when you have declined they demand “tomorrow?! yes?!” after this they might ask if possible you want transport next week, or not as as the case may be. on the way we saw a flight of white cranse which was nice. we did get transport in the end and we were made glad as it trully was a long way.

right i will continure later as i have to pick up annika from the health and beauty spa as she is having a jolly milk bath. also i will tell you about the fire dance and the shadow puppets.

julio

hello!
sorry i haven’t blogged in a while but i have had pressing matters of state to attend to.

ok, tarn seems to have covered most stuff on recent bali-ness and things so i shant repeat it. though possibly you might have a more sane perspective if i did.

one thing i will mention though,the other day i was pottering through ubud market with annika, idly sneering at costermongers when i chanced upon a fruit stall. a creture(it may possibly have been a hag or crone) popped out of a mound of sacks and gestured at a load of unusial small black objects. i had seen them before around the place, about the size and shape of a very big conker, and covered in what apeared to be slightly furry snake skin. i presumed that it was like some sort of arcane potato/maniok thing which clearly required boiling for three days to make it pallitable. “how do you cook it!” i said loudly and with gestures. the crone looked at me in confusion.”HOW DO YOU COOK IT!” i said utilising the time honored tecnique of repeating the same thing only louder. she grinned at taking one of the things from the basket deftly peeled it and profered the contents. it looked like the inside of a chesnut and it had a very similer texture once i bit into it, but the taste was remarkable. a sort of pinaple and strawberry melange with a hint of bibas. really very nice. i bought a load and descovered later that they are called oddly enough “snake skin fruit” and thus ends the saga of the tasty fruit.

ubud is alright , but the weather is not all it could be. mostly cloady with patchees of rain. we plan on checking out some temples in the surounding area and the monkey forest, then head back to the coast and warmth.

cheapish accomadation is around 40000 for a room. and cheap meals can be as little as 8000. though the cheaper food tends towards the skanky end of the food trough.

italy sound a bit jolly liv. how many people are with you on this “road trip”? were do you eat or do you cook your own food on a small combustible?

slightly, i recomend that you refrane from picking at the BBS until fully healed as it will increase the chances of gangrene.

are you suggesting that i have been saving tin somehow, dod?! sounds a bit good to me.

julio

hello.

i tried to read tans blog but i am afraid i just ‘aint got the time.

i am having a bit of trouble getting in contact with singapore airlines. the numbers here apear to be constantly ingaged.

i wonder if you could alter my ticket for me dod?i want to go back to the uk on the 3rd of september. if not possible then 1st or 2nd. but no later then the third as that is when my visa runs out.
my bookings number is L 6 7 G H Q. this should be all you need. if they don’t let you then can you ask for the number to ring from bali as i suspect the ones i have are dud.

leaving kuta tomorrow for sanur. nice sounding place. just bought a yellow seedles water mellon. looks tasty! will blog at some point but now i have to try and ring them again.

i have managed to remove the varnish…

julio

hail!!!

internet is a bit slow for some reason. so i willblog more tonight.

well this place is quite nice apart from the money grabingness of some locals. stuuf is cheap and that is all you need toknow really.

going to collect annika tonight and then possibly some white water rafting tomorrow.

the magnetic devices sound a bit hot damn to me.

willl blog later

julio