Greetings from 'Bali'

We arrived this morning... it is hot and steamy.. much more so than it was in Singapore.

We
are staying at the Hard Rock Hotel... yes, of the Hard Rock Cafe fame.
It's a huge and very confusing to find anything in it hotel. I am not
kidding... we went out earlier to get a 'lay of the land' of the
hotel... and let's just say... I hope that I can find where my hotel
room is located after I finish posting here.

We went walking to
find a restaurant for dinner (we had seen it on the taxi ride from the
airport) and the hotel had told us.. to just go out and it would be on
our left and about 5 minutes away.

Well, we had walked for about
10-15 minutes and nothing was looking like we were in the right
direction-- and we finally after trying a few other streets to see if
we could get to the area that we needed to be... found a taxi to take
us to the restaurant. We were close-- but, would have never found it
where we were either.

Oh, the taxi ride from the airport??? ha
ha... We had stopped at the information desk at the airport-- to see if
there was a hotel shuttle to take us to our hotel. No. Then, a man
sitting on the floor of the airport- told us that he was a taxi and
would take us to the hotel. So, I asked the lady in the 'information'
how much 'should' it cost us to ride from the airport to the hotel... (truthfully,
that is a question that she could have answered w/out any problems)
Instead... she spoke to him in 'BALI'... and he quoted her 50,000 (bali money) so, we said ok...

He grabbed my wheely
suitcase and started walking ahead of us... we were following him as
close as we could... and finally managed to get to the parking lot to
where he was with my suitcase... (in some countries when they grab your
suitcase... you might not ever see it again) When, we were all loaded
in this 'rough and tumble, no AC van'.... he told us that it would be
50,000 for each of us.. instead of the one flat fee of 50,000 per ride.
I told him that we'd just take our bags out and find another taxi.. 'no
problem'... then, his offer went down to 100,000 and I repeated it
againadn told him to stop so that we could get our bags out. He finally agreed to the original 50,000 for the ride.

When
we drove up in our 'taxi' I did notice that the hotel security men and
the 'bell men' were looking at our vehicle wondering why we were in it.

Oh, the food was great at the restaurant- we went to: BUBBA GUMP (yes, from the Forrest Gump
movie fame) and before we went in... there was a security guy who
scanned our bags w/ one of those airport metal detector scanners.
Interesting... but, then again.. in the Philippines... the 'security
guards' in front of stores and banks... have M16 rifles.
iwouldratherbeknitting out...