What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

Mandy: 12th September

Previous working title: BYE BYE BALI

Published title: WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

Karen and Sue……The hotel gardens (with Parrots etc) put me in mind of Rode Bird Gardens which we used to visit when we were little. (smile)

We shared our pool with Dragonflies (along with a bat, who swooped down to drink from the pool, at dusk)

We were loving Bali but Glen said ” it’s time to explore Java”, apparently we were to fly into Yogyakarta, “it is a good place to base ourselves to visit two very good Temples” he said. I had never heard of it and thought it sounded more like the noise you’d make if you were chocking on some over spicy Nasi Gorang!! Because I insisted on flying with a reputable company with a good safety record! (I’m picky like that!!) We had to get up at 3.00am and make our way to the airport to catch the AirAsia 5.50am flight which would arrive in Java at 6.00am. Now as someone who doesn’t like flying that’s my kind of flight! Time travel at last! Beam me up Scotty. (smile)

We are ever so slightly nearer the UK now Mum! Are you still marking our journey on the huge wall map? (Smile)

Another flight so more time to waste with useless drivel for the blog. (smile)

You know the way the shops in the UK put sweets and chocolates etc by the till to try and entice you to make an impulse purchase as you pay for your weekly essentials, well just look what they put by the till in this store in Sanur!!!

“Tempted? No we weren’t either!!”

They also had pieces of cooked chicken (also unrefrigerated) at the end of the till waiting for someone to snap them up. (grimace) They had put cling film on them in their defence! The first cling film we have seen here actually. Food health and safety isn’t something they think about here. Neither is safety in general. This store had workmen digging huge holes in the ground just outside of the main entrance and in various places inside and we were making our way through the main store entrance along side workmen with wheel barrows and electric cables along the floor etc in a way that would have Rod (H&S guy at our annual Show at the Ricoh Arena) having a coronary on the spot! No one seemed to mind, least of all the hundreds of Aussies walking around buying their Frangipani flower hair clips and Bintang baseball caps! We had gone in there to look for superglue (don’t ask!) and safety pins! (Ditto!) ever the practical tourist/traveller!

Random observation…….. Indonesian leaves are HUGE, whereas their people are small. Unexpected fact……what’s that about?

Sugar, as we established back in Malaysia, is not only already in the milk, and there are lots of desserts and sweets everywhere but having finally found ‘salted’ flavour crisps amongst the Seaweed and fish flavours … we found they had sugar added too! More sugar than salt in fact! Unless the Cassava root is naturally sweet. We assumed they were Potato crisps, in my excitement, but on closer inspection whilst enjoying them with a Bintang (on yet another balcony) we realised our error.

Happy children

We haven’t heard a baby cry or seen a child being naughty or unhappy in Asia so far. Like i said, apart from Kites, we have not seen any toys. The other evening there were three children playing in the Hawker market with a box and two straws. In the time it took us to choose, order and eat our pork and rice (right next to the Muslim Hawker stall…felt a bit guilty!) they had played with the box as an instrument and ‘banged’ it with the straws. The box was then turned in to a ‘house’ and the two tiny girls, who were about two years old and were running around barefoot, were shut sternly in the ‘house’ by the three year old boy (who had shoes on, not sure if that was significant) One of the girls had an old towel on her head like a veil!! You could see they were playing ‘make believe’ and it was such a joy to watch. They were not hanging around the parents who were cooking and serving at their hawker stall instead they were happy running around together amusing themselves in amongst the rubbish in the corner of the grubby market.

What’s in a name?

In Egypt Glen gets called Mr Mandy by security staff and the head of the management company in WSV. When we first visited there and collected our keys back in 2010 he introduced us both “we are Glen and Mandy” instead of saying just “Glen Rees”. So now they just call me madam! and Glen is Mr Mandy!!! In one of our hotels in Sanur (The Swastika) they called me Rees! Good morning Glen and Rees! (Chuckle)

Fisherman’s or Fisherwomen’s?

My delight in owning a pair of fisherman’s trousers was short lived….. what I hadn’t thought about was how I would go to the loo once I had tied myself into them! No matter which type of toilet I went in to!!! I intend to google this! Although I can’t think of an easy way around it.

White Pepper

OMG! I thought it was only my Dad that had an unhealthy obsession with putting white ‘powder’ pepper on food but Dad you have met your match!! (Or should i say we have met him) An Indian gentleman who was sat on the next table to us at breakfast was shaking it (from a shaker with four huge holes) on to his scrambled eggs for a good 30 seconds! Seriously…… I guess he doesn’t like scrambled eggs. (Wink) He didn’t sneeze though Dad! (Chuckle!)

As we flew over Java towards the airport in Yogyakarta (known and pronounced Jogja) we saw these five volcanos (actually this photo only shows three!) ….it was a wonderful view.

And now to explain the change of title to this blog post.

‘WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER’

If that statement is true why am I feeling so weak!?

We were coming in to land, wheels down, ground getting nearer by the second, and suddenly they aborted the landing at the last minute and we accelerated back up in to the sky! Joy! (Didn’t know my heart could beat so fast!!) it was silent, no one said a word! Not even the pilot!! rude! and thoughtless as we were never told the reason…….. perhaps he saw some cows on the runway. (wink) But hey we landed safely 20 minutes later and we are now sat in the hotel grounds waiting for our room to be ready. (Smile)

Oh one last thing…….. Happy Birthday Dad with much love from Mandy and Glen x