The Sari Segara Resort is directly across the street from the beach. In this part of Bali, only Cafes line the beach. There are no hotels or resorts on the beach. The close proximity to the beach and Sani's family makes Sari Segara the perfect place to stay. We can walk to most of where her family lives.
We all went to breakfast when they returned. After breakfast, we walked around the village. The first stop was her cousin's cell phone shop. We bought 2 simPATI SIM cards with $10 credit on each. Should last us the duration of the trip. The cost was 200,000RP or about $20USD. Incoming calls are free. This gets us about 100 minutes or 50 outgoing SMS messages. Before I left, I called T-Mobile to request the unlock code for my Nokia X2. It's a cheap phone that I use as backup when my normal phone doesn't have a signal. So we had the Nokia X2 plus an old Motorola v180 that I used when I was deployed to Afghanistan. Both phones are quad-band and work everywhere. It turned out later that the v180 microphone (to talk) didn't work.
An ice cream vendor was pushing a cart so we bought some popsicles. My daughter Alex commented on how small the ice cream portions are. But you cannot argue with the cost.
When we completed the test of the phones, we walked along the village until we found the family compound from her mom's side of the family. Her real Mom died more than 20 years ago but everyone is still close. We met a large number of people and was able to see for the first time a new house that one of her uncles had built on my wife's property to generate rental income.
We saw a traditional Balinese wood-fired kitchen (picture someday here) where they were cooking a kettle of rice and a whole fish (fresh from ocean). Sani's Auntie gave us Balinese Rice with small cut green beans hot hot chili and other vegetables. We stayed there for about 45 minutes visiting.
We left and started walking to the Sani's Dad's family compound. He is one of the Hindu high priests and his compound contained a very large private Hindu temple. We met with her family there and saw many many people.
We also took the opportunity to give some items to the family that they requested we bring over. Many who have relatives overseas almost always carry things home and we are no exception.
Shortly, our driver, Komang , showed up with the Toyota Kijang. We all piled in and headed to Kuta to have lunch at Made Wurang's restaurant. It is owned and managed by an Australian but features authentic Balinese recipes. The food was delicious and for 6 people it cost us about $430,000RP or about $43USD. Parking was free once we found it.
After lunch, we headed over to Sani's sister Yanni's home. We visited Yanni, Ayu and Diah her two lovely daughters, and Andi, her 8 year old son. We shared Haribo Gummy Bears, Peanut Butter M&Ms and my wife gave them a bunch of clothes that will probably not fit. They are very thin people.
We proceeded to Komang's house to meet his family. He has a very nice wife and a very cute 2 year old daughter. He picked Mangoes from a tree and gave them to us to snack on later. Then he took us back to the resort.
At the hotel, we decided to go to the Furama Cafe (www.furamacafe.com) for dinner because her cousin owns it (what else eh?). They sent a car to pick us up (saved us a 15 minute walk).
The Furama Cafe is located in Kodonganan which is the village just North of Jimbaran. They had at least 50 tables directly on the beach. The tables were set at a slant but there were no problems eating or drinking. I ordered Red Snapper and Fried Rice and the others ordered huge platters of seafood. The total came to 610,000RP or about $60USD.
Towards the end of dinner, Deeky Doo fell asleep. Chris saw some fishing boats coming in and wanted to go down to see the fresh catch of the day. He met some nice fisherman who gave him a beer (about 6 oz) in a cup. When Chris returned to the table, we went back to the restaurant main building and caught a ride back to the resort.
When we arrived back, I decided to take Chris out walking around the village. We didn't make it far before we ran across another cousin that I knew because he works at our resort. His name is Wayan and his English was very good.
I negotiated for him to take Chris and I on a tour of Kuta and Legion areas. I know Kuta pretty well so I had Chris sit up front to take in the sights and sounds. We stopped at a Circle K and bought some root beers. We drove through the Legion area, past the Hard Rock Cafe.
Probably the most interesting part was when we drove past the Bali Bombing Memorial. It was really beautiful but I will need to make a special visit there with Chris.
We also had a great conversation with the driver about Bali, work and the general build up of tourism since the bombings.
We returned back to the Resort and negotiated the trip to 150,000RP. This was about $15USD for a 2 hour personal tour, door-to-door. Most excellent. I will use this driver again.
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