Bali 2008 - November 30

I think the flight and the time change is catching up to us. Everyone is tired this morning, and having a hard time getting going. After breakfast, I headed out with my camera to photograph plants and flowers. By the time I got back, the kids were hungry, so we went to Ibu Putu's for lunch again. It is close by (about a 2 minute walk), cheap (about $10 or less for all of us to stuff ourselves), and the food and service are always great.

Afterwards, we walked down the steps (great for the abs!) and a short way down the road to Sama Sama Shop. The ground floor has the usual tourist items - postcards, t-shirts, cigarettes, beer & water - but if you go up to the top floor, you find the office, where you can order almost anything made from fabric. I had brought a dress I wanted them to copy, and Lace brought a pair of pants. They didn't have fabric we liked, but told us to come back with fabric, and the charge to make our clothes would be 50,000 per piece - less than $5 each.

We decided to go to the market again, and along the way Jake announced he needed a bathroom. We stopped at Bumbu Bali, another of our favorite restaurants. They have nice restrooms, and a delicious lemon-lime float called Lemon Heaven, and as we were all hot from our walk, this seemed like the best thing to do. We were quite disappointed to learn that they did not have the "lemon sorbet" (lime sherbet) that goes in the float, so we each got a Mickey Mouse (Coke float) instead, then continued to the market.

We like to hit the market around 4:00 or later, because it closes at 5:00 and there are great deals to be had if you venture deep inside where most tourists don't go. Some of the stalls in the upper floor and in the back don't get any customers for days, so you can usually get "morning price" at closing time. Morning price usually only applies to the first sale of the day, and is pretty much the cheapest price you can get. Sometimes the shopkeeper doesn't say anything about it, but you know it is their first sale when they take your money and touch items in the shop with it. This is supposed to bring them luck and more sales, and it's a sad thing to see at closing time.