Monday, November 21, 2022

We arrived in Bali in the early afternoon. We had a dinner and Balinese excursion planned that would leave the ship at 6:15pm, so we decided that we would get off around 2:30 and take a look, maybe get a cab, whatever.
Some people like to shop, and some people enjoy haggling over the price. Not me!

We exchanged $100 into the Indonesian currency and walked out into the heat and humidity. There were drivers waving plastic pages at us, showing the sights they could take us to. We have had enough temples, and we had heard that traffic is terrible in Bali. $60 to take us anywhere. No! How about $50? No! The man kept following us around, lowering his price. We crossed the road to a shopping hut. Immediately the women pounced on us. Would I like a batik? $25? No! I decided I would use the local currency but did not have a grasp on the conversion rate. I ended up with a green sarong with an elephant in the center for around $13, I think. Maybe it was more. At that point all I wanted to do was to go back to the ship. We went for a swim in the infinity pool and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on our ship.

At 6:15pm we boarded our bus, headed for dinner and a traditional Balinese dance. The story of the dance is similar to Romeo and Juliet, except harder to understand. They also performed a fire dance. Lots of stamping at a fire with bare feet. Not sure how they did it.