Galloping ponies and Thanksgiving

The seafood has been great here in Gili Air. Yesterday we had excellent fish tacos, and the night before Catheleen had Mahi Mahi in a garlic sauce for dinner which she said was good. Today before the sun had set we went out to get some gelato ice cream. Along the way we saw today's catch on display for dinner at one of the restaurants. The seafood included multi-coloured parrot fish and bright red grouper fish. We've done some snorkelling off the beach over the last couple of days and I'm pretty sure we saw similar fish while they were alive. Catheleen said she wasn't interested in eating the fish after seeing them swim among the coral, but don't think I mind. 

This afternoon we witnessed how some of the fish are caught as we sat on the beach enjoying lunch. About six men, each with 25 foot poles, waded out about 100 meters through the shoals up to their waists and cast their lines into the deeper blue water. This is the same place we were snorkelling earlier and the fishermen were sharing the space with other snorklers. 

Today's activities were pretty low key after we slept in. The kids could barely make it for breakfast at the hotel before breakfast ended at 10:00 a.m.  I could barely return the bikes we rented yesterday before they were due at 9:30 a.m. I think this place makes it hard to get going. I mean, I could go running, but ...meh. We tried to go snorkelling today on a glass bottom boat but we were too late for today's outing, so we scheduled this activity for tomorrow. We'll somehow need to make it to the rendezvous tomorrow morning before 9:30 a.m. I'm not sure we're going to make it.

Today we saw one of the horse drawn carts galloping along with a couple of tourists in the back. Where were they hurrying too? The gelato place? They're not running out of ice cream. I saw a sign today that sums up the feeling of this little island for me, "Beer is not the answer, it's the question. The answer is yes". It might be tough to get back into that whole work thing after this trip is over. 

We ended up at my favourite spot from two days before, where we again staked our claim to a bamboo platform under a tree next to the beach. We rented our snorkelling gear from the guy next door and enjoyed the day snorkelling and relaxing. Elizabeth spent most of the day on the beach catching crabs the size of her thumb nail. They blended in with the sand, but she would walk around to get them to move, and then she would catch one inside an overturned shell before releasing it.

We stocked up on cash before we arrived at this island, which turned out to be wise move since the few ATMs here don't want to dispense us anything. While at the ATM today trying all our cards we saw a posted note from some dispirited traveller saying that the machine didn't return her VISA, and asked the operator to return it to her. Next to this note was another note from a different traveler that said she had the lady's VISA and provided her an address to pick it up. There were no other notes but I hope it all worked out. I can imagine it must be very tough to lose your card, especially if it is your only source of cash. That's a cautionary tale for all travellers - always have a backup plan if your card is swallowed. 

So this weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada and it makes us think of home. While I understand the weather is a little cold and wet in Ottawa this weekend, it still would be nice to spend time with family and friends. Catheleen and I reminisced today about past Thanksgivings at the farm in Mayo, Quebec, where we enjoyed the hospitality and company of family, enjoyed the farm and surroundings, and experienced the fall coloured leaves. We'll need to have something for dinner tomorrow night in celebration. No turkey here though so we'll need to stick to Nasi Goreng (fried rice with chicken), and perhaps pretend it's turkey with stuffing. Or maybe we'll just have the fish. 

Here's a foot selfie.

Hawkers and fat burgers

While we're having a good, relaxing time on the whole, there are regular annoyances. The beach is the great selling feature of Legian. Otherwise the area is a bit too touristy for us with little to offer in the way of local culture. The hawkers are everywhere we go and a constant irritant. I suppose they get enough business to make their sales approach worthwhile. Sitting on the beach, I am asked to purchase either a watch, sunglasses, hat, ice cream or massage on a rotating basis. I'm pretty sure the same guy who had asked me to purchase a hat an hour ago asked me again. Another guy asked John if he wanted a henna tattoo with a typical sales approach- "Boy! Tattoo?". John laughed afterwards and thought it was odd that the seller thought he would have the money or decision making power for that.

The ATMs have been another pain here in Indonesia. It took awhile to catch on, but I learnt that the ATMs from the big three banks don't work for me. In fact, one of these banks would not only not give me the cash, but would debit my account anyway. Only after two or three business days would my account be credited back the amount. Since then I've learned that I can use some of the ATMs in the convenience stores to take out small amounts at a time in small bills. After getting enough cash to last a few days my wallet was so thick I couldn't close it anymore. 

Well, I think that's enough whining. I mean, we are here in Bali after all. On Monday the kids couldn't go surfing as planned since the water was too rough. But we enjoyed our time at the beach anyway, and enjoyed venturing into the waves up to our knees. When we went any further the lifeguard would whistle at us to get out. He warned us there was a riptide right where we were, but if we moved down the beach a hundred feet or so we would be okay to go in up to our waist. On Tuesday afternoon the weather wasn't quite as rough so we rented a surfboard for John and a boogie board for Elizabeth. After an hour John had enough with surfing so we switched him over to a boogie board too. Catheleen and I also tried the boogie boarding, but after a short while I was happy to sit in a lounge chair under an umbrella and watch the kids fill their shorts with sand in their attempts to ride the waves. They had fun but I'm sure we'll hear all about the war wounds later. 

A few nights ago we were at the Fat Bowl restaurant for dinner, which offered some pretty good meals by the way. A couple of Australian guys at the next table each ordered the Fat Burger, which consisted of a one kilogram beef patty on a bun the size of a dinner plate. Their buddies were egging them on, but they each only managed to consume about half the burger. They didn't look like they were feeling too well afterwards. Last evening at a local restaurant we noticed suckling pig on the menu, which is a local specialty. With one or two days notice and a minimum of eight people, you too could arrange for a whole roasted pig, head to tail. Sure enough a large group at the restaurant had ordered the pig, which was served with an apple in its mouth. I personally don't like my dinner looking back at me, but to each his own.

Back to the newspaper, the Jakarta Post is just a head shaker every time I pick it up. There are continual stimulus plans in the works to boost the Indonesian economy, even though it is growing at around 5%. I guess that's just not good enough. One scheme is to grant amnesty to all those convicted of tax evasion, fraud, etc. so the perpetrators are incented to bring their ill-gotten gains home from abroad. A lot of it resides in Singapore. The thinking is the government could take its 15% tax on the repatriated money to help boost their coffers and help fund stimulus efforts.  I'm not sure this will deter future law breakers but the government must only be planning one step at a time.

Another crazy story involves shenanigans between the police and the Corruption Eradication Commission, which has been in operation for the last ten years and appears to have done some good work prosecuting graft cases. It's well trusted among the general population in any case. The commission has been rooting out corruption within the police department for years, but the police regularly retaliate by bringing charges against the commissioners. The latest row has two commissioners charged for alleged fraud committed years ago when the commissioners were lawyers defending or prosecuting clients. The charges are likely based on fabricated evidence if the police's past actions are any indication. The current president was elected last year on an anti-corruption platform, so this appears to be a test for him. He can protect the commissioners by directing the Attorney General to dismiss the cases. But by doing so, the police could always come after him on charges of one sort or another with the potential for impeachment action. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.