Couldn't resist adding a little to my earlier post. It is now 10 pm and what a lot we have seen and done already! Can it really only be day one?!
I think one of the coolest things we learned today was that there are three calendars used in Bali. The Gregorian calendar (the one we use), the moon calendar, and the Balinese calendar. The moon calendar is as you would guess based on the full moon cycles and the Balinese calendar is based on something altogether different. The really interesting thing about this calendar is that if we consider today's date on that calendar we are officially time travellers but in a very different direction that you might think. When we flew here we travelled ahead in time based on our Gregorian calendar but when we look at the Balinese traditional calendar.....it is currently 1938! Yes thats right folks. My mom and dad would have been just 5 years old right now and here I sit in Balinese 1938. Very cool!
We learned this new bit of information (along with a wealth of other stuff) from Julie who lives just a couple doors down from where we are and who does some work for Pasek when he needs help with anything like communicating with guests or putting together english brochures etc. Julie has lived here for 8 years (originally from London England) and spent the first 3 1/2 years just upstairs from where Lynda and I are right now. That space is regularly a long term rental and in fact there is a couple coming into it from Spain for the next 6 months.
Another funny thing that happened today was when Lynda and I decided to stop in for a reflexology treatment. We had a great treatment and at the end of our 30 minutes we paid our 80,000 IDR ($8 CAD). Before we had a chance to leave there was a woman who came into the shop asking for a one hour treatment with a guy who was just finishing work for the day. He explained that the most he could do was 30 minutes and she said no...she wanted an hour because an hour is only 100,000 and so why would she want just the 30 minutes for 80,000. He suggested that she could talk to the other guy (the one who had just finished working on me) to see if he was able to do an hour. She said No, she wanted the guy she wanted and she wanted an hour and if it had to be just 30 minutes she wanted to only pay 50,000. At this point all I could think was "really?! It's just 3 dollars difference lady!" And just as I was thinking that she turned to me and asked if that guy did a good job. I replied that sure he did at which time Lynda said....actually no, he wasn't that good. I thought Lynda must be losing it! Why would she joke like that and potentially cost this very nice reflexology man a potential client?! But Lynda continued and said again....he really isn't that good. I decided the safe thing for me to do was to just say nothing more as obviously one of the two of us was losing it and I was pretty sure it wasn't me! The lady finally decided to take her leave of the shop and which time Lynda and the guy and the other girl who works there burst into laughter. I hadn't been able to see the guy as the lady was blocking my view of him but as he was behind her back and in full view of Lynda he was gesturing that he didn't want to work on her at all. He further explained once the lady was gone that she is not a good person and that she and her friend won't even say hello when they pass by the shop. He said that he only works on people who have good energy (so I'm guessing we must have some good energy!). Honestly it was so funny and we laughed and laughed with the staff in the shop promising to return again another day....and we will!
You may think that is the end of the story but....when we went out for dinner tonight guess who came into the restaurant and sat at a table right beside us? Yes...it was that very odd woman and her equally unfriendly friend. As luck would have it they behaved just as the guy in the reflexology shop said they would and they didn't say hello or even acknowledge that we were there. Again....we laughed and laughed.....yep......Bali is all good! :-)
Now that really is enough for today. Still can't believe this is just the end of day one1
Till next time,
L & L
No comments:
Post a Comment