FACT: Kiwis who emigrate to Australia raise the I.Q. of Both nations....Mensa
Leaving NZ today. It was nice but I'm looking forward to seeing Southeast Asia more. A long 20hr day ahead with a 7 and a half hour wait in Sydney between flights. Up at 5.30am. The flight from Auckland to Sydney is three hours. They show the latest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace during the flight. Bourne is killing Bond hands down!!
Its a beautiful day in Sydney..... so far as I can see from the observation windows in the departure lounge. Without a visa I have to stay put in the airport and there's feck all to do. The high rise city centre looms on the horizon some miles away but no sign of the harbour bridge. I spend a couple of hours updating the diary and trying to write up all the stories Kelafi told us about his life when we were on Uoleva. Apart from that you gaze out the window and watch planes take off and land. So much time travelling is spent waiting. Waiting for, planes and trains.... and ferries that may or may not show!!
The hours pass by. I read a local newspaper. The big news lately in OZ has been the huge wildfires in Victoria and the flooding in Queensland. I think the death toll in Victoria is up to 300 now. I spoke to a Sydney copper who's heading for Bali. At the height of the fires he and 300 other colleagues from this state were drafted in to assist Victoria state Police in helping with the fires. This is the first time that type of cooperation has occurred in Australia. He said at the height of the fires, flames were spreading at a rate of over 100kmh across the bone dry bushlands. Victims were incinerated to ash and the only identification possible was by finding teeth. He said it was quite difficult to cope with at times on encountering some of the tragic stories. The fact that he is now flying to Bali for a break perhaps suggests the traumas involved.
In Sydney the big news is the rise in shark attacks in the waters around the city. Three attacks have occurred in the past few weeks not counting "encounters" which have caused beaches to be closed. Water police on a body recovery in Sydney harbour had the remains snatched out of their hands by a great white and had to leave the body to the shark without any identification being made. Coogee beach was forced to close after a swimmer was "harrassed" in 1m of water.
By 5.30pm we were on the flight to Bali. I bought my round the world ticket with BA/Quantas. However Quantas have offloaded the Bali leg to Jetstar, an Aussie budget airline. They've made a profit on my ticket when I bought it now they've made an even bigger killing by dumping RTW tickets on to this no frills airline. Annoying. You have to pay for your food and on a point of principal I don't buy any of their overpriced garbage, eventhough I'm starving because I assumed there would be food on the flight so I didn't eat before boarding.
It's 10.30pm local time by the time I got to the hotel in Kuta, 22hrs since leaving the hostel in Auckland. I decided to stay here because it was handy from the airport. I drop my stuff in the room and go out to get a bite to eat and a very quick look at Kuta. I walk up one of the main streets, Legian, lined with nightclubs, restaurants, bars etc. Its warm and humid here. Such a change from NZ but not as humid as Tonga. Even so I can feel sweat roll down my back as I stroll around. The streets are busy with hawkers offering motorbike rental, hash, massages both legitimate and dodgy.
An Indonesian guy sitting in a doorstep, smoking, shouts in an Aussie accent "Allo Mate, You want transpot? "No Thanks" "You want hash?? "No Thanks" Ten yards down the street a black lad with dreadlocks and a Bob Marley vest asks the same thing. "No thanks" This continues nearly every 30-40yds. Deeply tanned, blonde Aussies and Europeans stroll up and down the street, checking out the best bars and clubs. Dance music blares into the street. But there's not huge crowds of tourists here. It isn't the high season in Bali. I pass "Ground Zero" the site of one of the notorious blasts during the bombings in 2002. A big memorial now stands on the site of the nightclub where some 200 people died. A large marble plaque lists the names of the victims by nationality.
The road is clgged with traffic. Hundreds of mopeds and motorbikes whizz around town. You can hire them anywhere. Every second guy on the street seems to be offering you one. The amount of people on mopeds is staggering. The street lighting isn't very bright in places but the road is lit by convoys of these mopeds flitting in and out between slow moving cars. A haze of exhaust fumes wafts through the town like a mist. I pass by souvenir stalls selling Bali T-shirts, fake shades etc. " Allo Mate, you wanna look?? You shopping??" I see guys around the bars hold out small green packs that appear to be sticks of wrigleys spearmint chewing gum. I wonder "What in the name of Jaysus are they selling chewing gum for??" Next time I look more closely and see "Ephedrine" on the label.
A lady gently takes hold of my arm. She smiles. "Hey Mistair, you want massage? very good price, one hour" "No Thank you" She draws closer and whispers "you want girl?" "Good price" "She young and beautiful. Twenty one, Twenty three, Twenty two...." "No Thanks" This lady was one of the more discreet madames. More often they just ask. "You want massage" "No Thanks" "Jiggy-Jig??" "What?? No Thanks". One girl passing by on a moped stops, smiles and says "Jiggy-jig??" A middle-aged woman on a moped, with a younger girl in tow slows, arches her eyebrows and says "Jiggy-Jig". Eventually you just start to laugh. Drugs, massage, jiggy-jig, shopping and mopeds, that seems to be Kuta. Of course, you always have a pint!! "Go on, Go on, Go on" "No Thanks" No Thanks" "No Thanks". This becomes the most common phrase I utter in Kuta. People say "Good Morning" I almost say "No Thanks"
No comments:
Post a Comment