An Elephant on Our Porch

28 November 2013

Okay, a quick catch-up and then bedtime, we're going diving tomorrow.

We had a very wet day or two for our last days in Bali - we sat and had lunch and watched the football field we had just crossed turn into a lake.  Really.

We went to the DeliCat Café - complete with a cat and a painting of a cat.  In the style of Matisse.  Maybe Matisse's kitten?

Anyway, on Wednesday we got up nice and early and went to the road to wait for a ride to Padangbai, the coastal town where the boats leave for points east.  We drove for about an hour through small towns and villages, and all the rice fields in between.  Apparently the rice has several growing cycles throughout the year and can be harvested up to three times in the year, so we saw rice plants at all kinds of stages of growth.

We had time to hang around Padangbai, a small coastal town.  The day was the end of a festival period, so many people had been to a temple celebration early in the morning - you can tell because they are dressed nicely, often in white, and have a few grains of rice pressed onto their forehead and/or the hollow at the base of their neck.  (It looks like a little painting, but sort of abstract, in white on varying skin tones.)

After much confusion, because there are different boat companies going to a variety of locations, we finally boarded our boat to Lombok, heading to Senggigi.  (The g is hard, like in "spaghetti" - so the name of the town is pronounced seng-GHEE-ghee.)

It was an uneventful trip.  Until we arrived at Senggigi Beach.  Our boat kind of just pulled up toward the beach, which has a steep incline and is a very narrow beach - we had to walk along the gunwales and step onto the prow of the boat, then walk over and step down onto a chair in the wet sand - chair of course tipping and tilting due to the wet sand moving underneath.  I nearly went down.  Richard did better.  (And he doesn't like to be in photos.  But my only photos of the disembarkation process include him.  Hence the big blank.  I took his backpack out too.  Love you, sweetie!)

We've settled into our hotel (okay, but with not very good food) and found the dive operators.  We're signed up for dives tomorrow, out in the Gilis.  (Gili, GHEE-lee, just means little island.)

I have to add, we missed the first night of Chanukah so are lighting the menorah twice tonight.  While we hear the muezzin calling people to worship in the distance.  And since it's the first day of Chanukah plus Thanksgiving, I ordered the chicken kiev on the menu.  Turned out to be a very dry, tough piece of fried chicken breast.  With French fries on the side.  Of course, the server confused our meals and gave me Richard's fish and chips, which tasted like fried tofu to me.  And he was surprised at the taste of his fish.  She came over and realized our dishes were switched, so we swapped and dealt with it - just a funny dinner!

Oh, and yes, we have an elephant statue on our porch.

And that's the quick update!