Bali

Bali
It’s not difficult settling into a place like Bali. We rented motorbikes and explored the land. Makai loves the motorbike, riding up front with her paws on the handlebars. The locals can be creative in how they pack the little motorbikes. We witnessed 5 person families to the casual mobile kitchen. On one occasion we looked like locals sporting two people, surfboards, and backpacks with a dog on the handlebars. It worked fine until Makai apparently had enough. She hit the key to “Stop” with her paw, leaving us immobile on a busy highway.
About 90 minutes north of the anchorage is an area known as Ubud. It is an artist’s dream destination: laid back lifestyle with a variety of talented painters and sculptors. The main attraction is a sacred monkey sanctuary, where the Bandar-log leapt from trees to temples and climb onto visitors who trade the local currency: bananas.
Bali has more than just great surfing. The nightlife is crazy. Sky Garden, the main club, has fire dancing performances and multiple floors of bars and dancing. The down under equivalent to Cancun or Cabo San Lucas, drunken Australians inundate the streets and beaches of Kuta attempting to forget the better part of a short lived vacation.
Bribes in Indonesia are commonplace, especially with the police. During the two months I was stopped 4 times for virtually no reason and paid a ‘ticket’ anywhere from $1.50 to $10.00. Sometimes you have to know when to just pay the “fee” and stop negotiations. I was a couple days late in applying for a visa extension (an illegal immigrant). Accustom to flexible Island life, they were half-way through processing my deportation before I submitted by paying the $100 late fee.
A few days before our departure, a 6.0 earthquake rattled the city of Denpasar damaging several buildings. I talked to a couple locals about the earthquake. Even the elderly said that they have never felt anything like it. According to all our neighbor sailors we have missed the window to cross the Indian Ocean. No wind and Cyclone season is approaching. Just in time for our passage to Coco’s Keeling. Pray for wind.