Days 44 – 48: Kuta & Bukit Peninsula, Round 2

Photos:
Kuta: http://princeton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050995&l=19cc7&id=1101094
Bukit Peninsula: http://princeton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051004&l=1c4ef&id=1101094

Shortly after my conversation with Shashi, I hopped on my motorbike and rode back to Kuta, where I was meeting my Japanese friend Natsumi that night. On the way, I pulled up alongside a fellow motorbiker at a stoplight to ask for directions, but apparently that wasn’t allowed because a policeman who was standing on the corner motioned for me to pull over to the side of the road. I did so, and he asked for my drivers license and vehicle registration. You must be kidding me—you’re ticketing me for stopping to ask for directions?

I tried to get out of the ticket by saying I was a tourist and I didn’t know the rules, but the cop wasn’t having any of it. I had to pay Rp 100,000 ($10), or else appear in court the following week. I actually would have liked to see Indonesian courts in action, but seeing as I was leaving Bali in a few days that wasn’t really an option. Finally, I tried one last maneuver: bargaining. “How about I pay Rp 50,000?”

To my surprise, the policeman said ok. Well, if there was any doubt that my money was going directly into his pocket, there isn’t any now. Innocently, I asked if I could have a receipt for the ticket. Not a chance.

I reached Kuta and checked into a nice little hotel that had a pool, and then I went and picked up Natsumi from the airport. The pool closed at 11pm, but we managed to convince the hotel manager to let us go for a late night swim. Cute Japanese girls can be so persuasive.

The next morning we spent a few hours on Kuta Beach (the touts spoke to Natsumi in Japanese and were shocked when she replied in Bahasa Indonesia) and then took the motorbike down to the Bukit Peninsula. We spent the afternoon swimming and lying on the beach at Dreamland, which is now my favorite beach in the world. I saw some of my friends from my last visit to Dreamland, and all expressed relief that I had managed to bring a girl along this time.

The following morning we headed back to Kuta and on to Ubud, where we picked up my backpack, returned my motorbike, and caught a minibus back to Kuta. That night we attended the final event of the Ubud Writers Festival—a dinner with Kiran Desai. Natsumi got to talk to Kiran for a while after dinner, and I talked with Jay Thorpe, the father of one of my classmates from Princeton whom we just happened to sit beside at dinner. Jay had volunteered at the festival for the past few years, and he encouraged me to help out next year.

I took Natsumi to the airport and then headed back to Kuta. I spent the following day taking care of practical concerns, such as building my bootleg DVD collection, and then I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur.