changes.... going through changes....

ahhh bali. i am going through changes in bali. the dirt and grime of india has been washed off in the outdoor showers and been replaced by motorcycle rides and frangipani. the hindu culture here is going strong with offerings outside of all the house and stores and restaurants all day long. little palm leaves turned into boxes filled with flowers and sweet smelling incense smoke. the people have the most amazing smiles and the $2 meals come prettily plated on tablecloths with fresh organic ingredients.

so many things have happened but ill focus on yesterday while i can remember it :) jenny flew in the day before and we did some swimming in a private stone pool and then explored monkey forest. she crashed early from the jet lag and i ended up hanging on the stone ground with the members of an indonesia rock band, playing charades and drinking homemade vanilla vodka. the vodka left me sleeping in late followed by some papaya and cappuccino and then late to drive south to the beach. we grabbed sarongs and suits only to discover that we werent heading back to ubud that day, although we did end up coming home at 4 or 5 in the morning, after planning to go stay in some bungalows and then changing to shared bedrooms in an amazing beachside compound, that switched again to passing out in noel's bright green car. but anyway.

so we roll down to the beach in kuta, which is bali's version of i dont know where... but somewhere that is covered in clubs and vacationers. i mean COVERED in clubs. all down the beach is just club after club speckled with some shopping and followed by a club. its sort of disgusting and sort of amazing at the same time. we decided to park at some friend named issa's house who turns out to be bizzaro willy shultz and is drunk off his ass in the early afternoon when we arrived. now i had ended breakfast with a margarita so this was fine with me and we grabbed beers and headed to the beach where i ended up not having the patience to change into a suit and stormed the waves in my undies. i love bali :) the water is turqoise and the sand is soft. people come along and offer you pedicures while you tan. i have however been splurging on almost daily $5 massages and spa treatments so i passed. too bad.

after the sun went down we showered at his jungle sprawl - i cant call it a mansion if it consists of about 7 buildings, connected by candlelit paths of stone and jungle but whatever - and made plans to head over to his mom's on the cliffs... but me being me i got distracted by the easter eggs his dad and little brother were dying. his dad by the way was just as hot and like all hot older men here was living with some young balinese girl :) i love it.

so anyway, confused by the beers we headed to his mom's only to remember that robbie (the indonesian rock star) who is lakota noel's sister's boyfriend's band was playing at a mall. so we turned to the mall. the "mall" ended up being an actual mall but actually situated on the actual beach. i mean huge. on the beach. i dont know how they managed to secure such a property but it meant the concert was surrounded by waves and filled with young indonesian punk kids who were so cute mashing around. they killed it and we drank more beer and had a birthday dinner for robbie during which i drunkenly bartered my way into a pair of fake gucci stunners for a couple bucks after repeatedly knocking over all the displays. it was hilarious for me and confusing for the sales lady. embarrassed we headed to the bathroom where a little girl was standing on top of the toilet taking a shit with the door open while about 8 people waited in line. we quickly left there and i found myself in louis vuitton where everything was only about $5 so i think the black market is allowed to have stores in malls which is also confusing, and then back to the beach.

we forgot about issa's mom's headed back to his dad's for a little moonlight skinny dipping. which was actually amazing. of course we all know when im drinking all i want to do is swim but this was one of the most beautiful pools ive gotten to be in. first off its long like a lap pool going from shallow to deep while all along the left side is the width of another pool but shallow for laying around and then rolling into the deep. in the middle of the marble perimeter grows a frangipani tree that drops its flowers into the water and makes everything smell like god. hee hee. bali is the most sensual place i have ever been. it beats italy. so we made crowns of flowers and swam around the floating candles and i felt as though i had had an amazing night and was ready for sleep. however, after getting out and enjoying some "treats" we decided to dress again and head to the club. which club im not sure but the first one was cheesy and filled with what i think were escorts of both the sexes. the music blew so we wandered down to some place where people were wearing indian headresses and the music was much more jump around. so we jumped around... i have been missing going out dancing so much travelling through india - ive had to resort to dancing around with my ipod - so this gave me back all the energy drinking all day drained and then we continued to dance through the late night warm downpour and back into the pool where maybe i passed out for little bit on a couch and then somehow found myself back in the green car heading to ubud.

today we go to a balinese wedding. they file their teeth down the day before the wedding because it supposedly takes the "animal" out of people so they stay faithful. im not so sure i have much faith in the so-called faithful, but i hear there are lots of flowers so i am excited.