Travel Talk

Breaking My Own Travel Tips, Whoops

Only yesterday I write about common sense travel tips, then go break them.

I walked half way across the beach to get a cheaper lunch, truth be told the $$$ has very little to do with it but most of these people charge me “foreigner” prices and I’m no tourist. Visa extensions are cheap and I have no ticket out of here so I resent being over charged for any reason.

So I walk to this place where they treat me like a person who wants food and knows the price. They are out but say come back in 10 minutes. Same time, ZTE cell phones Indonesia is having a huge party on Kuta Beach, Bali to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. They are auctioning new 3G cell phones. Somehow from going for lunch I am in a bidding war with this Chinese guy and of course, I crush him offering max bid.

The max bid was 500,000Ru or ~$50US for a retail priced 900,000Ru or ~$90 I get the phone, show my friends but it’s not GSM so useless to me and my collection of sim cards from strange lands. I go back ya ya ya ya they try and unlock but no dice, so I return it after a few hours of this and that.

If you carry wads of cash on you(5-10X daily expenditure needs), this type of thing happens. If you have your daily quota and some “emergency” $$$, this type of thing never happens. Do I care I don’t have it? Sorta, it was a sick phone at an even sicker deal but as the French would say “c’est la vie”.

A great day, was up LATE last night buying stocks until 4am local time when my batter died. Make money your slave, don’t be a slave to money. Half my equity related funds were sitting around on break for the last while, drinking coffee, gossiping about useless shat while eating baloney sandwiches and smoking cigarettes. I quickly put half of that lazy gang back to work with great vigor and zeal.

Get back and some friends are stumbling home drunk, we hang out, then go to the beach at 6:AM to see sun rise and whatnot. Supposedly a lady died that morning ~ 1 hour after we left. The surfers I hang out with said they saw her, just standing near the ocean fully clothed for 30 minutes staring into the waves. Then they came back and she was gone, 1 hour later she washed up on shore, fully clothed with all her belongings. People are assuming it is a suicide, that is sad.

Did not surf today, was busy trying to get the phone working, did do some bungee trampoline which was alright and came free with the purchase, hooray! Also supposedly the current is really strong now. A younger guy I hang with who lives here says 3 times he has been pulled to sea and rescued by someone on a surfboard where both paddled as hard as they could to return. He says once it starts pulling you it just keeps pulling you until you’re “lost at sea”, he said it is terrifying. Creepy stuff, yes? If the guys who rent you the boards are your friends and they say the current is too strong, don’t be a hero or you’ll end up like the joker, dead.

It’s Saturday and I’m tired, may check this and that out as I’m nocturnal to sync my life with the TSX & NYSE while avoiding the mid day which is just blisteringly hot. I’m also sure my skin thanks me, a friend woke up with blisters on his nose the other day, he looked like a cross between a an old red nosed drunkard and Rudolph.

I have much to say but nothing now. Oh I will end with this, Christmas in Bali feels more like Spring Break than Christmas. My only regret is not being able to have Xmas dinner with my family and attend a slew of ridiculous Christmas parties that would sadly be tarnished by arriving with wet feet and a cold chill. Winter truly sucks and snow is only good on the mountains in my opinion.

Tips fictitious hat, good day.

P.S: There is a reggae concert on the beach tonight, started an hour ago. Regardless if you are here for 1 week, 1 month, 1 year. It’s always best to just relax during the week and peruse the night life on weekends.

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