Friday the 17th August 2012
Matt's Diary Page
If you read our last blog, you will know we met an Australian man, in his 60' traveling on his own, called Pierre (or Peter, as he is called by his family!?).
We have booked a car (and agreed a price) to take us on a trip to see a few temples and a holy banyan tree, that the road actually goes through!
We are talking to Peter at breakfast and Netty say's to me, 'Shall we ask him if he'd like to join us?'. First of all I say no, than Netty feels sorry for him, and makes me feel guilty, so we invite him along.
The driver turns up and as soon as he gets out the car Peter is trying to negotiate a better price and a different route to the one we have planned! (argh!). The driver is a little p...ed off to say the least, as are we! He says he needs to 'buy' something on the way!
We set of to Medewi, a tiny little beach. On the way, Peter asks the driver to drop him off at a house, which turns out to be off the main road we are driving down, again the driver is not happy and neither are we. It wouldn't be too bad if he was nice about it, he's actaully being quite rude to the driver. Peter can speak a little Indonesian, so we don't know everything he is saying to the driver, but you can tell from his tone, that he is winding the driver up, and so in turn, us too. We eventually find the house he is looking for. We now realise that it is not shopping he wants to buy, it's drugs!
We apologize to the driver and explain to him that we only met him yesterday in the hotel, we didn't want him to think he was a friend of ours! He just kept saying, 'he is crazy!', we certainly couldn't disagree!
We pop and have a look at Medewi beach, while 'he' does his 'shopping'! When we collect him, he is a little calmer and less agitated.
The driver is really good and tries very hard, with his limited english, to explain the scenary and what is growing in the area as we go, that is, when Peter stops talking for long enough for him to do so.
We arrive at our first temple of the day. It costs 10,000rps to enter (70p), Peter say's he will go and get a drink as he has not got much cash on him! We put our sarongs on (which we now carry with us most of the time, as some temples will charge you, to borrow one) and look around the temple which is really nice as it overlooks the sea. We head back to the car, no sign of Peter! He's still in the cafe! We have to walk down a load of steps, in the midday heat to get him!
As we drive to the banyan tree, the driver stops and shows us another smaller temple and spice drying on the roadside on sheets of plastic. Cloves, coffee beans and coco beans are all grown in the area. Everytime we stop, Peter jumps out of the car. He's not eager to see what we want to see, he wants to find the nearest shop (or stall) that will sell him some 'arak', a very strong spirit made from rice! We get to the banyan tree, which is quite amazing, and Peter eventually gets his arak, not the legal sort, it would seem. This has been decanted into plastic water bottles, which he preceeds to drink on route! (He did offer us some, but midday drinking isn't really our thing,(believe it or not, not in this heat anyway!).
We pay 5.000rps to see the tree. Netty asked the driver who the money goes to, as the tree is just in the middle of the road, it doesn't seemed to be 'owned' by anyone. Apparently, the villagers get it, which is good to know.
Just before we get to the last temple of the day, we are starting to get hungry. The driver knows where he would like us to have lunch, he will probably get a 'back-hander' if we eat there, because that's how things work out here. We ask him if it is expensive, after our last experince, we are not falling for it again, he say's it's not too expensive. Peter is not happy with this arrangment and as we drive through a small town, 'tells' the driver to stop! We are outside some food stalls on the street and he's out of the car, like a shot. 'Look Matt we could eat here, it will be cheap' he say's, pointing at a grotty cart selling goat kebabs. Considering Netty is no longer eating meat, I don't think this will go down to well. I put my arm around his shoulder and tell him to 'just calm down, you are being a bit too pushy'. He doesn't take this tback in too well and get's back in the car, slamming the door behind him saying,' well I didn't ask him to stop here', Netty and I both say in unison, 'yes you did!'. His face was a picture! He was a little queiter after this!
We get to the last Buddist temple, but again Peter doesn't come in, he heads across the road to another food stall, (munchies, maybe?!)
The buddist temple is pretty amazing compared to the others we have seen today, it's smaller, but a lot newer. We get given a sarong to put on and are shown around by some chap! I say to Netty I bet we get stung gor this, no one does anything ofr nothing and we have paid nothing to enter. Netty has seen a donation box though. When we leave, sure enough the chap puts out his had for a 'donation'. I give him 50,000rps (3.30p) as that is the smallest note (other than a 10,000 which we thought was a little too mean) that I have. Netty pops to the loo and the chap goes up to our driver and shows him what I have given him. The driver tells me we have given him too much money for his talk! It just goes to show, they are not all as corrupt, as we have been lead to beleive!
We too, have a quick lunch in the shop across the road. By this time I think the driver will just be glad to get rid of us and he's not bothered that he will not be taking us to the restaurant he wanted to!
Peter reclines his seat and sleeps on the way back, peace at last.
We come back via the paddy fields, beautifully terraced and moslty filled with water. It really is something, as they are still all farmed by hand.
When we return to the rooms at the Bintang Balian, Peter is out of the car like a scolded cat, - he has some phone calls to make! He didn't offer to pay anything towards the taxi, nor did he thank the driver. We apologize to the driver once more, who says 'it's fine, he's crazy'!
Can you be too nice? We think so!! Lesson learnt!
