The waves were so big today that we never made it past the breaks. Which means no rest or relaxation at all while in the water. It's like being in a washing machine, only with sand. The few surfers that rode them were amazing however it looked painful most of the time. We couldn't stay in the surging water for more than two hours total today.
Morgan’s clothes are a little rank and moldy, not that mine are fresh or anything. So we bought her a few new quick dry things from the vendors on our street for next to nothing. They even have sewing machines in the little family owned shops to sew between sales.
Oh but this street!! Poppies lane is about 6 meager feet wide with tiny curb sidewalks in some lucky parts of it. The vendors are lined up inside their little garages, which come right to the edge. Now this is not a one-way street. Heavens I don't know why?! Half way down it narrows so much that cars have to back up and make a ridiculous turn-around maneuver which causes major traffic jams. The motorcycles scooting by, between the jams and the only people who actually drive a “car” down Poppies Lane are the tourists who look mystified when it narrows down to just barely enough for a motorcycle to pass a line of pedestrians. Anyways, this is the little narrow street or better said Alley, of our homestay in all of its glory, and we are becoming terribly fond of it!
Shopping in Kuta is just weird. Here we are in a developing country and the stores in Kuta Square are selling loads of things not one Balinese person would ever buy nor has made, nor could afford to buy. Expensive designer clothes, dress-up ballerina kids stuff, perfume, why there is even a Starbucks. The locals who average a meager $60 month income are not the ones benefiting from “those” stores. Just one street over you’ll find the sarong sellers where you can buy a very nice button-up shirt for just $2.50, created by a Balinese person, possibly right in that store itself. So this other stuff, then, is just brought in by investors to entertain us, the tourists. One lady tells us whole families come here from Australia just to buy the kids school clothes because it's so much cheaper. I think that is a great help to their economy but only when it’s actually from their little family stores though, not the others.
Shopping in Kuta is just weird. Here we are in a developing country and the stores in Kuta Square are selling loads of things not one Balinese person would ever buy nor has made, nor could afford to buy. Expensive designer clothes, dress-up ballerina kids stuff, perfume, why there is even a Starbucks. The locals who average a meager $60 month income are not the ones benefiting from “those” stores. Just one street over you’ll find the sarong sellers where you can buy a very nice button-up shirt for just $2.50, created by a Balinese person, possibly right in that store itself. So this other stuff, then, is just brought in by investors to entertain us, the tourists. One lady tells us whole families come here from Australia just to buy the kids school clothes because it's so much cheaper. I think that is a great help to their economy but only when it’s actually from their little family stores though, not the others.
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