I finished my dental treatments here...i had painful 2 root canals with crowns that needed completed..i paid $200 each (would probably be $1600 in the states each)..the dentist i went to has been here 25 years and services most all the people living here from EU, Au, USA, Japan, etc....he has a remarkable reputation and about 20 assistants that he delegates alot of the dental work to (Dr. Indra, Jl. Patimura 19 Denpasar - Bali Tel : (62 361) 222 445, 234 375).
Ive been stayin in Legian which is a busy place with tons of restaurants, salons, massage spas, stores, internet cafes, bars, etc...it is right by the beach basically, but it seems to be about 1 square mile.....being on the beach allows me to still get away from it all, but be very near all the action and entertainment and other travelors from around the world.....i can go sit down by the water and only hear the waves and not hear the traffic or noises of the city...i have rented a scooter for about $3/day that has a surfboard rack, so i go find surf each morning within 45minute scooter ride.....thousands of scooters on the roadways here...most families only own one scooter if they are lucky and their whole family of 3, 4, or 5 can be seen riding on one scooter all the time together, its cute....not wearing helmuts is not soo cute though....i bought a great helmut today and I bought my taxi driver a little helmut for his 8year old boy (about $8-$12 for a kid helmut!), his boy didn't have a helmut because they are too expensive on his salary of $50/month working 29 days a month....I am learning how the people here work soooo hard every day doing various jobs:taxi, server, security, selling retail etc...and they never can get ahead, never, never, never..because they already work 12 hours each day and never take a day off just to live there current lifestyle...We are sooooooo damn spoiled in our country of opportunities....if these people came over with their work ethic, they would probably all be multimillionaires.......they can't even get ahead or save $10 a month, but then again who says our way is better, maybe they are more fufilled and happy?......I took one 45year old taxi driver to the movie with me for his first time ever, and a movie is only $1.50 here (it was some lame movie with Laura croft in it)...it seemed he felt out of place in the fancy shopping mall and theatre...(there are tons of HIGH priced stores here in Bali, BIG BIG money places for tourists and the Wealthy indonesians (top 5% only probably)....it is easy to live here and spend Thousands of dollars each month with soo many things to buy and see and do for those that want to spend a ton....The daily lifestyle for me is getting more and more fun the more i learn about a different culture and continue to be more and more grateful for my gift of life....i must say, the Balinese are very family oriented and have an amazingly trusting culture.....the Hindu religion is soooo prominant here that I see ceremonies going on every day every where i look....i think this emmersion of religion in a culture keeps people more honest..crime is very very low here, different feeling then Central America.
I went out to eat dinner with two local Indonesian girls, they were very fun to chat with, both speak english well, they took me to a hip local joint...only friends though as they have boyfriends....i met them at the Lombok Triatholon i did nov/07..Delphi and Ratna.
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