A child-friendly hotel

Hotel Kumala Pantai is definitely a child friendly hotel. We are not the only ones staying there with small children - there are numerous little ones of about Zaria's age. Yesterday we met Ellie almost exactly the same age as Zaria, from Earl's Court in London. Zaria escorted Ellie back to our room in order to offer her the hospitality of her potty. That done, they played together for a while before Zaria got a bit possessive about her little sister and her toys and slagged Ellie off. Hey ho. The staff are all very kind too. At dinner last night the lady in charge of serving our table, picked up Freya and carried her about while we enjoyed our dinner. She told us that she had a daughter of 2 years old, who had recently been ill enough to be admitted to hospital with fever, and chesty cough etc. She works an eight hour shift every day from 16:00-12:00 midnight, then has a 30 minute motor bike / scooter ride home to her family. Kate was impressed that she had breast fed for nearly two years, and generally was doing all the "right" things. Thumbs up from Kate for the health services in Bali / Indonesia - very high praise indeed!

We spent our first morning on the beach on a couple of loungers and an umbrella for shade. You should see the surfers here - they are all handsome young men bronzed and what have you. Otherwise you can only really paddle on the edges of the waves as it is not safe to swim in the ocean. However that is luckily just about adventurous and boisterous enough for Zaria! Like at the beach resorts in Goa, there are many beach hawkers selling an amazing assortment of goods. We bought some interesting fruit we had not seen before. The woman who sold us the fruit told us that she had to buy a licence to trade on a small stretch of the beach for 450,000 rupiahs (100,000 is about US $ 10-12), and then either every quarter or every month she has to renew it for anout 350,000 rupiahs. It's a really hard life trudging up and down the beach in the hot sun, trying to sell stuff to indifferent (sometimes rude) tourists. You can also get a foot massage, a manicure or pedicure, any number of Buddha figures and other touristic stuff like bags and baskets. More workaday items are fruit, cold drinks and ice creams.

In the afternoon, we took the children indoors, out of the sun - Freya had managed to get a rosy cheek and so we were anxious hens and smeared her with Aloe Vera. However by evening we were ready for another foray, and took a walk in the gloaming around the nearby lanes, lined with little shops, getting a feel for what's on offer. The best jewellery is made of different shades of mother of pearl (ranging from white to grey to beige to charcoal grey) really beautifully worked and set in silver by local silversmiths. There are lots of tailors, internet cafes and money changers, and a nearby ATM.

I am in the process of getting two pairs of baggy cotton pants and 2 cotton shirts made with longish sleeves, ready for Timor and the battle of the Dengue - not absolutely dirt cheap, but certainly very cheap by UK standards of course. This way I can avoid the pitfall of buying the lovely but rather hippy wraparound trousers and nothing tops that are really meant for young things with less flesh than me. Kate is refusing to buy stuff even though her needs are greater than mine, because she doesn't feel back to her normal shape after Freya. I shall threaten her with my baggy pants if she's not careful!

A lovely evening, at Cafe Sand where we both ate local fish dishes. They steam the rice in a perfectly folded cone of banana leaf and it comes to the table under its leafy cone. Accompanied by some more Indonesia Anker beer, we feel that we are living the life of larry (whatever that is).