Shop till you drop

Today we decided to get our basic shopping out of the way. We took a taxi to the new Discovery Shopping centre, thinking that this would be where Balinese people buy their sheets and towels and general household goods. Goodness gracious me, were we ever wrong. This is a very modern air conditioned shopping mall on three floors with all the designer outlets you have ever heard of, and no bargain basement in sight. Although not quite what we expected we succumbed to the lure of the shops - purchasing numerous towels, some "non-hippy trousers" for Kate to go to work in from Giordano's and a couple of cubic metres of disposable nappies. We are holding on the issue of bed sheets until we are sure of the nature of the beds to be made up - Kate's boss to be arrives from Timor today and will meet Kate for a catch-up - it will be interesting to find out whether he has such details at his fingertips.

We stopped at one of the several coffee shops to drink iced tea sitting next to a group of mature New Zealanders on holiday. I hadn't expected New Zealanders to be quite like that. Hmm. The international flavour of this place is very striking. There are vacationers from all over, though very few from Australia compared to before, and we have been told that more holiday makers come from Europe than anywhere else these days. Zaria has a new "best friend" called Alex, who at 18 months, swims like a fish, has a Polish born-and-bred mother and an Argentinian father. Alex is already built like a mini-surfer boy with wide shoulders and sun-bleached blonde hair! He wears the right sort of shorts. His parents are working on one of the Indonesia Islands and come to Bali for rest and recreation.

This afternoon was spent at the swimming pool, and this evening we plan a walk along the beach and dinner at a little Greek place that has been recommended to us. Tomorrow, we plan some expeditions into the interior - butterflies and reptiles will be our target.