I say entrepreneurial because there is no other word to describe him. Constantly in motion, his head swivelling back and forth his eyes darting around checking out everything that is happening. He found me looking for a singlet yesterday, "What you looking for mister? I get it for you". It had started to rain quite heavily. "You stay here, you want Bintang shirt, extra large, yeah?" (cheeky bugger, even if he's right). So, I'm standing under shelter while he runs along from shop to shop grabbing selections and presenting them to me. No, not pink thank you. "Okay you wait here, I get another one". I eventually settle on one and then he asks me if I need a bike. When I say I don't ride motorcycles, "No problem, I take you." "Okay 10 o'clock then."
The next morning I'm a few minutes late and I find him at the hotel entrance hopping from foot to foot with a worried expression on his face, "I thought you gone already." I say that I'm only a couple of minutes late. "I been twice already" he says with a relieved grin.
We head to Pantai Seger. Awe inspiring views. Then to Tanjung A’an, once again, spectacular coastline. I go for a swim here and leave him to guard the bike and my belongings under the shade of tree. I fire up the iPad for him and head for the water. It's idyllic - bath water warm, azure clear and still as a lake, dozens of giggling, laughing kids. After about half an hour I head back and Andy keeps me waiting another 15 minutes while he 'finishes his game'.
We head back to Kuta and I buy him a meal and we share a beer while we settle up. I take a few photos with the cactus and they're a bit disappointed that I won't leave it with them. If you ever come to Kuta and want to have gifts to give out, make it blow up cactii.
You are a trusting soul glad he didnt let you down Tx
ReplyDeleteI saw him in the street later on that night and he had a bit if a story. We had hit a pothole pretty hard coming back. It had cracked the base of the fender. There is no insurance to be had in Kuta. When I paid him for the day I gave him an extra 50,000 rupiah saying that it should cover any repair costs and if he didn't have to pay it can be a bonus. His story when I saw him in the evening was that the repairs had cost him 100,000 rupiah, leaving him just 2,000 rupiah profit for the day. So, did I want to go to the west of Kuta tomorrow, it was further to the beach so it would cost a bit more, he had no money for Tahun Baru (New Year), etc. I left him to it.
ReplyDeleteOops! Make that 20,000 rupiah profit.
DeleteLooks beautiful Doo.
ReplyDelete