Three girls + two drunk Aussies = a very entertaining evening!
Before arriving on the Gili islands I had a night at Seminyak in Bali, just up the road from party central Kuta, it was the cheapest place to hang out while I decided on my next move.
When my new friend friends Ines and Pauline and I arrived in our guest house we were instantly greeted by two Australian ex pats, Dave and Ray, who were sat outside their room drinking Bintang (the local beer) at 10am in the morning. Very friendly and very entertaining as they had fake ‘maritals’ over who was getting the next beer.
We were planning on getting a taxi to Jimboran for what Pauline had described as the best fresh fish she had ever tasted last time she was in Bali. The Aussie expats told us with growing tourists, the price had gone up and quality down!
Cue deep Aussie accent… ‘For good fish at a good price ya gota go down to Batu Balig, I’ll call them now and book you a table, they have the best lobster and tiger prawns you’ve ever tasted.’ Ray slurred. By this time it was later in the afternoon and the Bintang drinking had changed to Whisky.
Despite their intoxicated state we decided to take them up on their advice and later hopped in a taxi to this world class fish restaurant. The restaurant was down a quiet dark road, but arriving inside it was full to bursting with other tourists and expats. A busy restaurant is always a good sign.
We waited for them to take our order and shortly after the two drunk Aussie’s turned up ‘oh no please don’t sit with us’ I muttered under my breath and well they didn’t, they waved hello and sat at a table the other side of the room. We ordered our chicken satay and tiger prawns, which were delicious, but after waiting 20 minutes for the bill we started to get rather restless. After 2 hours sleep at Singapore Full Moon party the previous night I just wanted a taxi and bed.
‘The two men have paid for your meal’ said the waiter. We turned around to see the two Aussie’s grinning at us. Not only had they paid for our meal, but after recommending the place for prawns they rang up to find they had no prawns left and so went out to buy some prawns and bring them to the restaurant for them to cook for us … WOW! What awesome guys.
We thanked them and joined them for a couple of drinks in a local bar, which they also paid for. Dave decided to snort some salt, drink a tequila shot and squirt lime in his eye, much to the entertainment of us. He then danced to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, played live by a local band who weren’t half bad, while Ray regaled us with stories of life as an expat in Bali. As Ray started to move a little too close for comfort it was time to make a swift exit.
A free tasty dinner and two old drunk Aussie men for entertainment … what more could a girl ask for?
NB: Though it was a lot of fun to hang out with these pissed as farts old men, it really seemed to be a true insight into what a lot of Bali is now about … thousands of ex-pats, retiring to ‘live the life’ or moving over to live a ‘zen’ life with yoga and ayurvedic food. Not much Indonesian culture left on this island … do you agree?
