Bali, Part II (Seminyak, ku de ta and the camera)

Since the official purpose of our trip to Bali was to celebrate Liz's birthday, we decided to have one special night out in Seminyak with dinner and drinks at ku de ta, a renowned lounge / restaurant hotspot that over the past 10 years has earned something of a cult following among the jetset (at least, the small fraction of which we have exposure to via INSEAD). Think buddha bar 15 years ago, but in a balmy island location.

We hopped in a cab and asked him to bring us to ku de ta, but on the way over we drove down a shopping strip in Seminyak that made Liz's eyes pop out of her head in a cartoonish way (like Wile E. Coyote chasing a new bikini). So, after verifying that we were close to the restaurant we stopped and got out of the cab. After 20 minutes of the most joyful experience of any man's life - listening to his wife / girlfriend / fiancee gripe as she tries on bikinis - Liz finally found something suitably scintillating and we were able to go on to our meal, now 15 minutes late.

Unfortunately, we were not quite as close as we thought we'd be, and had to wander along the mean streets of Seminyak, the shadowy resorts hiding untold numbers of Austro- and Eurotrash out to rob us of the authenticity of our experience. After this oh-so harrowing journey we arrived, sat down and relaxed with a bit of Champagne - a true celebratory luxury for us, given the frequency of consumption we had come to enjoy in France and the vein-itching withdrawal we went through in Sin-tax heavy Singapore.

Liz rekindling the relationship with her long-lost friend, Champagne

Since our night out happened to fall on Chinese New Year's Eve, we were treated to a dancing dragon wandering the establishment and making friends with / scaring the hell out of the patrons.

After a surprisingly good meal, we decided to wander around, champagne glasses in hand, and explore the surroundings. Seminyak is located on the western coast of Bali, where the big, crashing waves appeal more to surfers and singles than to the sexagenarians of Sanur. ku de ta is located right on this tumultuous beachfront, with a large courtyard looking out on the ocean, and effect lighting to illuminate the waves at night... an enchanting experience. As Liz and I stood in this glamorous location, a waft of Vogue-era Madonna came over us and 20 minutes of silly posing began, with the disastrous results captured below.

Wind gets in the way of Liz's serious Voguery...

...while I perform the best Legong dance ever attempted by someone in pink pants

Through all this free-spirited, champagne-addled pageantry and spectacle I kept a tight grip on our trusty Canon G7, an amazing (if slightly bulky) P&S/SLR hybrid that my parents had given us a few years ago. Strapless and missing a few screws (no, I'm not talking about Liz in a sundress), the camera had faithfully accompanied us on many a voyage. But my poses began to battle Liz's poses, and with a single errant collision our beloved camera flew through the air and crashed against the stone floor, pieces strewn about our feet. The loss of our camera in such a dramatic fashion was a blow so flooring, so heart-shattering, so devastating that Liz started crying...although I suspect the tapped Veuve Cliquot bottle may have also had something to do with the tears. Unfortunately, the night ended with me doing my best to calm Liz down, asking everyone we could for recommendations on nearby camera repair shops (to no avail), and figuring out what we were going to do without a camera on our trip the next day to Ubud and the volcanoes.

The morning after came, and the combination of champagne hangover and camera mourning made us decide to postpone our adventure. Instead, I went to the local Carrefour (apparently the grocery sponsor of INSEAD locations) and looked for a replacement. The selection at Carrefour was terrible, but the shopping complex happened to have a camera store which happened to have one remaining Canon G12, the successor to our cherished G7. After trying unsuccessfully to negotiate the price  -- including a scene in which I made a stink, left the store and strolled around the complex for 15 minutes to let the vendors contemplate the mistake they had made in not bargaining with me -- I came back and bought the camera at full price, despite the fact that I had no mobile internet and thus could do no on-the-spot price comparisons (look out for my upcoming blog/facebook/twitter posting about how frightening life without mobile internet can be).

Only once I got back to our bungalow and the coddle of wifi did I compare prices - to joyfully find that the price I paid was actually cheaper than I would have been able to get online, in Singapore or in France! Thank you growth-addicted ASEAN nations and your currency devaluations!