A morning phone call, and Bali haggling tips:

Awakening in paradise to the sound of a ringing phone, my initial fear was that people at work had some emergency that cold not wait until I got back. (They left me alone, except for two faxes that sent me scurrying to the business center and necessitated a quick call to the US. :rolleyes

Instead it was an enthusiastic woman who greeted me with the kind of conversation radio DJs will give the "9th caller" when they win something. A bit confused, I told her "Yes, this is KP. Yes, I remember filling out a tourism questionnaire yesterday."

Wonder of wonders, I had been chosen to receive the grand prize of a free one-week stay for 2 adults and kids at any of their assorted resorts around the world. (Valued at US$1,000.) Still half-awake, it sounded like good news.

Fully awake, it sounded like those marketing presentations I've heard about. I asked the Club concierge, and she advised staying away from the whole thing. "It's not dangerous, but other people have gone to such things and said they felt cheated."

I still have no experience of my own with such gimmicks, but we decided not to keep our 10:30 pickup appointment. The woman called back around 11:00 wondering what happened, and assured me they were not a timeshare group. When I asked her for a phone #, she only gave a cellphone, and we decided to forego the "explanation"/presentation and get on with our honeymoon.

Instead of going to Kuta - the other close shopping area (and coincidentally where the phone lady's office was) - for more shopping, we went back to Nusa Dua as we were comfortable there. Kuta has more shops, but we'd been told people there are more pushy, and it's hard to relax, etc.

Checking the Nusa Dua $ changer, I saw they were giving a phenomenal rate of 9035 Rp/$ (cash or T/C). Strange, as the morning TV reported the $ had slipped from 9100 to 9000 Rp. Unfortunately, I didn't have my passport on me, so could only use the bank that took my NY license. (8500 Rp.)

The first (and only) day of real rain fell today, so it made for a good shopping afternoon. (Kuta is more open, with more protection from the elements at Nusa Dua.)

Loaded up on more traditional Indonesian ware (aka local crap), before retuning to the hotel and learning a couple basic Bali Haggling Tips:

1) Japanese pay more. They/We just do, and there ain't much one can do about it.

2) When given the initial price, either laugh it off or act indignant before telling them that you couldn't pay more than ___. <-This initial offer should generally be less than HALF of what you were quoted. I was very surprised in Ubud (the first place we went after hearing this tip) when a guy wanted "120,000" for a simple (but nice) painting. Just to see if it would work, I said I wouldn't be interested in it unless it was 40-50,000. He said "How about 75,000?" and we settled on 60 ($7).
3) Try to get them to offer as much "good luck" as they can. It must be a karma thing, but as they lowered their prices everyone seemed to add "... for good luck." (As if to show they are being generous, when in fact the supermarket sells the same thing for 30% less.)

4)Whatever price you get them down to may well have them acting like they donated you a kidney, but rest assured they made out very well. (If you can offer the same agony at offering a slightly higher price, you will probably do okay in the Bali markets.)

Then it was back to the hotel. The evening featured a traditional Indonesian dance/performance and dinner. It was similar in theory to Japanese Kabuki, but much more clamorous. Or maybe it was like a Vegas show without Wayne Newton/Tom Jones. Whatever analogy works. -Worth seeing once, with interesting dancing, but not horribly enthralling, IMO.

Next: Our day trip to Ubud via taxi, and my slip-up at the money-changers.