It was a gorgeous beach with enormous waves, obviously a surfer’s paradise, with too many Californians to count. It looked like it was planned to be the next big spot on Bali for 5-star resorts and overpriced froufrou drinks. There were huge resorts in construction all over the area, none were close to being complete yet. We got out and tried to do some body surfing on the waves and got tossed most of the time. But our friend was right, the sunset was beautiful, and well worth the drive.
After enjoying the huge waves and beautiful scenery for a few hours we hopped back on the motorbike to head home. As Anders started to drive away, we noticed we had a really strange wobble…looking back to check it out…..FLAT TIRE!! We were pretty much the last people leaving the beach, so we began pushing the bike to the next town, something like 8 km (or about 5 miles). After about 3 minutes of this we saw that this was just gonna take too long, so we figured out that since it was the back tire, if Anders sat all the way forward and drove really slow, then we could drive it in. So that’s what we did, as Lori ran beside, we rode it in. After about only a couple of miles, some locals drove past us and had pity and stopped to help. Their names were Begi and Wayan. Wayan left his girlfriend to chat with us while he headed into town to find a mobile mechanic. It was so nice to get to know her. It was amazing to hear how hard she works…she supports both her parents and younger sister who all cannot work. She’s only 21 years old and earns only $85 per month. There isn’t any government assistance for disability or retirement here, but such a sense of community. Family members take care of each other, and people are willing to stop and help someone who is in need. Wayan came back with his friend who agreed to fix the flat right there on the side of the road (total cost = $6.50!). Begi was embarrassed because she said that price is double what they would normally pay if the bike was brought to them. We were really touched by the local’s willingness to help. Even the mechanic missed his ceremony to come fix our flat. Fifteen minutes later we were finally on our way. See photos of our new friends, we’re gonna meet up later this week for dinner:)
Sure Lori had no trouble outrunning your motorbike - especialy if that's the nail from your tire that Wayan's holding up.
ReplyDeleteI was remembering from the book "Eat, Pray, Love" how the name Wayan is given to first born children - a convention the Balinese use to name all of their children. It's very interesting:
ReplyDeleteBalinese people have a very unique concept in giving a name to their children. This name us usually put in front of their sure name. There are four different names consecutively given, first child will be called "Putu," "Gede" or "Wayan", second child "Made," "Nengah" or "Kadek", third child "Komang" or "Nyoman" and the fourth one will be called "Ketut."
If the Balinese people have more than four children, they will repeat the first child’s name for the fifth child and so on.
It is not surprising if you find a thousand of Wayan, Made, Nyoman or Ketut in Bali and this will be confusing. Therefore, once you meet the Balinese people please make sure that you have their complete name, not just remember their Balinese name.
So, if you need help, just yell Wayan!