The Bali Ash Cloud- an on the ground report

For those of you who follow me on facebook and instagram you may have come to the conclusion that I am one of the fortunate few who actually made it to Bali. There was a very small window (Tuesday) where planes where arriving and departing to/from Bali.

Since then it has all gone to shit. It would appear that no one has arrived since and no one has left. Now as I am one who is not scheduled to leave until the end of next week, I am feeling ok, and have no panic setting in. But today as we drove past the Air Asia office and saw a line of about a million people obviously trying to sort out their flights things are not all Bintangs and massages for everyone.

It is not all Bintangs and massages for my friends who are meant to be coming over for a friends 40th Birthday. It is also no "good price just for you" for my friends daughter whose friend was meant to be here yesterday, or all the poor people who are having weddings with no guests (we are happy to help them out if they have seats to fill).

So here is the word on the street from downtown Seminyak.

1. It really is ashy- cloudy. They are not tricking you.
2. It is weirdly quiet. There is a lack of bogans and ugly ink. You can almost hear the tears of the tattooist as you walk the streets.
3. It is not raining, which means for those at home- the cloud is still acting like the icloud- who knows how it works and what it actually does- but for those of us here the weather is pretty damn awesome.
4. The sale of Rhonda singlets has dramatically dipped for this time of year, and lets not even start on the Jiggy Jig t-shirts- or the penis bottle openers.
5. You still can't get a table at Sardine when you want it.
6. The cab drivers are playing hard ball because they have no business. For example last night we took 3 cabs to a restaurant. One costs $50k, the other $30k and I paid $80k (god damn it).
7. There really are brides crying. This is sad because no one is here for the weddings. They are at the airport which is the only place where food and drink is more expensive than at an actual wedding.
8. You can't get a suit made- this is actually more to do with the Javanese going home for the holidays but that is beside the point.
9. You keep seeing the same people. Like everywhere.
10. To the ash cloud we say Volca-NOOOOOO!!!! ( we might pop that on a tshirt tomorrow if anyone is interested.) Well we would but all the Javanese have gone home for the holidays. Told you it was quiet.

I will keep you posted.
xxx