11.27.10

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! What a great day it has been as well! The first thing we decided to do was go do some more Christmas shopping. Up to this point we had decided what we wanted to get everyone, but had only bought a few things. We took Sonja and Marco back to Kuta and we all enjoyed the day shopping. Sonja and Marco went their own way and we decided that we would meet up at 1:30. I had a model fitting at 2:00 which wasn’t far from where we were.
Mid-shopping, it started to storm pretty badly. The thunder and lightening were right above us. Each lightening bolt light up the gray sky like a camera flash in your eye, and the thunder was so loud that it rattled your insides. John and I quickly headed back to the motorbike, but we got stuck in the pouring rain. All of a sudden, a lightening bolt came down and crashed into the building next to us. It was so incredibly loud, I don’t know how to explain it. I imagine that when God created the earth, it was about that loud! It scared the heavens out of me. I did this jump-hop-run into the closest building which was a silver store. My heart was beating inside my eyeballs and my adrenaline was at max-capacity. I felt really dizzy and thought I might pass out. I think I lost a significant amount of blood to my brain the moment the adrenaline took its place. The nice ladies offered me some water and seat and John was laughing hysterically. I was in shock, lol, and couldn’t believe what we had just witnessed. We hung around for a bit, hoping the rain would let up, but it didn’t. Still shaking, we ran to a restaurant that was right by our motorbikes. I got some nibbles and just tried to shake our nerves before it was time to meet Sonja and Marco.
We headed back to our bike, and noticed that our helmets, which were attached to the bike upside down, became a small pond with all the rain water they had collected. Just my luck…a wet helmet just before my model fitting. The last thing I wanted was to look like a dead rat, so I just hung onto the helmet. We made our way to Sanur, which is not as touristy as the other parts of Denpasar. Just so happened, that at one intersection, John and I were at the very front, with Marco and Sonja just behind us. The cop noticed I didn’t have a helmet on and yelled at me to do so. Hoping to take greater advantage of us, he asked us to make a right turn and pull over. He wanted to card us, and pocket our money. John acted stupid though and just kept going forward. Sonja and Marco followed. We thought we got away, but a few minutes later, a cop was at our side, telling us to pull over, so we did. Marco and Sonja just kept on going, so the cop told us to ‘wait here’ while he went and got the others (are you kidding me!?). The road was one way, so there was no way we could keep driving without him seeing us. It just so happened that where we had pulled over, there was a tiny path that went through some rice terraces and behind some Bali home and onto a tiny side street. We noticed cars driving by, so we quickly drove away. We were so nervous and so full of adrenaline at the same time. When they pull you over and extort you, they tell you all kinds of things that are really scary, and being in a third world country, who knows if they will throw you in jail for something that mediocre or not! We pulled over so that I could get in the front. We figured that if we did get pulled over again, we could just pretend that I was driving the entire time, and not have to pay them anything. (For those that may not know, the police here interrogate white people (Buleh) and pull you over for whatever reason so that they can pocket your money. They show you some book that says what will happen to you if they give you a ticket, and blah blah. They try to scare you, and they do all of this illegally, hoping that you will offer them cash to handle the problem now, instead of dealing with the big guns at court/jail. Again, this is totally illegal! It’s still quite frightening, especially if you didn’t have any warning of this before hand. It’s extortion, plain and simple. John and I have already gotten pulled over 2 other times, and were fed up with it at this point.)
Still having no idea of where Sonja and Marco were, we proceeded to follow this road to wherever it went, hoping not to run into any more cops. It eventually led us back to the main road, and the cops were everywhere! Did I mention that this was the first time I have ever driven a motorbike? John was holding the handle bars and still driving, I just pretended to be doing something since I was in the front. We did eventually make it to our destination, and we both were so full of adrenaline… we couldn’t believe we had just ran away from Bali cops, on Thanksgiving Day nonetheless! Two hours passed and still nothing from Sonja and Marco. We were thinking the worse! Did the cops take them and tell them they weren’t going to let them go until they called us? Did they try to run away from them and get in more trouble? Did the cops take all their money? Oh, we were so worried! We felt exceptionally guilty that we had run away and left them, but at that point, it was each man for himself!
After my fitting, I got back on the front of the motorbike, and we took the LONG route back to Seminyak, hoping to avoid the cops. In fact, we drove straight through the center of Denpasar, full of cops and all, but if they didn’t recognize my blazing red helmet and pale white skin than we were ok. We got back to the villa and luckily, found a note from Sonja saying that they were fine and were waiting for us at Scoobies hotdog stand near Bingtang market. It was such a relief to see them! We shared with them our story and they told us theirs. When they got pulled over, they only spoke German, and pretended to not be able to understand! They also told the cops they wanted their names because they wanted to go to their government, that they knew what they were doing was illegal. The cops got all scared and gave them back their papers and told them to leave. HAHA, we trained them good!
We were all starving, so we got all dressed up for dinner (while listening to Christmas music) and then headed over to Bali Deli, where I had noticed they had set up a Christmas tree, and had read that they normally have traditional meals. Unfortunately, they did not have turkey, but pork and mashed potatoes instead. We each enjoyed a three course meal, and the boys even managed to score Sonja and I a free glass of sparkling fruit wine. There was some party going on and they had a band there. The lady singing had an incredible voice and was singing classic songs from frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. It made for a wonderful ambiance. We taught Sonja and Marco all about our Thanksgiving traditions, and even went around the table and told each other all the things we were grateful for. We laughed over the days events, and just enjoyed the evening. I ordered lemon meringue pie for desert, which is a pie my mom makes every year for the holidays! Just as the night started to die down, the lady started to sing “At Last” by Etta James. A song that my grandpa loved and I couldn’t help but get all teary-eyed at his memory. John noticed, and gave a slight squeeze, which quickly had my smiling again. It was a crazy eventful day, but had ended in the most beautiful way. We both are so incredibly grateful that we were able to share this special holiday with Sonja and Marco! (We are also very grateful that the AC is fixed as well!)
The night wasn’t over though. John and I both had scheduled plans with our families back home to skype. I got up around 3am and started skyping my mom. She has dinner for the family every year, and she had set up the laptop in the living room so I could feel like I was apart of the festivities. Everyone came to the computer to say hi, (including my cousin Amanda, who told us the wonderful news that she and her husband are expecting their first baby!) and to ask us all sorts of questions about Bali and Australia. The little kids were so intrigued and were talking over one another to tell me about their exciting day! It was wonderful to finally be able to talk to my oldest sister, who is normally too busy with her kids to get online. My grandma was also tickled pink by this technology, and was really happy to talk to John and me.
Immediately after, John had skyped his mom and sisters. His mom, of course, was elated to see her son. His sisters have booked their tickets to Australia, so they talked about coming to Melbourne and John let them know we wouldn’t be going to Christmas Island. They too, talked of all sorts of things until the sun was starting to come up and the birds were singing. When we finally let them go, it was already early morning before we finally went to bed.
Sonja and Marco were leaving late night the next day. We did some more shopping before helping them pack up their stuff and get ready to go. It was a bittersweet good, but we were all so happy to have been able to spend such a wonderful time together!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!