On the road again

It shouldn't still be raining. Rainy season was supposed to finish weeks ago, but the last few days have seen very heavy rainfall. Not all the time, but certainly a lot of it. The weather is now a lot cooler, too. Cool enough to enjoy a blanket at night. If you can dodge the showers, it's a very pleasant time to be here.

Rain notwithstanding, over the past few days we have been looking at our transport options. Much as we like to give work to local drivers, there is a certain lack of freedom. If one takes you beyond Ubud, they want to know what time you are coming back. We tend to be vague and say that we don't know, but if they see you returning with another driver the displeasure is pretty apparent. Prices are going up too, legitimately in some cases as the price of fuel has risen, but we have also noticed an air of contempt and dismissal if we offer what we know to be a fair price. There is a little bit of 'taking for granted' going on that we are not enjoying.

As with everything we seek recommendations. We happened to mention to Geraldine at Melting Wok that we were thinking about hiring a car, and she immediately produced the card of her go-to man, Ketut. (There will be a certain resonance with Australian readers with this name, and yes, this Ketut is also very charming).

He has offered us a great car at a great price. We are road testing for a week and if we feel comfortable driving in the conditions will keep it for the rest of our time here.

I don't think there is much doubt, though. The feeling of freedom as soon as we got in it was akin to being young again with a brand new licence. It means that we can take off whenever we like to wherever we want and explore parts of the island that we haven't yet seen, and have bought a detailed map to that end.

Now we just need to be able to understand the signs!