Boris Hears a Who!

Yesterday we spent the day in Bali and the Elephant Safari Park. It’s been extremely hot the past few days so we were glad that it was overcast and not too ridiculously hot. We saw many elephants (you would have loved it Denise!!), big and small, and we rode on the back of Boris, a 25 year old male. The young fellow that directed the elephant, I’ll call him Simon (cause when I asked him his name it was something really long and confusing, but sounded like it started with Simon), works 12 hour days, 6 days a week, and no doubt all for a very low wage.

Simon steers Boris while we enjoy the ride

1 of the 3 baby elephants at the park

Reported to be the park where Julia Roberts brought her family during the filming of "Eat Pray Love"

And speaking of low wages...we learned that the wait staff on the ship works for a salary of $50/month...yup, you read that right. They do get room and board, but even so, it seems a bit third world all the same.
We’re now on the first of 3 sea days and we’re finding the Indian Ocean to be much rougher than the Coral and the Timor Seas were. As we head down to Perth/Fremantle that Bingo jackpot just keeps going up and up...it now sits at almost $4000.
Tomorrow I’ve got a "date" for Bridge. It’s a woman from Australia who I met at breakfast one day last week. She’s at least 90 if she’s a day, but she has the same outlook about Bridge that I do...it’s just a game...so she’s convinced me to meet her tomorrow morning for the Bridge Lesson and we’ll see about playing in a game in the afternoon.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: Two things really

1) Driving in Bali is extremely dangerous. I was sitting well in the back of our 8 passenger van from the port to the Elephant Park and I’m so glad I wasn’t any closer to the front. It was absolutely scary!! And the scooters!! They are everywhere darting in and out of traffic. I’m sure there must be many, many traffic fatalities every year because of them. Thank heavens we were only there one day...I don’t think I will ever want/need to return to Bali.

2) Tomorrow is forecasted to be rougher than today...may be needing that Gravol with Ginger yet. I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how smooth the waters have been so far...I may have spoken too soon !!