After our dramatic entrance at the Good Karma restaurant, we met some great people.

Greg and Kelly, from Portland, OR, had actually seen me riding my bicycle in Queenstown, New Zealand! There was no question it was me: They noticed the French Horn on the bike. We also found at that they had stayed in the same room at Hotel Miranda in Kintimanti and that they had bought paintings from the same Wayan in Ubud.

We also met a couple from Denmark named Sjack and Meme and their two young sons. They had been in Indonesia since October and at Good Karma for a long time. Good Karma is a string of great bungalows along a pretty bay. It also has a great restaurant. Most importantly the owners are super friendly. People tend to sort of move in. The principal activity at Good Karma is reading. Time changes speed. After a while you're content if all you accomplish all day is writing a single postcard.

Unfortunately, we didn't stay at Good Karma proper. They were full. It discouraged us greatly to hear this in the dark during a heavy rain. Fortunately, next door was another bungalow run by someone else.

A young man came and led us from Good Karma through some trees, across a muddy field to the new building. It looked fine. The guy asked 35,000rp. We knew this was too much, but we had no choice but to accept given the circumstances. It was pouring rain and dark and we didn't feel like riding down the unlit road in search of another place.

Our new friends told us some good horror stories about Kintimanti. It seems we had all had bad experiences there. Nothing happened to us, we just felt uncomfortable but they had good stories.

Kelly and Greg, together we a few friends, hired a driver with a large vehicle I guess to take them into the crater floor. Before they left, the felt they had made it clear, though a third party interpreter, where they wanted to go and how much they were going to pay.

The driver took them to the crater floor but did not take them to the place they wanted to go. He pulled into another hotel, not as far away, instead.

Everyone in the car told the driver this was the wrong place but apparently he refused to take them. He would only take them for 2,000rp more each. They refused. They got out of the car to start walking.

Before they could get in the back of the jeep to retrieve their backpacks, the driver started driving off. But he had to turn around first and they tried to block him. One of the women jumped in the front of the car and tried to get the keys out of the ignition. I'm not sure what happened next but somehow they got the back door open and pulled the bags out while the driver yelled and screamed. A fight started to break out between one of the passengers and the driver. Someone finally threw a 10,000rp note at the driver and that stopped the fight.

When they all picked up their backpacks, they found two extra bags. It strongly indicates that this driver had other victims that same day.

After that, Sjack (pronounced shack) told us his Kintimanti transport story. Sjack is a fit Scandanavian man, about 50, with a moustache. He told this story very well.

The whole family was about to travel halfway across Bali from Kintimanti to Good Karma. It's a long haul and Sjack wanted to be sure the air conditioning worked in the vehicle before he agreed to hire the driver. So he got in the back and sure enough, it was cool.

He went back to the hotel to get his family and he realized his reading glasses were missing. They looked all around the hotel for them and out in the taxi. The hotel staff and the driver helped him look. No luck.

So they went on to Good Karma without the glasses. After they arrived they had a discussion with the driver in the Good Karma restaurant that went something like this:

Driver: How long are you going to be at this Hotel? Sjack: A while. Why do you ask? Driver: If someone finds the glasses, I will be glad to bring them here. Sjack: That would be very nice of you. That's a long drive. Driver: Yes it's a long drive of course, but I would do it for just 80,000rp.

As Sjack told it, he didn't see anything wrong in this. But he said his wife was more suspicious and is a better judge of people. She immediately knew that the driver had the glasses. He had either found them in his car after Sjack checked the AC or had lifted them from Sjack's pocket. Meme told him this in Danish.

They figured the driver had no intention of going back to Kintimanti but would drive to the next town, get a hotel for the night, have a leisurely morning and bring the glasses as if he had made the whole long trip.

Sjack and Meme did some quick thinking. First Sjack told the driver that the glasses were not worth 80,000rp (indeed, they were just reading glasses from a dime store). Then Sjack suggested that maybe had left them in the car after all, and if someone found them, he would gladly pay 50,000rp reward.

The driver said, "Come with me and let's look again."

Of course the driver quickly finds the glasses on the floor in the back seat where they had looked numerous times already.

Sjack: Thank you so much, my friend! I will never forget this. Now come and have a beer with me!

Sjack acted all chummy like this was his best friend in the world and they each had a beer. The driver must have been wondering how to bring up the money. During this time, Meme put the glasses safely away.

Driver: What about the fifty thousand? Sjack: Of course, Fifteen-thousand! Here you are, and I will never forget what you have done for me, my friend!

Of course the driver did get 15,000rp. and a beer for stealing the glasses but most importantly, Sjack got the glasses back.

I like it that Sjack and Meme conned the driver with his own con. They act like old friends and when it's convenient, they misunderstand you. We did very little the next day besides eat. We felt sort of like veal, just waiting around for the next meal time. But we did snorkel in the bay during the afternoon. At every meal we ran into Greg and Kelly or Sjack and Meme. It felt wonderful to talk to them. They are great people but also we haven't had any real conversations in English for sometime (except with each other but we know each other pretty well now).

Next: Eric's Birthday and we leave Bali.

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