Day 9 - The Promised Land!

The previous night was a quiet affair after again failing to find any of the bars. Tonight would be a shopping night, Monica was keen to find a Buddha image to take home and was after a dress. Should be a fun-packed evening.

We had reached the middle of the beach road when a Buddha caught Monica’s eye down one of the small alleyways. We went to investigate. It was a beautifully crafted Buddha image, carved from teak. But what caught my eye was a neon flashing sign at the end of the alleyway. We walked up to the end and discovered all the bars that the guidebook had mentioned. In search of Buddha and we find the Promised Land, surely a sign from above. We would have purchased the Buddha on that reason alone but it wasn’t practical. It was way too heavy and bulky to fit in our luggage. So we continued with our shopping, buoyed by our find and promising to return later.

Monica managed to buy a dress but no Buddha as we gave up on shopping and headed to "Rialto’s" for a Pizza. They advertised a "Genuine Italian Chef" but he looked a little local to me. Monica greeted the manager and asked if she could speak with the chef, all in Italian the little minx. The look on the guy’s face was priceless. Apparently the Italian chef had the night off.

After dinner we were on the way to the bar area before Monica diverted me into a shop for one last look. Inside and failing to negotiate a price for a reasonably sized Buddha we were making our way to the door when the heavens opened and it poured down. It was bouncing off the streets so we decided it might be a good idea to re-open negotiations. 10 minutes later with no deal and no sign of the rains subsiding, we decided to make a run for it.

We ran down the beach road and ended up near the Encore café. But the bar area was before this surely? We hadn’t spotted the alleyway. We must have passed it in our hurry to get out of the rain. So back we went up the street, this time a little slower to avoid the same mistake and because the rain was easing off. Second time around and we still couldn’t find the alleyway. Is this the curse of the scorned Buddha? I knew we should have bought the bloody thing. A third pass with all kinds of promises to purchase a Buddha before leaving town and we were rewarded with the sight of the alleyway.

Now it was a small matter of choosing the bar. The local ladies were keen to tempt you into their establishments in their usual singing tones. I didn’t want to muck about so it was a quick "This or that one", leaving Monica with the casting vote. "That ones got my bloody new dress as a tablecloth!" she shrieked and we soon settled down for a beer in the "this" one.


Thank Buddha we found the bars.