dirty, cold and itchy

hi everyone!

so i tried out the mosquito net bit with my sarong - it actuallyworked out okay but the sarong wasnt breathable and i got too damn hot so i had to ditch it. i still wake up every morning with new mosquito bites! and i was warned yesterday by my tour guide (sunset tour was awesome!) that in lombok i have to becareful of malaria!!! MALARIA!!! i know its a small chance but he said to use mosquito cream...so mosquito cream and sunscreen and lotion - im going to be extremely creamy while in lombok. i think i might just pay the extra for rooms with air conditioning because aparently mosquitos can't fly when theres a/c in a room. or make sure the rooms i have have mosquito nets. but of course i'll go the extra mile and buy mosquito cream. i think you can get some here that smells like fruit yummy!

yesterday was the sunset tour - it was only me and two other girls on the tour and our tour guide and driver. saw a bunch of temples, went to a rice field, and a monkey forest! it was very cool. but most places we went they wanted us tospend more money - for example. they took us to a restaurant for lunch - this restaurant cost 60,000 rupiah/plate for a buffet lunch. which is only about $7canadian dollars. but we went walking and found a local sort of outdoor food market thing and they sold this soup that had noodes and blue spagetti noodle things and some chicken ball things and a hard boiled egg in it and abunch of other stuff (it looked pretty weird, i have a picture) for only 5,000 rupiah -and a coffee for 2,000 and a pack of 3 oreo cookies for another 2,000 - and that was lunch for me! also, at the monkey forest we had this guide who took us around ( i fed the monkeys peanuts it was fun! i have video of it) and then when she was done walking around with us (it wasnt even a tour, she just followed us around adn when there was a baby monkey she would say 'EXCUSE ME!! theres a baby' she said 'i will take you to my shop'. hmm okay so she took us to her shop - showed us some stuff and i was ready to walk out but seh said 'take something for good luck' so she sold me this woodcarving of 3 monkeys hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil for 50,000 which is overpriced. but oh well. she prolly needs itmore then i do. anyway so thats how theywant you to spend more money. and every guide you talk to, every local all talk about how quiet bali is now because of the bombs. its unfortunate.

anyway - on a higher note. i do think i will end up shipping some stuff home. they have beautifulpaintings of buddha here and i want a HUGE one to send home but i think it would probabley cost more then the painting itself to send home. but i do want a teapot and i dont know....ehh we'll see. ive decided not to go surfing. im just too lazy.

other then that - nothing new....less then 2 months till i get home and less then 1 month till i get to see my big sister. looking forward to all of it!

alia

ps if i have learned anything its that to pay extra for a hot shower is definatly worth the money.