It was time to get Mama’s girls out of the apartment for part of the day again, so we settled for nothing too extravagant as to head back to the beach, but yet instead an easy trip to The Ramayana Bali Mall, which was just only about fifteen minutes away in a Grab Car. This would Also work out well for Mama and I, as we needed a few things from the market, and this was a chance to go to Robinson Super Market which is located inside the mall, on the third floor. In fact, this is the closest thing to a full sized grocery store like we have back home in The United States that I have yet found in Bali.
I always enjoy getting a Grab Car here in Bali, on the rare times when all four of us need to travel somewhere together that is just a bit too far for having that many on one scooter. Being a car enthusiast in my younger, even more crazier days, makes getting to ride in different car models that are sold in this part of the world a real treat, and fascinating to experience. I can say already however, that I absolutely hate the Toyota Avanza and it’s twin counterpart built by Suzuki. This car has got to be the most boring, thrill lacking, mundane, ugly car on the entire planet, especially in comparison to it’s baffling popularity and sales quantity here in Indonesia. Even it’s air conditioning sucks, and is terribly designed with too many overhead vents that only accomplishes a loss of air pressure for every place in the car. Forgive my blunt language, but really, what a piece of shit. Sadly, I’d say that easily half of all Grab Car drivers have a Toyota Avanza, but this makes those times when someone actually has a different car to ride in, even more exciting for me. In general, I’m a big fan of Mazda, as back home in the states, I’ve owned four different Mazda MX5’s in the course of my life, which is not only the most thrilling manual transmission in existence, short of a Porsche 911, but is also the car that I taught myself to work on engines with. Oddly enough I’ve only seen one MX5 during my entire time thus far in Bali. Mazda here in Bali offer a few of the same cars that are offered in The United States, and most commonly among these is the Mazda 2. This is because in general, cars here in Indonesia are on average, smaller than cars and trucks in America. I believe this not to be just an efficiency thing, but also just the simple fact that here you are dealing with narrow and extremely busy and cramped roads. Only the wealthy people here in Bali seem to drive the more midsize SUV type vehicle or midsize sedan, which are quite rare. However, specific to Indonesia, from my experiences and observations since I’ve been living here, I can say that just about every model of Honda sold here is quite fantastic. They are all different models altogether than the Hondas that you will find on American roads, but they are all extremely well designed, well built, most often gorgeous looking, and known to be extremely reliable. I even had one Grab Car ride in a very small Honda Brio, but even in that tiny car, the quality inside really stood out and the air conditioning was superb. I could go on and on about the interesting and intriguing differences about the cars available and sold in this part of the world versus back home in The United States, but perhaps that will be for it’s own blog, another day. For now, as I conclude this paragraph that went way out on an automobile tangent, and if you’ve happened to have been to Bali, or anywhere in Indonesia and have seen or ridden in the Avanza, I’d love to here your comments about that Toyota embarrassment. Oh, and one last, positive observation about the cars in Indonesia. Most of them have manual transmissions, which I absolutely love. I can’t stand the fact that cars in America are dominated now by automatic transmissions, as the better and meant-to-be feeling of becoming one with the road that you only get from a manual, is seemingly getting closer to extinction. Way to go Indonesia, for having some balls left in this world.
Okay, back to the topic of our trip to the mall. While I’m not a “mall” person, I do just simply enjoy seeing and experiencing anything and everything here in Bali. The girls, of course, wanted everything that they see, and being so hard for me to say no to them, we got them Ice cream right from the get-go. Then they had to browse around for a new squishy, which is a phenomenon that I still don’t quite understand the appeal of. Over-priced foam, coated and shaped as, well, just about anything. What they really ended up loving here though was the arcade, and of all the choices of games to play, they have little interest in anything except for winning and accumulating tickets. Anyhow, here are Mama and the girls from a neat picture backdrop inside the mall.
One thing I should point out, is that if you happen to be in Bali and come to this mall, you can go to the information booth and get a free discount card that will work in different places in the mall, but most notably Robinson Super Market. Even many of the prices on the shelves there have one price for discount card holders and one price for non discount card holders. Be warned however, that your card, even though you’ll receive it immediately, will not be effective until the next business day. I learned this little fact that they had left out as I was checking out, but fortunately I was able to turn up the charm a bit to the kind, sweet girls working the check stand, and they scanned another card for me so that I still got my discount that day.
My biggest gripe about this mall is the constant barrage of sales being announced on the loud speakers overhead. Let me tell you, I’m someone who loves my tunes played loud! I’ve got to have music either blaring out of a concert stack or injected straight into my brain via the loudest possible combination of headphones and the device powering them. So, I’m not often one to complain about noise, in general, but after more than twenty straight minutes of Indonesian ladies announcing deals at max volume, speaking faster than an auctioneer, I was just about ready to leave, or just drop dead to end the suffering. It’s usually just a figure of speech when someone utters the cliche “you’re giving me a headache,” but I really believe I had a small headache, directly related to this.
All in all, this certainly isn’t a place in Bali that I really ever have a need or desire to go to again, but as with everything I experience here, I’m still glad that I got to check it out, and thus write about it, and show a video as well, to all who may be interested. If you like to shop, and you’re in Bali with plenty of money to burn, then there are some far better options, but you might find something here that you want or need. So, give it a shot… Or don’t.