My holiday to Indonesia was long-awaited and blessed with gorgeous weather as I arrived to a cloudless sky, sparkling beach and incredibly friendly locals. I arrived to Jimbaran Bay at the start of the weekend, having heard that this cute little fishing village was a quiet spot to avoid the major tourist traps, with a nice daily market and some beautiful resorts near the white sand beach.
After dropping my bags at the hotel, I set off to find my activity for the day: a silver smith class I had signed up for online. I had always been interested in silversmithing, and thought this sounded like a unique and interesting way to learn about the trade and meet some travelers and locals. Indeed, there were plenty of locals milling about the shop, speaking their native tongue enthusiastically. Timidly, I walked up to a small group of them and asked about the silver smith class. One man grinned at me and waved me inside, telling me in English that I had definitely come to the right place.
The class consisted of mainly locals, with a few other travelers mixed in. An expert silver smith showed us his materials and explained how he creates such detailed pieces. We would be soon learning how to create a silver piece of our own. We broke for lunch around noon, and as I pondered where to go eat, I overheard the same group of locals from the morning discussing raja casinos in English. I immediately perked up; I love casinos at home, and thought it would be a blast to find one in Indonesia. Remembering how friendly the man was earlier, I walked up to them and asked them if that was a casino here, in Bali. A different man turned to me smiling, and replied that it is actually an online casino. He showed me his mobile phone, which displayed a variety of casino games that looked like a lot of fun. I started to read the first screen but noticed that it was in a different language, so the man took back the mobile device for a second, tapped a button and the words instantly translated into English. “Click here to play blackjack!” came onto the screen, and with a simple grin, the Indonesian man lent me his phone for a rousing game during the lunch break.
