The Eye Glass Adventure

Saturday June 8 2013

A little back story: while on Gili Meno the arm, randomly,  fell off my glasses when I picked them up one morning.  I had packed some contacts but they are not ideal, between my very dry eyes and all the dust I don't last long in them.  (Although they did prove surprisingly great for snorkelling in!) I didn't want to try and have them fixed here and end up with a lot of hassel and my nice frames ruined for good.  We had seen glasses sold absurdly cheap in Bangkok, so I was hopeful that I could buy a replacement pair while on the go.  The trouble was finding a city on these small Indonesian islands big enough to have an Eye Centre.  I haven't seen any locals wearing glasses.  

We settled in the south of Lombok in a beach town called Kuta (yes, we also went to a Kuta beach in Bali - same name but different island).  Our hotel owner was very eager to help us get to Praya, where we could buy glasses.  He apparently had nothing better to do than drive two tourists half an hour on his scooter.  The $10 we payed him to take us is pretty good money, considering you can drive an hour on less than a litre of gas and a litre of gas costs $0.50.  We ended up having to take two scooters because after N got on behind him he declared it, "impossible" to take us both on one.  So his nephew, who works at the hotel was commissioned to drive a second scooter and off we went.  When we asked for helmets he assured us, "no problem." When we got up to 80 clicks I tell ya I was praying hard there would be no problem!  

The twenty year old nephew (who doesn't look a day old than 12) was very friendly and quite chatty.  When we stopped to fill up with gas he told me that he was from Praya.  I asked if he lived here in Kuta, now that he was working at the hotel.  He confirmed that he did but I wasn't sure if he had fully understood me so I clarified, "you don't drive here each day?" He threw his head back and laughed at the hilarious notion that anyone would drive half an hour to work every day.  And I laughed with him but not for the same reason. I laughed because this is such a different world where a half hour commute to work is obsurd.  

I'm not sure our hotel owner had ever been in an Eye Centre before.  He is a very friendly guy, missing about four teeth on the bottom.  He assured us that he would "help" us, meaning that he would prevent us from getting screwed over with me tourist price.  I'm not positive that he did help all that much but we we glad to have him because the girls at the Eye Centre spoke zero English.  

Double checking the prescription is right

There was very minimal slightly outdated selection.  It was kind of stuff that was popular when I got my first pair of glasses, ten years ago, maybe even later.  And I felt very rushed and silly for asking to try on more than one pair.  So I decided I was just going to go hipster and get the old man frames.  Our liaison said, they made me look beautiful because they matched my hair.  I have to admit all the way back I was singing in my head, "I wear your grandad's clothes, I look incredible".  Love that song!  

For $50 all in I was fairly happy with the resulted eye sight.  N is really pumped to try and claim this on our Health Insurance.  I'm optimistic that the place I got other pair will be able to repair them, when I get home.  So I am not wearing this kind of quirky look all the time. 

Love the wood arms on my new retro glasses

Sunday June 9 2013

Today we rented a scooter and toured around the coast of this island.  It is so breathtakingly beautiful!  We came across the illegal gold mining we had read about, which was kind of a rush (nice pun right*).  It's not nearly as sketchy as it sounds.  I'm not real sure what about it is illegal it was very out in the open.  And we checked a bunch of beaches that are normally supposed to be quiet but were busy with locals because it was Sunday.  We did find one lovely beach that was totally deserted!  It was really cool but there was something strangely eerie about being in the ocean and being so alone.  I can't really explain it, it was like something in a bad movie I was just waiting for jaws to emerge out of the ocean or the mafia to come from over the hill and kidnap us.  Tragic that my overworked imagination spoiled our romantic beach experience, although N felt it too.  It was just too quiet.  Still it was pretty sweet!  And we did stay there for a fairly long time but it just felt kinda weird to stay too long.  

Low season is just ending here so there are a smattering of shops that are open but they only have a dusty selection of left overs from last years stock.  Hotels are just starting to raise their room prices.  All the restaurants look closed but are in fact open, though most do not serve half of what is advertised on their signs.  We did find the most amazing pumpkin curry ever though!  I am going to have to find a recipe for it when we get home!