Strangely enough I wake with no hangover from yesterday’s drinking. One of the few times that happens and I love it. We spend the morning by the pool before checking out the beach.

There is a five minute walk down to the beach, but the hotel have some sunbeds there as well. It’s quiet and relaxing, but our info on the tide don’t seem to hold up. It’s pretty low water when we get down there and that means walking for ages to get water above your knee.

We still go out in the water to take a swim in the ocean. It’s warm and lovely, but as I said a little shallow.

I’m hunched down in the water when something pokes me. Man, that scared me! Turns out there is a little shark, about forty centimeter long. It didn’t bite, but nudged me with its snout. Never seen anything like it. It didn’t look scared of us at all, but swam around and directly at us. Waving my hands under water made it change it course, but other than that it seemed absolutely unfazed.

We got up and one of the locals asked what happened. Guess he heard Katja’s feminine way of exclaiming surprise. “No sharks on Bali”, he told us. A quick Google told us differently as there are multiple incidents with sharks in Indonesia. Happy the shark was just a little kid we spent a little more time on the beach before heading up right before the rain came.

We went to Bali Collection, a shopping mall of sorts, with Mike. Then the fun started.

First we had pizza at Uno restaurant, before moving into the area. Then we each got a “ticket” that’s party of a promotion for Royal resort. You can win things if you listen to their sales pitch. I end up with a couple of t-shirts, but Katja on the other hand pulls the golden ticket. Four different possible winnings:

– Thousand dollar cash

– Nikon camera

– Shopping vouchers for two million Rupia

– Seven days stay at a resort in their system

The “hustler” that gave us the tickets went ballistic and run around like a maniac, high fiving us, hugging Mike and acting all out. We talk and find there is nothing in little prints that disqualifies us. We go and check it out.

In the car over Larry the hustler tries to make Katja and me pose as Australians. We dig into this and it’s for him to get extra points in the sales contest. We decline of course and are soon at the resort.

We are greated and treated well and soon we sit at the table of a lady looking like a over aged hippie from ’68. She’s nice though and explain in detail how the system works, but there are little prices shown. After a while it’s time to convince us the system is better than our normal way if doing holidays. By investing the same amount if money we do today in our holidays were supposedly “owning” our holidays. I don’t get it. Mike just smiles. He’s there to see where this lands and point out the fact that we don’t have an important number, the entry fee, to make the decision. And we will not get it before we’ve taken a tour on some of the close resorts and then a manager will present the last final number.

We get out and into a car and get to look at two nice resorts. The rooms are great, there are sitting areas and separate bedrooms. Really nice.

Back at the table an American man joins us and are to present the final number. I don’t know what I’ll expect, but it’s not this. With all the perks lined up, the rebate given and all pink and smelling of roses… He wanted 20.500$

I just stay gasping. When he asked if I had converted it to my currency I told him I hadn’t. I told him that would make me scream in a falsetto so high only dogs would hear me. He did a number of cutting it in half providing only half the benefits, and possibility of a credit check avoided loan at the interest of 19%.

Quick math shows the investment and the commitment over the next 25 years would cost at least 40.000$. And they expected us to take that decision on two hours presentation? No background check of the company? No check on finances and history over the years? No check up on the front man and the fact that he makes so much money he’s the philanthropist of the year? Riiiiiiiight.

I have not given then credit for their system here. It looks good and four people doing fixed vacationing every year, or that want access to booking options not available elsewhere, I get it. Maybe not for that price, but I get it.

We closed the door on any sale and we’re guided downstairs to claim our prizes. I get my t-shirts, Mike his vouchers and Katja get the form for requesting the seven days free stay. We can request two location and three dates and they will pick and give us accommodations. We’ll try for Thailand and Bali and see what happens.

We get a car to take us back, but decide to go to The Rock bar. We’re close to this place and get dropped off at the resort that houses the bar. When we get to the entrance to the bar it’s a long queue and the doorman informs us it’s a long wait. They will open the doors for us in one and a half hour. Mike, with his experience as a bouncer, think we were underdressed. How my UnderArmour training shorts and a singlet is underdressed is beyond me.

We grab a quick beer on top with a view of the weather heading our way. Soon after we finished the small Bintang the rain starts. We get umbrellas and walk back up to the reception, get a taxi and move out.

We get the Taxi to wait while we grab dinner at a Masakan Padang and introduces Mike to rendang. The train picks up and we just go back to the hotel.

Katja and I spend a few hours in the pool bar working on the blog. The rain don’t stop but rather add lightning and thunder. The power comes and goes while we’re sitting at the bar.  An interesting day is over, and we call it a night.

– Jason Tremblay, CEO @ SellMyTimeShareNow.com