Quandary

Came down to Starbucks Sanur today to enjoy the cheaper coffee, but find that I am unable to connect to the internet here. So, gosh, what’s the point?  Especially considering that the coffee is actually more expensive. 

Let me ‘splain. In Sanur, and in any Starbucks located in any tourist hub, the coffee is more expensive. My usual drink, a grande latte, here in Sanur is 58.000. In Renon, the cost is 49.000. A considerable difference. This is because Renon is outside the tourist zone, and outlets outside the tourist zone expect to serve mostly locals. Yeah, it’s not fair and it’s not nice, but that’s the way it is.

Therefore, in Sanur I order a short Americano, which is 35.000. Of course, I could do the same thing in Renon, most likely for considerably less than 35.000—maybe 30.000, I dunno. I’ll have to ask. On the other hand, at the Renon Starbucks, one must pay an hourly fee to park in the lot, which usually ends up being 6.000 for me given the usual length of my stay. Therefore, the cheaper latte, at 49.000, becomes, with the parking fee, 55.000, which is not a whole lot different than the 58.000 asked at Sanur.

Of course, I could just stay home and make my own coffee, and encounter, to boot, no problem getting online. But I fear that would result in a bad case of cabin fever. Moreover, packing up my laptop and actually going somewhere is somewhat like getting dressed, putting on a necktie, and going to work. It’s a mission, a job, and I write when I arrive on the job because that’s what I came to do. Actually, I’m not that wild anymore about coffee for its own sake.

Ah, it’s all so confusing, isn’t it? Typical of my daily challenges here in paradise