Sanur

Day 1 – Discovering our Local!

A quick note for our loyal readers, we are a bit behind with this blog (possibly alcohol related!!) so you may be confused where we currently are in the world (Currently Java), so if you check the date stamp on the photo’s you will be able to see the actual dates that these blogs relate too.

Despite our slightly dodgy room the included breakfast was possibly the best one we have had on our travels, eggs, toast, fresh fruit, juice and coffee delivered to our doorstep.

After breakfast we headed out to explore the area and do a bit of shopping (in search of some elusive shorts for me and a 2^nd hand travel book on Indonesia).  The area had the feel of a low key holiday resort during low season but seemed quite nice.  We walked round for quite a while without much success apart from picking up an Indonesian SIMM card, but it was becoming very hot so we thought we would take refuge in a funky looking reggae bar and get a cold beer.

 

Well it continued to be hot all afternoon if you get my drift, but we did manage to achieve something.  On the wall next to the bar there was an advert for a pretty decent looking hotel 50 metres down the alley, so we thought we would check it out.  When we got there we found a beautiful boutique hotel that had four large air-conditioned rooms around a small private pool and gardens, it was at £22 a night, above budget but we thought we would treat ourselves to two nights there (these rooms would cost us £150+ back home).

 

We then went back to the reggae bar for a couple more drinks to celebrate before heading to find the beach.  The beach was OK but not mind-blowing (having been spoilt in The Philippines), but we did find a number of basic beach restaurants so we stopped to have our evening meal there.  The food we ordered included a nice do-it-yourself satay where you had hot charcoal in a section of bamboo with skewer’s cooking on top delivered to your table.

 

Having spent most of the day in a bar we headed back to our basic hotel for one more there before our upgrade the following day.

Day 2 – Luxury  

We got up fairly early and enjoyed another great breakfast before packing and checking out.  It was time for our upgrade so we wheeled our luggage down the road and were happy to find that our room was vacant and we could check into our boutique room early (10am!).

 

Having unpacked we thought we would take advantage of the fact we had a fridge in our room, so went up the road to the supermarket and stocked up on beer, canned iced coffee, water and snacks for the room.

For the rest of the morning/early afternoon we chilled out, swam in the pool and caught up on some hand washing in our nice shower (the room had individual drying racks, so meant I did not have to turn my underwear inside out!).

 

Getting hungry we then headed out for some food and being very indecisive we eventually found ourselves in a sports bar of all places where we just settled on a burger and chips (Glenn) and some spring rolls (Shell) and a couple of Bingtangs.

We had decided that trying to schlep around Bali by public transport was going to be a bit of a ball ache so we would hire a car for the next 6 days (despite reservations of the locals and the fact we had been told we would be better off with a driver!), so on our way back to the hotel from lunch we managed to negotiate a hire car for £5 a day! (Shell not Glenn)

For the rest of the afternoon we took advantage of our new found home comforts before heading out in the evening. 

 

We had passed a bar that had advertised live music on our way back from lunch so we headed there to check it out.  Once there the band weren’t on yet so we settled into some seats and overheard our neighbours asking each other a question which Shell answered for them, not realising that a pub quiz was going on.  So we ended up helping this struggling this duo until the quiz finished (they ended up plumb last – so we were not that helpful!!!).

After the quiz the band came on, it was quite a large band and we were hopeful but they ended up being the worst cover band we have heard on our travels.  We chanced another number but after totally crucifying a Bon Jovi number (I can talk!!!), we thought we would preserve our eardrums and retreat back to the reggae bar.

Back at the reggae bar we found that they also had some live music on in the form of a singer with an acoustic guitar.  He was marginally better doing some country stuff and standards, the only irritating thing was halfway through songs his would start doing this quacking thing (his own style I guess) instead of singing.  Anyway we had a few beers and put up with it for an hour or so before retiring back to our room and the film, Scarface, which was showing on the TV. This is the life!

Day 3 – Driving around the area!

The first rules of driving in Indonesia are that there are no rules, which we was about to find out, on our first outing. Heres how it works:

1.       It’s perfectly OK to go either way round a roundabout

2.       You are allowed to both overtake and undertake

3.       There is no fast lane or slow lane on a dual carriageway

4.       If someone flashes their lights at you at a junction its not to give you right of way its to say they are coming through with no quarter given

5.       You can just pull over without indicating

6.       All lorries must drive at 5mph

After breakfast (which incidentally wasn’t as good as the budget accommodation) the man turned up with our hire car and to be fair it was a decent motor, some Toyota 4x4/car hybrid number and soon we were back on the road heading for a beach that we had heard about.

 

Well the good news was that after 5 months I had not forgotten how to drive, the only problem is that everyone else on the road had (see notes above).  It was quite worrying as there were hundreds of mopeds buzzing all around you and they would undertake/overtake you and then pull straight in front of you afterwards, it made me very nervous to move the steering wheel either left or right, having to triple check before doing so.

After a while I just had to ignore it and just concentrate on what I was doing and after filling up at a petrol station (hoping the right fuel was put in) and ½ hour later we were at a toll station which led to about a mile of fly-over/bridge over the sea which was quite interesting.  A few more miles after that we reached our destination and parked up.

The area we were in appeared to have been specifically set up for package holidaymakers that did not leave the resorts, all polished gardens and flashy hotels (It reminded us of Vilamoura), but it did have some nice beaches.

 

We took a walk around for a while and checked out a statue in a park before finding a resort with a beach bar where we took a rest (and had sprite, not beer!).  There were some half decent waves here so we sat, had our drinks and watched the surfers for a while before heading off again.

 

Our next stop we thought was going to be Kuta beach which we heard was a pretty lively/funky area and after following a few signs we then did not see any more so we drove around for a bit and came up to signs for Legian beach which was a bit further along but apparently had a similar vibe.  When we got there we crawled along in the traffic until we spotted a parking lot and parked up.

Legian was a resort with a younger feel to it with plenty of bars and shops, but still not really our type of thing.  However we decided to check out the shops on the main drag in search of some shorts as they had a few surf shops there, but still had no joy (I am fussy!!).

We then turned our attention to trying to find the beach and after a few narrow streets we found ourselves in a bar where we got speaking to some Ex-Pat Scottish guys from Australia, who gave Shell some pointers about local tobacco.

After a quick refreshment we then continued to the beach which was a long expanse of white sand with some good surf on it.  So we sat there for around half an hour watching the surfers and others before thinking we should head back before it got dark.

 

The way back wasn’t as simple as I thought and we soon found ourselves lost yet again, luckily enough the local SIMM we had came into its own and we used the SatNav on Shell’s phone to get us back.  Only one error was SatNav showed we had to do a U-turn at a designated turning point on a very busy dual carriageway – which is where I found that flashing headlights do not mean ‘After You’ – a matter of inches from disaster!!

Happy to have made it through one day in the car we then parked up at the hotel and decided to visit our local for one last time for dinner and some drinks (quite a few drinks to calm my nerves).

Whilst drinking we got talking to a couple from the UK in their 30’s? who were getting married on the beach out there later in the weekend.  We chatted with them for a while and they were very nice but she was a bit mutton dressed as lamb (Bitch!!) and when she told us she was getting very long blonde hair braids for her wedding day we balked a bit, seeing our doubt she then proceeded to show us a picture of when she had it done before (Classy!!!!) and now Shell’s nose is about a foot longer (I said nothing!).

When the bar shut it was time to go home, but not before one last midnight dip (well we had to make the most of it) before going to bed.