We slept extremely well on our second night in Bali and we had decided that our first week would be a combination of eating and relaxing. We decide to spend the next day by the pool.
Saturday morning up bright and early and as we sit on our balcony drinking our early morning tea & coffee we decide to go to Denpasar. So much for the planned day of relaxing. H had got some jeans at a bargain price last year and wanted some more and then there are the DVD'S for the kids. We have breakfast and catch a bluebird to Ramayana. Next it's Sakura for DVD'S, the traffic is full on and a friendly taxi driver rushes over from the opposite side of the road (after we have indicated that we don't want a taxi), he holds up one hand and leads us through the throng of motorbikes and cars. By midday we have about 100 new DVD'S. We decide to walk to Matahari, I led the way and got us lost, H eventually headed us in the right direction. An hour and a half and one heated argument relating to my sense of direction later we arrived, if we had continued in the direction I'd wanted to go we'd still be walking.
We find the jeans and few other things that we are after and then take our lives in our hands again as we cross to Robinsons. On the way back to Sanur it's extremely busy and we pass the opening of the Arts Festival.
Over the next few days we take long walks along the beach, it's overcast every day, very windy some days and on a couple of occasions it rains. On one wet walk I finished up looking like something out of a horror movie as the wind and rain stood my hair on end, I decided that the hair needed to be shorter. I found a hairdresser, can't remember the name of it but the sign said 'Sanurs leading hairdresser for expats' or something similar. With my heart in my mouth I made a booking for later that morning. I came out with the best haircut I've had in years, the young girl layered my hair the old fashioned way and it just fell into place every morning after that and still is. We got to spend a couple of hours most days by the pool, H was reading The Davinci Code and amazingly for him he couldn't seem to put it down. (He usually finishes one book a year if that)
There were not many tourists on the street, most were European, some Japanese, Korean and very few Australians. We ate at Madelo's, Mago's The Cat & Fiddle, Donalds on the beach and a couple of others. We were a bit wary at first due to the lack of tourists in the restaurants. We needn't have worried the standard of the food everywhere we ate was excellent.
On walking past hotels such as The Puri & Griya Santrian and Sanur Beach Hotel they seemed to be very busy. Maybe these people were eating in the hotel restaurants as there were never more than 3 or 4 tables full at any time while we were eating at most of the restaurants listed. Mago was the exception, this restaurant has entertainment each night and on some nights a Buffet dinner which we decided against. H turned me off by giving me a running commentary of the poor little pig that formed the centerpiece of the buffet. There he was was resplendent on his platter with an apple in his mouth just waiting to be carved up. H said just this morning he was happily running around his pigpen with his friends not realising that this evening he was going to be Babi Guling. I said, Shutup, what about your love for lamb chops and the poor sheep, his reply was, yeah but they don't sit on the table complete with head and tail do they. Couldn't have eaten the buffet even if I'd wanted to by the time he'd finished telling me the little pig's life story.
One night after we'd finished our meal at Mago we were approached by a young guy. We were asked if we had enjoyed our meal and we both replied yes. The young man told us that he was doing a survey on what people thought of the restaurant and the food, he wanted H to complete it but H didn't have his glasses with him and asked him to give it to me. I started filling the thing out and as I went through filling out things like, name, country, hotel, age group etc; I kept thinking where are the questions about the restaurant, they must be on the other side. Turned it over, nothing there, the young man says thank you and takes it away. I turned to H and said I've been got, he said, what do you mean, I said, I'll bet that was timeshare. H thought that this was hilarious as I never get caught, in 25 years of going to Bali I have always managed to avoid them, I must be getting old and slow!. Sure enough as we were sitting at breakfast at 7.30am the next morning there is a phone call for us. The connection is lost before they can tell me what a wonderfull prize I have won, the staff in the restaurant laugh when we explain what had happened, they tell us when they ring back again they will tell them that we don't want to take the call.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sanur, no street hawkers, only the many guys offering transport, you could walk the beach path in peace. We chose to stay at Stana Puri Gopa Hotel again, it's a small budget hotel but the newer rooms are really good value for money and the staff are wonderful. We enjoy smaller family run hotels, had a look at Putri Ayu, which has a lovely pool area and thought we may try it next time.
Our first week in Sanur felt like a month, we were so relaxed, we had walked for miles and I felt like I had lost 10 pounds even with all the good food we had eaten. However all good things must come to an end and it was time to move on to Seminyak for the second week of our holiday.
On arriving back from lunch at Donalds on our last day we were told that there had been a phone call for us from our hotel in Seminyak asking what time we wanted free pick up the next morning. We were pleasantly surprised as the price we had negotiated with this hotel had not included pickup.
Next our move to Seminyak and how we unexpectedly finished up at Bali Ayu Hotel.
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