We awake on Thursday morning to beautiful blue skies, a lovely 26 degree morning, and the blissful knowledge that Ririn the Wonder Nanny is arriving at 10am :)
The boys are genuinely looking forward to seeing their playmate again, and needless to say, this time there was no hesitation from Munchie to arrange a Nanny while we were here.
The single annoying thing about the Mercure in Sanur is the voucher system for things. As breakfast was included in our room rate, I was handed a stack of vouchers, 4 for each day we stayed, all dated for a specific date, which I had to remember to take with me each morning. Thankfully I remembered, but I did witness minor kerfuffles with other guests who forgot their vouchers, and ridiculously the line from the restaurant staff was 'go back and get the voucher, or pay for breakfast.' I travel a lot for work, and at all hotels you simply quote your room number and that's it - end of story. I'm perplexed as to why they can't do this, but I suspect there will be some very narky reviews coming up on TripAdvisor from those that were threatened with the loss of their free breakfast.
The other one is the pool towels - which also require a voucher to be produced and then collected at the end of each day when the towels are returned. I kind of get why they need to do this, with wayward guests leaving pool towels all over the beach etc... but it was an absolute pain in the can trying to pack up the entire family and then halfway to the pool/beach have to go back and retrieve the little towel cards :( there must be a better way.
Breakfast is a pretty standard buffet-type affair - fruit, pancake, waffles, eggs cooked to order, juices and pastries, bacon, sausages, cereal, bees crawling all over anything even remotely sweet -they were very docile, but I'm sure people with Anaphylaxis would be freaking out. The staff were friendly and attentive (to us anyway - having a Mookie helps, he's a complete chick-magnet so the girls were falling over themselves to come over and check if we needed anything so they could squeeze his cheeks).
The restaurant looks onto to beach footpath and it's entirely pleasant to watch the waves and smell the sea air and just bask in the 'Bali-ness' of everything.
It takes a while to fill Mookie up, so by the time we finish it's almost 9am so we decide to check out our surroundings and have a wander around the hotel grounds. Part of the reason we booked this hotel other than the family rooms, was the fact that it has a kid's club, so we thought it would be easier for Ririn to find ways to entertain the boys with some different toys and activities.
Eventually we stumbled across the pool which we had been over-looking last night, with a rustic little hut next door and it's sad-looking sign announcing 'Kids Club'. Hmmn. It definitely looked better on the internet. I poke my head inside a see a couple of small TV screens hooked up to playstations, some very seedy-looking gold lamé bean bags, a foosball table and small, faded ride-on car. On the way out I spot a miniature billiards table with gaping holes in the felt and torn pockets at the entrance to the hut. There is a shallow kids pool nearby, and a small sandy playground with a couple of slides, but it too is a little sad and tired-looking. Having said all that, I'm viewing this from an adult's perspective. To Snubs and Mookie it's a colourful new world to explore with new things to throw at each other, bean bags to face-plant in to, and in an instant of laying eyes on it, Mookie has commandeered the ride-on and is happily putting around squeaking 'beep!' 'beep!' with his very best bemo impression. Note: If you are a parent who is prone to carrying around hand sanitiser for your toddlers, this is not for you. If you're the kind of parent with a 'oh - go ahead and lick whatever you want' attitude, then it's fine.
It's nearly 10 o'clock so we head back to the room just in time to hear the phone ringing. It's the front desk letting us know that Ririn has arrived, so I leave Munch and the boys to go and greet my saviour. She gives me a big hug and looks genuinely happy to see the boys again - Mookie is a little stand-offish at first, but she soon wins him over. A quick tour of the room to show her what we've put where, and then Ririn takes them back down to the kid's club while Munch and I explore this end of Sanur for a couple of hours.
Normally we stay down the other end of Sanur, around about the Besakih, Griya Santrian, Swatiska area, so really we don't usually wander this far up the beach path. We leave the hotel on the beach and turn right, and fairly quickly stumble upon Kesuma's restaurant and the Magnolia café a little further down. We stop at Magnolia for a Dutch iced coffee (no different to any other iced-coffee I've ever had for the record - but nice anyway) and Munchie starts to experiment with his new digital camera, taking pictures of squirrels in the trees (to become a common subject of holiday photography this time) 'Oooh! Look! There's another squirrel!' Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.
We quickly discover that really there's not very much down this end, but it's still a lovely relaxing walk in the sunshine, and we take our time wandering back along the beach path, past Bobby's restaurant and stumbling across the Cemara Beach where we got engaged nearly 7 years ago (everybody say 'awwhhh').
A couple of hours pass very quickly, and it's time to head back to the hotel and rescue Ririn and take everyone to lunch. We settle on the Art Café opposite the entrance to the Mercure, the food is ok, it's nothing to write home about, but it's nicely done and reasonably priced. Snubs gets through his sate in record time, and Mookie is silent for at least 15 minutes, he inspects everything he eats lest there be something green in it that needs to be extracted first. At least we know he isn't colour blind. Ririn and the boys wander around the fish spa tank at the front of the restaurant, and Munch and I order a couple more Bintangs and lap up the good life.
About three quarters of the way down the label (that's how we measure time in Bali), Snubs comes back very excited. 'A bat! Mummy! Come see! There's a bat!' Three year old's can be creative in their interpretation of objects (he once very proudly told me his poop looked like a whale, to me it was just a poop) so I thought maybe there was a movie poster or a sticker or something, but I indulged him as he took my hand and led me into the laneway beside the café, where there was indeed a bloody big live fruit bat hanging from the frangipani tree. That'll teach me. The bat's name is Rasta, and he has a broken wing - according to the café staff he's been living there for somewhere around 15 years, he seemed friendly enough, but then again I wasn't about offer him my finger. Bat germs are one thing, rabies is something else altogether.
Mookie is nearly asleep so Ririn takes the boys back to the hotel for their afternoon nap and Munchie and I catch a transport guy down to Hardy's for some supplies and have a nose around.
I get a 35% discount off some scuffs in the Croc shop which is a first for me, I've not been offered a discount of anywhere near that size in a 'branded' store. V happy indeed. We decide to head to the Crema booth on the beach for an afternoon coffee , and it was as relaxing as we remember it, in fact, it becomes a morning ritual for us for the rest of the trip.
We notice that many, many shops are closed, with Nyepi only quite recently over, and everyone preparing for Galungan and Kuningan, it appeared that many store -owners had taken the opportunity to use the lull in tourists before the Easter storm to go back to their villages and help with preparations and fulfill their family festival obligations.
We head back for an afternoon swim with the boys and then to Magnolia Café for dinner. The menu is simple, but the food very well executed. The boys had Dory and Chips - the fish was sweet, flaky and and the hand cut chips nice and crisp. I had the Ayam Betutu - very flavoursome, and Munchie had the Fisherman's basket - the sweet little prawns were just cooked, almost the tiniest bit undercooked- perfect, beautiful, juicy little coral mouthfuls. Ririn gave their nasi goreng the nod too :)
Waddling back to room we're all ready for an early bedtime. Ririn gets the boys showered and into their pyjamas, tucks them into bed and disappears into the night, and I fix up a Hendricks, lime and tonic with a pinch of Big Tree Farms pyramid salt (for medicinal purposes of course) for Munchie and I to enjoy on our balcony.
Munchie and I are confirmed for the Bali Fruit Carving School tomorrow and I'm very curious to see how it turns out! We've done all the usual Bali attractions, so this is something new, and you never know, I might just uncover a hidden talent :)
Sampai Nanti!
Dutchnat