Three Nights in Sanur Bali

Welcome to Bali!

Last night we arrived at our 2nd destination, Nusa Dua, but this blog will be about our prior stay at Sanur. This door is the entryway out of our villa; the latter had 3 bedrooms and a den, and 4 bathrooms. We arrived at night and the lights were on the garden and the pool (yes, we had an awesome L-shaped grey-tiled pool), and the pool water-feature was splashing into the water as well, and the effect was magical! The living room and dining room were outside, roofed but no walls. What an unusual experience for us...we're used to walls, walls and more walls. Apparently it's the 'bali way.' There are stairs on both sides of this door...this is to fool the dumber spirits, so that they cannot find their way into our place. Most of our villa info is on our video camera, so I'll try and get that onto Facebook later, when we get home. It truly was incredible.



What we have noticed on this trip is, the island being mostly Hindu, that there are statues EVERYWHERE! On a lot of these statues, and some trees as well, are checkered table-cloth looking sarongs. We're not sure of the meaning of this, but we are pretty sure that it has something to do with worship. There are so many spirits that are recognized here, and many unrecognized ones, that they fear missing one out, so they worship a whole gamut of things. The religions here are so fear-based; you don't want to displease any of the gods and so you appease all of them. Twice a day food is placed in small banana leaf baskets, along with a coin or a cigarette, and given to the gods. Usually the basket is placed in front of the house/store/hotel doors, just far enough away so that they won't get stepped on. Quite often the wild animals around here eat the offerings, but I even saw a dog turn its nose up at a basket because all it contained was rice and veggies. Even the local wild dogs get tired of rice and veggies!

On our first day we spent at Waterbom, which is a huge waterslide park. I asked if it was okay if I take my parents, even if we have no kids with us. I know they'd love it, and it's quite 'adult friendly.' There is an easy slide that eases into a warm river, which takes you through various sprays and falls. It was quite reminiscent of the King Fisher hydropath and is incredibly cheaper! Those photos are still on our small digital but I may share them later.

On our 2nd day we (the royal 'we') went snorkelling. It cost 420,000 rp to rent a boat with 2 guides, who took us just past the reef, where the ocean waves broke. The gang didn't see a whole lot until near the end (the water was quite choppy) but they did get the experience and they hope to try again here at this resort we're now at one more time. Once we got beyond the breakers they all jumped in...this is a photo of Tris and Matthew (look closely at the right of the 2nd photo)...nice big waves, eh?






The day after that, our 3rd day, we took a trip to a bunch of areas, two being a black sand beach and the other a white sand beach. The former was nice but it wasn't kid-friendly, so we discreetly observed a Hindu priest doing his rituals and then went on our way. We didn't get very far, because as you can see, we had a little tire issue. That was okay because we had 2 strong guys to take care of the rest of us; us 'girls' decided to have a little snack by the side of the road and make the best of it. Like Tris said, in Ghana he had had to wait 5 hours for help with a flat tire...we waited 1/2 hour.

After the tire was fixed we headed off to find lunch. Little did we know we'd find a little piece of paradise! We stopped at a resort called Nirwana, and we were welcome to use the pool after lunch. As you can see, there is a pool and then a wall, then the wild ocean. It was incredibly beautiful!

After lunch we headed to find White Sand Beach, a remote little spot where, unfortunately, in 2 years time will not be remote anymore. They're building a huge hotel on the spot where we went; very sad! The whole beach was empty except for local huts and their owners/proprietors. After the gang swam in the huge waves they were led into the village by locals and brought to a shower. My frustration is that I didn't want to swim because of the salt water and no showers (long story)...later to find out we had showers available to us. Also, to get the showers they got to go into the village...I wanted to go in earlier and take photos but didn't want to be rude...I missed my chance! Also, as they were showering, both Judy and Alexis stayed on the beach. The sun was setting and alas, I had to pee. Wouldn't you know it...while I was trying to balance on the squat toilet (see photo...the wide spots are for your feet...I just 'hovered' with my feet on the ground) a few hundred/maybe thousand bats came out of a cave and flew over Alexis and Judy. Bummer! Needless to say, I was very frustrated from a photographer's point of view.

I know I have more to write, but we're headed to the beach and everyone's waiting for me. I didn't work out the editing/glitches but I may be able to later.

Thanks for reading!