We had a wonderful holiday as always. It's a bit hard coming to terms with being home that's for sure. The first morning home I waited and waited for my breakfast but it just didn't appear. The reality of being home.. sigh... I really need to get those kids of mine trained up.
Our holiday of two weeks was spent in four different locations, a first for me. Usually it's just one place to stay at the whole time. I did enjoy moving around but I think probably three places would have been enough.
We arrived in the late afternoon after flying with Qantas from Perth. It was a great flight, being in row number one certainly was a bonus. They may not have business class service out of Perth, but getting those business class seats is a real thrill. Who cares about the food and extra service anyway, its that nice big comfy seat that counts more than anything. It was great being first off the plane even if we did have to wait quite a while for our luggage. Once you're off the plane you are there!
Our dear friend Wayan was waiting to pick us up as always. It's always a dash through the crowds for a big hug. He was in the middle of Cremation Ceremonies for his father up in Klung Klung, so we felt very privileged that he was there to meet us. We certainly weren't expecting it.
First part of our stay: Sanur
Our accommodation for this part of the holiday was at the S'Cape Condotels (condotels ??? what the???) in Sanur. They are located in Jl Danau Tamblingan just near the big sign for the Bali Bakus Elephant tours, behind the Kaljaparit (????) Restaurant. This was a nice place to stay and certainly very central. The friends that we were holidaying with had arrived a few days before us so were waiting with cold Bintangs and nibbles What a tough life.
While we were doing it tough and struggling through the Bintangs Wayan disappeared for a while on the hired bike. When he returned he had a beautiful chocolate birthday cake for me and a bunch of flowers. My birthday was the next day but as he was going back to his village that night he wanted do something special for me before he left. It was very special.
S'Cape is only quite new. The majority of the apartments have a big bedroom upstairs with a kitchen and living area downstairs. We looked at a few and they all had a type of daybed in the living area that could sleep one person. They all had a bathroom upstairs and down. The apartment that we stayed in was designed for two couples. It had a king sized bedroom downstairs with its own bathroom, shower only, and upstairs there was a big open space with a kitchen and king sized bed and a bathroom with a bath and shower. There was a lovely big terrace off the living / bedroom that was furnished with an outdoor table and chairs. This is where we spent most of our time. You need a couple of candles for night time as there is no outside light, even though the wiring is sitting there. I think this is the only apartment with two king sized beds.
The pool is long and narrow and good for those wanting to swim laps. Not me I'm afraid, just a bit of a splash to the end and back was more my style. The water is a nice temperature, I thought it may be cold as it runs between two rows of apartments but not so. The gardens are starting to get established so it looks quite pretty.
The majority of the apartments are close to the edge of the pool which could be a bit of a problem if the place was full, but over the few days we were there it was very quiet with no more than one other apartment being used at the same time.
We ate in a variety of restaurants in Sanur and every meal except one was delicious. The plan was to never eat at the same restaurant twice as there are always so many good places to eat and so few meals to be had. It didn't happen of course, the old favourites keep drawing us back. We ate at the Bonsai, Beach Café, Griya Santrian, Kalpajarit, Piccadilly's, Café Batu Jimbaru and Retro's.
All were great except for Piccadilly, which is a new bistro type restaurant on the road at the entrance to drive through to the Bonsai. I wanted Nasi Campur and hubby wanted some other Indonesian dish, which we weren't able to have as they had run out of rice.(Yes truly!) Hubby ordered noodles instead, which I should have done as I chose a pasta dish that was like glue. The music was louder than the speakers and our old ears could handle.
We did however meet others later who had a meal there that they really enjoyed, so maybe we just picked a bad night.
If anyone was a fan of the Corridor Restaurant down in Jl Hang Tuah, you might want to try Metro's just down the road from Hardy's. Jack, who was the manager at the Corridor has now moved to this restaurant and taken the chef and some of the wait staff with him. The food is as good as it was at the Corridor and the setting is beautiful. It doesn't look much from the road, but the garden setting out the back is beautiful. We ate there a few times and it was always very quiet. Because it is so beautiful out the back no one wants to sit at the front, so people aren't attracted in by seeing others eating there.
We were hoping to see the lovely Wayan who worked at the Corridor but sadly she has been very sick and not at work for a month. She is back in her village. I had a present for her and some clothes which I left with Jack and he kindly passed them on for me. He thought she may be coming back to work in a few days, but the latest news is that she wants to train to be a teacher when she gets better. She is such a beautiful girl in all ways so I hope everything works out for her.
Café Batu Jimbaru was somewhere new for me. It's a very trendy little café with lots of interesting juices and some really good meals. They do a few different types of salads which are great, especially the Salad Batu Jimbaru. It's a huge salad with all sorts of yummy things in it. Highly recommended for a bit of a salad fix.
Next door and connected to the café is a deli with all sorts of western goodies and wine. The range of products is amazing, but I think the most amazing thing that I saw was a big box of Avocados for sale, product of Australia. That one has got me stumped!
We hired a scooter to get around for a couple of days, then cleverly remembered that we wouldn't have time to use it the next day as we were heading off to go on the Buggies in the morning and then on to Taro Elephant Park for the afternoon. So it was a bit of a ride around in the afternoon, with a visit to see Bloodyron at his Sanur Beach Villas as we are going to be staying there later in the holiday. We managed to crash a barbie that he was having but Ron didn't mind. He just bought out more cold Bintangs and we blended in with the crowd. Life just keeps staying tough!
We had a fantastic time on the Buggy ride the next day. What a fun thing to do. We went tandem, with me sitting quite happily in the passenger seat. Well, quite happily most of the time. There were the times that I was a screaming fishwife yelling: 'put the bleep bleep camera away and just concentrate on driving!!' Especially when we were a breath away from some very steep edges.
The funniest part of the day would have to have been my encounter with a white chook. Before leaving for Bali I had the usual naysayer's predicting that I would get blown up or catch bird flu. Of course I told them that you can get blown up just about anywhere in the world these days, and that I had no intention of playing with any chooks. Well I just may have to eat my words. As we were driving through a small village a white chicken was in the process of wandering across the road, minding it's own business. Our friends were in the buggy in front of us, and the chook walked straight in front of them. Naturally it got a bit of a fright and with a bit of flapping of wings and much squawking it ended up flouncing around and landed in our buggy with us, making a bit of a fuss. Hubby thought it had gone and looked around at me to say something about it, and there it was sitting on my shoulder. Quite comfortable it was too, and settled in for the drive. With a quick flick it was back on terra firma where it belonged. I couldn't stop laughing.. Wait until I tell those naysayer's at work, they will be horrified! I should cough on them.
We had a nice lunch at the buggy place then headed off for a long drive to the elephants at Taro. I have been on the Bali Bakus elephant tour before and was not impressed at all. The staff were all very unhappy and the place was very run down. I particularly disliked the way the elephants were tramped through the local village and ate whatever took their fancy along the way. Stomping through the middle of the family compound while they were going about their day's chores wasn't the best either.
Taro however is a totally different experience. Everything about the place was fantastic. It's a great place to visit even if you don't have an elephant ride. There is no comparison between the two businesses. Taro may be more expensive but you get a lot more value for your money than the other place.
Well that's about it for part one in Sanur. Next instalment will be Nusa Lembongan and the fantastic Villa Rumah Kami. Definitely the best part of our holiday, in fact probably the best holiday experience ever.