We arranged with Gusti to meet us at 3:30 in front of the lobby to take us to Sanur, and then wait for us until we wanted to go home. So at 3 o'clock, when we were leaving to use the pool we saw him arrive.
While I was swimming, the bar staff tried telling me that they have a chemical in the pool that changes colour if people do wee wee in the water. I nodded and said gosh is that right, but thinking to myself, wot a load of bollocks. The pool would have looked like a piccasso painting within 5 minutes of me getting in if that was the case.
We found a coupla towels folded on some loungers , picked them up, and went to meet Gusti. Crikey, he was carrying on like a big girls blouse. Seems a laundry vehicle had scraped the front of his Kijang when he was waiting for us. Our normal placid mate was not a happy chappy and drove to Sanur faster than Robbie heading to the dunny. I got him to drop us off at the Southern end of Sanur. He wanted to head back and sort out the problem, so I told him we would cab back. I gave him a quarter of the negotiated amount as he had mucked us around, and then had to tell him to stop sulking or I would take it back off him. Sometimes you have to be firm to be kind.
We wandered out to the beach track and as I have always had an uncanny sense of direction due to roaming sheep paddocks at night with a camera, I said we turn left and we will come to S, S &S. With the sounds of, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet, ringing in my ears, one and a half hours later we popped up on the main area just below that big hotel that sticks out like dogs knees on a cold day. We had been followed and hounded by the most persistent sellers since I last visited a used car yard. We had passed numerous bars serving ice cold beer and I had convinced the troops that it was just around the next bend. For 2 hours. And it was getting darker by the minute. Then they recognised where we were.
Extracting myself from a thorny tree that my 'mates' had playfully thrown me in, I suggested that perhaps it was my shout to get a taxi down south Sanur, walk out to the pathway and find this elusive S,S&S.
A half hour ride, and I am sure 200 kilometres later saw us in a car park, and after convincing the troops that we still needed to go left again, we rounded a corner and there it was. I noticed (but didn't say anything) that originally we had come out about 5 shops from S, S&S and some dick had turned the wrong way. Anyway we were here now, and shouting numerous rounds of cold binnies I slowly won the guys back. Well they stopped taking swings at me, questioning my sexuality, calling me rude names and throwing rocks anyway.
I think it was called Nyomans café? But it was definitely the one in the picture. We asked the owner if it was S, S&S and she said she didn't know anything about that? We made jerks of ourselves trying to talk to the small contingent drinking there but none had heard of BTF or S, S&S. So we decided to get back on the main road, head back to Sanur proper and have a meal. We wandered for 100 metres until we came to an empty section with a track heading toward the road. I said follow me, and they did.
Soon the track bent and headed left back to the car park but we kept walking straight through on a narrow track in the dark as I knew I wanted to get on the road and grab a cab.
To cut a long story short, it got darker and the track got narrower. Just before my untimely death at the hands of 3 supposed friends, tetnus, snake bite (or all three) we came to a rubbish tip full of plastic bag tree leaves with a high tin fence between us and the road. We scrambled over the rubbish and after a bit of searching, found a hole in the fence that we were just able to squeeze through.
Turning toward Sanur and ignoring 2 taxis parked 100 metres behind us, (there's taxis everywhere in Bali, one will be along in a coupla seconds, trust me!) we walked for kilometres with no taxis passing us until the ungrateful troops started grumbling again. They started describing in detail how my head was going to have been used to create an opening in the fence if we hadn't of found that exit; when rounding a corner we saw an old guy standing outside the entrance to a hotel complex.
Never in my life have I been so happy to hear the words TRAnnnnspoooot. To hell with eating in Sanur. How much for us to get back to Legian?
Sitting outside Robbies digs that night having a quiet vodka, we reflected on the day, and decided that we might give S, S&S a miss from now on, and pop on down to see our version of S S&S, that is Sammy, Susy and the Squirrels tomorrow night.
Ianz