We are staying in a private villa in the south of Sanur, I am with my husband, his parents and our 15 year old son. Last evening just as I was about to doze off to sleep my son happily announces that our host is taking him to swim with sharks.
Of course this lead to a wonderful nights sleep with images of ferocious sharks swimming around and my son being chomped to death. Over breakfast I voiced my concerns, my husband and FIL said that they were also going with Paul. FIL mentioned that the sharks were in an enclosed pen. This made me feel a lot better. When our host (Ron) came around to collect the men I asked him 'Are these sharks really separated in a pen'
The answer came back 'of course they are in a bloody pen, what do you think they do with them? Tuck them into bunk beds in a losmen. The white tipped reef sharks are in one pen and the black tip reef sharks are in another. We then jump in with them'
'So how close do you get to the actual sharks'
'Goodness me you can touch the ruddy things'
With that they drove off. There is only one thing for a woman to do in a situation like this. Retail therapy! So MIL and I headed for the shops. We had arranged to meet the men at Sweet Magnolia around noon. We were told that this is on Mertasari Beach down the end of Jalan Tirta Empul. However when it came to getting a taxi driver that knew how to get there we had no luck. In desperation we asked a western man for help. He said 'Yep, straight down there just past Bloodyron's place'. The driver suddenly has a little light globe on top of his head and says'the beach just past Blood Ron house. I know there'
We meet up with the men folk. Paul was in raptures about swimming with the sharks. The general opinion was that it was wonderful for people who had never been diving but probably of little interest to experienced divers. They has also gone to the turtle hatchery as well. www.balisharks.com
Suddenly I noticed MIL's eye were like saucepans. I assumed something was wrong but she grabbed my hand and lead me to the display case at the Sweet Magnolia. It was laden with lovely cakes of all different types. This is really a lovely spot, on the beach yet under the shade of trees. It seems that it is popular with the expat community but only a small number of tourists are aware of its location.
We opted to have lunch there. Again this was a very good move. I had one of the best squid dishes I have ever eaten. The others had a crispy duck dish and a great sweet and sour dish.
Ron & FIL settled for a few extra Bintangs. I already had the feeling that FIL was not going to like going home. For a guy who had been almost forced to come to Bali he was settling in very quickly.
F The whole decided to wander around Sanur for the day . We agreed to meet up with Ron at Bona Ventura for an evening meal. FIL and hubby were ready for a seafood fix, we thought about Kesuma but the wind has been quite strong in the evenings and we decided to move a bit inland. This proved to be another great choice with prawns, fish and crayfish available. The men had a little sook about the temperature of the beer but an ice bucket soon fixed that problem.
Cheers.