Lets see Bali...

The next morning we woke up bright and early so Bill could head for the beach to see the Sunrise. I stayed home and got another half an hour in bed before I wandered down and joined him for an early morning walk. Watching the locals sweeping the beach and raking the sand each morning is something that just has to be seen. An hour later we were on our way to the Griya Santrian to have breakfast with Josie & Nolan who had arrived from Darwin the night before. Their hotel was just as lovely as ours. Breakfast was yummy and we had a fine time catching up for an hour or so. Josie & Nolan have stayed in Sanur many times before and were ready to introduce us to a Bali we had not seen before. Let the fun begin.

The first thing we had to do was to find our driver for the next week. This was already in hand as Nolan had left a message with the Bumi Ayu to let Wayan know they were coming. We walked over to see him but found that he had already got tourists that day. Another of the drivers, Wayan (2) was there and agreed to be our driver for that day and we would see Wayan (1) later. So off we went to Denpasar to pick up some bits at Matahari, a local dept store. Just a quick visit but long enough to find some cute little clothes for Corbyn & Amelie and sample dept store shopping Bali style. Always guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

With the morning almost gone we decided that lunch at Ubud sounded like a good idea and so we drove up to find the restaurant we were going to meet last year but never arrived. On our arrival in Ubud we discovered that this place no longer existed and so went to the next hotel along the road and found another great place with an amazing view over the river. From our elevated position we saw many rafts going through the rapids below. Lots of squeals and laughter as the white water rafters were thrown around the rocky course. Beside the river were rice fields and dotted all around us on the hillside were little cottages from the few hotels in the area. We saw two gardeners preparing garden beds on the very steep slopes and on closer inspection discovered they were tied to the hillside with rope. I wonder if 'worksafe' ever visit. Oh, and lunch was very tasty. My Soto Ayam, (chicken soup) was the best I had all week and I did try it at other places. We spent a leisurely couple of hours enjoying the view, the food and the drinks and only decided to head for home when they ran out of cold beer. The boys drew the line at warm beer served in an ice bucket.

We drove back to our hotels managing to avoid much of the peak hour traffic that day though I'm not too sure what peak hour is. It always seemed busy whatever time we travelled. Not sure that Bill always enjoyed seeing the traffic up close. As the tallest in our group he got to sit in the front seat and most days he got to experience a few hairy moments. Today's moment was our driver doing a U-turn on a very busy, very hilly road. As he executed this turn Bill looked up to see a rather large truck coming down the hill straight at us and all we could do was hope it had good breaks. It must have done as we are here to tell the story but I think Bill's blood pressure might have gone up a notch or two. Back in Sanur we met Wayan (1) and organised to meet him the next morning at Bumi Ayu for another days sightseeing. We thanked Wayan (2) for a great day, arranged to meet at the Griya Santrian for drinks later and went home for a rest. Bill caught some zzz's while I enjoyed the sunshine and the beautiful pool.

Back at Griya a bit later we joined the others in the poolside bar for happy hour and to decide where to eat that night. A seafood bar-b-que set up in front of us was very tempting. That decision made we didn't have to go too far to find a table and we had a great dinner on the beach. After a fun night and a short taxi ride home, the two hotels are at each end of Sanur and just too far to walk between them, we headed back to our beach bar where we had a coffee while we watched the waves gently roll in & out before calling it a night and heading off to bed. What a way to end a fabulous day.

We were off to have breakfast at the Bumi Ayu the next day, will tell you all about it soon .......