Sunday, April 3, 2016

Sanur - Senggigi

Our Air Garuda flight to Bali last Saturday went very smoothly, as usual. This time, in cloudless conditions, we had a very clear view of the amazing outback Australia landscape for most of the way.
Although we left Australia (on different flights) at about the same time, Ros and Pete had an hour or so wait for us at Denpasar airport before we got through our queues at Immigration. Never mind all that, easily forgotten; our driver Eddy was there waiting for us and we had our holiday to get started - Ros and Pete's first visit to Bali and our ninth (but who's counting).

Our Paneeda View villa is roomy and charming and right on Sanur Beach. We love the peace and quiet of this little (though extensive) hotel after the chaotic traffic. Our favourite Warung Blanjung just a few minutes drive away, still serves some of the best Indonesian food in Southern Bali and we make it our first food stop of the trip. Ros and Pete are instant converts to their Nasi Campur and the local beer!

We wake up early on Sunday morning, still on Australia time, a most beautiful time of the day in Sanur - when the gardens and the beach are looking their best.



We settle in for breakfast in the hotel's beautiful open air pavilion and Pete can't resist going for a dip in the smooth sea water in front of our hotel.

We go for a long, sweaty walk along the paved Sanur Beach promenade, dodging lots of cyclists and the inevitable touts but enjoying the beauty and the energy of the place. It's family day at Sanur Beach on a Sunday and there were many parts of the beach that were crowded with locals, cooking, eating, swimming and fishing even though it was so early in the day.
 jk

With an early start to the day we were able to fit in a long session in the pool before late check out at noon and a delicious lunch of gado gado, sate and lumpia (the local version of a spring roll) in the hotel's gorgeous beach side pavillion again.

Eddy made sure we were in plenty of time for our Wing Air flight out of Denpasar to Lombok at 3.00pm. Once again we felt like royalty arriving at Lombok Praya to a warm welcome from John and Gede and everything taken care of. It's about an hour's drive to our hotel through the busy Sunday evening traffic (including a joyous Sasak wedding procession) and the ramshackle energy of Senggigi township.

Puri Mas Boutique Resort and Spa, about 5 minutes drive out of Senggigi is a revelation! It's a beautiful hotel, probably the most luxurious we've stayed in and Ros and Pete and us are in the seaview villas! They are gorgeous. It's just on sunset as we arrive and I am blown away by the setting.




We're too enamoured by the setting to bother going back to Senggigi for dinner so we enjoy G&Ts provided by Judy and Jurgen at Ros and Pete's spacious villa and then on to the hotels' gorgeous open air pavillion overlooking the open sea and Bali's sacred Mt Agung in the distance, for dinner.


I think a few wires got crossed towards the end of dinner causing much hilarity. Rob and I got presented with a cream cake and a special cheesy serenade for our "fortieth wedding anniversary"  - causing quite an uproar at our end of the dining room. We played along with it of course - what else can you do when the dinner staff were all so happy for us and our long standing relationship!!

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