Bali Trip 2014: Day 8: Back to Sanur
What really Happens In Bali? Well if you believe TV and mainstream media it is nothing but drinking and crazy risk taking. Well here is our version – stay tuned for our quick 2 week escape from Australia heading over to Bali and Kuala Lumpur.
After all the sun and fun of yesterday we decided to have a bit of a lazy start to the day today, moving day today – heading back to the south and staying in Sanur.
Today’s Highlights:
- Temple
- Salt Farm
- Food
- Spa
- Drinks
- Shopping
- Food
*Seems we are returning to a normal pattern again*
Our last morning in Amed, we were both so tired from yesterday we slept past sunrise – which with these curtains wasn’t easy. I was still a little sore from the sunburn so didn’t fancy heading back out into the glorious Amed sunshine this morning – so we stuck around in our rooms and packed our bags (pretty poorly) to head back to civilisation – Sanur.
Went downstairs to grab some breakfast – the only downside to those stairs is the “joy” of lugging your suitcases back down to reception. I couldn’t bring myself to go ask the lovely ladies working in the Warung to help us so just toughed it out.
If you squint – right at the top of the picture is a little green tree – that was our room. So yeah the stairs are a little “steep”.
Anyway we had a quick breakfast of Pancakes and Cheese Jaffles with juice and coffee – my stomach was still a bit off from last night so I just thought I have better be a bit gentle on it.
Drivers With Distinction – Hadi – Fredy had arranged for Hadi to be our driver for today, to take us down to Sanur. I felt bad for Hadi, Fredy was making him do this on his day off… he didn’t mind though and we gave him a reasonably easy day.
To be honest we didn’t really have any plans for the trip to Sanur, we had seen the Water Palace previously with Mandika and had seen most of the spots along the way – Hadi however had a couple of places he thought we might like to see.
Pura Lempuyang
When we left Amed the weather was glorious barely a cloud in the sky. Hadi suggested we go check out this temple in the mountain because it gives amazing views back to Mt. Agung and the surrounding areas.
Pura Lempuyang is a lovely place, at the top of Mt. Lempuyang, it is actually a collection of about 4 or 5 different temples, all up it is about a 1700 (yes 1700) step climb to the top of the mountain and the top temple. Suffice to say we didn’t want to attempt that feat – so we just checked out the lower temple Pura Panataran Agung.
The drive up to the temple is amazing it is cutting around the sides of the mountain and some amazing views. It is also a real picture into Traditional Bali Country living. You will see family homes and businesses on the side of the road, and the people going about there day.
At the moment this place is not a touristy destination – we were the only tourists there this morning, but give it a while and it will be THE next popular destination.
Unfortunately for us the clouds decided that we didn’t get to see the view today, they moved through just as we reached the temple, it didn’t matter us – if anything the clouds rolling through actually added something to the feeling of the place. To literally be in the clouds virtually alone in this magical temple complex was pretty amazing.
At the top of Pura Panataran Agung a family was receiving a blessing from the temple priest and Hadi took us in and let us stand back and watch the proceedings. It was a lovely experience.
We headed back down to the car – if we had more time (and energy) I think next time I will try and get to some of the other temples in this area, according to the internet the walk takes about 4 hours to get to all the temples and back.
As you can see the clouds blocked out the view – apparently through those clouds is the lovely Mt. Agung Volcano…
Back to the car we continued along down to Sanur, Hadi stopped when we got closer to Sanur so we could have a look at a lovely traditional Sea Salt Farm. This place had no name and I couldn’t tell you the location even if I tried – it was a tiny little farm down a tiny dirt laneway off the road. I am amazed Hadi’s car was even able to make the journey.
I know what you’re thinking – Sea Salt – not exactly exciting, but in all honesty it was actually pretty interesting to see the process. What is in effect an incredibly simple process – collect the sea water, run it through a filtration process to get rid of any impurities then lie it out on big drying racks covered with a dense rubber blanket – and presto you got yourself Salt.
Like I said I have no clue where this place was so just hit up Hadi or Fredy and they will be able to take you there on your tour. It wasn’t actually that far from Sanur so would be an easy reach for a quick detour.
We had to bypass Sanur to head back into Legian – my wife had to collect the boots from Putu Leather that we put in the other day, and my wallet as well. Wow he did an amazing job, made them custom to her feet and legs, even made them slightly smaller than they needed to be so as to factor in the fact the leather would expand. Definitely worth the Rp800k price. My wallet was pretty darn nice as well – I loved my old Fossil Wallet and have never been able to find anything as good, so was ecstatic that he was able to copy it perfectly for me.
Anyway at this stage I felt so bad for Hadi – the traffic getting up Jl Padma Utara was horrid – worse traffic I have ever seen in Bali before. It took us at least an hour to get back to Sanur! Hadi got us there just after lunch time, and he was pretty happy that we were giving him the rest of the day “off” – we were both a little tired and needed to rest.
Semarandana – Sanur – We prefer to stay in the North of Sanur – when we were there last year we stayed at the Tamukami and just loved the location. We found this place online, it only opened in January 2013 so is pretty new. It is almost next door to the Tamukami (to the north of the vacant land). Overall pretty nice, a really small boutique style hotel – we booked their best room the One Bedroom Flat. Plenty of room for us to spread out. And at Rp570k per night it wasn’t too badly priced – including a small breakfast.
This is the main lobby/reception area as well as the pool. The pool is not huge but big enough to relax in.
This is where you can come have breakfast, a really open environment where you can have a chat with some of the other guests as well – doesn’t have that coldness of some of the bigger chain hotels.
Little sitting area out the front of our room. The One Bedroom Flats are tucked away at the back of the complex so you have almost zero noise which is nice.
When you walk in there is a small kitchenette (who seriously cooks in Bali?), and a dining table. There is also a good sized cupboard with electronic safe.
Couch and coffee table in front of the queen size bed.
The bed was pretty comfy and the pillows were not bad at all – there is also a little window seat you can see to the right there (made a good spot to stash the suitcase)
The TV on the wall – had a few English Language Channels – not many though, so you are pretty much stuck between HBO / AXN / Fox Sports, again – who wants to go to Bali and stay in their room?
The bathroom was tight but functional – I think that they could have sacrificed a little space from the room area and given the bathroom a few more centimetres. Not a major problem really the main thing was the water was hot and good water pressure.
Once we had settled in we headed out to drop off the washing at the Laundry (5kgs for Rp75k – Ready tomorrow); and grabbed some late lunch.
Lunch
Neither of us felt like much so decided to just grab a burger – stopped off at the Art Cafe just down the road from our hotel. The menu here is amazing, a really fantastic range of Local and International 
favourites – the cocktail list was pretty nice as well. Despite this we actually just opted for a Beef Burger each. My wife however was absolutely overjoyed at finding Pimms on the cocktail menu – her favourite drink and something seriously hard to find in Bali – so a Pimms Cocktail was ordered!
The burgers were actually really good – the flavour in the beef was really good – clearly someone put some thought into this rather than just slapping some meat on a bit of bread.
We will definitely be back here because we have read on the internet of their famous Dessert Menu which we will definitely have to try.
All up for 2 burgers, 1 Pimms, and 1 Orange Juice – RP198k;
Spa Time
So the only thing missing in Amed is Massage/Spa places – it had been now 3 days since my last massage and I was experiencing withdrawls. We headed down the road to Angel’s Spa – this place isn’t fancy but they do great treatments (we went here last year as well). I had a quick massage while the wife got a pedicure (Massage – Rp60k; Pedicure – Rp70k). They took great pride in their work with my wife telling me that half way through the lady doing her toenail polish wasn’t entirely happy with the flowers so wiped them all off and started again!
Drinkie Time
All this massaging and spaing had us both needing a drink, we took the opportunity of cutting through the Sand Bar and Restaurant to get to the beach and figured we would repay them with a drink, a nice Long Island Iced Tea and a Cuba Libre (Total Rp161k).
Holy Cow was it windy – I would say at least a 20-30 knot wind blowing through – they have erected little barriers on the beach to try and help reduce the wind off the water – they helped but after about 20minutes we were both blown to bits and cold.
Shopping
Again I think my wife was having withdrawals – 3 days without shopping had clearly left money burning a hole in her pocket. So we headed up to Tootsies in the Sanur Beach Market. Tootsie is a Fixed-Price store of a similar line to Miss Debbie and Ketut in Legian – however on most items I found her a bit cheaper (by only about a dollar or two).
Stocked up on some more shirts and shorts for me and some gifts for friends and family – all up we paid about Rp715k for a fairly decent haul.
Now as a warning, you walk out of there with bags be prepared for the onslaught of “One More”, “Now come look my shop” etc. just be firm, the Sanur Market Ladies get a bad wrap but they are not actually that aggressive and in most cases a polite “Tidak Bu, Terima Kasih” tends to satisfy them. Since you have already been to Tootsie you already have a rough guide to what you should pay when negotiating – so if you do strike a friendly one, don’t be too rude head into their shop and maybe buy something. With so many vendors I can appreciate that they can get a bit desperate for a sale.
Dinner
After shopping we dropped the purchases back at the hotel and headed out to dinner. I was in the mood for some Pork Ribs so we ended up trying – Rib Warung Steak. I had the pork ribs with vegetables and roast potato and my wife had the Grilled Breaded Prawns (or “dressed” prawns as the menu had it).
Food was cooked well and service was very prompt. From the street it looks pretty small but it opens up into a pretty big restaurant. It was pretty full but they still managed to get the food out to us quickly. Total price including drinks Rp272k.
After dinner it was back to the hotel (via the Circle K for some essentials – water / Milo Nuggets / Magnum Ice Cream). Need to get my rest tonight – so some reason I have a sneaky feeling tomorrow is going to be much the same as today (Food/Shop/Spa….). Funny today was feeling like a quiet day but now I look back I can see why I am tired.
Liked anything you heard from today’s blog? Here is the summary of places we visited and their websites (where I could find them):
Food:
- Art Cafe Sanur
- Sand Beach Club & Restaurant
- Rib Warung Steak
Accommodation:
Transport:
Shopping:
- Tootsie (Fixed Price Store)
Spa:
- Angel’s Spa – Sanur
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