Sanur

Sanur is a cool little town that is close to the airport on the East side of the Southern Tip of Bali. It is coastal and the pace of life is nice and mellow. The architecture is fun. Everything is detailed, the smallest railing is flourished, any visible piece of wood is carved and painted. Here is a pic of a standard wall in Bali, obsess much?

Its Scooter mania here. Not quite as bad as Thailand but they've got it bad for their scooters, Let these pictures do the talking...

 But this one is my personal vavorite... This guy seems to have the goods the ladies need...

The religious beliefs dictate that the people leave offerings to the various gods. They are these little baskets made of palms that have banana leaves, rice, flowers, sometimes money, sometimes cigaretts. here is a good one. This stone sculpture has been rapped, given many offerings and seems to have quite the smoking habbit.

Food was reasonably priced and decent. It was a great place to start our vacation in Bali. We stayed at the Villa Warna which I would recommend to anyone. It is southern Sanur nestled in the residential area. It was very quiet and comfortable. The web site claims that it is only 200 meters to the beach which is way off (it is more like 750) but it was easily walkable. We walked to most of our meals and enjoyed daily tropical rain storms. My only complaint about Sanur were the overzealous taxi drivers. We were asked almost constantly if we needed a taxi and when we said no, they would ask, "Maybe tomorrow?" The local people seemed to be very friendly and love their island. Our favorite places to eat were the Massimo Italian Restaurant. The food was amazing and they have a gelato bar! We also ate at a restaurant that I cannot remember the name of with tables on the beach that had a great whole snapper. Here are some pics from our restaurant on the beach...

 The local Balinese gas stations are great! They are clear bottles that they fill with gas. They are placed in these simple racks on the side of the road. The best ones use absolute vodka bottles. I think it is some sort of commentary on fuel being the alcohol of of transportation... or maybe they are just the right size.

During our stay in Sanur we took a day trip to Changgu to go to Des Ex Machina's Temple Of Enthusiasm. Check out the next post for more on Deus.

Overview of the Bali trip

We just spent three weeks in Bali and I thought that I would post an overall explanation of where we went and then do individual posts about each place. The Dhaka airport was filled with teachers and students preparing to scatter for the Christmas break. There is no shortage of people to talk to and there are many people that were on the same flight. It would be interesting to see a graphic of where everyone involved in the school traveled to because I am sure that every continent had someone from AISD on it. Not exactly carbon neutral but culturally diverse??? Here is a great pic in the Dhaka airport... I think this sign would make a great t-shirt.

The first leg was a flight from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia then a 5 hour lay over spent with the DenHartighs in the airport. It was great to have the time fly by socializing with friends. Next flight was to Denpasar, Bali.

We arrived and were picked up by the driver from our first lodging. Luis was super nice and talked to us about the ubiquidous statues that we saw on our drive to Sanur. Here is a pic of one such statue:

 

We got settled and then Jessica's sister, her husband and their son arrived. Good to see some family! We spent 6 days in Sanur at this place:

Then took a ferry to Nusa Lombongan (an island that is a half hour boat ride off the coast of Bali). We spent three night there in some great little huts, including Christmas day. Here is our cabana... bummer.

Next we moved to another house in Ubud. Ubud is a mid sized town in the hills and rice feilds. We had another great house and spent 6 days there.

Next we went to the North side of the island to stay in a small fishing village named Amed. Here is a pic that pretty much sums it up:

We stayed in small cabanas for three days and then back to the airport and our day long return to Dhaka. It was a great trip in many ways but the best way to explain it is this: I was actually on vacation. I did not think about work at all! We were constantly moving and doing things and really enjoying the gift of time off in a foreign place. Stay tuned for more!