DAY THREE (Fri)
That Hero harasses us again after breakfast and I just love the look on his face after I tell him we’ll hang around Sanur. There are not many tourists in Sanur which makes it laid back, but then again the local businesses are not doing well. We walked down a lane and it was like every store was begging us to come inside and take a look. We bought what we could—t-shirts for 15K Rp and short sleeved batik shirts for 35K Rp. Those businesses that were doing well were designers who had their showrooms in Sanur and who exported most of their stuff. A pair of intricate, leather ladies’ designer sandals costs 100K Rp firm.
We checked out the Hyatt Bali hotel. This is a spectacularly landscaped hotel, with intricate networks of swimming pools, landscaped Balinese gardens and that oh-so-expensive 5-star ambience. We checked out the Hyatt spa and were impressed with its 5-star service as well as its price (USD 200 & up for a 2-hr couple’s package). Restaurant prices were slightly less than in Singapore and we promised to return for dinner.
It was time for lunch and we actually ate lunch twice today! The first was at some roadside tourist café. It was cheap (20K Rp per dish) but O ended up being very displeased with her Mie Goreng. My Nasi Goreng, the quintessential Indonesian favorite, was only so-so.
This is one of those days one can be proud of.. being a real pig! O was whining that lunch was really bad and wanted justice. So further up we went along Jl Tamblingan. We soon stumble upon The Village, an Italian restaurant with chic décor and a brick oven! O said let’s have pizza and I was like we just had lunch! The wife wins the day but before that I make sure I find myself seated in the air-conditioned section with a large Bintang beer and watching the hot afternoon world go by. We had calamari that was fresh and chewy unlike the leather rings we had on the Ketupat’s seafood platter. Our culinary experience was ironically enhanced (after having just had a plate of bad Nasi Goreng) by an unintentional screw-up. A party of Australians at the next table ordered quite a few pizzas and our pizza somehow ended up on their table. When the staff realized their mistake, it was too late. “We were so hungry that we just ate it!” said one of the ladies. Apparently they had been waiting for a while. I told the manager we too have also been waiting for a while, but that’s ok so long as you get us a fresh pizza and double the toppings! The proscuitto ham pizza was stacked and came on thin crusts, and thanks to the brick oven, was simply marvellous after all the bad tourist fare. Highly recommended!
Next stop was the Sanur Art Market..but where was the art? so we turned east towards the beach. We come to a busy but laid back area with a mix of souvenir shops, al fresco beachfront restaurants and beachfront resorts. Sukarno’s towering Grand Bali hotel stood in the distance like a sore thumb and now I understand why the Balinese dislike tall hotels. You can do glass-bottomed boat rides here and rent sailboats (sailor included). There are some coral areas not far from the shore. We chose to walk off the extra pounds. We had planned to visit the Le Mayeur museum but it was getting late so we’ll do that tomorrow when we get our full-day’s transport with Hero.
Sanur beach has an excellent beachfront paved path that stretches for miles or you could walk along the sand. And because it faces east, there is no grand sunset like Kuta but this is made up for by the peace and serenity. Sometimes, you get stretches of beachfront all to yourself before you run into the next tourist. After a stretch of undeveloped beachfront, we arrive at the Hyatt’s beachfront/grounds.
What better way to sample Indonesian/Balinese cuisine than with a Rijsttafel (rice table) dinner? You get samplings of a wide variety of local cuisine. The rice table set at Hyatt’s Watilan restaurant is perfect for couples and costs 150K Rp pp. While we had dinner, night fell and the lighting on Hyatt’s gardens came into their own in a fairy-tale like, romantic setting. Soft gamelan music flowed down from the lobby and later on a jazz band took to the stage at the lobby bar—the best background music for dinner.
We run into T&A just as we were leaving Hyatt’s grounds. They had just returned from their day trip and related their experience with Hero. We all agree that this chap is a bit of a hard seller. T tells us he had just bought a Balinese painting for over USD1,000 at a studio that Hero brought him to. After T learns how much Hero charged us for a day trip (300K Rp), he was shocked because Hero charged him 400K Rp! He suspects he may have been had over the painting, and that it should have cost less if not for the commissions padded on top. “This is a conspiracy”, T says, “because your guide is supposed to be on your side”. T tells us he’s not a newbie traveler and has a plan to get his money back, and tells us to watch Hero when we tour with him tomorrow. Meanwhile, we exchange mobile phone numbers and agreed to keep in touch.
|
