We have one more week on Bali, 7.5 days to be precise as our flight leaves at 11:35 pm which is exactly 25 minutes before our 30-day visa expires! At 12:01am we will slide into day 31, and the Indonesian government is very rigid about their visas. They are good for 30 nights, and if you don't leave before 30 nights becomes 31, well, who knows . . . ??
Bali being Bali, there are no shortage of places to stay; the challenge is finding the right place for us. Lots of reading, scanning web sites, and we decide the best place for us is Sanur (dubbed '
'Snooze' by the LP set - a somewhat sleepy beach 'town' favored by expats and the older crowd. And it's an easy 45" drive to the airport which is definitely a consideration. Now, to find a place to stay . . . we stumble on the absolute most delightful place, Kembali Lagi, which we learn means 'Come Back Again' in Indonesian. Reviewers have written glowingly about it with the most common comment being that it is always booked solid. We give it a try and Camille, the owner, assures us she can squeeze us in if we don't mind a bit of a gypsy booking - namely, moving a few times over our 7-night stay.
What a perfectly wonderful way for us to end our stay on Bali! We arrive on Valentine's Day and find a lovely, live floral arrangement with a HVD message from Camille and John, the owners. Now that's classy! Our first room is one of the smaller ones but still beautifully appointed and with the most delightful staff - they didn't get the 'we're staff, they're guests' training. They are all Balinese, delightfully outspoken and funny and all speak perfect English. It's small, intimate, and an absolute oasis.
One night we spend in the 'villa' an enormous (5-BR) house just up the street (only one other bedroom was occupied) and the last three nights in one of the larger rooms, right next to the pool, which I used several times a day. In addition to all the other delights, KL had a well-stocked library of books which we both took full advantage of.
One of the reasons we chose Sanur was its description as a 'walking town' - the long, sandy beach and walkway runs nearly 7 km. It's a bit of a walk to the beach but we happily make our way there one morning, stake out our patch of sand, and head into the water. It's an okay beach and we paddle around in the water which is a nice temperature and then, AND THEN . . . A N D T H E N . . . Tim spots something in the water which we both have to look at twice, It can't be, NOOOOO - we're swimming, we're in the water with a HUMAN TURD!!! OMG, we are out of there so fast, on the verge of hurling all over the beach!!! We had read that some of the beaches in Kuta, the uber tourist beach part of Bali, have been utterly fouled but had no idea the fouling had reached all the way up to Sanur. How very disgusting and how very sad . . . back to the swimming pool for the duration!
Fortunately, there are a host of wonderful restaurants all up and down the main drag; we find an Italian (Massimo's) restaurant and an Indian restaurant (best butter chicken we've ever eaten!) which are totally delightful. And we spend a wonderful, relaxing week at KL, getting to know Camille and John (both expat Americans) as well as lots of other guests from all over the world. Loved staying here . . .
So bye, bye Bali. We're glad we came; no trip to this part of the world would be complete without a stop in Bali. I think if we'd come 10 or 15 years ago we would have liked it a whole lot more. Now it felt over-touristed and in danger of being a victim of its own success.
Off to Australia!!
Bali being Bali, there are no shortage of places to stay; the challenge is finding the right place for us. Lots of reading, scanning web sites, and we decide the best place for us is Sanur (dubbed '
'Snooze' by the LP set - a somewhat sleepy beach 'town' favored by expats and the older crowd. And it's an easy 45" drive to the airport which is definitely a consideration. Now, to find a place to stay . . . we stumble on the absolute most delightful place, Kembali Lagi, which we learn means 'Come Back Again' in Indonesian. Reviewers have written glowingly about it with the most common comment being that it is always booked solid. We give it a try and Camille, the owner, assures us she can squeeze us in if we don't mind a bit of a gypsy booking - namely, moving a few times over our 7-night stay.
What a perfectly wonderful way for us to end our stay on Bali! We arrive on Valentine's Day and find a lovely, live floral arrangement with a HVD message from Camille and John, the owners. Now that's classy! Our first room is one of the smaller ones but still beautifully appointed and with the most delightful staff - they didn't get the 'we're staff, they're guests' training. They are all Balinese, delightfully outspoken and funny and all speak perfect English. It's small, intimate, and an absolute oasis.
One night we spend in the 'villa' an enormous (5-BR) house just up the street (only one other bedroom was occupied) and the last three nights in one of the larger rooms, right next to the pool, which I used several times a day. In addition to all the other delights, KL had a well-stocked library of books which we both took full advantage of.
One of the reasons we chose Sanur was its description as a 'walking town' - the long, sandy beach and walkway runs nearly 7 km. It's a bit of a walk to the beach but we happily make our way there one morning, stake out our patch of sand, and head into the water. It's an okay beach and we paddle around in the water which is a nice temperature and then, AND THEN . . . A N D T H E N . . . Tim spots something in the water which we both have to look at twice, It can't be, NOOOOO - we're swimming, we're in the water with a HUMAN TURD!!! OMG, we are out of there so fast, on the verge of hurling all over the beach!!! We had read that some of the beaches in Kuta, the uber tourist beach part of Bali, have been utterly fouled but had no idea the fouling had reached all the way up to Sanur. How very disgusting and how very sad . . . back to the swimming pool for the duration!
Fortunately, there are a host of wonderful restaurants all up and down the main drag; we find an Italian (Massimo's) restaurant and an Indian restaurant (best butter chicken we've ever eaten!) which are totally delightful. And we spend a wonderful, relaxing week at KL, getting to know Camille and John (both expat Americans) as well as lots of other guests from all over the world. Loved staying here . . .
So bye, bye Bali. We're glad we came; no trip to this part of the world would be complete without a stop in Bali. I think if we'd come 10 or 15 years ago we would have liked it a whole lot more. Now it felt over-touristed and in danger of being a victim of its own success.
Off to Australia!!
