Today’s exchange rate: 10,050 RP per AUS $ at most authorised money changers
I woke up at about 5:30 today, intending to get up and watch the sunrise. In the end, I decided against it, not wanting to wake up Sam or my parents. Instead I decided I’ll wait until Thursday when we have to get up early anyway for our Bamboo Shoots cooking class. I fell back into a light sleep until 7:30 when Mum and Dad were heading out to Mona Lisa for breakfast. Mum then told me about how her and Dad were up at 5:30 and went to watch the sunrise. Oh well, I get it next time.
I jumped in the shower and got dressed for the morning and soon Sam decides to get up as well. We decide to go to Benno’s for breakfast as I have read some good things about it on Trip Advisor. On the way, we grabbed some fresh pool towels and threw them on a couple of lounges on the beach front. I’m not normally one of those people that reserve the lounges and doesn’t show up for hours, but I figured, everyone else was doing it and if I didn’t, we wouldn’t have much of a chance of getting one.
This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I’ve lost my bearings a bit staying at the Griya Santrian. Not in the way that I don’t know where I am, but that I can not remember what is to the left and what is to the right when you walk along the beach. When I was staying at Segara Village last year, it was easy; you would just always walk right. So Sam and I walk out onto the beach path and go left- the right way. We are walking along for a bit before I think “Surely we should have gotten there by now. It must be in the other direction”. We walked as far as the new Sand Restaurant (the old Bonsai Café, which looks very nice by the way) before I voiced my concerns to Sam. I’ve been to Bali a couple more times than she has, so I was sure I was right, but she was sure we were going the right way. Nevertheless, we turned around and started walking South again, back past the Griya. Still no Benno’s. It was in the other direction and if we had just kept on walking another 50 metres or so, we would have reached it. Good one Anna. So we just gave up all together and decided to meet up with Mum and Dad at Mona Lisa for breakfast. We were walking the Griya drive way and we saw them walking back towards the hotel. Well, they were done with breakfast. Mum enjoyed her gluten-free breakfast which included French toast made with her own gluten-free bread, fruit and juice and cost her about $6 AUS.
Sam and I continued on our way to breakfast; we had then decided to go to The Porch. We chose a spot under a fan and got stuck into the breakfast menu. Dad had recommended The Porch’s egg benedict so Sam decided on that, and I decided on “Bon’s Big Hash Stack” which consisted of toast, mushrooms, bacons, hashbrowns, tomato, spinach all topped with a poached egg and Caesar dressing. Both meals were very yummy and cost about $22 AUS between us.
My hash stack
Sam's benedict
After breakfast, we continued walking South along the main drag to go to Matande Spa for manicures, pedicures and eyelash extensions, but stopped on the way to buy a couple of hats from a market stall. At first, the girl said 140,000RP for both. I say 100,000. I learnt my bartering skills from my best friend when we came together last year, and begin to walk away. 5 steps later, the price of 100,000 RP is agreed to. We handed over our money and continued on our way. We were in Matande for about 2 hours and as soon as I reached into my bag to get my wallet, I smudged my nails. I couldn’t be bothered sitting there for another 2 hours waiting for them to be fixed and dried so I didn't tell the girl. In Australia, I would be annoyed about it, but in Bali, where manicures cost all of about $4 AUS, it’s not such a big deal. We walked out of there with Sam happy with everything and me happy with my toes and eyelashes.
Sam getting her eyelashes and nails done
New toes
We headed back to our room to get into our bathers and go make some use of our reserved pool lounges. By this point I was worried someone had taken our towels off and was using the lounges for themselves, but they were still available when we arrived. We lathered on our tanning oil and both laid back and read our books. It didn’t take long for us be hot enough to have a swim and the ocean was just tempting us everytime we looked at it. So into the ocean it was. The water was just amazing, but quite warm. We happy waded around for a bit, not feeling as cooled down as we hoped, before heading back up to our lounges. It wasn’t easy getting out of the water though, with our feet sinking into the sand with every step we took. It was like the ocean was trying to keep us as prisoners! But we escaped and once again got comfy on our lounges.
The view from the comfort of my lounge
We were starting to feel pangs of hunger by this time so at 1:00, when we were once again nice and dry, we started walking North along the beach path for lunch. We stopped by Benno’s quickly (yes, we did end up finding it again) to say hi to Mum and Dad who were having lunch then continued on our way. We had decided on Japanese at Minami; one of the Segara Village restaurants. We sat down and began looking through the menu. I had eaten here before, and loved it, but both Sam and I found the menu quite confusing and difficult to actually understand what food was on offer. We both managed to find some things though; I ordered salmon sashimi and prawn tempura and Sam ordered a tapas dish made up of karage chicken, fried gyoza’s and some kind of pork slices, plus chicken sushi. We both found the service quite slow here, which was disappointing, but our food was almost worth the wait. It was good, nothing amazing, but beautifully presented. The bill came to just over $40 AUS, which we thought was a bit pricey.
Sam's Japanese tapas
My beautiful salmon sashimi
Prawn tempura
Chicken sushi
I love prawn tempura
We started walking back to the hotel and noticed a small turtle conservation set-up just past Tootsie Lane while heading South. We stopped for a look and surely enough, in the 4 little pools that were set up, there was lots and lots of baby turtles. The smallest ones were no bigger than the size of my palm, the biggest ones, no bigger than my whole hand. The sign read that the turtles were being protected and looked after until they were strong enough to survive in the ocean. My fingers are crossed that that is what is really happening. If anyone knows anymore about this, I would love to hear about it.UPDATE: I have since been reassured by a Sanur local that these turtles are truely being looked after and any donations do go towards the conservation.
The turtle conservation sign
The tiny little baby turtles
The slightly bigger but still very small baby turtles
We continued on our way back to the hotel, stopping briefly to get our things off the pool lounges and headed towards our room at the back of the hotel to have a swim in the 3rd pool. Before getting in, I noticed a bit of pain in my feet and had to get a pair of tweezers off mum to pull a little sharp bit of shell from my foot. This is already the 2nd time this has happened, so people, do be careful. After a nice swim, I got comfortable on one of the lounges. For those that were wondering, this is when I have the time to write my blog. I’m quite a restless person, and just sitting on a pool lounging doing nothing bores me quite quickly, so writing my blog keeps me still for a while.
Dad, mum and Sam enjoying the pool outside our rooms
At 3:30, Sam and I retreated to our room to get ready for an evening at Potato Head. I had made a booking about 3 weeks ago, and if you’re planning on going, I would always recommend booking ahead. You never know if there’s going to be a long line when you arrive, or no line at all. It took us about an hour in a taxi to get to Potato Head, mostly due to the construction of the new tunnel. The traffic heading into this was pretty bad and very slow. The ride cost us just under 110,000 RP.Driving down the driveway to Potato Head always excites me; it’s very architecturally impressive with all the window shutters. When we pull up, I was quite happy to see no line. So we walked straight in and were shown our table, but not before our names were put down for a daybed by the pool (you’re not able to reserve daybeds). There is currently construction going on next door to Potato Head, but we barely noticed this, except for the odd bangs here and there. For the most part, this was drowned out by the music. To start with, we order 2 Millionaire Martini’s; one of my favourites. I definitely recommend this cocktail to anyone planning on going to Potato Head. After our first cocktail, we ask to move to one of the little tables in front of the grass so we can better enjoy the view, but I instantly regretted this decision when I sat down and felt the sun beaming down on me. For 5:30 in the evening, it was still very, very hot and it was not long before Sam and I are suffering, not just from Sweaty Upper Lip Syndrome, but also Sweat Dripping Down Our Back’s Syndrome. Not enjoyable. We ask for some towels so we can go cool down in the pool. If you have a daybed, you do not have to pay extra for the towels (to the best of my knowledge) but seeing as we had not yet acquired one, we did have to pay. The towels are 42,000 RP each, which can just get put on your bill. So off with the dresses and down to the pool we went. Potato Head’s pool is an infinity pool and quite large, with a swim-up bar. We swam around for a bit and once we spotted that our next cocktails had arrived at our table, I got out to get them. Cocktails in the pool overlooking the sun set: beautiful way to spend the evening.
Potato Head from the entrance
Millionaire Martini's
Watching the waves crash on the shore
The beautiful sunset over the beach
By the time we got out, it about 6:30 and we still didn’t have a daybed by the pool. We ordered some chips to nibble on while we waited and virtually as soon as they arrived, one of the girls came to tell us that a daybed was ready for us. The daybeds easily seat 4 people, more if you squish up, but Sam and I had it all to ourselves. We ordered some food; seared beef, cumin seared prawns and a tasting plate to share between us. I’ve heard people say that Potato Head is quite expensive, and for Bali, it is a little bit, but it’s still nothing compared to what you’d pay for the same thing in Australia. I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed with the food this time around. They have changed the menu since my last visit and the food just didn’t appeal to me as much. We still enjoyed our dinner, and back to the pool we went. The sun is down by this time, so it is much cooler and before long I was starting to feel a bit cold in the water so I hop out and get wrapped up in one of our towels. Sam ordered another cocktail, and we both just sat back and relaxed. When Sam had finished her cocktail, I asked one of the waiters for the bill, which comes to about 1,400,000 RP. It may seem like a lot, but that was for 5 cocktails, 4 dishes of food and a bottle of water. As I said before, you would pay a lot more in Australia.
Seared beef
Our share plate
Cumin seared prawns
We left Potato Head with full bellies and smiles on our faces. There is a transport desk out the front of the beach club, which had a set rate of 130,000 RP back to Sanur, but we knew we could get a taxi for cheaper, so walk back up the drive way to get one. The trip back is much faster, but costs about the same.We bumped into Mum on our way back to our room and I’m sure she was pleased to see us in a sober state. I ask her questions about her and Dad's dinner (for the purpose of the blog of course, not because I am genuinely interested). They went back to Benno’s for dinner and mum enjoyed a grilled tuna steak with chips, which she just assumed was gluten-free. We walked back to our rooms together and said our goodnights.
As I write this, I can hear the bang of fireworks being set off on the beach. I do love Sanur.
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