Bali, Day 1: Waking Up In Paradise

Today's Exchange Rate: IDR 10,775 per AUS $

Today's weather: a sunny, humid morning. Rain in the late afternoon

Today was our first day in Bali together. I had slept well enough and stayed in bed until about 7:00 after waking up at about 5:00. I had chosen the downstairs room in the villa, which was the master bedroom. I figured that I woke up and got moving earlier than the other girls so me being downstairs meant they could keep sleeping in their upstairs bedrooms. I had made this decision in advance for that exact reason and had also decided to bring along some exercise appropriate clothes with me this trip. One thing that I really love doing in Sanur is getting up early mind walking along the beach before everything comes alive. So I got myself prepared and started to walk South along the beach. I was so happy to come out of my room and see the sun shining down as it had been quite stormy earlier in the day. And the light gave me a chance to have a good look around. The villa is great, with its open living area over looking the pool, little kitchen complete with an oven and stove, microwave and fridge. The master bedroom is the only downstairs room with a good sized ensuite. The other 2 rooms, another double and one twin, also have ensuites but the girls have found them to be very impractical. Showering results in a wet floor, toilet and toilet paper. The balcony overlooks the pool and is a great size but could be better utilised if it had more than just 2 chairs on it. The beds are big and comfy, the aircons work well and the property is a great size that doesn't make us feel like we're living on top of each other. There are a couple of things that wouldn't go amiss like wifi and a safe, but aside from that, we have nothing to complain about.

Master bedroom and ensuite

Upstairs rooms and ensuite

Off for my walk, I had a destination in mind; Tities Warung where I knew I would be able to find the villa owner, Ron, enjoying his first beer of the day. It look me maybe 15 minutes to walk there. I ordered a juice while I waited for him. We chatted for a while before I decided to start walking back to the villa to see if the girls were awake yet. I was disappointed to find that they were awake; I was really hoping to be able to jump on them and remind them that we were in Bali.

By this time, it was going on 9:00 and my stomach was starting to rumble. The girls got up and dressed and we made our way to Luhtu's at Sindhu Beach for breakfast. I hadn't eaten at Luhtu's before but had heard it was good. They have a good selection of food on their menu and even have gluten free bread available if you order one day before. I ordered a fruit plate and Mie Goreng, Sami ordered a banana pancake, strawberry for Courtney and Mikhala decided on scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. The service was good and we all enjoyed our brekky.

Strawberry and banana pancakes

On the way to breakfast, I had noticed the new Sunday Markets were happening behind Sand Restaurant, so on our way back to the villa, we stopped by for a quick look. We had a little stroll around, just looking at bits here and there. I stopped briefly to buy an elephant ring for a friend at home, and then we continued on our way.

Sunday Markets

Elephant ring: IDR 80,000

We stopped back at the villa only quicky to grab some money to exchange and to get into our bathers. We were off to Aroma Spa at the Sanur Beach Hotel for manicures and pedicures. We walked South along the road, stopped at the money changer across from Hardy's and them caught a bemo to take us to the Sanur Beach Hotel. Aroma Spa is located along the beach path, but I find it easier to cut through the hotel to get there.

The girls were very impressed at the spa when we arrived and I was of course pleased by that seeing as I had organised it. We approached reception, confirmed our booking, quickly filled out a form about medical conditions and massage pressure before we were introduced to our therapists and lead to the chairs where we would have our treatments done. We all got comfortable and chatted away (I did doze off for a while) while we were pampered. The therapists were lovely and actually barely said a word at all while we were there. As I was only getting a pedicure, I had asked for a half hour neck, shoulder and back massage as well. When my pedicure was over, the therapist got me to move onto one of the stools for my massage. I was a bit disappointed by this because I had wanted to enjoy my massage in one of the gorgeous bales looking towards the beach, but I'm sure she kept me there so I could stay with the girls.

Enjoying my massage

When our treatments were finished, it was about 1:00 and we were all starting to feel a bit hungry. We paid for our treatments- mine was 350,000 Rupiad for the pedicure and half hour massage- and then got on our way. Before we went to lunch though, I wanted to take the girls to the Bamboo Bar at the Sanur Beach Hotel for a cocktail. Of course, they loved the idea of swings at a bar just like I knew they would. We seated ourselves, had a swing and each ordered a cocktail.

After our cocktails, we made our way to Toro Toro at Cemara Beach. We were all feeling a bit hungry so pizzas were ordered, Mongolian beef, satay and Mie Goreng. We ate and we were happy.

After paying our bill, we cut through the Puri Santrian back to the street. We planned on catching a bemo to Hardy's but after sitting for quite a while and no bemo coming by, we just got a taxi. At Hardy's we just needed to get more essentials for the villa. On the way back, we made a quicks top at the 24 hour Coco Mart to see if I could get a SIM card for my iPhone (to no avail) before I had to stop at Jenggala to pick up a plate for Mum. Jenggala is a store I fell in love with in July. It had just opened up in Sanur then and both Mum and I just adored their products. If they weren't so expensive and heavy. I would quite happily go home with many things from their store. I had seen that they were offering 50% off 4 different styles of plates. I had mum pick one out for her Christmas present and I had emailed Jenggala ahead to ask them to put one aside. The plate came to 425,000 Rupiah after the discount so I was very happy. It was a gorgeous square plate with a gorgeous frangipani pattern on it. Mum had chosen it in yellow.

Jenggala

Mums plate

We continued on our way back to the villa and it was straight into the pool for us! It was the perfect temperature. We mucked around and I tested out the GoPro for our Stand Up Paddle Boarding tomorrow. We were absolutely loving having a pool all to ourself and not having to worry about anyone else.

When we started to shrivel and shiver, it was time to get out and rest. Just in time too, because it wasn't long before the rain came. And it really came. It bucketed down, thunder so loud it actually hurt out ears. We decided to keep each other company and all 4 of us got into one of the king beds, reading, watching tv on our iPads and napping. The storm lasted about an hour and resulted in a mini flood in the open living area downstairs. In true Bali fashion, this meant very slippery floors. I was so thankful the storm didn't last any longer because I had planned on taking the girls to the Art Cafe for dinner tonight. About 7:00 we headed off.

The restaurant was quiet so we got a table and soon decided on our meals. It was stuffed chicken breast for myself and Mikhala and the seafood basket for Courtney and Sami. The service here is great so our meals soon arrived and they were delicious. We had all made sure that we didn't eat too much so we had plenty of room in our bellies for the chocolate cake. I'd built it up a lot so my fingers were crossed that it was as good as it was in July.

The cake takes about 15 minutes to make so we sat and chatted a while, passing the time, and when those cakes were brought to our table, boy was I excited. They looked amazing and they smelt amazing. As we dug our spoons into the cake, the chocolate oozed out. It was just as delicious as it was before and my friends absolutely loved it. We were all very happy.

Our bill came to under $60. We paid and took ourselves and our full bellies to a nearby DVD store to get something to watch back at the villa. In the end, this proved to be a little pointless because when we got back to the villa and tried to play the DVD, it didn't work. That's right, the crappy Bali DVD player wouldn't play the crappy Bali DVDs. We stopped along the way to organise our White Water Rafting for next week. We decided to book with Sobek and managed to get the price down to about $55 each from $79. The tour includes hotel pick up and drop off and lunch so we were all satisfied with this price. Back at the villa we spent some time flicking through numerous TV channels before calling it a night. We were planning an early night because tomorrow we have a 7:30 start for Stand Up Paddle Boarding tomorrow.

 

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