Life in Bali - Part 2

Sanur and the south.

Firstly a favourite photo I meant to put in from the Golden Buddha temple in Mandalay in Myanmar.

The Golden Buddha, tons of solid gold applied over centuries in gold leaf!

The sitting Buddha was a normal sized statue, perhaps 10 feet tall (see man on LHS for scale).  Over the past centuries pilgrims to the pagoda have rubbed bits of gold leaf as offerings on him and hence his now fat and knobbly appearance.  Only the face has been left untouched. Tons of gold!

Jane says if I keep eating as much as I am at present this is what I will look like by the end of the year!















We last left you in the rice fields around Ubud.  Since then we were based back in my cousin's beautiful house on the southwest fringes of Sanur, in the south of the island. In the last few days we have had visits from two old friends from the UK who were able to come to Bali and be with us and we have had some trips out into the busy places around the island to see a few more sights.

Kites in the sky, sunset over Sanur Beach

The house is a 5 minute walk from one end of a 5km beach that runs the length of what is now collectively called Sanur.  There are still a few of the original older 60's and 70's hotels and villas along this beach, although most have been much renovated.  The Tandjung Sari hotel, the 'in' place in the late 60's and 70's is still there and the original Bali Hyatt is currently closed down and apparently being completely rebuilt.

One sidelight on Bali that shows the "not even six degrees of separation between us all" is that I have discovered that a colleague from my days of working in Singapore in the 80's, Christopher Carlisle, lived in Sanur and was instrumental, with a few others, in developing many of the early classic hotels in Bali, such as the Oberoi. And, they all met initially in the bar of the Tandjung Sari Hotel. And then, he assisted in the compiling and writing of a few books on Bali design and architecture, which were published by Millet Press. Didier Millet is a publisher who co-owns with my cousin, the house we were staying in. Small world.  I am still trying to track down exactly what has become of Chris C!

Our Bali sitting room

The next 10 days settled into a regular pattern of a breakfast of two poached eggs on toast with fresh fruit and fresh squeezed tangerine juice at 9am,  emails and reading until 11am, a swim and then a light lunch followed by more reading, planning the European leg of this holiday on the net and perhaps a bit of shopping before an evening constitutional walk along the beach (past Made Wijaya's house and studios. Look him up!) to watch the evening kite flying and home to G&T's before a meal cooked by Ketut or Ian.

Bliss.

Jo and Jane at the Nusa Dua Hindu church

We did have a few days out.  Jo Cameron-Brown joined us one weekend from Johore Bahru where she is working on a new Netflix commissioned blockbuster series "The Travels  of Marco Polo", all kung-fu, rough sex, and and exotic locations. We hired a driver for the day and went to investigate the really touristy bit of Bali at Kuta, Semenyak and Legian.

The beaches over on that side were wonderful and really not too busy when we were there, but the extent of development behind the beach was just huge.  Shopping and restaurants, bars and hotels extend about 5 miles inland now, all the way to the Sunset Road bypass, and beyond.


We did find a great restaurant "Ginger Moon", in Semenyak, for dinner and Jo found one street where we went into just about every shop for various essential purchases for her - yes, it is a shoppers paradise over that side.

Panoramic view of the beach at Legian.  Most like the beaches in Qld, but bigger waves, Echo beach for surfers on right.

Another day out was when my good old "best man" Chris S joined us and drove us to the Bukit peninsula at the southern end of the island.  A much drier, limestone scenery compared to the rice fields of the main island. It looked positively Mediterranean rather than tropical as we drove around.  We went into the Nusa Dua area of huge resort hotels, set in beautifully manicured grounds that needs an army of gardeners to keep it under control.

Nearby we found a line of 5 churches; Moslem, Catholic, Hindu, Bhuddist and Protestant. In Indonesia you must have a religion, and it can only be one of those 5! People are sent to jail for being athiest...... Then we found a great beach on the south coast at Padawada, only locals there, and then on to Ulu Watu for a visit and a dance.

Kecak dance at Uluwatu

The amazing temple there is perched on a cliff 40m above the crashing waves and the dance place overlooks it.  As the sun sets the Kecak dance begins.  In this dance the dancers move to rhythms of the men chanting and singing instead of any orchestra.


On the way home we (eventually) find a restaurant called Balique neat Jimbaran which was another great find.

Jane at Tana Merah

Pagodas at Pura Lura.

Drinking "cat poo" coffee - beautiful!

So the time has come to end our holiday in Bali.  Jane has had another massage, but has also has developed a nasty cough that won't go away.

a pavement meme in Ubud...........

So it's pack the bags, thank you John and Dawn for the house, and off we go to Singapore.  See you there soon.