Sanur Beach Hotel Bali

... eruptions 20-30,000 years ago. Recent activity 4 years ago produced smoke and the last sizeable eruption in 1974 left a carpet of lava several miles square across the southern slopes as far as the caldera rim.
To the east the much taller image of Mt Agung rises to twice the height of its broader twin. Dormant since 1963 when a big eruption sent smoke and ash 10,000m into the air and paraclastic flows and lahars claimed hundreds of lives.
Having ...

... we really only hung out here to save a couple of quid for the weekend as it was close to the airport!

We did the meet the affable Martin who lives there. Nice Aussie chap to have a few cold ones with and put the world to rights, sitting next to the pool. Nice environment just needs a change of owner, which it would appear, is currently on the cards. Nothing personal, just needs some changes for fresheness.

Saturday heralded the cup final but it also ...

I woke up with the sun, bright and early once again, and went for a short run, which fortunately I did not get lost this time! I first had to sneak by all the girls sleeping in the living room and even in my bed to go out for my run, but they didn't even stir. I even came back from my run, stretched, showered, dressed, and read my book for a while before they even began to get up. It seems like everyone stays up later and wakes up later here. Definitely not ...

... a few unintelligible sentences, then said, "Look. Look. Look?" I made an awkward gesture that was meant as an acknowledgement, but which must have been taken as an affirmative response. Before I knew it, we were pulling off the main road and into a motel. The driver unfastened his seatbelt and started to get out of the car. Unscheduled bus and taxi detours are the norm in most developing countries, so I didn't think much of it. Maybe we were picking ...

... walk the streets of Bali, it is obvious that there is way more male Aussie surfers visiting here than anybody else, but at our hotel it seems to be mostly young females interested in perfecting their tans. There are two exotic birds in equally exotic cages at the corners of the pool. One is a mynah bird whose vocabulary is truly outstanding. I have heard him cough (like the dog in that Seinfeld episode), laugh (in several different styles), imitate cars (engine ...

EN: Indonesia is huge, and, with so much to see in a short time, one has a hard time deciding where to go. Since we could only have 30 days visas and we found cheap flights to Bali, we decided to focus on Bali and Nusa Tengara, and maybe try to fit in south Sulawesi too. Bali is a convenient entry point, but it's very touristic and over exploited, so we didn't really want to spend too much time there, nevertheless we still decided to give it a chance and ...

... down hill. The cycling was fantastic, although it did involve some quite fierce uphill sections, and we were able to visit various farms and see people harvesting rice. A real eye-opener, which makes you realise how hard some people have to work to get by. After an amazing lunch we visited the local monkey sanctuary and it was back to relax at the hotel. Next stop Lovina..

... even the estimated 17000 feral dogs running around Bali and in particular Ubud where they yowl and bark and fight all night long - probably the only annoying thing besides the ever present transportation touts in Ubud) but to us the monkeys seemed more greedy and menacing than sacred. However the forest was beautiful and so was the walk which proceeded to wind trough all kinds of cute villages with friendly villagers greating you with "pagi" (morning in Indo). I'd say though the ...

... we got from the front desk. I thought my fatigue was due to jetlag or something, but would findout the next morning that a sore throat was ushering in a cold. LT and P are already sick...Today my sore throat has been replaced with just a runny left nostril. haha. Yesterday, we had a driver take us around to various shops toward the city of Ubud. We drove up mountains and passed by different types of ...