Our night in Panangbai in the 'clean and quiet' Bamboo Paradise home-stay, was not quiet! We had cockerels with insomnia, dogs who barked all night, the ferry port was at the back, so the boats blow their horns when they arrive in the harbor, (which seemed to be about 1 every hour) and then they announced their arrival over the load speakers, oh, and then the calling for pray at the local temple started at 6 a.m. When I told the owner he needed to change the big board that said, 'clean and quiet' he said, 'was it not quiet? Number 3 is the quiet room!' God help the rest.
Our shuttle bus to our next destination is only 30 minutes late, not bad for Bali time! We jump in the front as the rest of the bus is full. The drivers phone rings constantly, and he has a quick chat and puts it down. When he started texting and driving I did ask him to stop. He pulls over to an almost screaming halt, I thought he was going to kick me off, but he sent his text and sped off again!
We get off the bus in Sanur, which is another coastal town, we have no accommodation booked, so set off on foot to find a cheap room. We find a room in a home-stay, another family run place. Aunty, mother, son, kids who seem to own all the shops in the street. It's very dated, but clean(ish) and it has a fridge (bonus) it's 200.000rps (14 quid).
Sanur is a typical beach town, lot's of market type shops, cafe's, restaurants and hotels galore. The town it's self is really nice. It's a lot cleaner and there are a lot less potholes in the paths, so you can actually look around when you are walking, without fear of falling down into a hole!
Sanur has Bali's first coastal path! It runs 4 km's along the front. We hire a couple of push-bikes on our second day. There is a cycle path on the main road too, so I say to Matt that as long as we only go left, it will be okay, as this will mean I don't have to cycle across any roads!!
We cycle down to the front and head south. We are out quite early, so there aren't to many people about, to get in the way, luckily for them! There is a bit more going on here, kite-surfing, surfing and jet-ski's. It's really windy, no-one in the sea as it's rough to swim.
We arrange with the owner of the home-stay to take us to our next planned stop, (he is also a driver, there's a surprise!)- Balian Beach. We have read that there is not a lot there, but we need to head west so we can get the ferry to Java, this will be almost half way and we know we can get a local bus from here to Gilimanuk where the ferry goes from.
We find a lovely home-stay called Bintang Balian, (bintang is the local beer). It's newly opened, the 5 rooms are really basic but clean with all new sheets and towels! The fronts are all glass and overlook the garden, it is about half a km from the sea, so it should be a bit quieter.
On our arrival we get talking to an Ozzie bloke called Piere, or Peter as he is known is Oz!! He is very chatty and has been coming to Bali since '73. He's in his 60's, he offers to come with us to the local food market, which is a short walk up to the main road. The local food stalls are known as 'warungs'.
I don't know whether I told you in the last blog, I have given up eating meat, since I read a book on Gili called 'Christine's Ark' by John Little. All the warungs have meat, so I say that the men should eat and I will get something later. Piere eats, then produces his dental floss and proceeds to clean his teeth at the table. Nice!!
Tomorrow we will get a car and driver and see a few sights.
