Sanur, Bali

Sanur is on the east coast but in the southern end of Bali, not far from the famous resort area Kuta (on the west coast). It is also close to Nusa Penida – a large island to the east where diving is decent. 

I booked accommodation through airbnb a site where homeowners can place their condos, homes, etc. on the site. For under 60 dollars, we had a room in a house with an ensuite bathroom, a/c, housekeeping, breakfast, 2 bikes to use, and a private entrance a few minutes from the main road of Sanur. On arrival, the housekeeper greeted us, showed us our room, and gave us a welcoming drink served on our very own porch.  We unpacked and headed off for lunch and off we went.

The main street has a sidewalk so that’s a plus and we quickly found an Italian restaurant to have lunch. There was an open air section and an air conditioned section so I went for that since it was hot! It was the first time in Indonesia that we actually ate in a closed restaurant (we were the only ones in there).

Our lunch was amazing. The best pasta we have had since arriving in Southeast Asia. It was yummy – ravioli-like pasta stuffed with ground chicken in a Napoli and cream sauce. The prices were a little high but still lower than what we’d pay in Canada. I asked the server how to get to the beach and she pointed to a road beside the restaurant so we followed it. It wasn’t exactly a path, it was a road to a villa but we found our way through and ended up on the beach.

Clearly tide was out, but you could see lovely yellow sand covering a large beach area that stretched for several kilometres. In the distance you could see where the water was breaking on a reef and a large boat sitting sideways on the reef abandoned. Out at the reef, you could just make out Balinese holding a ceremony.

There was a cement path meandering along the beach so we followed it. We passed several bungalows and resorts, and finally came upon Surya Dive Centre. We spoke to Gudai (pronounced G’day – as in G’day mate!) and booked two dives to Nusa Penida to place in a couple days. I wanted to make sure I was completely over my cold. The package included pickup at our house, all equipment, the 45 minute boat trip to the dive site (on a speed boat), the 2 dives, and lunch (we wouldn’t return to Sanur between the dives) for $127 each.

We walked back home and Ian took off on one of the bikes and I did some emailing and posted our Ubud blog (loading up photos onto this site takes forever, let me tell you!). Ian returned having found a Japanese restaurant for dinner and off we went on our bikes. I was a little shaky at first; it’s been awhile since I’ve rode a bike but it all came back. The bikes certainly cut down our travel time!

Dinner was fantastic and inexpensive. We returned to our abode for some cards and bed.

Day 2

We had a decent meal of fruit and mie goring (Indonesian dish of noodles and veggies) made by Bea’s housekeeper Nyoman. Our host, Bea, came out and met us and we chatted for awhile. She’s German and owns a spa.

We got a late start, but slathered on the sun screen (50) and headed off on our bikes to the beach. No one locks their bikes here; they are safe no matter where you leave them. We headed to the beach area in front of the Hyatt and got in the water fast as the sand was very hot.

We spent a lazy morning swimming and relaxing and when the tide started going out, we grabbed some lunch at a beach restaurant. It was pretty nasty – fish and chips. I’m not sure what kind of fish it was but it was dark, greasy, and a bit tough. Needless to say, I didn’t eat very much – yuck!

We made our way back to the house, got cleaned up and headed out to do a bit of exploring.  Going north this time, we found another road down to the beach and again followed the cement path but going in a different direction. This time we came onto a beach that the locals use. We stopped for coffee and dinner and headed home.

Day 3 – Diving!

We were picked up right on time and headed off to Surya to meet Rudita (Rudy) our Divemaster. He sized us up quickly and grabbed our gear and fins. Surya’s BC jackets were only 3 months old so it was nice using new equipment. We got full suits, which I was glad about because sea lice hurts when it bites your exposed arms and legs – I’m not joking. My dives at Gili Air left me a rash on both arms that might have been from the sea lice – not sure.

Anyways, we signed the waivers and off we went, just the two of us with our crew of three. It was nice being in a speed boat where we could sit relatively comfortably and not get splashed in the face the whole ride like we did on Gili Air. A little ways out, the driver stopped the boat and two crew members gave offerings to the water; which was repeated closer to our dive site. I found this reassuring.

We got on our gear at the dive site. The drop off the boat was pretty high – it was a rollback entry and I could feel my heart pounding as I got ready to go over. The drop went smoothly but I felt some panic breathing through my mouth. I swam over to Rudy and Ian and Rudy gave the signal to descend but as soon as I tried, I panicked. There is something very unnerving about breathing underwater when everything in your being tells you’re not supposed to be doing that. Not to mention, I wasn’t used to the equipment so instead of pushing the vent button, I ended up inflating my jacket making it impossible to descend.

Rudy was great. He quickly came over to me and calmed me down. I think it was just too fast to be honest. I needed time to adjust. Rudy told me to look down, so I stuck my mask in the water and practised breathing through my mouth – once my brain sorted itself out, I was good to go and under we went. Like usual, once I got down there, I was a happy camper and had no problems.

The current was strong but it was drift dive so we just had to let it carry us. We didn’t see as much as the Gili Air dives – but diving is diving so who can complain? The coral was brilliant, very colourful and we did see Trigger fish (coral destroyers) that were amazing – very large, colourful fish with interesting lips. I saw some great clownfish (Nemo) that were red and black.

We were down to 23 metres, average depth 20, in water that was 27 degrees. There were several small jellyfish floating by and I kept expecting to get a sting on my hands but nothing happened (what a relief!). Unfortunately, Ian went through his air super fast and before we knew it, he was at 50 bars, so we had to go up. It was the shortest dive yet – 35 minutes. Rudy decided to change Ian’s regulator which helped because our second dive was much longer.

The boat took us to our next site where we rested up. Ian ate his lunch – a club sandwich but I took a pass. I wasn’t hungry.  Several more boats arrived, all with many divers on them. I was glad it was just Ian and I and Rudy on our dive – I hate trying to see things underwater when there are a of other divers around.

After an appropriate amount of time, over we went and everything went very smoothly. My descent was a little slow because one ear took a bit to equalize (probably from my cold) but overall, things went well. There wasn’t a current so we could travel at our own pace. Rudy was great, very relaxed and easy going, no rush at all. One group of divers swam past us going very quickly and later, Ian and I wondered if they even saw anything. I was hanging upside down peering under coral and getting very close to some neat looking fish – including a giant fish with nasty looking teeth. It was in a small opening with only its head sticking out. Rudy said it was a puffer fish but I think it was more like a grouper.

We saw several more trigger fish, star coral, clown, surgeon, box, emperor angelfish, squirrel, and lionfish. We also saw a sea cucumber. We were down to 24.7 metres with an average depth of 18 for the record time of 50 minutes. Big improvement from the last dive!

The boat turned towards Bali and one of the crew members told us about the earthquake that had just occurred in Bali. Their English wasn’t very good so we couldn’t get a lot of information and it wasn’t until later when Ian was reading the news online that we discovered it had occurred in Kuta. Buildings shook and some smaller ones collapsed injuring some people. In the afternoon, when Ian and I were in our room, we felt the aftershock for about 5 seconds as the bed and our objects on the desk shook.

Our last few days of Sanur

We lazed about the beach – I got a slight burn even with 50 sunblock but that’s nothing new for me. I had to start wearing my hat on the beach because my scalp is a bit tender. The sun is very hot – even with a base tan, you can still burn. We go through a heck of a lot of sunblock and water but a big bottle only costs about 60 cents so that’s not too bad.  You have to pay for water at restaurants too because they use bottled water, but ice cubes are fine (bottled water is used).

We’ve enjoyed Sanur -  a nice quiet easy place.