Blogs from Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, Asia - page 4

With the departure of my friends, I moved on from luxurious Seminyak to the eastern board and the original Balinese beach resort area of Sanur. I'd distinctly remembered passing by the area the last time en route to the central region of Ubud, and thought to myself that I should check out the place if I ever had the opportunity. And so here I was, two years later. Sanur can pretty much be described as a very quiet, and older version of Seminyak, with a correspondingly reflective resident composition of long-term retired expatriates. Nicknamed "Snore" because even the waves here are gentler due to the protective reef that lies just off the beach, there are certainly no loud parties or boisterous crowds here. Apart from the obvious retiree population, the rest of the denizes even appear ... read more

We were glad when the journey was over and we finally arrived in Bali, Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination. One major difference here is that around 90% of the island’s 4 million inhabitants are Hindu rather than Muslim like the rest of the country. It’s fascinating to observe how this religion manifests itself into everyday life; the air is often thick with the dense, delicious smell of burning incense and beautifully ornate temples abound. The ramshackle pavements are permanently carpeted with thousand upon thousand small, square boxes hand crafted from banana leaves and containing offerings to the gods. These offerings could be anything from fruit or flower petals but many also contain weird things like rice, coconuts, mentos, spliffs (!!) or mini cheddars - honestly!! Our first stop was the bustling town of Sanur, known for ... read more

Dear Grace and Mag,So I was persuaded to book a last minute flight to Bali (didn't take much persuading). One minute I was at work and 6 days later in Bali. Was the best holiday, saw a few places on the island and was very romantic :)As you know Mr.F has to go home but he planned to stop in Bali on the way so I went too. The day before I left for my holiday, my housemates moved out and made their way down to Melbourne so it was prefect timing to go away. I will just summarise it because all I can say is that it was so special and one of highlights of my entire trip so far. And it felt extra special because he had never done anything like this before. We ... read more

Unfortunately no photos on this one folks, as the camera is apparently past it :-( We managed to get some final underwater shots in on our last day on the Gilis though, so just Taiwan to go, relying on Eoin's photography skills alone. We landed in Bali in the middle of the night, and were promptly picked up by our hotel to drive the hour to Ubud. We were both shattered when we arrived so a huge relief to move into an enormous room with a four poster bed, mosquito net curtains, a beautiful outdoor-style bathroom (but without the actual bugs that outdoors brings!) and a balcony overlooking a pretty little garden. We definitely felt like we had arrived in paradise, and that didn't really end for most of our time in Indonesia. The hotel was ... read more

Geo: -8.68964, 115.253Before getting into our adventures in Bali, I have to ask our loyal reader- what in the name of Maple Syrup is going on in Canada?? We only get sporadic exposure to English news programs and, not too surprisingly, it's Asia-centric and Canada, if ever, rarely rates a mention....until recently. It started off with a bizarre story about a Miss Canada competition which seemed to imply that Canada's best looking woman was actually a man (even DH, who spits at the mere suggestion of a beauty contest, was looking to start an 'anyone-but-the-guy' write-in campaign in support of Canadian womanhood). This story only seemed to die when it was determined that Canada's best looking woman was from Iran?? Hard on the heels of that was a story that had the Chinese Government warning it's ... read more