Our New Year's was unexpectedly spent in Sanur, Bali. We arrived at the port in the pouring rain, were shuffled into a tiny van full of wet people and bags and off we went. There was us going to Sanur and another group heading for Ubud. Sanur was the first stop and not yet having a hotel we had did not have any particular place in mind. The driver decided to just stop in the middle of nowhere in Sanur in the pouring rain an ask us to hop out. We insisted on a café at least so he found a spot, we jumped out, ran into the café and ordered coffees and hot chocolates. He just happened to drop us at a fabulous café, expensive, but just what we were looking for after the rocky boat ride, heavy rain, no plans and not having eaten for 8 hours.
Once the rain had died down a bit, we hopped into a cab to look for a hotel - not easy two nights before New Year's with no reservations. After a number of tries at hotels that were full we found 2 rooms for the one night only, so we decided to deal with a room for New Year's Eve next day, along with flight plans to somewhere out of Indonesia.
The next day Mark and I walked over to the nearest travel agent and proceeded to search out any possible flight route for that day or the next. We wanted to get to Flores. Flights were booked for at least the next 5 days. We tried other routes, too crazy. Next choice was Borneo. We found a flight to Kuala Lumpur the next day. KL is was not our preferred location but we had to start the process for our Indian Visas which would take over a week to process so we would fly to Borneo or somewhere when that was taking place. This meant one more night in Sanur. So we hopped into another taxi to search for our New Years Eve hotel.
We checked a few places, full. The Hyatt (a massive structure on the water), full. Mark then remembered a hotel we saw the day before called “The Swastika”. It stuck in our heads because of the name. We told the cabbie to go there and we would check. Lo and behold, a cancellation of two rooms!
“The Swastika” to this day has been my favourite hotel of our trip. Set in a lush garden of flowers and plants, with the aroma of Frangipani floating in the air, the hotel was paradise. Our room was set overlooking the garden, with a lovely private terrace where we all enjoyed the sunset and then the final minutes of 2008. It was fabulous.
During the day we walked on the beach, had a great street lunch of Nasi Champur – rice and a scoop of 3 or 4 other vegetarian or meat dishes. We swam in the Swastika pool and then got ready for the evening.
Sanur was in full festive mode. All the locals and tourists were out along the beachfront, sitting down for buffet dinners or festive cultural evenings. After searching and deliberating for hours, many places were booked, but we found a table near the water and had an ok meal. Later was walked along the beach and then joined in some dancing.
On the festive streets
We arrived back at the hotel where we made our first Podcast of the year, blew our New Year's horns and welcomed 2009.
Lianna
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1 comment:
Hi everyone. I'm loving reading your posts. I'm so sorry you never made it to Flores. My favourite place in Indonesia, but you are having a great adventure. I can't wait to hear about India when you arrive.
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