Mandy: Wednesday 4th September
We arrived back safely to Sanur on the speedboat despite the black sky and choppy crossing and decided to stay there for a while this time.
We have seen a lot of Japanese tourists with surgical masks on during our travels over the last six weeks. In the traffic filled cities such as Singapore and KL you might understand (they may have even still thought that the smog was still a problem from the Indonesian fires) …..but what happened to enjoying the bracing sea air?
I think the people on Nusa Lembongan island multi tasked, job shared or whatever. One of the people who owned or worked for the three bungalows in our little garden used to wear a variety of clothes/uniforms. Sometimes he was in traditional dress complete with thick sarong and head-dress, sometime he was in shorts and Minami Tshirt, another day he wore what looked like a captains or pilots shirt with markings on the epaulettes on the shoulders. Very strange. I thought of him as ‘Mr Ben’ (there’s a blast from the past!) Glen just called him squeaky because of his high voice. Glen has left me with the backpacks and gone off to do a recce and find us a hotel for tonight. As I sit here on the shore, looking out to sea towards Nusa Lembongan island, waiting for him to return I wonder what Squeaky is wearing today. We are going to miss the little island and the people there……. but not the smell of the seaweed drying or the cockerels crowing. Maybe that is why the Japanese tourist (waiting to catch a boat over) has her mask on…. perhaps she has been there before!
We booked into our first Homestay, no Internet (heart palpitations!) so only stayed one night. The room was large enough to make into a small flat.
However the next day we moved again. Glen had negotiated a good rate in a hotel around the corner called The Swastika Hotel. It has a pool and includes breakfast for just 50,000 more. (£2.90) Now previously we would have been put off but the name, no matter how good the place was, but as we had established the other day the original meaning of the word was good and we were happy to check in and call it our home for now.
When we arrive somewhere new we ask to see the rooms prior to checkin. Glen always checks to see if it has hot water and aircon and I ask if it has wifi in the room and ensure it has a good clothes airer (smile) together we make a good team. If possible I nab the one next door too if the room is unoccupied. (grin)
Sanur seems noisy (with traffic) after the car free island we just left…. but as we have left behind the seaweed farms too we don’t mind.
Glen is full of a cold now so while he was feeling weak I took advantage and took him into a little shop and before he could blow his nose for the second time he found he had bought me a pair of fisherman’s trousers (smile) now I feel like I am a real backpacker. (grin) Although as he has just reminded me he was not too weak to barter and get a good price.
We had only been in Sanur four hours but we found a lovely cheap little chilled out Warung amongst the expensive restaurants and not too far away. It is called ‘Little Bird’ and it has old drift wood type tables and chairs and is run by four young guys. It has Bob Marley paintings on the wall (hense the name ‘Little Bird’) and a sketch hanging on the wall of a women, nude except for a discreetly placed banana leaf. We have already forgotten all of our favourite Warungs on the island….. we are fickle travellers. Oh and they served the best vegetable Nasi Gorang I’ve had to date….. Not only because they didn’t put an egg on top! (Just realised that!) but because it was a cheap price and was excellently cooked with good vegetables. (Smile) They have live acoustic music on several nights of the week too……
Since writing that we have found a local market area full of Hawker carts selling food for a fraction of the price. Sanur is proving better than expected so far.
