Sanur and Uluwatu

The next destination in Bali was a beachside town called Sanur. It is in the southern part of the island, close to a lot of development, but still much more laid back than the tourist mecca of Kuta. We were fortunate that our tour guide for the bike trip was willing to take us all the way there after the tour, so we rolled in to town in the early evening and enjoyed a good dinner at a place called the Bonsai Cafe right on the beach.

Our hotel was about 1 minute through a side street to the beach and we found our route after breakfast searching for ways to get back to the main road. The place was called Puri Ayu, Michelle booked it for us in advance, and we couldn't have been happier.



We spent the morning laying by the pool and then headed to the market around lunchtime. We were searching for another restaurant we had heard good reviews for, but it was only open for dinner, so we went with 'Jimmy's' and were plenty satisfied.

On our walk back to the hotel we haggled with a few drivers and eventually settled on one that would take us to the seaside temple called Uluwatu later that afternoon.

Uluwatu is famous for its cliffside location and series of surf breaks down below that only legendary surfers like Matt Head and Kelly Slater choose to do battle with.

The drive took about an hour because of traffic and less than ideal weather, but it was great to see more of Bali and get some info on the area from Joni (sp?), our driver. We knew we were getting close as the road got smaller and the tour buses began to line up in the road, but we were pleased to find it not too crowded upon arrival.

We took a look around at the temple and the views, all the while guarding ourselves against any theft perpetrated by our little monkey friends who roam the grounds looking for glasses, cameras, hats, etc. to snatch.





Lucky for us they didn't seem out to get us and we were able to see the sights...



... and take it all in without too much hassle other than the constant rainfall.

We hiked out to an outlook to the south of the temple that gave us some great views of the surf and the temple.





With it clear to us that there would be no sunset we made our way back to the car and homeward bound. After repeating to our driver for the 20th time that, no, we are not interested in going to Jimbaran for the great Balinese seafood dinner, he dropped us back at our place. No hard feelings, the guy is just trying to make an extra buck on commission whenever he can.

We didn't go to dinner that night with the intention to splurge, but when we found out they took credit card I (Evan) just couldn't help myself. After dominating Bintang beer, appetizers, entrees, and dessert we were finished and stumbled home to golden slumbers.

Thursday was our last day in Bali and we spent another relaxing day by the pool. Checked out of the hotel by noon, and watched soccer and swam most of the day until we had to go to the airport.