Back to Sanur

Finally, I had an excuse to get out of town and start the new year off with a road trip. For some reason, I find it quite difficult to leave the house for road trips these days. There always seems to be some home improvement project that I feel I should get done before I go out for a day or two on the motorcycle. So when my old friend, Stephen, arrived on the island for his December break, I knew I had a good excuse to get out on the road again.

Another drive, then, back to Sanur which I last visited in August. Trips around the island are always something of a risk during the rainy season. And, just as I was about to leave the house the other day, it started to rain. By the time I had made it back up to the third floor to wait out the rain, it had stopped. I decided to drive as far as Bedugal and see what the weather looked like on the other side of the mountain. A slight drizzle kept me damp, but when I hit Bedugal, the sun came out and it was sunny skies all the way down to Sanur. And even better, there have been a number of improvements made to the main road so the drive was quite enjoyable with not having to dodge potholes.

One of the things about driving my motorcycle – the popular Yamaha V-Ixion – is the protection and maneuverability that its speed gives you. While it's only 150cc, it's a lightweight bike with lots of torque at low speeds. This is advantageous when you get stuck in a long line of vehicles and you need to pass up trucks and buses. You can quickly shoot up past them and leapfrog along the line. The power out of first and second gear also allows you to quickly get out of sticky situations, such as when you have some bozo in front who is weaving from side to side – quite often texting while driving. You can just shoot past them and you're free.

Bali is continually changing. The south of the island seems to be one large construction zone. I made a quick stop at the Ace Hardware on Jalan Gatot Subroto to see if they had any polyurethane – they did. It's interesting that with all the wood used in housing here and the widespread use of Bale Bengong that polyurethane, or something like it, wouldn't be available here. But, I did the rounds of eight building supply stores in Singaraja and couldn't find one that knew anything about polyurethane or something like it. So, one more reason to have Ace here, even if I rarely get down there.

On my way down to Sanur, not far from Ace on Gatot Subroto, I noticed a new 24 hour McDonald's. Plenty of them down south, yet not one up here in Singaraja yet -for better or worse. Actually, if they had a McDonald's here, we'd probably get dinner there occasionally when no one wanted to cook. I imagine that one will get built up here eventually.

So, I checked into my favorite guesthouse/restaurant in Sanur and took a long walk along the nice beachside sidewalk that runs for a long way down the beach – I walked for a half hour and the sidewalk still went on. Lots of tourists, both foreign and domestic, were also enjoying the sidewalk, the little market and the many restaurants along the beach. After a long lovely walk, I took a shower, read a little from a book that I'm reviewing and then had a nap until my friend, Stephen, was due to meet me for dinner at the restaurant in front of my room.

As usual, we had a great conversation. It seems like years since we were working together in Sumbawa. Well, actually it has been years, so maybe it seems like decades. We caught up on family stuff and work and former colleagues. Plus, we made plans for a trip to Sumbawa in June which both of us loved. It's unfortunate that the island hasn't been able to benefit more from the huge tourist numbers that are Bali. But maybe with the expected increase of tourists this year to 3 million, Sumbawa will get some of the runoff. We'll be there anyway. And now for a trip to Ubud next month.