After having a wonderful time in Gili Air, it was time to head back to Bali for one last night. I chose Sanur because it was just 30 mins from the DPS International airport. Also, I had heard that it had a relaxing but fun vibe with cool restaurants by the beach.
After having a delicious breakfast at H2O, I checked out and headed towards the harbor to catch my boat for Sanur.
At the harbor, I flagged down a representative from Scoot Cruises and he informed me that the boat was delayed atleast by an hour. Also, I had to go to their ticket office to checkin and pick up the stickers for my luggage. Their ticket office was 7-10 minutes walk away from the harbor via the sandy path. The boat rep asked other passengers traveling on the same boat if they can watch over my luggage so I could easily go to the ticket office without having to schlep my bags through the sand. The French family didn’t seem eager to be of help. I decided to leave my bags near them whether they like it or not. When I came back, my bags were still there. Thank God! I did thank them but they didn’t care to acknowledge. May be they were having a crappy day, who knows!
After hour and a half, the boat finally arrived. I was mentally preparing myself for the “ride from hell,” but honestly nothing can prepare you for a 4 hour bumpy speedboat ride over choppy waves from Gili Air to Sanur.
I did try to do humming meditation while putting light pressure on meridian points on my palm to make sure that I didn’t get sea sick. It did help because I didn’t throw up nor did I get a headache from the gasoline smell.
Instead of stopping at Sanur port, the boat stopped at a different port 30 minutes away from Sanur. But they had arranged for a taxi to take me to my hotel. So, it worked out just fine.
After the taxi pulled into the driveway of my hotel, Tirta Ening Agung, I was excited to see the beautiful decor of the hotel. At least for my last night in Bali, I had gotten lucky with my accommodation.
The staff were very friendly and helpful. The room was very comfortable, the outdoor private bathroom was beautiful, the pool was clean and the breakfast was yummy. What more could I ask!
I had made plans to meet up with Jennifer when I got to Sanur. She was in Canggu for the past few days but didn’t care much for it, so I suggested that she come to Sanur and checkout this town. We met at my hotel and then walked to the beach area where there are lot of cool restaurants. To get from my side of the hotel to the beach, there was no bridge or walkway, so we had to wait for few minutes until we couldn’t see any car speeding up on our side of the highway, we had to run to the middle of the road and wait there until no cars were speeding on the other side of the road. It was scary and hilarious both at the same time.
The promenade by the beach did have some cool restaurants and some of them also had live musicians. Sanur is still not on every tourist radar yet but I’m sure in few years time that would not be the case. We had a wonderful time catching up over delicious meals while listening to the soothing sounds of the waves.
Next day, my flight was at midnight. So, I decided to spend most of my time by the pool under the shade to keep myself away from the blazing sun.
Around 4pm, I headed to the main strip to have a light meal at “Soul in a Bowl.” Had the yummy falafel plate with fruit infused coconut water.
Later, I met up with Jennifer again for our farewell dinner. We came across a restaurant all decked up in Halloween decor. Instantly realized that today was “Halloween!” When you’re on the road, it’s hard to even remember what day it is, let alone remember that today was Halloween.
Rushed to my hotel to change and asked the front desk rep to call a cab to take me to the airport. My flight was at midnight but I decided to go there early because someone had mentioned that the security lines could be very long. I got there around 8:30pm, checked in my luggage and went through the security and customs in a jiffy. All in all, it took me only 15-20 mins. I did some window shopping at the airport but couldn’t find anything interesting to purchase. I still had Rs 115K which I wanted to get rid off. Purchased coconut water and aromatic coconut oil for Rs 90K. And just before boarding, I found a store selling Mentos for Rs 15K. Voila! I had no Indonesian currency with me anymore.
My flight left on time and it’s a very soothing feeling when everything is moving so smoothly for a change. As usual I couldn’t sleep much on the flight. Sadly, there was no entertainment on-board the flight to keep me entertained. I tried to keep my eyes closed throughout the trip and do different forms of breathing meditation. Within six hours, we arrived at our destination. I was excited to be in a different country, where I had never been to but had met lot of super friendly people from here back home. So, can you guess where have I landed?
