Aug 21st: Sanur

Sanur again. I woke up at 6:30 and went for a walk. If you know me you may not believe that I both got up early and exercised but it's true. The beach faces East so sunrise time is going to be much better than sunset at Sanur. There were more people than I expected out, but I suppose the old people like to get up early and go for a walk too. People were friendly and said things like “Good morning.” I feel like people tend to do that more at these calm, beachy places.

I had a nice breakfast at a hotel beach side, of course, with a friendly waiter. The people here are generally very friendly with a lot of fun personalities. Often they are trying to sell you something, which gets annoying. I went to the main street to look for some shopping. I ended up going to Hardy's Grosir, which is a big supermarket. But it was perfect for the shopping I wanted to do. I really hate bargaining even though I know you have to. Here, though, the marked prices seemed reasonable and then they'd always give you a discount off that of 10-20%. I'm sure that's not what the locals would pay but it's pretty good. There's jewelry, sarongs, clothes, shoes, handicrafts, bags, etc. All your Bali souvenir stuff. Just to give you an idea I got a pair of sandals, a batik purse, a bracelet, a hat, and a sarong for under $30 US. Not bad. Handmade things are always nice.

I had another beachside meal, laid on the sand, and had a dip in the warm, shallow, water. I rented a bike for a ride all the way down the beach. It was nice to see the whole stretch of it.

I decided to go to Lembongan Island tomorrow. I arranged a speedboat there, partly because the company does hotel transfers and I have a big, heavy suitcase. Plus I'll get there quickly and have more time to enjoy the island. After I return I'm going to try to head straight to Ubud. We'll see how that pans out.