Sanur #2

Not so much about Sanur, this post, but about the journey home again. It's always pleasant to go down to the coast, and we enjoy the seaside vibe of Sanur, which I have already said is much more laid back than the other side of the island. We went down for 24 hours because Eddie was keen to see a particular football game that was not being shown in Ubud. The weather was glorious, the sea was sparkling and the game was being screened on the TV in our room, so all those boxes were ticked. The room itself, well, adequate but in a great location. And it was only for a night. We checked out some other places while we were there and will make a different choice if we do this again.

With Ubud so crowded now at the height of the season, it was a surprise to find Sanur not just relatively quiet, but very quiet. Maybe everyone was sticking to their resort compounds.

On the Saturday we thought we might drive down to the Bukit Peninsula before heading home to the hills. Poor Sadie couldn't cope with new roadworks, and instead we found ourselves on part of the new Benoa toll road. When I say toll, at the moment it's only Rp4000, or 40c. It doesn't seem to go anywhere except Benoa Harbour, but as this area is being proposed as a huge reclamation and development project, a toll road makes sense. Despite much controversy, the Governor appears to have made up his mind that this will go ahead regardless of (Balinese) public opinion.

The harbour is symbolic of economic inequality. On one side, two enormous luxury yachts. Megamillions. Mind you, the sewage trucks were dumping directly into the water not far away but I doubt if the owners were aware.

But we ventured down another road and came across the fishing boat harbour. Hundreds of vessels that barely looked seaworthy all crammed together. The feeling here was very different. None of the usual friendliness, pure suspicion. A tarpaulin hastily thrown over a catch, but Eddie was sure he had seen shark fins before it was all covered up. Very, very poor people living in a world a million miles away from the rich men's yachts. We didn't linger and discretion with the camera seemed wise.

We had noticed a magnificent Chinese-style temple on the way to the harbour, so stopped on our way out to be rewarded with quite the most magnificent building we have seen in an island of magnificent buildings. Tempat Ibadah Tri Dharma di Benoa is only about a year old, and we were told by someone whose English was as fluent as our Indonesian that a Chinese architect had been brought in to oversee the construction. It appears to be multi-faith, is totally awe inspiring, is free to enter (but donations welcome) and I can't find any information to link to. If you are in the area, put it on your list.

Sadie's confusion became our mixed and most interesting experience, and the Bukit can wait for another day. Since then we have been to the Sacred Monkey Forest (who would have thought, after all this time?), seen an extraordinary competition, eaten bebek betutu and been busy with Writer's Festival voluntary work. These too will have to wait.