Sanur, A Small Taste of Bali

Jon and I spent just over a week in Bali, with most of that time devoted to getting the boat ready for our Indian Ocean passage. We did, however, take a day off and spent it in the small town of Sanur on the southeast coast of the island. Most of the tourist action in Bali takes place on the southern end of the island, and the hardest partying spots, namely Kuta, are on the western side. Sanur, occasionally called "snore" is more sedate, and is the "cardigan Kuta," if you will. It hugs over 4 kilometers of the coast and is home to lots of restaurants, shops and a large ex-pat community.

We began our day at the the northern end at a place called the Bonsai Cafe. Home to many award winning bonsai trees, the cafe overlooks the beach and offers lessons in bonsai pruning. Here, a young trainee was practicing under the careful eye of a master.

Of all the thousands of islands in Indonesia, Bali is unique. It is the home to a form of Hinduism that is practiced only here. The music is an ethereal rhythm of flute and bells and, if listened to intensely, can easily put one into a trance. I liked it and found it relaxing, but only if I heard it as background noise and did not concentrate on it directly.

Hinduism has many gods, major and minor, and they are often represented in statue form near the entrances to buildings and homes. Interestingly, these statues are often clothed....usually a sarong wrapped around their middle. Modesty must be respected, I suppose, even for statues. Tourists' dollars are so attractive, however, that the local population tolerates (for the most part) topless sunbathing on their beaches. I say for the most part, because in some parts of Indonesia, modesty is more strictly enforced, such as in Aceh where sharia law has a strong influence. Hotels where western tourists stay in Bali and Jakarta have also been the target of terrorist bombings by Jamia Islamiya.

Personally, I find it charming to clothe statues and found these bashful Buddahs prarticularly cute.

Gates and entrances are also interesting in Bali. They often depict going through a mountain, so that they are thick and tapper upward. Sometimes, just beyond the gate, a wall is centered so that the person entering must turn either right or left to continue. It is believed that evil spirts cannot turn, and thus are deterred from harassing ones' premises.

As Hindus, Balians practice cremation and Jon and I happened to stumble upon a ceremony occurring on the beach. We learned that the day of the ceremony is determined by not only by when it is convenient for a family and its fiances, but also when it will be a "good" day as detemined by the Balinese calendar. A 4 hour service begins at the temple and then the mourners proceed to the beach where the body is cremated and a small replica of the temple is burned alongside it. The burning process is believed to release the deceased's spirit. The ashes are then put on a boat and taken out to sea. Mourners dress in their traditional sarongs and headbands and much food is served while the cremation takes place. We also saw along the shoreline, poles in the water with bags hanging from the top of them. We were told they contained the ashes of deceased people and were slowly be dispersed to sea. I would like to find one of these Balinese calendars that lets me know which days will be good and which one's will be not so good; it would help know which days would be better spent in bed.

Our walk along the beach continued to charm us. There are many colorful outriggers to take tourists and locals out on the water. As we saw in Vietnam, the boats have eyes painted onto the bows, which help scare away evil spirits that may be lurking in the water.

Fishermen are plentiful in these waters. The Indonesians love to wade out to waters about waist or chest high and cast their lines all day and night....they are crazy about fishing. Here they were hats with numbers painted on them to indicate they have the appropriate license. I know fishing is serious business, but I don't think I could do it with a straight face while wearing a helmet that looked like an inverted salad bowl!

Further down the beach, workers were raking up the washed up sea weed and burying it in the sand....seems like a good idea. Not far from the worker, however, was a dead sea snake that had washed ashore. It was the biggest sea snake we've ever seen; maybe 4-5 feet long. I assure you that if we'd encountered this creature live on one of our dives, I would have panicked even more that if I'd come nose to nose with a shark!

The mosquito and sand fly are more typical pests one encounters along the beach. But apparently there is a beach in Sanur that is insect free. It wasn't obvious how they kept the critters from encroaching on their non-delineated beach. The back of this sign says, "End of insect free area," so it was in fact a very narrow safe zone......

More pleasurable was taking a break at a small cafe for coconut water. A truly tropical treat and a great thirst quencher. Jon and I have enjoyed this treat since we were in the Marquesas, but here, the Balinese serve it with lime wedges, sugar water and peanuts.

Kite flying is an Indonesian passion. For some, the kites are used to whisper messages to the gods, such as a good rice harvest would be appreciated. For others, they are an intense hobby and the kites come in many shapes, colors and sizes. Some even have noise makers, which can create eerie un-decernible sounds that float on the winds. Here in Sanur, we saw these kites in the shape of sail boats.

Along the southern end of Sanur was a kite park where the locals gathered to fly their long-tailed kites. In the meantime, dozens of human kite surfers were sailing up and down the shoreline, dodging fishermen and fishing boats. It was a lovely day off the boat, and a great taste of the easy life in Bali.