Salam from Sanur!

Believing is definitely something we needed to do when planning and saving for this trip and for the moment at least, things are mightily sweet. After the constantly draining rounds of goodbyes before we set off on Wednesday the flight itself seemed to stir up memories of flights when I was a child. Gone were the constant flashes of explosions in the sky and impending doom to be replaced by surges of excitement for the months ahead, that and a valium induced haze which certainly took the edge of things! Qantas were amazing though, amazing food (roast shoulder of lamb served with fresh veg and new potatoes and a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toasted muffin, bacon and real stewed beans), constant snacks (twix ice-cream, fruit, cookies) and the unbelievable array of entertainment. In fact one of the options you could choose was to watch footage of the flight from the perspective of the tail, bearing in mind this was a huge double-decker it was seriously impressive, especially when you could almost shout at the pilot to tell him to straighten up as he came in to land at Singapore.

After deliriously wondering around Singapore airport for an hour or two it was time for flight #2 over to Bali. Now the safety briefings at the best of times at the start of a flight are nowadays rarely listened to but this was incredible. The plane, from the moment they sat down, was the loudest most raucous gathering of people I have ever heard. It was as if a massive fox had been let loose in an Indonesian Chicken pen, rendering the safety announcement, quite predictably, useless. Still the in flight meal option of what was essentially a large 'chocolate' bomb gave the whole thingh yet more surrealism to soften the blow of being surrounded by hens, one of them quite literally.

So we landed, got through 'customs', (small men with sticks) and got a taxi with Indonesia's own version of Paul Daniels, with a speech impediment. He seemed to say every third word as if had lost his bottom teeth, meaning that pen and paper, alas, was the universal language on this journey! Anyway after battling the hideousness of South Bali's roads we found ourselves in Sanur at our hotel. Sanur, locally, goes by the moniker, S-nore, which is slightly offensive given that when we ventured out for dinner we were treated to not one but four live bands in a small vicinity, beats the crap out of Southsea nowadays!! In the end we ventured for a cool looking place over the road and had a sharing platter of Balinese treats which was mouth-wateringly beautiful followed by two Bintangs, the local beer. Whilst we ate a young Balinese quartet played songs for the crowd and took ANY requests. They were amazing for four late teens/early twenties guys and just topped our first night off with another hint of surrealism as they thrashed out ny request of Roxanne!! Tommmo x