Our second last stop on our trip was beautiful Bali.
We flew from Thailand to Bali but had to make a stop and spent a couple of hours in Surabaya airport because of the volcano on Bali deciding to spit out some smoke! We made it to Bali eventually and got a taxi to our hotel which was in Sanur. The hotel was amazing, I really liked the layout and the design of the pool area - so nice! There was a restaurant right next to the hotel too which was great, and they did some mean banana pancakes for breakfast! Sanur is nice enough, the only thing is the beach isn't great for swimming and its a bit dirty AND there are big scary snakes in the water (ok it was like 15 inches which is still pretty big but whatever it seriously freaked me out). There are a couple of water sports available - kayaking and jetskiing etc - which would probably be the best activity out there but we didn't try anything out. We visited the Serangan Sea Turtle Conservation centre at Serangan Island one morning which was really fun, a guide will show you around and tell you about the work they do to help the turtles and how the rescue injured turtles and release them into the wild when they're rehabilitated. So cool! We even got to "adopt" a baby sea turtle (which we named Mango) and release it into the sea near the center which was amazing. I do recommend you do a bit of research before heading to any of these conservation centers as some are strictly tourist attractions and sometimes aren't the best conditions for the turtles. Overall I found the Seranagan Center really good, the guides were well informed and actually knew and cared about the turtles.
We also visited the temple Tanah Lot which is a bit far from Sanur but totally worth it - the views on the way are pretty cool as you pass a lot of rice fields. We rented a motorbike and rode it there but I think a taxi is a better option, it's super far on that little bike and the traffic is nuts! Plus driving all the way back in the dark was a little scary but we made it alive! Tana Lot is a temple on an island just off the shore which has been battered by the tides for years since it was built in the 16th century. The temple is supposedly guarded by venomous snakes and in typical tourist attracting fashion, there is a cave which boasts a "Holy Snake" that you can pay to see! The whole area is really beautiful and you can walk along the cliffs to a great view point where you can see Tanah Lot on one side and another temple on a cliff edge on the other side. It is a huge tourist attraction though so be prepared for a big crowd and a load of women trying to sell postcards, keyrings and flower hair clips!
Another thing to definitely visit in Sanur is the night market. The shopping is terrible - not even souvenir type things, just really crappy stuff BUT the food stall are unbelievable. I would go there and eat Satay Ayam everyday if I could, and you have to try Martabak Mani, a sweet stuffed pancake - but it's not a pancake, its more like sweet bread/sponge - I don't know how to describe except for AMAZING.
Another thing to definitely visit in Sanur is the night market. The shopping is terrible - not even souvenir type things, just really crappy stuff BUT the food stall are unbelievable. I would go there and eat Satay Ayam everyday if I could, and you have to try Martabak Mani, a sweet stuffed pancake - but it's not a pancake, its more like sweet bread/sponge - I don't know how to describe except for AMAZING.
