Lembongan from Sanur (C) PJ Croft 2016

Her name’s Dewi, I think. Her name badge is hard to read. But she’s got a gold wedding band on her left finger. Sigh.

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Feeling a bit fragile. Tummy is upset from the antibiotic and the Byetta. Damn good sleep last night, though up three times for urgent pees.

I check out of here in half an hour and head over to Sanur, to my last hotel of the trip. I must admit I’m sick of moving hotels, but I have yet to find a place where I would be happy to stay more than a few days. I think I might have to move up-market further still next trip (if there is one).

One of the things I’m going to say to this hotel is that the floor of the dining area is filthy! It hasn’t been cleaned in the week I’ve been here and there are food marks everywhere, dirt, foot marks and so on. It’s marble tiles but full of cracks to hold dirt. A health surveyor would not be happy.

As well, the purified water in the room is supplied in glass bottles with a crown seal cap. But when you look closely, there’s a ring of dirt around the top of the glass (under the seal) and in one bottle, I could even see contamination on the inside of the glass. Naturally I put that one aside.

I suppose I haven’t got sick, so it must be OK. I wonder why noro-virus is so often found on cruise ships, but not in hotels?

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I’ve worked out how to post actual video into these blog posts, but it sure takes a long time. I posted one last night but it must have taken nearly 1½ hours to prepare and upload. Here it is again:

I have to resize the clip and choose a section that I want. That takes 15 mins or so. Then begins a slow process of uploading that resized clip to Vimeo. On a slow internet connection like this, that took about half an hour for a 30 second clip.

Then you have to wait for Vimeo to process the video. That takes about half an hour as well. You can avoid the queue by paying for the premium service, US$60 a year. I might do that.

Then when it’s processed, you have a URL that you can copy into the blog, and there it is. Tedious, but it’s good to see it work. Repeat for every video clip you want to show! Another one:

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2.30pm: well, ironically, I may just have found the hotel that’s the best of the trip. It’s the Oasis Lagoon Hotel, Jl. Tamblingan, Sanur, right next door to Hardy’s supermarket.

I know this place well and there’s a DVD shop, a Periplus bookshop, a small food area, a good grog shop in the supermarket, a chemist just nearby and ATMs just outside. Not to mention the supermarket itself, selling everything from fresh fish to DVD players and petrol power generators.

I’m on the third floor but there are lifts (two!) and I have a small balcony overlooking the pool. The aircon is too cold now that I’ve had my midday nap. The bathroom is excellent, well designed and big enough. They tell me there’s a shuttle bus to the beach, or you can attempt the 7 minute walk.

My only complaint is that again, the internet is not secure and the speed is only 0,5Mb/s, about 1/3 what I get at home. But it seems responsive.

Now for some lunch and exploration. This seems too good to be true. There’s gotta be a gotcha …

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 6.00pm: What a difference between Sanur and Kuta. I much prefer this area. I’ve sampled Kuta and found it not to my liking. Traffic choked and too hard to get around.

I’ve been to Hardy’s and stocked up on beer and munchies. Also five DVDs, including the two most hyped recent releases, Spectre (Bond 007 latest) and The Revenant (Leo di Caprio, stupid name). At $1 each, I’ll take the risks. I looked at books and magazines but kerrikey, they’re as expensive, more so, than at home. Wheels magazine, this month’s edition, $18 versus $9.95 at home. Too hot for me. I can wait a week. I brought half a dozen magazines with me (The Economist, packed with information, and Australian Aviation) and I’ve only read two so far.

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