Sekian dan sampai jumpa (that’s it and goodbye)

After another busy day enjoying the pool, the beach, our bure facing the sea and a relaxing massage we ended off our last day at Senggigi yesterday with a walk to the very upmarket "Fresh Market" for a last feast on our fave red bean stuffed pandan flavoured donuts.........

 ....before settling in for another beautiful evening light show on the beach - with our happy hour cocktails......

 ..... our last sunset at Senggigi (this holiday anyway) .......

 Our drive to Praya Airport this morning struck a bit of a traffic jam at Ampenam - the original port town of colonial era Lombok. It provided a great opportunity for us to stop and look around us on a day when a lot of locals seemed to be in a happy mood heading off for family picnics (according to our driver). There was a festive mood on the streets. 

 Apparently this is a spot where elderly men like to gather for coffee and a chat and engage in a bit of barter and offloading of second hand scooters and bikes (a bit of sidewalk Gumtree perhaps?)

 This guy (and his mates) gave us a big smile and a thumbs up (which we missed with the camera!)

 Our driver told us that normally people can't be transported on the tops of cars/buses, but he thought the police might be turning a blind eye today because it was family picnic day!

 We saw all types of transport too......

 On the way we had an interesting discussion with our driver about the student demonstrations in Jakarta we'd seen reported on the news. He explained the controversial new legislation to us that the demonstrators fear will limit human rights in Indonesia. As a proud Muslim man he supports the proposed restrictions around men and women living together before marriage - and the more draconian laws protecting property rights. I must confess I supported the concerns of the students but listened with interest to his very strong support for the new laws. Religion seems to play a big part in all this!

Back at Denpasar Airport (by about 2pm today) we had about a 10 hour wait for our midnight flight back to Sydney - which we decided to spend at the new(wish) Airport Novotel in a nice, quiet, modern and bright and well equipped room. The hotel has a lovely swimming pool, good eating places on offer and a very scenic rooftop bar. Rob was happy because he could watch the planes from the bar area and I was happy because i could see the ocean and one last fabulous Bali sunset.

 We both remarked on how this hotel was at least 3 squillion times better than any other airport hotel we've been in (Rydges Sydney Airport I'm talking about you in particular!!!) and how noticeable is the refinement and grace of Balinese people compared to the local people we met in Lombok.

 Here's to beautiful Bali/Lombok and the wonderful holiday we have enjoyed together over the past two weeks. We'll see you again next year ...........

More from Senggigi

Honestly, you could drive through Senggigi and think this is the wildest, ugliest beach resort on earth..... but get off that main road and find the right spots and things improve dramatically. It's actually spectacularly beautiful in certain areas....

Like the gardens and beach front of the Sheraton .......

 and our beach front bure (which we have been able to colonise for the last three days) ........

 ... with views to the north 

 and to the south ........

 There's even good coffee over the road from the Sheraton at Gula Gila (the Sheraton does not do great coffee!)

 and sunsets are just great at happy hour from our favourite table on the terrace .....

 Tonight we took a 90c taxi ride down to Cafe Alberto on the beach. Cafe Alberto was always a great favourite of ours in previous visits - and usually full of expats and tourists enjoying great Italian inspired and Indo food. Tonight we saw just as many prosperous looking Indonesians as expats - all enjoying the great food and atmosphere at Cafe Alberto.

 We were lucky to catch our best sunset of the week tonight at Cafe Alberto.....

The lovely young Alberto (grandson of the original Italian Alberto who set up the restaurant) drove us back to the Sheraton after dinner. Such a lovely thing for him to do....... he'd attended the Sekolah Nusa Alam (along with his brother Alexander and sister Isobel) and remembered our friends Ibu Leigh and Pak Gregg well. A nice connection and a really lovely night for us.

Senggigi daze

We had a completely lazy indulgent day at the beach today - starting with an extended breakfast on the terrace - so nice looking out to glimpses of the beach and the sea through the foliage and palm trees.........

 ........ where there was some spectacular pruning being conducted  about 20-25 metres up in the foliage of a swaying palm tree!

 That flimsy blue rope you might be able to see in this pic was connected to the foliage NOT to the climber! 

 After due consideration we picked our home base for the day. This well placed bure/day bed ticked more boxes for us than the sun loungers.

 Not bad views .........

 and close to the pool and the beach ...........

 We had no trouble filling in 4-5 hours on or in the vicinity of the day bed: swimming, beach walks,  reading, and making up stories about some of our fellow guests!!!

We didn't start heading "downtown" for something to eat until after 3.00pm

 To the lovely Asmara - the Senggigi equivalent of our fave Cafe Wayan in Ubud. We were there at a quiet time so the very inviting entry pavilion looked like a pretty party waiting to happen this afternoon.

 The Sasak Rijstaffel (for 2) was just as delicious as we remembered it!

 We barely made it back to the Sheraton for the sunset light show .......

I have to say we enjoyed our low key day and could easily repeat it tomorrow!