Sanur

We chose a perfect day for a day trip to Sanur beach. Our lovely driver Made picked us up at 9.30, and stopped at I Ketut Pasta (the gold and silversmith) in Celuk on the way for my benefit. At Sanur Made dropped us off at the north eastern end of the beach to make our own way for the day. 

 First stop was "Soul Cafe At The Beach" for some fresh juices and an opportunity to take in some sea breezes......

 We found this part of Sanur had changed a lot. The beach walk used to be lined with market stalls (and pleas to "have a look"), and  fairly rustic warungs all serving fairly similar Indo food. It's much more sophisticated these days. The market stalls are concentrated into one fairly depressing market area and the beachside cafes and bars are looking much more interesting.  

 The open areas of beach (not used exclusively by the hotels) have all been colonised by chair and umbrella operators - but at least it still looks inviting (and very clean).

 The patches of open space are pretty rare these days....

 We liked the Soul Cafe so much we went back there for lunch (smoked duck salad for me and a seafood bowl for Rob)

 And house made sorbet for dessert YUM!

 The very north eastern end of Sanur Beach seems to be where the locals use the beach. This area used to be much bigger in the old days with families enjoying picnics and swimming in the water.

 We got back to Ubud around 4.00pm, to a slow moving traffic jam at the southern end of the village. It turned out to be caused by this procession of locals making their way into the Monkey Forest temple for a ceremony. Ceremonies are still a huge part of life for the locals here - it's hard to imagine this changing much in the future.