More Sea and Sidemen

On Monday, Loïc and I went for a ride up to Sidemen. Now I've been trying to avoid getting on a motorbike since I've been in Bali but I've come to the realisation that there is just no way around it. If I want to get out of Sanur, I'd have to just grip tight and trust that it'll be ok. And it isn't so bad, really, I've gotten used to it. Loïc says that if I want to rent one myself then he'll teach me on a quiet road. But I think I'll just stick to being a passenger, it's better for everyone that way.

So Sidemen is about an hours' ride out of Sanur away from the coast but my goodness, it's beautiful.


Green, luscious and peaceful. The view of bountiful mountains and rice paddies provides enough entertainment for a visit; it really is all you need...that and a nice cold drink. And it's so quiet, so serene.

One of the perks of Loïc's job is that he gets to use resorts and hotels that are in association with his company so we hung out at this villa, used their pool, dined at their restaurant and was on our merry way without having to hand any money over - fantastic.


We'd taken a guitar with us so we spent some time playing songs and singing. Well, Loïc played and I sang (if you can call it that) and we taught each other new words with the help of a French/English dictionary. Mon Français est de mieux en mieux...

On the way back we headed to the sea. Our bums were numb from being sat on the bike for so long so we stopped off at Blue Lagoon, parked ourselves on the sand and played a few games of cards. It's another place that not many tourists know about...perfect.


Unfortunately, we had to end the day by going to a hospital in Denpasar as Loïc was getting some kind of infection in a few cuts and scrapes he had gotten from bashing into some coral when he went surfing a week ago. The cuts on his fingers haven't been healing and of course he had made it worse by swimming in the pool at the villa. So the doctors confirmed that the cuts were infact badly infected and prescribed him some gauze, cream and anti-biotics.

Pissed off that he can't play his guitar again for a while, we dropped it off back at his house and headed out for dinner at Stumba, a restaurant owned by his French friend, Franc. May I just say, I have encoutered more French people in Bali than any other nationality - aside from Indonesians themselves!

My flat English accent is drowning amongst the lovely swishes and trills of the French and the enthusiastic babbling of the Indonesian...it would be nice to have a UK ally...