Sanur

The 18-km journey from the airport to one of the main beach resort areas on Bali’s south coast will take around 20-25 minutes, northeast bound at a taxi fare of around Rp70,000. This is Sanur, Bali’s first beach resort where tourism in Bali was born. Despite the continuous influx of visitors through many decades, the village of Sanur maintains its reputation as one of the island’s largest traditional villages, a trait that precisely endears foreigners passing through as well as those who’ve nestled in for the long haul.

Sanur’s old shady trees lining the well-paved streets blends the ocean with city life, the modern with traditional. This makes it a top preference for expats to settle in. The Batu Jimbar neighborhood is the most exclusive private estate cluster, a luxurious enclave of swimming pools, lotus ponds, landscaped gardens, manicured lawns and traditional thatched-roofed wonderful villas demarcated by vine-draped coral walls and palm-fringed lanes. Diplomats and foreign consulates are drawn by this snob appeal.

Another of Sanur’s claim to fame is its sorcery (black and white magic). As stories go, the 70's was a period of magic wars between masters of Sanur and of nearby Kamasan Village in the Klungkung regency, as evidenced by people’s eyewitness accounts of red lights flying above houses, among many other bizarre events. Besides this unusual repute, Sanur is also known for being home to Bali's only all female keris dance, its five-star hotels, its world-famous artist residents like Belgian painter Le Mayeur, writer Vicki Baum, writer/musician/artist Walter Spies, et. al. and most remarkably, Bali's oldest stone inscription(emblazoned pillar, the Prasarti Blanjong) dated AD 913. This stone epigraph inscription was in two languages: Old Balinese and Sanskrit, and discovered in the harbor. Other epigraphs found there too were the Ganesca and the Two Tailed Ox (Arca Dua Ekor Lembu), believed to be remains of past kingdoms that used to rule Bali.

As if to underscore its diverse, exceptional and unforgettable appeal, Sanur is a marriage of two words, “Saha” and “Nuhur” which means “the passion to visit a certain place.” Perhaps this explains why it was here the Netherlands troops first set foot in Bali in 1906. It was also here where the community of Bali fiercely defended their land in the first war (known as the Puputan Badung) against the Netherlands, a heroic event etched in every Balinese memory until today’s generation.