It was Sanur disaster!

Pun intended, Sanur could have been a bit of a mare! I was up at 4.30am and got all my stuff together ready to go downstairs and meet Amy's sister-in-law who was taking me to the airport. After a final check and laying a bunch of goodies out on the table for Jess, I opened her door and gave her a big squeeze and said goodbye, leaving her all cosy and snug in bed.

When I went downstairs I was pleasantly surprised as it was Amy waiting for me! She drove me over to the airport and we chatted about Penang, places I should go if I return and she told me about her family too. The check-in process was fairly quick when I got to the airport and I remember thinking at the time that it was strange that I hadn't seen the lady put a 'hot transit' label on my luggage alongside the standard one that goes on with the flight details but I trusted all was ok and didn't think much more about it.

The funniest thing walking into the duty-free departure area was that despite it being almost 6am, none of the shops were open! Luckily I'd bought a big bottle of water the night the car broke down and there's no issue taking it through security in Asia! Time differences meant that I could ring home but I couldn't get hold of mum so had a long chat with Rebecca and Greg and then she got mum to answer her phone so I could talk to her too! It felt really reassuring to hear their voices as I was making my way on the next leg of the journey, especially as Bali was the first place I was properly experiencing the whole backpacker scene in hostels on my own.

The first flight was only about 40 mins so whizzed by and the transit time was short. In the on-flight magazine it had said to speak to the transfer desk to check the luggage gets sorted onto the next flight but when I got there and tried to speak to the woman, she picked up the phone and after that was rather unhelpful and just pointed me to immigration.

The flight to Denpasar from KL took just over 2 hours and was really smooth-sailing. I was sat next to a Chinese couple who didn't say a word and the woman next to me wore a mask the entire time; just meant no conversation but that was ok!

They brought round orange juice and peanuts and I settled in watching The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway until we were disturbed again to be given a choice for breakfast - noodles or roti with a curry sauce. I went for the roti as I love them and it was really good; I always enjoy plane food! The film was great and I really enjoyed it (was just a standard feel-good movie with a few emotional bits thrown in for good measure) but typically missed the ending as we landed which was a bit gutting - another one to add to the list of things to watch at home!

Arriving at the airport was when it all started to take a bit of a turn for the worst. There was a big queue to get through immigration but it didn't take as long as I anticipated. I then set off in the direction of carousel 3 to wait for my luggage, collecting a bunch of brochures and maps from a stand next to it. By this point, the hostel's taxi driver had messaged to say he had arrived and was waiting for me. More time passed and there was still no sign of my bag but a lot of people had gone. A guy who worked at the airport came up to me to see if I'd received my bag and when I said no, I was told that they'd emptied the plane and that was everything; absolutely fantastic, just what I needed!

The irony was that as I'd been stood there waiting with everyone, I had wondered if it would turn up because of not having the 'hot transit' label. I was a lot calmer about it all than I could ever have anticipated and went to have a chat with the baggage team at their desk, alongside a poor couple who were on their honeymoon and the same thing had happened to them from KL - I felt far more sorry for them than me which I think helped give me some perspective that it wasn't the end of the world!

I handed over all my luggage details and contact details for me at the hostel and was told that it would be on the next flight across which was due to land at 3pm and it would then be driven in a taxi to me afterwards.

Luckily my taxi driver had waited for me as I'd messaged him to say I was having trouble; it was over an hour after I'd landed at this point!

The journey to the hostel in Sanur took no more than half an hour and went pretty quickly. I was surprised at how much parts of it reminded me of Vietnam when we were driving through the towns.

Arriving at Rumah Samba made me realise why taxi drivers struggle to find it; it was tucked away down and off a little side road.

I was warmly welcomed by Ari who showed me round and into the dorm and talked me through a few bits like wifi, breakfast and bike hire. It had a certain charm about it and was very relaxed and quiet. Once I'd sorted my stuff upstairs, I went back down and ordered myself a watermelon juice and looked through all the leaflets I'd got at the airport on places to go and things to see.

It was gone 2.30pm at this point and it was sweltering (I was in trousers, flight socks, trainers and a tshirt) so I rolled the trousers up and took off the socks and trainers in the hope I would cool down a bit. It vaguely helped but it also meant my feet and ankles got attacked by mosquitoes and I had no repellent on me!

After a couple of hours waiting around to see if the luggage would arrive in a taxi, I decided to wander into town and do some exploring and luckily where it was about 4.30pm, it had started to cool a bit!

Everyone was really friendly and said hello as you walked past and I found a couple of clothes shops but they were really expensive so I continued wandering. In the meantime, I stopped at a mini mart to buy some water and mosquito repellent so I didn't get bitten to death and changed my remaining Malaysian Ringgit into Indonesian Rupiah.

Towards the beach, I found a couple of stalls selling the standard tourist stuff so bought a pair of black shorts and a tie-die splattered white Adidas vest for 12 quid. Wasn't as cheap as I'd hoped for a good genuine fake but I managed to knock a few quid off bartering with the lady which I was pleased about!

After that I wandered towards the harbour and beach which was lovely and so peaceful; it looked a bit like a shabby little fishing village that had been built up but Sanur isn't as busy as some of the other parts, even though it was the original tourist spot for Bali.

Walking along the harbour, I found an array of restaurants and cafes, a nail bar and a couple of surfing stalls. There was also a very nice looking Fairmont Hotel! After walking the length of the harbour, I turned around and made my way back to the area with the restaurants and settled at a place called Lilla Pantai. I was pretty ravenous at this point so ordered spring rolls, a beef rendang curry with boiled rice and a Bintang (the local beer in Bali).

The view was lovely and I felt very comfortable being there on my own although I'd not seen many backpackers, mainly couples.

Where it was starting to get dark, I made my way back to the hostel so I didn't get lost and I could see that the bars and restaurants were starting to get busy. The pavements were a bit uneven but I managed to work my way up and down, dodging a couple of big rats that came tumbling out of a drain and looked like they were playfighting doing rolly-pollys; grim!

There was sadly no sign of my luggage when I got back so I rang the customer services and they said it was on it's way so I settled down in the communal area and got chatting to a Dutch guy who was in Bali for 2 weeks with his girlfriend who was from Jakarta. They went out for dinner and later invited me to join them at the table in the lounge area to try some murtabak which is like a fried omelette/pancake and they gave me a bottle of water too which was really lovely. I think it's usually sweet but this one was savoury and had greens, spices and chicken in it and the Dutch guy was eating whole chillies alongside it too!

By about 8/8.30pm, I'd still not had my luggage and was starting to get fed up. The wifi signal kept cutting out and as I use an app to make calls it meant when I called them again for an update the lady and I couldn't hear each other which was a bit of a nightmare.

Ari had left for the day so I went on a hunt to find the security guard to see if I could get a local number that I could pass across to the baggage team in case there were any issues or they couldn't find the hostel.

Given my luck, the guy hardly spoke a word of English and I'm pretty certain he had absolutely no idea what I was saying so I turned it into a bit of a game of charades to try and get my point across. He rang Ari and I managed to explain that I needed a number for the baggage team to have in case of being lost etc and she instructed the security guard to give me her number which he did. Finally, there was a bit of progress!

I rang the baggage team back once I'd found some signal and handed over the details and told them to ring that number instead of mine if there were any issues. I'd well and truly had enough by about 9pm and felt fed up and homesick so I went up to bed in the hope of everything being sorted the next morning!

I woke up to the dogs going mad and the construction starting next door at about 7am. Desperate to sleep a bit longer, I tried to block it out; didn't help that I also needed to empty my bladder and couldn't bear the thought of getting up. I managed to doze until about 20 past 9 and then I got up, finally relieved my bladder and got dressed in my new shorts and t-shirt, heading out on a quest to find my bag.

I found Ari in the office and thanked my lucky stars as my bag had arrived - wahoooo!!! I pulled out my flip flops, set my portable charger on charge and grabbed my laundry that needed to be done and left to find some breakfast. Just as I was leaving, it started to spit so I ran back and grabbed my rain jacket and made my way down the road.

There was a little laundry place near the hostel and they were really cheerful and friendly with a couple of cute little ones! They charged 10,000 Rupiah a KG which was absolutely nothing - less than 60p!

Ari had recommended Lokal Warung and Coffee for breakfast and luckily it was just as you got out onto the main road as it was tipping it down! There wasn't anyone in there but I made my way over to the counter an ordered a breakfast set for 35,000 Rupiah (£2!) which was a choice of breakfast options and a coffee. I had banana pancakes and a cappuccino which was just what the doctor ordered!

(Thursday's selfie of the day for Izzy, wet from the rain in my new top!)

Where the weather was so bad, I'd taken my journal with me so I could write in it and had my blog draft on my phone too so I could update both. I ended up staying for 3 hours and had watched people come in and out and the weather get progressively worse!

Once it had calmed down to a lighter drizzle, I went back to the hostel and relaxed upstairs for a bit. Wanting a change of scenery after that, I went downstairs and ordered a watermelon juice and sat at the bar chatting to the hostel driver who was really friendly!

At 4pm, the fumigators came in to spray the outside because of the bugs and mosquitos so we had to get out of the way and I headed back up to my bed for a while to relax before I was hungry again for dinner!

Later in the evening I walked through the town taking a different route to see the market and other bars and restaurants. You could tell how desperate they were for a sale as the stall holders followed me around the market the entire time trying to get me to go and have a look and buy something. Although completely understandable as to why it's like that, it's actually really off-putting so I left and carried on wandering.

Luckily, the route led back towards the harbour so I went to find a beach side restaurant to have dinner at. After wandering up and down, I settled with Izakaya and thought it was about time I tried a Mie Goreng (one of the local noodle dishes served with chicken and an egg). It didn't disappoint and I was glad I'd picked that rather than a western dish.

When I finished, it was pitch black and a bit eerie walking back along the harbour but I didn't feel unsafe; luckily the town area was fairly close!

(Saw this huge snail on the walk back!)

I wandered back to the hostel and packed my little area up all ready to head to Seminyak the next morning.

Quote to leave you with for the day from Roald Dahl: "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

Ciao for now xxx