JBR 17/12/2004 - 07/01/2005
Left Sydney on the 17th December, flying with Air Paradise, nothing exciting to report, Only to say that the flight left at 11.50am, like nearly 1 hour late, but who cares we are on holidays.
Arrived in Bali, did the VOA bit, took a while to get thru, but hey that's Bali.
Puja whom I had already organised to collect the crew was ready and waiting for us. We had a mini bus for the traveling folk, and a separate minus bus for the luggage. Puja works for a company called Bali Insight Tours, and l can honestly say, he is the best, very polite, and the most hopeful guide you could have.
We had 3 weeks in Bali, here is a short run down of what we did
Hotel
Kumala Pantai-Legian, very nice hotel and grounds, very good size pool, rooms were great very nice and clean, lovely bathrooms and balcony's. Meal and drink prices are very reasonable. The hotel does not have a swim-up bar, but right next to the pool is the drink and towel hut, order your lunch and drinks, lay back down on your sun lounge and they bring it all to you. I would definitely stay there again. My brother managed to get the Ambassador Room, talk about huge; you could have a party in there.
Xmas Dinner
Prior to leaving Sydney we had organised with Kerry and Milton a Suckling Babi for our xmas dinner. Merybeth had all the flashing elf ears, and bon-bons, so we sat there in the Christmas spirit, it was fantastic, the meat was to die for and the roast vegetables were the greatest, needles to say, we ate and we ate and there wasn't very much left after we had finished. What does one do when they have eaten and drank far too much.....shop of course.
Activities
White Water rafting
A thrill of a life time, this was the 4th time we had done WWW. In Bali, only downfall was the stairs, down and back up again. The rapids were great, we only managed to loose 2 passengers overboard, first to go was a really nice Japanese man, then my girlfriend took a tumble, well l have never laughed so much, it was a crack up, but l must say l think we did pretty well, and we didn't even break a finger nail.
Bird Park
Absolute must, words can't describe the park and the beautiful birds; we spent 2.5 hours in there.
Kintarmi Mountain
This year we took our family to Bali as our oldest son, daughter in-law and granddaughter had not been to Bali before. I organised a day trip to the mountain with Puja. The day was very overcast and raining, but what the heck we still went, and had a nice day out. Saw the Barong dance, silver making, then off to the mountain, which was hard to see considering the bad weather, but we did manage to see the lake and the volcano, had lunch in one of the many restaurants cost 60,000 a person buffet lunch, and kids were free. On the way back home, we stopped at a temple, can't recall the name, but on the top of the hill was the Presidents residence, also stopped at the Monkey Forest in Ubud, I didn't go in, as l saw it all lat year, so l had a wonder around, and brought 2 lovely Balinese painting.
Ubud
Left the hotel about 9.00am (l think) arrived in Ubud, went to the markets, managed to get a few things for the house, had a lovely lunch at Casa Luna, and then off for an afternoon of relaxation, yes Zen Bali Spa, it was absolutely magnificent. Five of us ladies had a delightful afternoon, 1 hour Balinese massage, full body scrub, followed by yoghurt
spread over your body, then to top it off a beautiful floral bath. Got back to Legian about 6.00pm, feeling all lovely and smelt awfully pretty.
Restaurants
Café Warna, Fins, Zanzibar, Flying Piano, Rumors, Trattoria, Rhum Bar, Tommy's,
Bali Bakery, Café Mocca, Yutgz, Topi Koki, Sands Café, Poco Loco
Tailor
With Colleen's recommendation off we trotted to Merry Collections in Legian, l had 3 suits made for work, which was made up of pants, skirt and jacket, the cost was $85.00 a suit, and very nicely made. I mentioned Colleen's name, so l think he put the price up (nah only joking Col). We had the measurements done in the shop, the suits were ready 3 days later, and then Arsito came to our room with his tailor, so we could try them on.
Drinking Habits
Well there was a lot of drinking to be done, New Years Eve we sat at Café Warna, and l think we managed to drink our way thru the complete cocktail list, needless to say, we had dinner there and didn't venture very far after that. Made our way back to the hotel, they had a Barong dance going, so as you do, we sat around and watched that for a while, with a few more drinks, well we couldn't just sit there, not polite. Back to our room, grabbed a bag of ice from the café on our way, and sat on the balcony having a few more night caps, we had our own little party, blowing our trumpets, putting on our party hats, believe me, not a good look.
Anyway that's about all l have to say, there is a lot more l could ramble about, but you had to be there to see the funny things that happened.
I would just like to say a special Thankyou to Kerry & Milton from the Indo National, Puja, Geoff & Louise from Bali Insight Tours, and to me for making it all happen.
Oop's nearly forgot to mention, Merybeth and I toddled off into Denpasar and we both brought an Espresso Coffee Machine, weighing in at 9.96 kilo's, of course l took it on board as hand luggage.
Coming home we had 7 in our group, 11 pieces of luggage, that weighed 190 kilo's, not a word was said when we checked in, but l think if the flight had been full, we might not have got away with it.
Cheers
Kermy