Ive never been very good at writing these things and after reading micronesia steves, im convinced im missing that writing gene!!!!!
Our holiday began the night before we flew out to Bali, my partner treated us (myself, him and my three year old son) to a night at the Hilton at the airport in Melbourne and because we had the young one, they decided to give us the top floor with a view over the airport, spectacular!!!! But watching all those planes was making me impatient, so it was a quick dinner downstairs (AND listening to the woes of the Garuda passengers stranded for a day....at the Hilton no less), then off to lala land for our big flight.
No dramas with Air Paradise this time, first in the queue, but not first in the bag wrapping queue, Gary had to wait about 1/2 hr as they only had one person wrapping and collecting money, so it was a slow process, but all done, no worries, off to duty free and on the plane. Jordy, as ever, is a star traveller, settles down quite quickly after his favourite part, the take off!!!! Most time sleeps all the way there even during landing. Yahoooo we're finally here.
VIPVOA an absolute dream, but please tell me something, a tourist policeman came and collected us basically as we stepped off the plane, took our passports etc, disappeared for about 5 minutes and came back with no less than $75 american dollars, now im confused, I thought WE had to give THEM the money. Oh well, ok, Im not complaining. He was so efficient, he even told us that our taxi driver was waiting outside for us!!!! Only thing was when we got outside, Dewa didnt have a sign and said that he never spoke to anyone about waiting for us......hmmm, is big brother really real!!!!! hahahaha
Anyway, we're here, the half talk talk that you talk is already rolling off my lips, plus all the new words I have learned from my BRILLIANT website discovery just days before I flew out, its called Unforgettable Languages and they guarantee that by learning "the Linkword© memory method" which locks words and grammar into your memory in seconds that you'll be speaking a new language in a weekend. And honestly, if I had've spent more time than I did on it, which was basically about 1/2 hr, I swear I wouldve been conversing quite fluently. And the best bit, its about $10 aus!! Go check it out for yourselves. Unforgettablelanguages.com.
Ok enough about me, now lets talk about me!!! hahaha. Oh Bali, just cant get enough of it, my babysitter is waiting at the hotel for me, to introduce her new baby grandaughter to us, which Jordy promptly calls his new baby sister and is forever kissing her on the head!!! Gorgeous. But by this time its about 7pm and I just wanna go get in the pool. Kumala Pantai's pool is supposedly open only between 9am and 7.30 or 7pm I cant remember, so we just had a quick dip and went back to our room, which we had decided was too small for the three of us, so made enquiries into another room which turned out to be the Junior suite, but we couldnt move for two days, no worries.
I think for this upgrade we paid 215,000 rup a night. This was only for two nights as they were booked out, but if we liked we could go to the Presidential Suite, hahaha, ok sure, lets take it, but for the next two days I begged and begged to stay in the Junior Suite, no luck, had to move, BUT the front office staff were gorgeous especially desi, tina and sudana. Desi especially cut me a great deal with her next in line, and got me the Pres. Suite for 615,000 a night as long as we only used the one bedroom. I didnt know what they were talking about as we hadnt seen the room, so said no problem. More on that later.
Spent the first couple of days, reacquainting ourselves with the heat, which was pretty light on actually, even the sun didnt appear fully all day for the first week!!! Went into Denpasar with a girl i met on the plane, shopped at Matahari's and even with their 50% off sales, still didnt really buy anything to write home about.
Went down eat st and had a great couple of dinners in some new little cafe there, cant remember the name now, but it was virtually opposite Khaima, I think. Lots and lots of building and redeveloping going on there, Paul Ropp has opened a shop at the top of Eat St, so that has got to be a good sign of the burgeoning times ahead. Seminyak has really become the expat hangout of Bali, they pour out of it at any time of the day.
Ate quite alot at Zanzibar and the one next door to it and the Blue Ocean, which is really pleasant especially for breakfast, even though our brekkies were included at KP, we like to get out of the hotel, in that way I guess we're not good hotel fodder, as of course, a hotel would love you to have all three meals with them Im sure. Another great place for brekkie, especially with kids, is a little place in Rum Jungle Road called Tommys Cafe, its basically opposite the swiss restaurant there. They have the MOST beautiful salad baguettes AND they deliver, so if youre a beach junkie and feel like a ploughmans lunch or one of these fantastic baguettes, give em a ring and they will drop it down to the beach, as well as a juice or milkshake if you so desire, not expensive either!!! They are about the only place around there that I could find that had vegemite AND they even had weet bix, I of course stuck to my nasi goreng, but it was good for Jordy, who, Ive discovered, is not in the least enamoured of any other food but chicken nuggets and vegemite on toast. I know, I KNOW, you could say its all my fault but Im declining responsibility for the chicken nuggets, thats his fathers fault.
Spent a bit of time at the Prana Spa, had a couple of massages, one which included the oil dripping onto your forehead in a steady flow for about 15 minutes, I simply left my body!!!!! Its supposed to destress and detoxify your system, well it did all that and more to me, I had a bad cough before I left Australia, and it simply blew all the sh"t out of my system and turned into full blown sinusitis, well I reckon anyway, so I had all the symptoms of the flu without feeling fluey, and this is still continuing now back here at home....went to the dr in bali and they said I had really low blood pressure as well as influenza as they like to call it. Shame, cause Jordy ended up with it as well, but I still think its sinusitis, going to the dr here soon. Played havoc with my ears on the plane though, although as ever the balinese have such great remedies, they gave me two plastic cups with paper towel soaked in hot water and put in the microwave, so really hot!!! Stick them over your ears on the descent and fabbo, no pain, and considering I had to do two descents, the second time round was just dreamy!!!!
So Prana, oh yea, and along with the massage, if you return a 2nd time, they will give you 50% off any massage you book AND a free hours foot reflexology at CHILL, yes CHILL, not CHI, as I went on about, Bunbury Gal, which is next door AND the massuers there are all men, which I kinda like!!!!! Dont worry though Shazperth, I would NEVER take sexyman away from you, in fact, as much as he probably needed the money, I didnt even go near the place, in deference to you!!!! What a woman!!
My partner, Gary came with me for the foot reflexology and as they were trying to converse with him, I told them that he was a little deaf, and to speak louder, they just laughed and said no worries we work on that point for his ear, on his foot!!!! hahaha, Gary LOVED it, and said for sure he would indulge next time, cause he felt sooo good afterwards. So there you go fellas, reflexology all around.
Another place I really wanted to try was Jari Menari, its in the phone book, and basically they do a traditional balinese massage incorporated with some other features BUT once again the masseurs are ALL men, mmm, AND they were drivers, or garden boys or whatever before and have been taken and given intense training. Now that is something for Bali, usually those people doing the menial jobs would NEVER get the opportunity to move into something like that, so I wanted to support them and find out how good they were, sadly we ran out of time, but if anyone else is going, go see them and come back and tell me what they were like, not the massage, them!!! Hahahahaha, no seriously!
Went to Bedugal markets or the ones just up from there, cause I had to get my vanilla beans come hell or highwater.....well, I dont think they had seen a tourist bus all day, bloody hell, they were all over us, but Garys in the swing now so had a bit of a giggle with them, I snuck off and found my vanilla lady, just where I had left her last time, got my 50 pieces of vanilla beans for I dunno, 150,000 rup, waaaay toooo expensive, but considering what we pay for it back here, I wasnt complaining. I do find the more I go back and the older I get, the less haggling I feel impelled to do, I KNOW they think Im a pushover, but hell, who cares, when you are talking about $1 or 2 or cents even.
Missed S&S meetings EVERY bloody day, missed meeting Fisho Girl AND Cracker but I just always seemed to be doing something else!!!! Hope Cracker is having the time of his life.....AND I forgot to check out his toilet block proceedings, someone will have to fill me in!!!
NOW, I have to tell you, shopping in Seminyak is getting better and better. I saw a shop for plus size women, right down the end of Legian St, I think where it becomes Jl Laksmana, couldnt tell you what its called, starts with G, sorry, I did really mean to write it all down, but just never got round to it.
Also, a shop called Slide Clothing, Jl Basangkasa No 26, selling all Von Dutch T shirts, hats, etc, jeans, really funky stuff. Another shop called Funky Princess Jl Raya No 42, fantastic denim shorts, shirts and bathers, I know, I know, really funky stuff too. Of course waaaaay to small for me, being a healthy size 14, but good to know there are bathers to be bought out there. Saw heaps and heaps of Paul Frank, even little size twos, too gorgeous.
Heaps more to tell but will have to nod off now, not as young as I used to be.....dont forget the tupperware party!!!!! hahahaha