Spent 4 days at Legian Beach Hotel, three days in Sanur (Gazeebo & Villa Shanti) and one night at Coconuts on Lembongan Island. (Travelled with two mates from RSA / first-timers who were addicted after one day). Too short as always but had a great time.
LBH is a wonderful resort with excellent accomodation (had superior bungalows near the pool bar) and good service, especially considering that they were 100% fully booked - Aus school hols & all. It is the perfect base for frantic shopping & partying in Kuta / Legian / Seminyak area. Ate out at many small pub / resturants within walking distance of the hotel. (can't remember any of their names but did not have any bad meals or service) Beach resturants in Legian - Zanzibar and the adjoining ones were excellent. Local dishes especially good as well as seafood. Will definiely go back and use LBH as a first stop / home base. On checkout, we left our bigger bags in their baggage store and travelled the rest of the trip with only small backpacks. The LBH bell-captain will happily store bags for upto 3 months at no charge. (we collected our bags en-route to the airport the day we left)
Spent a day in Ubud, much shopping at the market (stall holders less persistant than in Kuta area) and lunch at the Lotus Pond?? Excellent Tom Yam gong soup & Mei Goreing. Watching grown men screeching like terrified old ladies when pounced on by monkeys in the monkey forrest was priceless. I didn't think it was my duty to tell them not to carry bananas in their pockets etc. He He He.... Many many Bintangs needed to calm nerves and restore dignity.
Visited Tanah Lot for sunset dinks - what a setting. The trip back to LBH was pretty hectic with traffic jams at every intersection. Took more than twice as long to get back. Traffic in general in Bali seems much heavier than I remember from past trips.
It was a relaxing change to wind down in Sanur following the LBH. Both Gazeebo & Villa Shanti are moderate price / quiality establishments but more than adequate for anyone looking for a quiet spot on the beach and close to the main shopping / dining spots in Sanur.
Bonsai resturant as good as ever. Also Bemos cafe, and Donalds. Had the hottest Tom Yam soup at JJs (the hottest chili I've ever eaten in Bali or anywhere in the east for that matter - think I lost a few kgs in persperation in 10 minutes) Many many many Bintangs needed to restore equilibrium.
Trip out to Lembongan on the Relax yacht and back by Ocean Flyer. Coconuts has the best pool with amazing views of Mt Agung and Bail. Found their service & food a bit disappointing and the package offered (US$ 79 each for three sharing a fan room including the boats there & back) was pretty steep. Snorkeling was OK, but not as good as the Gilis, Pemuteran or Menjangan. Found the local boat-hire costs also very high (170K Rupia each for a snorkelling trip to the mangroves and the beach off the Hai Tide huts - we ended up not going when the chap refused to budge on the price)
Overall we had a great time. Left reluctantly with many many CDs/ DVDs / T-Shirts /watches / assorted curios etc later and our bags bulging.
Already planning our trip for December, this time with family and friends (three weeks a least)
Roll on Xmas.