Hello,
This is a few months late, but I got caught up with life and it's little speed bumps. Anyway, I offer this as a JBR for the newbie. Please bear with me as this is my first JBR. I'll listed prices (in $US or rp) as I can for reference. Links for maps and photos of the trip are at the bottom. If you can, have a window open for the photos and another for this JBR. They should be matched up. :)
=====> AIRFARE & HOTEL:
My gf and I went to Bali from May 24th-28th. A package deal (airfare & hotel included) from Taiwan to Bali costing about $870US total. The vacation package also included a trip to Ubud, a Lulur Spa, and a rafting trip. We ended up skipping the rafting trip and the packaged Ubud. Wasn't interested in rafting and we planned on hiring a driver for Ubud anyhow.
We stayed at the Ramada Bintang. I highly recommend staying there. The whole vibe there is very tranquil which I'm big on when I'm on vacation. A few things to note about the place. Do stay on the 2nd floor or higher. I prefer a balcony to a patio/terrace. It's a thing with me about people being able to walk in from my backdoor. But some may prefer it as it provides easier access to the pool. One drawback to the hotel is the small beach. During high tide, there simply isn't one. But at low tide, there's a fairly decent one. There are some lounge chairs at the edge of the high tide. A nice service is the Kodak money exchange just outside of the hotel gate. As you walk down the driveway, it's on the right, you can't miss it. The rates are fair and you won't have to worry about being cheated. Better rates for $100US bills (got no clue about Aussie bills). Also, they won't take anything pre-2001, 2001 with serials starting with 'CB', nor any "ugly" bills. I had a problem with them not taking one of my bills since the middle was worn in a bit. Don't forget to pull-out/save 100,000rp per person for the departure tax. You can leave this and your passport in the hotel safe. There's also an internet cafe within a 5min walk just north of the hotel. It's one of those telecom places. There is one just across the street from the hotel gate, but their internet access was down. The one we went to was 3000rp for 10min. compared to the hotel's 15,000rp for 10min. Most of the time, we'd be going out DVD shopping anyhow so it worked out for me to bring my laptop with me.
=====> DAY 01:
We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into the hotel. After unpacking a bit and exploring the hotel grounds, my gf and I decided to head out for some exploring. Here's where I got stupid. The critical decision was to turn right, instead of my natural inclination of turning left, out the hotel gate. No sooner than we walked a block or two, we got approached by a pair of guys for "Club_Renaissance". Well as you see in the movies, we won the big prize. After some deliberation, we decided to go and see if we could cash it in. DUH! I take complete blame for this stupidity. Granted we only lost 2 hours, but it was an annoying, though enlightening, experience. We got taken to a hotel down in Jimbaran and met with their salesrep. After just chatting with this guy for about 40min., I finally asked him for his sales pitch. It was here that I realized that I was in a timeshare pitch. (I'd never been in one before.) The pitch itself wasn't annoying, but trying to get the bottom line i.e. the cost of the timeshare membership was. I kept asking him for the bottom line, but he wouldn't give it. It pretty much seemed as if he wouldn't give it unless I promised to commit. Lame. Anyways, we walked out and got our free ride back to the Kuta area. It was supposed to be to the hotel, but we got the taxi driver to take us to a restaurant we wanted to go for dinner. I'd like to give all kudos to my gf for indulging my curiosity and not getting royally pissed for wasting 2 hours. Do watch out for these guys and don't waste your time.
Dinner was at the Kuta Plaza restaurant. After a miserable time with the timeshare people, we splurged on dinner. The food wasn't bad, but I've had better seafood for less in Thailand. See below for what we ordered. The lobster wasn't as cheap as I had anticipated. The KangKung Belacasa was a veggie dish.
Lobster (500g - 1.1lb) 175000rp
Grouper (450g - 0.99lb) 78750rp
KangKung Belacasa 19000rp
Strawberry Juice 10000rp
10% Service charge 28275rp
After dinner we walked about and to our fortune found the HIS travel service office. They publish this travel newspaper which has maps of Seminyak, Kuta, Ubud, Sanur, and Nusa Dua. The maps help soooo much later on as we walked about. Nothing drives me more crazy when I have no idea where I am or where I'm going. I had the maps scanned by a photo store since they're too big for a typical scanner. The link is at the bottom for your reference and convenience.
=====> DAY 02:
Woke up and had the breakfast buffet which was included in our package. Not bad, but I'm glad we were only staying for 5 days. Anything more and I'd have to shoot myself. They serve pretty much the same stuff everyday. Standard omlets made to order, steamed tomatoes, beef mini-patties, bacon, mini-pancakes, etc. A person can only eat so much of the same thing.
We left our maid tips from 5,000rp - 10,000rp depending on what we had on hand. How much should we leave for a tip anyhow? After breakfast, we headed up to the Geneva Handicraft store. It may be due to the fact that my gf and I just went to Bangkok, Thailand, but Geneva didn't really thrill us. There were a lot of handicrafts to be sure, but Thailand had almost the same stuff for about the same if not cheaper price. Side note: If you're going to Bangkok, definitely save the entire weekend for the Weekend Market there. Super flea market type area where pretty much anything and everything is sold. If not for the animal shipping regulations, I woulda bought a small monkey there. :P Back on topic, we ended up buying some lampshades and then headed back.
Stopped off at Kuta Square for some chicken sandwiches as it was late and we wanted to save ourselves for dinner. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for our included Lulur Spa. The "guide" (for lack of a better term) took us to Baliwis Spa down in Jimbaran Bay. See album for pics. The Lulur spa we got was for couples. So both of us were in the same room. A rose water foot wash first, followed by a massage. Then the lulur herbal dressing was applied to both sides. For some reason the image of me as a chicken getting basted with BBQ sauce came to my mind. After the lulur dried, it was toweled off. A quick rinse and a dip into a rose petal bath. A few observations... The disposable underwear was a trip... imagine a shower cap with holes for your legs. Ha! That and it wasn't quite big enough so that added to the ummm... amusement. Also, I noticed they seemingly recycle the rose petals. At least from the foot wash. They strained out the rose petals from the foot wash bowl. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same for the rose petal bath. From the looks of it, at least they keep the two separate. But the whole recycling thing... well... let's just say at least it's better if ya don't think about it too much. I tried not to. If they were smart, they should of strained in another room. As recommended by our guide, we tipped them 10,000rp each. I wonder if we should of left more??
After having our guide drop us off on Poppies and Legian, we walked over to Bamboo Corner. That's one place I'd heartily recommend. It's bit of a hole in the wall, but the food was great and at a good price. One thing to note about getting there. Poppies 1 is a friggin alley. If not for the map, we would of walked right past the bloody thing... several times. The map had a landmark next to the street so we were able to ask a local who got us in the right direction. Anyways, it's on Poppies 1 in the middle between JL. Legian & JL. Pantai Kuta. Our dinner as below. The seafood platter was huge, consisting of grilled crab, grilled shrimp, grilled fish, and french fries. The chicken satay was a generous portion as well.
Seafood platter 50000rp
Chicken Satay 10000rp
Strawberry Milk (x2) 10000rp
Banana smoothie 4500rp
Pineapple juice 3000rp
Got back to the hotel and chilled by the shore for awhile just listening to the waves in the darkness.
(continued in part 2)
thanks the lord I typed this up in notepad before posting!