In Reply to: JBR Part 1/2 - 2005 May - Kuta/Ubud/Lem posted by grayson on Friday, 2. September 2005 at 09:23 Bali Time:
=====> DAY 05:
Our last day, DVD day! We went out and picked up our orders that we made previously. Also took a trip down to He*lgi's. In terms of the "Deal" vs. quality, the best shop I found was Soft*Center about 10min walk north of the Ramada. Every 10 DVD's you'd get 5. There's a place across the street from the hotel, but you'd get 3 for every 10. He*lgi's is the same. There's a 2-story shop that gives 7 for every 10, but their quality can be questionable. The key is to test the end of the DVD. Everyone always plays the first 5 min. Just put the DVD into the player, get to the menu and play the last chapter/frame. Also, older shows/movies have less of a problem, but I'd still test them. Take out a day or 2 and just plan on an hour or two each day for the process. 1st day is to make the order if they don't have the DVD's available. 2nd day is to pick them up and test them. Plan on the DVD's to be about 10,000rp each. With Soft*Center's buy 10 get 5 free, that made the cost (10,000*10)/15 = ~6600rp each.
I give mass kudos again to my girl as she followed me from store to store trying to figure out the difference etc. We did have a little over an hour to spare to hang out at the pool. Also, had a chance to talk to some of the small boat captains. Near the Ramada, there are a lot of small runner boats. Found out you can actually have these guys take you either for a little cruise up and down the coast, a small fishing trip, or snorkeling. One of the younger captains, Jack, quotes me a price of 300,000rp for an hour trip and 500,000rp for a 2 hour trip. I was kinda sneaky and checked with the pool towel guy who quoted 400,000rp and 600,000rp. Following the apparently Bali way or bargaining, I bet one could bargain the price down to 150,000rp per hour. Knocking asking prices down 50%-60% was definitely the norm. Just gotta be a bit firm. These prices I think are per boat, with a max of 4-6 people I think. So it'd be a relatively inexpensive way of taking the kiddies out for a spin.
On our next trip, we'll stay at the Ramada or the Discovery Plaza next door. We'll skip the Lembongan Island day trips and settle with these boats for some snorkeling fun. Save a bit and snorkeling was really the highlight of the Lembongan Island trips anyways.
Well that's the end. Hope this helps. Please remove the asterisks (*) before viewing.
=====> PHOTOS:
ww*w.im*age*sta*ti*on.com/a*lb*um/pi*ctu*res.ht*ml?id=2121*379662&co*de=180*28821&mo*de=in*vite
=====> MAPS:
ww*w.im*age*sta*ti*on.com/a*lb*um/pi*ctu*res.ht*ml?id=2121*376512&co*de=180*29098&mo*de=in*vite
-Grayson