Departed Melbourne on Thursday 2nd of September, Flight with AA left 15 mins late good flight no big issues.
Arrived and through immigration without any hassles or major delays (30 Mins)
Picked up by a Patra Resort driver and driven to our home for the next 9 days.
Upon check in I wasn't entirely happy with our club suite location, I had requested to be as close as possible to the pool. After expressing my disappointment and showing them the request on an email we were then given another room in a better location closer to the pool. I had also requested our friends who were to arrive on the Saturday be located in a bungalow not adjoining ours.
On Saturday when our friends arrived it turned out that they had been placed directly under our room. After yet another whinge our friends were upgraded to a garden villa as we didn't want to be upgraded to this room type as it doesn't have the sliding door to separate us from the kids and yes our friends were quite happy.
Enough of the first minor hiccups and moving onto the good points.
Our first night in Bali we were all pretty tired and decide on Pizza hut, which is always a winner in Bali with the huge menu.
Our second day 2nd of Sept we just took it pretty easy with the buffet breakfast kicking things off followed by the first real shopping expedition into Matahari and Discovery Mall. Started off by buying some new sunnies as I had left my glasses in the car at Melbourne. The new style of Oakleys are very good with better quality then past years.
Had the compulsory Star bucks coffee as I had the caffeine withdrawal headache going on. The 'strong' latte was just what the doctor ordered and was the first of an everyday experience.
I also spent a fair bit of time trying to get my mobile phone worked out. I had been receiving text messages and phone calls from Australia but could not reply or call out.
I had organised international roaming prior to Leaving Australia as I needed to be contactable for business reasons. After many frustrating calls to the local carriers I finally called back to the Australian Telstra international help line to be told that they were sorry but it appeared someone forgot to disable the IDD (international direct dial ) barring when they set up the international roaming. Thankfully it was then fixed immediately. So if anybody gets international roaming they should make sure it all is sorted prior to departure as it can be very annoying trying to sort this type of thing out from another country.
That night we dined at the Italian restaurant within the Patra. The food was not to bad I had the Lamb Kebab, I really should have taken an angle grinder and put and edge on my teeth as this was the toughest medium cooked lamb i have ever had. My wife had the cannelloni which was nice, the kids had a Scooby Doo (Jaffle and Chips).
Sat 3rd of Sept was just the usual, shopping swimming relaxing etc.
Our friends arrived in the early afternoon and we finally sorted the room drama's and proceeded to the Floating lounge for two hours of rapid fire beer and cocktails that were included in our accommodation package.
That evening we all headed off to the Bali Dynasty's Golden Lotus Chinese restaurant for dinner. What can I say, this would have been the best Chinese food we have ever eaten.
We had the Beef with Ginger and spring onions, Lemon Chicken Crispy skin duck, Special fried rice and noodles and spring rolls. All 10 out of 10.
Sunday4th of Sept we started off with breakfast and a quick guided tour of Tuban and Kuta for our friends who had never been to Bali before.
My friend and I were picked up at 11.45 for two and a half hours of full body massage, body scrub, facial, cream bath and foot job at Green Garden Spa. (Our Fathers Day treat)
Well this was my first time at this type of gig but will definitely do it again. It was the best 33 dollars we ever spent each. And being very much mens men we swore to the footballers code of conduct, what happens on the trip stays on the trip. This was said during the cucumber slices being placed over our eyes. If any of our mates saw this vision of two big Aussie guys with paper jocks on and a see through Sarong being tuned up like this we would be in for years of ridicule and constant taunts.
Fathers Day was finished up with an amazing dinner at KU DE TA.
This would have to have been the best evening dining experience we have ever had.
Amazing food wine and ambience, we didn't hold back and spent about $450.00 for all of us to dine there. My friend does a lot of travel around the world due to his CEO role of a large company and said this would have to rate as one of the top 10 restaurants he had dined at. I had booked over the net prior to our arrival in Bali and asked for a good table over looking the ocean.
We all ate 3 courses two of the girls having the most tender and tasty steak ever, I had the lamb rack, which was divine, and my mate had a huge plate of seafood.
The deserts here were spot on.
I am a pastrycook with our own business, that is probably why I tend to focus so heavily on the food components of my JBR as when we travel we love to dine out and discover new restaurants and food styles .
This would definitely have been a fathers day that would take some beating.
My friend booked a table for his wedding anniversary on Thursday evening.
They said the table was covered in flowers when they arrived and had an excellent evening and if it was possible the food was better than out first night.
Monday the 4th Sept was like most other days, breakfast, shopping and swimming followed by more cocktails beer etc then off to Ma Lolly's for dinner.
This place was absolutely wonderful and the best value for money in the better dining stakes. Perfect view of the sunset and great food to accompany the stylish layout.
I had the duck with black cherry (wonderful) my wife had a lovely tender scotch fillet,
My mate had the fish dish (excellent) and his wife had lobster thermidor (Very nice)
The only negative was the calamari rings 2 of us had for entrée were overcooked and very chewy. The calamari spring rolls we had for entrée were spot on and should be a must.
I called into MA Jolly during the day to book in and I asked if we could bring some wine with us as we took 5 bottles with us to Bali. The answer was yes.
When we arrived the Manager , a lovely guy called Dadang, said we do not allow BYO wine, I said how I had called in earlier to book and was told it was ok, he then said ok as long as we pay for corkage, which we said no problem. I also said at the end of the night I would like to come back later in the week and was it ok to bring wine, he said no problems.
All up it cost us approximately 200 Aussie dollars for the 4 of us to dine.That was for 3 courses plus drinks plus corkage for two bottles of wine.
Our friends earlier in the day organised to have 2 leather jackets each made along with a 140s suit with 2 pairs of pants 3/4 lined and 6 bussiness shirts made at Anika Tailor all for well under $1000 aussie. They were wrapped at the quality.
Anika Tailoer weren't interested in making a leather jacket for my 4 year old and were offering ridiculous prices for them to copy some ¾ pants for my wife ($65.oo) aussie we thought they were pretty average to deal with.
So we went to Artono tailor (Tony) just past Dynasty towards Kuta Square on the left phone 7450646 and was great to deal with and offered realistic prices with great quality work.
He made my daughters jacket for $53.00 and the ¾ pants for my wife for $16.00.
My friends also ordered some glasses from Discovery Mall and were wrapped with the quality and prices.
Tuesday 5th of September
Did the usual breakfast, shopping swim, drink and eat.
Today the girls had a turn at the Green Garden Spa and gave it the big thumbs up.
Ate again at the Golden Lotus at the Dynasty as we were all impressed with the quality, price and location of this place.
Wednesday 6th of September
Same as every other day except our friends insisted on having our children tonight while we went out for dinner on our own. We went back to Ma jolly again and had an excellent evening again. We had the salad and calamari spring rolls to start followed by my wife having garlic prawns and me the Lamb Chop with rosemary, all excellent.
My tip when dining at any of the ocean facing restaurants is to make sure you book for 6 pm as to get the most of the amazing sunsets. And beat the traffic.
Thursday 7th of September
Same again as the other days but our friends went to Ubud etc for half to three quarters of the day sightseeing. They used an older guy for the driver whose name is Ketut Budiarsa or Budi as he prefers to be called. He spoke reasonably good English and had a great knowledge of Bali both past and present. His vehicle (Kijang) is brand new with leather seats and dual control A/C. We used him several times and were very happy with his service. Phone number is 081 835 2830.
We dined out at Pizza hut again as we were doing the evening shopping extravaganza followed by starbucks for the trip home.
Friday 8th of September 04
Our last day in Bali as we are to fly out on the 10.45 pm AA flight tonight.
We did some last minute shopping, swimming and the last Hoorah at the floating lounge.
My mate Jeff and I booked Budi to take us to a fishing Shop in Denpasar called Lautan Mas, it is located on a corner at JL Imam Bonjol No 1. phone 484611.
They had a huge range of gear in the tiniest shop I have ever seen.
I bought a Ryobi 5 bearing egg beater type reel for $60.00, probably worth $120 to $150 at home and my mate bought two good overhead reels (shimano Calcutta) for less than half of what they would cost at home. We also bought some excellent braid and mono line for under $10.00 a reel.
Dinner was back at the room as we had a late check out booked and with much begging had extended to 8 pm. We ate Nasi Goreng and noodles as our last meal in Bali.
Off to the airport at 8.30 for a bit of last minute duty free. My wife found Chanel No 5 for a lot less than at Melbourne airport.
Flight left after 11pm and off we went.
Arrived at Melbourne to huge customs lines and a long 2 hour drive north home.
The end of another great adventure.
At home and back to work, sh-t it is hard to get back into it luckily being self employed I can say I have to go out to do some things and shoot home for a while and think of what a great time we all had in Bali.
Thanks to all on the forum who passed on all their great expressions and info, keep it coming.
Regards,
Travis and co