Just returned from a fantastic holiday. Many thanks for all the advice I got whilst planning it.
We flew from London, which is a LONG flight, compared to you lucky Aussies. In case there's any Brits interested, here's how I did it.
There are no direct flights from here any more, and as it's such a long way, we eventually flew via Bangkok. We used EVA Air, and their Evergreen Deluxe - highly recommended. Evergreen Deluxe has a 38' seat pitch, for only about another £200, so well worth it. After extensive research, I couldn't get any airline to connect - there was always a problem with 1 sector, so we ended up staying for 1 night each direction at the Rama Gardens Airport Hotel, booked with Asiaroomsdot com. It was very easy. We got a prepaid Taxi outside the Arrivals, and they came for us the next morning, as arranged. We then flew Thai direct to Bali. I booked via their website, and it was ½ the price of booking with Trailfinders, etc, and the only airline that flew direct. The flight wasn't full, and we got great seats by the exit in both directions.
Visa on arrival was easy. We walked as fast as possible to get ahead, and it was very quick. We used the ATM whilst we waited for our cases, so again, no queues.
We were staying at the Bali Beach House, Amed, and Nengah, our driver was waiting. We had a pleasant drive to Amed, past beautiful scenery, and it took less than 3 hours. The BBH is beautiful. It's right on the beach, with 3 bedrooms, a lovely lounge and dining area, and a beautiful pool, which I spent most of our 7 days in! The bedroom looks out over the sea, and the light in the early morning, and the sunsets, are magical.
Every day, we had a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, pancakes, eggs, and Nengah's home made Mango and ginger jam, served by the lovely Wayan. We sometimes walked to the bar next door for a sandwich for lunch, to keep us going until G&T's at sunset.
We ate at the BBH most evenings. Nengah is a great cook. The only slight problem we felt was that there's no menu, although the owner had told me they were writing one. Evey day Nengah asked what we wanted, but as we didn't know what was possible, it was a bit difficult.
We went to the Apar Kabar Villas one evening, and had a lovely meal there, for less money than we were charged at the BBH, and in retrospect, I'd rather have done that more often. As we were never told what the meals would cost - we did ask, but Nengah just said, not much- we had nothing to compare it to until the end. Also, we felt as though we were being rude by asking our own cook to drive us to a different restaurant!
On the way from the Airport, Nengah asked if we'd like suckling pig one night. We've has it in Spain before, and said great! He said he'd get prices, and let us know, and we could have it on our last night.
On our penultimate breakfast, we were told it‘d been moved forward a day. Ian asked Nengah to get a few beers in for the staff, and we retired to the pool. At about 2pm, Wayan called us to see the pig that they'd set up across the road. Having expected a small suckling pig, we were amazed to see a grown pig, weighing 40 kilos, being proudly turned on the spit by the lads!
To cut a long story short, we were duly sat at our dining table that evening, along with a 5ft pig, feeling a touch ridiculous! Soon after, what seemed like ½ the village turned up, sat on the floor in the garden, and were soon tucking in to our pig! We had a hilarious evening sitting round drinking and laughing with the local fishermen, and more than one keeled over asleep from the beer! We never saw the pig again!
I don't want criticize, because we had a lovely time at the BBH, but we were slightly shocked when we got our final bill. The ‘pig night' cost us US$160. I was annoyed because we never expected a pig of 40 kilos, and were not told the price, despite being told we would be, and although we said to get some extra beer in, we didn't expect to pay for 7 crates (we had no idea there would be 20 people turn up that we'd never met!). That's a lot of money for us, especially in Bali, and although we were staying at somewhere for US$140 a night, we felt slightly as if we had been taken advantage of. If we'd been asked, we probably would have said yes, and it was great that everyone had a ball, but.....
We've already put it down to experience, and it makes a great story back home!
The other thing was that the next place we stayed in was in a different league from the BBH. The villa, staff, food and price were all lower, and the standards much higher. I've probably gone on too long for now, so I'll keep you guessing where it was, and post my JBR2 as soon as I get the time.