In Reply to: Forget the tickets for a minute, let's posted by Balimagic on Saturday, 11. February 2006 at 12:31 Bali Time:
I thought I might write about my first trip to Bali. I have never wrote a JBR before but I do intend to try one after our next visit. But thought I would share these memorable moments.
I will never forget my first trip to bali in April 2002 (Absolutely loved it and have been 8 times since then).
Well our first trip to Bali included me/Cindy, Husband/Carlos, Daughter/Bianca (4 years at the time), Son/Dylan (3yrs at the time), My Mother/Shirley, My Father/Graeme and my Brother/Matthew. None of us had ever travelled to Bali before so it was definately a first timers experience which we will never forget :)
After departing Sydney flying Garuda we arrived at Bali in the afternoon about 1.30pm we stepped off the plane and it was like stepping into a sauna. We were then guided from the plane and had to board a bus. So in we all crammed like sardines into this big bus with no airconditioning which took us to entry into the airport (I had to laugh at the look on Mum's face she looked a bit worried for some reason, I must add it was my Mum and Dad,s first trip overseas ever!)
The smell of incense and the music were surrounding us from the moment we arrived in Bali.
We picked up our bags and the porters come running to take our bags so they can carry for us. I've said to the porter as he grabbed hold of my bag No thankyou (I had a friend who had given me some tips before going to Bali and who had told me about the porters, so didnt want to get stuck in situation straight away)as I've turned around here's Dad who only came with one small bag and had about 4 porters carrying his one bag and I remember him say 'Wow look at this for service!'I said Dad u have to pay them, and he says oh do U??(Derrr) So already we looked like some tourist suckers with what seemed to be now 7 porters carrying Dad's bag by the time we stepped out of those airport doors. Then the next task was to find our transfers snd I'm sure we would have looked like silly lost tourist as all we could see in front of us was a giant crowd with the signs held up and people yelling 'Hello Transport' 'Taxi' then found the sign and was greeted by a warm and friendly smile and he intoduced himself as 'Redi' from Voyatour(Redi's real name is Nyoman Rediawan). We couldn't have been more lucky to meet such a nice guy whom we are now very good friends with and keep in contact with him on a regular basis, he also stayed with us in Sydney for 1 month last year.
So anyways after Dad paid off all the porters we were into the bus and off to our hotel for the next 7 nights which was 'The Grand Mirage' at Nusa Dua. We really had no idea of locations in Bali at the time of booking our holiday and had chosen the Grand Mirage as our Travel agent offered us a deal and we got room for $64.00. Aussie$ per night and it sounded like a nice hotel and was rated 4 star we thought it was a very reasonable price so Grand Mirage it was to be for the next 7 days.
The ride to hotel was an eye opener for all and I took as much in as I could, I actually felt that it was a little similar to some areas of Thailand.
It just amazed us to see the women carrying fruit and different items by balancing them on their heads, and the motorbikes buzzing left, right and centre with entire familys travelling on one motorbike. Mum was holding on tight to her seat and cringed at all on coming traffic on the way to hotel, while Redi struck up some friendly and entertaining conversation.
Arrived at the Grand Mirage and checked in at the desk the first impression was that it was absolutely beautiful we were warmly greeted and were given a nice chilled complimentary drink which was greatly appreciated as we were sweating profusely. The inside of the entrance had a beautiful indoor garden with waterfall and pond and real ducks (which the kids fed every day)and it looked very tranquil and was a great first impression for us.
We then checked into our standard rooms which had 2 double beds in the room and the bathroom, we were on level 3 and had a verandah over-looking the beach with wooden shutter doors painted with Bali designs on it and they were great for keeping the light out of a morning when in need of a sleep in. Our room smelt musty like it hadn,t had fresh air for some time but we thought oh well air it out a bit and then the air-conditioner might do the trick. Redi was still with us and the kids had already taken a liking to him by he has 2 children also a boy and girl. Then we all went next door to Mum, Dad and Matthews room and their room didnt smell like ours, it was nice and fresh.
We invited Redi to come and join us for something to eat and some much needed drinks. So we ventured through the hotel and grounds and found a nice table overlooking the beach at the restaurant, kid's were straight in the pool and we sampled our first Bintangs. The waiter say's to my mum 'small Bintang or large Bintang', mum says I'll have the large please, well when they brought that large Bintang over and plonked it in front of Mum she could not believe the size of it, I guess she thought she would be getting a stubbie instead of a twist top but turned out she got a bottle and she thought it was great. My parents are managers of hotel and like their beer so we all sampled many more bintangs and were pleased with the end result and decided that this beer would be no problem at all to drink while in Bali. Redi enjoyed a social beer with us and a bite to eat and we arranged a tour with him to go to barong dance and monkey forest also rice fields and temples and he then left us all to settling in on our holiday.
While sitting there and feeling totally at ease and a bit tired from our big day of travel, we hear a scream and my daughter crying and standing on the grass behind us we run up to her and so did 2 of the balinese waiters only to find that she was standing in a red ants nest, I had the old stingoes in my bum bag and sprayed that on while the waiters killed the ants and detroyed the nest. (kids! I don't know how they get themselves into these predicaments sometimes).
We ordered some hot chips for the kids and were shocked to find that they cost us nearly $10.00. Aussie a plate OMG! We soon discovered that we would not be eating in here too often and tomorrow we would be venturing out on the streets to find some cheap eats places. The Grand Mirage had all their prices in US $ and everything was overpriced and for the 'rich tourist'. But of course u live and learn, and we were on holidays. The hotel grounds were very nice and we had our own private beachfront area with watersports, we just wouldnt be eating there much. The restaurants outside hotel were more to our liking price wise and C'Cs restaurant soon became our favourite nearby food stop.
So we called it a day or night rather and all returned to our rooms to retire for the night at about 9.30pm. But we were awoken at midnight by a very loud rustling noise, Carlos jumped up and switched on the light and to our horror there was an enormous rat feasting on the mini bar items. I freaked right out and screamed and the rat ran into the bathroom so Carlos shut the bathroom door and called reception to tell them to get this bloody giant rat out of our room! I'm standing on the bed petrified and kids were still asleep (dont know how they slept through the commotion though) when Carlos hung up phone I said to him 'what did reception say?' and he says to me they said they will send the engineer up? (Ha I said why the bloody hell would u need an engineer to get rid of a rat). Next thing Knock Knock at the door and in enters the engineer with a can of fly spray and a broom, well I never I thought (Flyspray to Kill a rat? Hahahaha). Carlos directed the engineer to the bathroom and when he opened the door I thought he was going to have a heart attack he stepped back out and turned to us and say oooohh is very big and that's pretty much all he did I thin., He then straight away moved us to a room about 4 doors down from the rat room after moving all our bags into our new room and putting kids into their new beds again we go to turn on our bedside lamp and it does not work (the engineer was still helping us with things in our room) so we say to him that the light not work and he says oh I will send up the other engineer in the morning.
So this was our first days experience ever in Bali and we always have a laugh about our 4 star hotel at Nusa Dua with the rat in our room. We would also be amused when we would get up early of a morning there to watch the sunset and there would be rats racing around the grounds and beach. I must admit I've only noticed the rats when we were at Nusa Dua.
That night when we were in the rat room we found the rats hole inside the closet where he gets his access to minibar goods in room and it seemed like he'd been living there a while.
Well the next day we got new neighbours 4 doors up from us and I really do wonder if they may have had an unwanted guest in their room.
This was just our first day in Bali and I hope I didn't bore you.
The rest of the trip was fantastic and we fit so much into that 7 days. No one was ready to leave on the last day of our first holiday to Bali, and we have now become Bali Addicts.