hi guys we have been back for a few days now and are planning our trip for next year.flew garuda from brisbane pleanty of smiles,bintangs,gin and tonics.arrived 6 1/2 hours later and voa and immigration were a breeze.did the usual 55,000rp fixed taxi to hotel.gave the porters X2 one pushes the cart the other holds on $6.00 X3 2.00 gold coins.they looked upset and showed me a $10.00 note and i simply said salamat tingal.so we were in the melasti beach resort drinking bintangs in just over an hour.had dinner at zanzibar and it was ok.julie liked the chicken satay and i had the steak which was tender but it was around 20cm long and 10cm wide and 3/4 of a cm wide.if it were daytime i could have held it up to the sun and probably seen thru it.when i report on restaurants iam going to be fairly hard as iam a FOODIE and if its just average i will report that.sat around pool am and off to legian snacks for lunch.still the best value cheapie around in legian.had soto ayan(7,000) and julie had bali crepe{15,000]both good.day 2 back to the pool am and the water is still cloudy in the main pool.julie refused to go in and we just used the smaller pool in the new section for a quick dip.but we did sit around the main pool.met dozens of people and the all said the same thing.the pool has been cloudy for years and one couple said it was closed last year of the year before as the pool was green.that would be the only real complaint {sorry mbr cloudy pool not good for you not good for me.i made a verbal complaint to manager upon leaving and put it writing on the written valualtion of the hotel facilities.they also gave me a bill for late check out for 235,000rp.i told manager we paid for late chech out and i did not appreciate this bilL {I WASNT HAPPY}as usual no problem and he ok.a few other points on the mbr.a lot of people complaim about the food and in all honesty how can anybody screw up bacon,eggs and toast.the stuff on the bain marie was always cold and generally horrible.the french toast was good but as i said cold.dont even dream of haveing the sauages on bain marie.absolutly vile.the fruit section was ok and the danish and crossants were good.also.we also had the roast suckling pork dinner with kecak dancing for 60,000rp.dancing great, food lousey.the pork was cold,no crackle and obviously it was brought in.around 6:00 pm i walked to restaurant and said where is the sucking pork being roasted as i wanted to get a picture of the staff hand turning the pork.reply its coming.my advice forget the suckling pork theme night.julie did like the club samwiches and said the pizza was ok for lunch.i simply walked to beach and ate off carts or the make shift beach warungs,had nasi goring,mie goring and bakso.all good and at 5,000rp who's complaining.julie will not eat off carts, beach warungs full stop.in summing up our thoughts on mbr will definately go back even with cloudy pool.we had a look at few hotels along the strip and the rooms were a 1/4 to a 1/3 the size of our room (old suite that has been renovated,they are huge.staff all smiles,we got a kick out of one of the security guards on front always smiling and we always got a salute from him.after hanging around the pool in the am we walked down to S & S and rented a beach lounge and umbrella for the day.they wanted 50,000rp we paid 40,000 for full day or if we went in the afternoon 20,000 for half day.sammy was there for a few days but i dont think he is the best.has dizzy spells,but always smiling and happy.we bought all our watches from bali boy 25,000 to 45,000rp.depending on what style.we did not bargain real hard as it is still very quiet.had the usual bintangs at s&s 8,000rp.and the little beach warung behind s&s under the big tree has good food @5,000 rp per meal and i even noticed a few westerners eating there on ocasion.i went down to next beach warung a few times as they have bakso ayam(for those of you who are game] its about 80mtrs south of s&s just past the fruit salad warung.fruit salad warung charges 15,000rp for a huge plate of fruit and real coconut.had a few nights at s&s and met quite a few people from forum.we really did not do any sight seeing as we have done all the monkeys,elephants,birds,ubud,mt kintamani.etc etc etc.so we basically had a relaxing holiday on the beach most days.we did have 2 days of cloudy weather and went shopping.first shopping day {sunday} we went to geneva and guess what I SHOULD HAVE KNOW it was closed so we just told taxi driver to keep going and we went to ramanya(sp)in denpasar and bougth a few things for julies grand kids.the next day was cloudy also so we went to geneva again. i had 500,000rp with me and i thought it would be pleanty.the bill added up to 541,000._hit.back to mbr to change money,back to geneva to pu and pay for purchases and back to mbr.taxi drive thought xmas must have come early this year.