Monday 3rd July,
So today was the start of our own touring, after a late (10am) and lazy start, we toured around Nusa Dua, we hadn't really had a chance to check it out in the daylight, then down to GWK, for an hour or so, looking at the statues, views and all those stairs hehehe... then making our way back to Nusa Dua we visited Dreamland beach... it cost only 5000 for parking I suppose.
Anyway it was still early in the day, I said I wanted to go back to the hotel because I haven't even swam in the ocean yet, and haven't even bothered getting a tan or a little sunburnt. My boyfriends like oh no, you cant swim in the middle of the day (it was about midday) its too hot.. indonesian's have a funny fear of the sun, worrying it will make them black ... hahaha.. by the way he's half Javanese half ambonese but he's really fair skinned for someone from those areas. Anyway he gave in and came swimming with me till about 3pm . And yeh I got burnt, and so did he actually hehehe... but it was a lovely way to laze the afternoon away, we went from the ocean to the pool, and the next pool and the next .. we had to try them all.
This evening we had planned to drive ourselves to Jimbaran, we took our drivers suggestion of his friends resturant (everyone always knows someone) so we took off from the hotel about 5.30 and didn't take us long to reach out destination, we had dinner at TIRAM CAFÉ (Oyster Café) the whole dinner with drinks cost us about 500 thousand. It included, sweet corn soup, a vegetable dish with your meal, steamed rice, and mixed fruits at the end. All was really yummy.
Tuesday 4th July
Today, was our shopping day. Because if I leave bali without buy something people will think im crazy.
So after another late start, we headed over to Geneva Handicrafts, which I must say is a great store. I still didn't get to explore everything, but we only wanted small and simple souvenirs anyway. We bought, heaps of little knickknacks and it all cost under 100,000 rp.
Then, we headed into Denpasar to another great fixed priced store. Apparently not many people know about this place. Its popular with Jakarta tourists, especially from the government, my friend who's dad is the ex governor of Bali told us about it. I got 4 beach sarongs at 10000 each, t shirts at either 12,000 or up to 20000, depends on quality I guess, and light blankets at about 40,000. Its all the same stuff you would find in any other stalls on Bali. Its called Erlangga on Jln Nusa Kambangan No 28.
I hate shopping, so a fixed price shop is good enough for me. I had all this done in about 4omins. They do sell everything such as neck laces, braclets, childrens clothing, thongs, swimwear, well I guess it sells everything.
Wednesday 5th July...
Finally it was out last day in Bali, we got up early morning and went for one last drive around the area. After that back to the hotel to return the car, and do the final packing. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3pm back to Jakarta. We got to the airport about 1.30, and it was reallllyyy busy with domestic tourists. Anyway while we are sitting waiting we hear some garuda flights are running late.. to cut a long story short, our plane was to depart at 3pm...it was delayed until 8pm, every couple of hours they would announce a new time...so I thought stuff this, im going to get the next morning flight and changed the flights, so we got our driver to pick us up again and we stayed at the Mercure on Jln Pantai Kuta, the Grand Hyatt was booked out until the 9th of July. Good for them.
Now, in my own opinion I think that Kuta is wayyy over rated... we walked in and they told us 210 USD for one night, but then they dropped in down to 100 USD, including breakfast, I said fine I'll take it, (by this time I just wanted to go home really... garuda typically had to ruin everything)
but we did get a room on the 3rd floor looking directly at kuta beach. We went down stairs to look for dinner, but everywhere was full at 8pm. So we went back to the hotel and had room service and tried to go to bed... well it was tooo noisey with hard rock café next door, or motorbikes going past. The only good thing about this hotel was the location, it would be good to see a sunset, if it wasn't actually cloudy out to sea one day.
July 6th LAST DAY...
So finally off to the airport this morning, and the plane leaves right on the dot at 9.10am, hooray for Garuda, it was just so good to get home today. So glad it was only an hour's flight.
I did enjoy the time in bali enjoyed the how quite it was, ( I live Jakarta in a city of 12 million people) I loved no pollution, No traffic, being able to drive around with the windows down or the doors unlocked... being able to find western food easily, you can find it here in Jakarta, just more difficult and expensive... the clean beaches, the friendly people, just being able to take things slower.
Yeh, I reckon I'd come back he he he ...