Hi, here's the next installment:
The next day was our bike ride, so up early for our 7.30am pick up. Wayan from Bike Baik collected us from Alam Indah in his air-con car, driven by his brother, Made, and took us to breakfast at a small restaurant overlooking the beautiful view of the volcano. Breakfast was simple but nice. Outside the restaurant, D re-tested his bargaining skills on a painter who had beautiful paintings of the volcano. Then onto a coffee and cocoa plantation, where we saw coffee beans being roasted and had a go at grinding them, plus tasted some of the drinks. Bought some items in the shop (be careful, very expensive prices) and then driven to collect the bikes and helmets. Then off cycling through Wayan's ‘secret backroads' - little villages, rice fields, trees, daily life. Absolutely fantastic - all the kids (and many of the adults!) we passed would wave and shout ‘hello', the kids also wanting high-fives. We were also joined by Wayan's other brother, Nyoman, who drove the back-up car with spare bike, water, fresh fruit etc. We stopped to take photos in many scenic locations, and even went into a rice field where women were working really hard in the scorching sun to harvest the rice, and had a go at helping them! There were a couple of uphill bits that were hard going for a minute, but nothing too bad (I am not a fit person!) but mainly easy free-wheeling downhill. At the end of the ride, we came across the Eco bike tour with about 8 tourists. Wayan was one of the original guides from that company, before leaving to start his own family-run company, and stopped to chat to the guys. I noticed none of the tourists were wearing cycle helmets - but that was maybe their own choice? Plus, I think we got the better deal as we were our own little group of three, a really personal service. Anyway, then it was off to Wayan's house for lunch. His beautiful wife had prepared an absolute feast for us, gorgeous Indonesian food and plenty of it, which was without doubt the best food of the holiday. After lunch, we headed back to Alam Indah, arriving about 4pm - so a good full day. I would recommend the Bike Baik cycle tour (cost was 350,000 per person for a full day with lunch included). Email Wayan at bikebaik@yahoo.com (I'll also post his number when I find it).
After a dip in the pool, we headed out to try and find Studio Perek, to see if we could book onto a half-day jewellery-making course for the morning. Walking up and down a dark alley, we eventually found a note stuck on a door saying the studio had moved. But we couldn't find the place it had moved to so gave up and went for some food at the renowned Casa Luna. I was disappointed with Casa Luna; no atmosphere, staff not that cheerful, food okay but not amazing. Wouldn't rush back.
The next day, we had breakfast on the main terrace, including black rice pudding for me yum! Dewa had kindly organised a late check-out for us without me even asking, which was really nice of him. So we were able to head into Ubud to visit Threads of Life (up a road near Lotus Café), and find out a little about Javanese textile production and use of natural dyes. Items in the shop are expensive by Bali standards, but when you consider the work in each item and the fact that the money goes direct to the craftsperson, it's not too much. Then we headed to Café des Artistes on JL Bisma (a road past Casa Luna) for lunch. The café is really nicely decorated and has artwork for sale hanging on the walls. We received a welcome drink, which was a pleasant surprise, and then had some nice food. Called Alam Indah for a pick up, then we checked out at 3pm as arranged and our driver was waiting to take us to Seminyak in his air-con car, which was a relief as it was really hot again. I'd had a real difficulty in booking Villa 8 - although I had a tentative booking via email, this wasn't confirmed until they had received a fax of my credit card and passport. I had tried faxing this twice from the UK, but still they hadn't received anything. This was a bit of tension that I could have done without. Anyway, luckily Alam Indah had a fax and were able to send it through for me so we had eventually got it sorted. Villa 8 was quite hard to find as it's not on a main road but we got there in the end. We were in the deluxe villa, which has two comfortable bedrooms and a lovely outside living/dining area, with a little kitchen, and a shared bathroom with a great big shower. It also has its own small swimming pool and garden area, and is walled for privacy. The included breakfast isn't much - some fruit, some tea or coffee, and some toast - but you can pay for additional food. It is a really nice villa, marred by lack of information; for example, no map of its location which would have been really useful for us Seminyak first timers. I also asked the villa manager about spas in the area, and she just said ‘there's leaflets in the villa' - there was only one, and that had no information on where the spa was located! So that was a bit disappointing.
We wanted to watch the sunset at the famous Ku de Ta, so got showered and changed and headed down where we thought it might be (bearing in mind we weren't sure of our location at this time!) We did stop a few times and consider turning back as the road (JL Oberoi, I now realise) didn't seem to have any other people on it, which I was surprised about as I thought Seminyak would be busier than Ubud. We eventually got there almost too late for the sunset, after going through the heavy security/search at the gates and then again at the door. All the patio seats were taken, but we got a nice lounger in the bar area and, after picking ourselves up off the floor after seeing the price of cocktails (75,000 = £5!), ordered drinks. It was a nice atmosphere, and there was still some red in the sky. We asked for the menu to see if we'd like to eat there, but again, jaws dropped at the prices of food - UK prices, £20 for a main course. Service was a bit formal as well, rather than the friendliness of other places. So we headed out to find somewhere else. Back on JL Oberoi, we stopped not far along at Paul's Place and went in - you go through the shop to get to the stairs that take you up to the rooftop restaurant. It was really lovely, quite romantic, dining outdoors under a dark sky filled with twinkling stars. We were the only people in the place all night. The service was unobtrusive but excellent, and the food (predominantly Thai - only a small menu) was really tasty. Prices were fair too, so I'd recommend it. They have a spa, and so I took a leaflet, but strangely their spa prices seemed quite high.
Our next day the maid came at the designated time to prepare our breakfast. After a bit of chilling out, we headed off to the beach. Unfortunately it was cloudy and raining, so our first sight of the sea wasn't quite as tropical as we imagined! Just before the beach we were stopped by a guy on a moped who gave us scratch cards and explained how his hotel were having a promotion to attract guests back to Bali after the bombings. He seemed genuine but we thought ‘this must be some kind of scam'. It was for Royal Resorts in Jimbaran Bay. He wanted us to go with him to claim our scratch card prizes but we declined. Anyone know if it's legit or a scam? I felt quite bad for not helping him, as he said he would get a bonus for taking us to the hotel. After walking up the beach a bit, we decided just to stop at a hotel beachfront café called Waves (part of Resor Seminyak we later realised) for a bit of lunch. The food was quite good and reasonably priced, and the service was also good. We then headed off to find some flip-flops (thongs) for P, as his only pair were falling apart. Eventually we found a good store but they had none big enough for his giant feet, but D got a really nice pair for just 26,000 (less than £2). As we got back to the villa, the rain stopped and the sun came out, but there were two men in our garden! They were trying to fix the pool, so just when we wanted a dip we couldn't. We had booked horse riding for that afternoon anyway so got changed and picked up by the Umalas stables driver. Quite pricey at $50 per person for a 2-hour beach ride but we thought it sounded fun and hoped to see the sunset.
We arrived at Umalas in Kerobokan (they collect you from your hotel) and paid by visa (watch for the 3% charge in many places on Bali if you use a credit card, which applied here) and were given our riding hats; the guides brought the horses through and off we went. As we were beginners, we each had a guide on a horse leading the horse we were on. We rode through the back streets by rice fields and across a stream and eventually came to the beach. It was fun riding on the beach; our guides were trying to get us to trot but I don't think we were naturals! Sadly the sky was cloudy so no sunset to watch. The ride was a good experience and it was nice to have just the three of us with the three guides, but then again it's not cheap.
The driver dropped us back at Villa 8 and we got changed to go out. We decided to go the opposite way that night, and headed for Made's Warung on JL Seminyak. It was packed! I couldn't believe it - all the places with nobody in, and this place was full to the rafters. We decided to try somewhere else and headed to Santa Fe. This was a good choice - service was excellent and the food was tasty. After here, we went a few doors down to the Galaxy bar, as it had comfy-looking sofas on its terrace and D was interested in the ‘fire dancers and sexy girls'! It was also happy hour so cocktails had 30% off. We headed back to the Villa about midnight, going past an empty bar with a band playing some really good Mexican guitar music... would have gone in but too tired (I'm getting old!) Back on JL Seminyak, P got approached by a guy wanting to know if he wanted to buy some weed but of course we said no and carried on walking. Back at the Villa we had a 1 o'clock in the morning swim - that's the best thing about having your own pool... to be continued...