My husband Jeff and I (Diana) had a wonderful 15 days in Bali, staying at the Kumala Pantai in Legian, which was just lovely. This was our third trip to Bali, I went for the first time in 1979, Jeff in 1999 and we both went last year with our children (18 year old daughter and 15 year old son). They had other things happening this year, so decided to stay home, so we had a couple's holiday - for the first time in 18 years.
The kids drove us to Brisbane airport to catch the 11.30am Garuda flight to Denpasar. Went through baggage check in - suitcase weighed 26.5kg (that was our clothes, shoes, toiletries and beach towel) and the surfboard weighed 12kg. Bought some tequila and Southern Comfort at Duty free shop. Met Norm (sunshinecoasts) and Julie in the waiting lounge.
The flight over was really good. Jeff won over a flight attendant and she kept us well-supplied with Bintangs during the trip. Arrived in Bali - the weather was not too hot as it was cloudy. Sailed through customs, just had to show the customs official our alcohol. Used a couple of porters to help us with our luggage - for the small price it's worth it as surfboards are a bit awkward to manoeuvre around.
Went to the taxi window and asked if a taxi could take a surfboard and got slugged 110,000RP instead of 55,000Rp because of the board. Next time I won't be saying anything about a surfboard. The board just went in the front seat, sloping backwards to the back seat. Jeff and I just sat in what was left of the back seat, which was fine.
Got to the Kumala Pantai - amazing reception area with enormous wooden carvings. Had a nice room on the ground floor, with huge bed, marble bathroom, kettle, mini bar, marble bathroom, cable TV and a lovely outdoor sitting area. Beautiful grounds with stunning flowers, orchids everywhere (but not many flowering at this time of year) and many stone statues spread throughout. The staff there are lovely also. My only complaints would have to be that there was only Bali Kopi, very weak tea and no Nescafe at the breakfasts and the hard mattress and pillows on our bed. But, from what I hear, that seems to be pretty standard for many of the hotel rooms over there. We ended up buying pillows and pillowcases from Centro on our second day, but Jeff still got a sore back from the bed most nights.
We used the Dodik Laundry Service, which used to be called Arsha Laundry Service. It's run by a lovely lady called Nyoman and is just outside the gates of Kumala Pantai, and to the left. The clothes always came back with the usual lovely smell that so many laundries seem to be able to produce in Bali. I found that if I wanted any items to be ironed after washing, then I just had to request that they be 'pressed'. Her prices were very reasonable and much cheaper than the hotel.
Our money was usually changed at the Kodak shop at the KP end of Rum Jungle Rd. The guy there was very honest and used big notes. He had no problem with us checking the money and did not touch it again once he gave it to us. He would also happily change one of these larger notes for smaller ones so we had money for taxis etc.
We weren't too fussy about what type of taxis we caught - they all used their metres and we liked to share our custom around. We met some interesting drivers, most were very friendly and some were really good company. We always gave them a good tip as they are doing it pretty tough at the moment.
I found a great little Internet Café just outside the gates of the KP and to the right. Can't remember the name of it, but it was the second Internet Café that you come to. The family that runs it are really nice and while I used their Internet they would bring me a free water and a little bowl of peanuts, which were delicious. They only charge for the time you use, so it's really economical.
Went to the phone shop just to the left of Bintang supermarket and bought an XL sim card for my phone. The guy at the shop set it all up for us, so we had no hassles. We just had to show him a passport for the registration. Calls to home for just 2,500Rp ($0.37) per minute. This really helped us deal with missing the kids as we rang them and spoke for at least 10 minutes each night. We just kept toping up the credit whenever we got low.
We found a wonderful driver, Ketut. If anyone is interested, he's on stand-by at the Kumala Pantai and his phone number is 081 238 34770. He is a lovely genuine guy, with a good sense of humour, who speaks very good English and couldn't do enough for us. On the day trip we booked him for (more on this in the next instalment) he helped us carry our shopping and if any sellers were hassling us too much he would just quietly and kindly say something to them in Indonesian and they would leave us alone.
Jeff went on a few surfing trips with our friend who came over five days after us. They went to Pndang Padang, Bingin and Dreamland Impossibles. Sadly the surf just wasn't always up to scratch. There wasn't much swell a lot of the time, or if there was swell, the wind would be up so it was blown out. But if there wasn't much in the way of surf, they had fun just driving around in their hire car, meeting local families, chasing Bintangs (which was a little difficult in the more remote areas) and just relaxing. They also had a few surfs locally at Legian.
We did a lot of shopping (more about this in another instalment), walking, eating in restaurants (more about this in yet another instalment), relaxing and spending time with our friends who were there for our last 10 days.
Sadly the time to go home came all too quickly. We packed our bags and dreaded the weigh-in at the airport. Ketut drove us to the airport and we said our sad farewells. We managed to scrape through the luggage weigh-in with a warning about only having 20kgs each next time. We bought some Duty Free alcohol ( I think it's cheaper in Bali than at home) went in search of a lounge. We ended up going to the Prada Lounge, which was really nice. It had free food, drinks, TV, Internet access and really comfortable chairs. Jeff paid to get a head and neck massage from the masseuse there and said it was great, the guy really knew what he was doing.
The flight home was uneventful, didn't sleep a wink though. Now we just have to contend with the 'Bali hangover' - it's so hard getting back into real life again. But it was great to see the kids and the dog again and shower them with all the gifts we brought home. We really enjoyed our holiday, and met some wonderful people. We're already saving for next year...