we arrived in bali on 0ct 18th and were picked up by our regular drivers Eddie and Dave! It was great to have friendly faces at the airport.it was so quick to get through customs but our bags took forever, we just wanted to get to the piano bar for a cocktail!!
Dave took a "shortcut' thru Kuta to get to the Bali Hyatt at Sanur, the smell was great, the hustle was great, it was great to be back! this was our 3rd trip. we made it to the hotel by 9.30pm checked in and headed straight to the piano bar for the Grand Mai Tai, yummy!
next day was our 4th wedding anniversary, up early, morning walk along sanur beach and headed to breakfast. made the trip to Hardys supermarket to stock up on bintang and nibblies, cheaper than the mini bar!Every night we ate in Sanur, great restaurants to choose from,our favourite is Resto Ming,just south of the Hyatt.best food you will ever eat, we did the ristofall on the first night, fantastic way of getting back into the bali way!!
we have done all our xmas shopping! went to the Discovery Mall, Converse shoes $25,Converse slides $25.Great homewares shop upstairs lots of nik naks and musical instruments.we boughta lot of dvds from a shop in the discovery mall called Two Stars, great quality.Ate lunch at the bali colada restaurant on the water, great views good food too! There are lots of soccer shirts available in the markets, even the aussie names!Ate lunch at Poppies, yummy again! the garlic prawns are to die for. walk from the new plaza to Mataharis and stop at the Stadium cafe on the way for Bintang refreshment, look out for the scratchie sellers on the way!at the end of Poppies lane 1,cross JL Lgian and you will fing the best Painting shop. Went to seminyak for a walk through lots of eclectic shops, great window shoping. ate at the Bali Deli, wonderful, and stocked up on goodies you cant get here.
Matahari is a haven for bargains,great thongs and shoes for the ladies.In Sanur we have a special lady we shop with, the shop is called Leonies and is on the main st, she will not always have the new stuff, but she will get it for you. Around the corner look for Ned Kelly,selling jewellery, hes has great beads and his watches never break. He got me a great "Rolex, with diamonds" for under $35.We also ate at The Pergola, The Village and did a couple of the dance nights at the hotel.My stomach played up this time so we were not very adventerous unfortunately.Found a great bar, called Apakabah,just south of the Hyatt, very cheap drinks and a few aussies as well.Sadly we discoverd this on the last night,but we know for next time! We used the same tailor,Tommy. I got 3 shirts and 3 pants for work for $135!! knee length leather boots for $100, made from a photo, they are stunning!!we went for an elephant ride,but we did'nt get taken to Taro prk.we went to 'Bakas Levi". I was bloody scared but once i was on, it was the best thing ever. they are very gentle animals and the handler was great. very sad though they tell you how quiet it is and how bad they have it, and they do. we gave them an extra $20.
you get that a lot and you would love to help out everyone but you cant. My husband bargained hard but would always throw in extra when paying. I feel so sorry for them as they rely on tourism so much. Plenty of germans and english there at the moment but not many aussies. tell everyone to go, thet are doing what they can to prevent any more bombings, security with bag checks are everywhere. i actually felt very safe once there.We love Bali and we love the Bali Hyatt. the people are beautiful and deserve so much more. I wish we had more time there, 9 nights just wasn't enough, we will go back.
all i can suggest is not to put off buying someting you want or doing something you want as too soon the holiday is over and the opportuniy gone.
Hope this is ok, first ever posting, look forward to the next!!!