Left Perth on Saturday 11th November & returned back on Saturday 18th November - flying Garuda.
Rate was approx 6900 for the week we were there.
HOTEL
Myself & my fiancee stayed at the Niksoma hotel - first time we have stayed there and it was brilliant. Would HIGHLY recommend this hotel - very modern, excellent facilities, staff are sooo lovely & are willing to do anything for you. Just down to the small touches, like when you get to your room, there are fresh frangipanis placed everywhere, they also come in to your room each night and "turn down" your bed, spray the room for mosquitos. Also as soon as they see you walk down to the pool area they lay your towels down for you - it was just top quality service!! They also have some big cabana type huts for you to lay back in - huge big mattresses you can laze the day on.
MEALS
We had some excellent food while we were away, these are the places we ate at:
Breakfast - always at Niksoma - excellent buffet, always fresh.
La Monde - ate here twice, excellent as always
Golden Lotus at the Dynasty Hotel - always eat here - love the Peking Duck especially when its a quarter of the price!!
Daddys Cafe - Was Ok, a little disappointed because most of the items we wanted to order they didnt have, but was good anyway.
IndoNational - Must admit this place have definitely gotten better since the last time we visited - food was excellent quality. I love the Cheese Bruschetta!! Ate here about 3 times! Cant fault it at all. Cold bintang which impressed the fiancee!!
The Pantai - Dinner here was fantastic - our first visit - what a beautiful setting. Food was beautiful.
Gosha - No complaints - very nice food.
Overall - we mostly ate seafood at all places, my fiancee is seafood fantatical to say the least - he mainly chooses the seafood platters - now the most we would have paid was 150,000 rph - where can you get for $22 in OZ the amount of seafood you get for this sort of money!! Usually they included a full lobster etc so value for money plus. He liked the platter at La Monde the best (100,000 rph) but for location - The Pantai was a very very close second.
SHOPPING
As we were putting some items in Trishs container to Perth we went to Balistones. Felicia was excellent - straight down the line & her stone products are of high quality. We spent way toooo much but cant wait to have it shipped home!!
Usual DVD shopping, only a couple we have tried havent worked so no big deal. Shopped for shoes as I have little feet, was disappointed with the Matahari, only found a couple that I liked then went to Centro and didnt find any. So I thought my shopping for shoes was going to be cut short but then we went to the Ramanyana in Denpasar and got about 9 pairs here so I was happy again!
After reading all of the reviews on this forum I decided to get some Martha Tillar Biokos creams, havent used them yet but looking forward to. Went to Golden Buffalo to get some silver/bronze items - love this stuff and much cheaper here then buying on the streets.
Bought lots of Tshirts (billabong, quiksilver) mostly 35,000 each we were happy to pay - but just a word of warning - please try them on because my fiancee is a size 34 so he bought about 3 pairs first day and none of them fitted - they were all too small - but in other designs they fitted. Same with Tshirts - some are OneSize but for the larger male - they might not fit as we found out.
Surf Factory outlet in Kuta - I bought a few items here, fiancee didnt find anything in his size.
Went to Ubud for a half a day, got a couple of paintings here.
TANAH LOT
Of the 7 times we have been to Bali, can you believe this is the first time we have been to this place - what a beautiful place! My fiancee got pictures holding up this GIANT python, it was massive and sooo heavy. Sunset was beautiful this night. The shopping here was also very good - very cheap!!
MASSAGES
Highly recommend the Puri Raja massage tent for the best massages 60,000 rph for one hour. The girls there are fantastic!! We had one just about every day. Also used "The Padma" dayspa (in Jln Padam Utara - on the doglog part of the road opposite the lane that takes you to the Niksoma. Had a facial here for 75,000 rph & the lady also painted my toes & nails for 50,000 rph. I had a pedicure at the Niksoma spa for a treat - but wouldnt do that again - I knew it was expensive at 170,000 but it was a once off. They were soo quiet in there - at 500,000 for a massage, they really need to be a bit more competitive with their pricing, but I can understand some guests at the hotel will pay this.
PRINTING
As we have a small business in Perth, we wanted to get some Stubby Holders made - we paid too much in the end but we are still happy with what we got. We ended up paying 7000 rph each - printed one colour. We know now we could have got them done for about 5000 rph each but thats OK - next time definiltey. The stubby holders were done at Redline Merchandise - on the dogleg on Padma Utara just opposite the Niksoma laneway. But the best find was the printer opposite the Indonational restaurant. We were having lunch a couple of days in and we spotted it - the shop is called Keyhole and the guys name is Taka - hes been there 20 years! He ended up doing 100 stickers & 100 beer coasters for 350,000 rph. They are the best quality & he was excellent - he does stubby holders as well and can do them very cheaply. We will definitely use this shop again - cant rave about him more highly.
ATM
The best ATM by far that we found to use was the ATM on Jln Pura Bagus (the road just up from the Jayakarta) - the bank at the start of the street Bank Permata - you can withdraw 3,000,000 rph at a time here. Also - please dont forget to take your ATM card out of the machine - I used an ATM in Kuta and totally forgot to get my card - I think I was too worried about getting my money for shopping (!!) and left the damn thing in there. That was on our last day - I only realised when I got to the airport - too late to go back. Had to cancel the card, it wasnt used that god.
SUNSCREEN
Please remember to use sunscreen!!!! I stupidly put some on my face and top half but didnt think I'd need it on my legs and on the second day I got scorched the max - well needless to say I paid for it for the rest of the holiday & still am. I am peeling and its not pretty. I got a bad case of sunstroke that night and spent the night in bed - what a waste of a day.
TOOTHACHE
Had a terrible Toothache for the whole week - had some wisdom teeth out a week before and the pain flared up while in Bali. As recommened on the forum I used Ponstan tablets & silver clove cream. I recommend these two highly. Gave me some relief thats for sure.
We enjoyed ourselves immensly - We love Bali and enjoy going there. Cant wait to organise our next trip there!