Firstly, my apologies for being so tardy in not finishing off my JBR's. I decided I'd better get them done as it's now less than 30 days till my next trip. In case you don't know, the reason I put a lot of detail in my JBR's is that they are read to my father, who is blind, and he gets enjoyment from hearing about my travels in Bali. I hope others on this forum enjoy them, or get some useful information from them. The JBR's are from a month long trip in March this year.
Over the month I stayed 3 nights at the Bumi Ayu (Sanur), 4 nights at the Taman Sari (Pemuteran - North Bali), 4 nights at Villa Agung (Anturan - Lovina), 1 night Puri Kelapa (Sanur), 6 nights at Playgrounds Guest House (Nusa Lembongan), 4 nights Suji Bungalows (off Poppies 2, Kuta), 5 nights - Ngis Village Stay during Nyepi (north of Tabanan), 3 nights at Suriwathi Beach Hotel - Jl. Sahadewa (Garlic Lane) Legian, flying out of Bali on the 31st day with a 30 day Visa!
My earlier JBR's 1, 2, 3 & 4 (covering Sanur, Pemuteran/Menjangan Island, Nusa Lembongan) were posted on 13 August (archive 200608) If you have trouble finding them in archives, I'm happy to email them to you. I will be posting JBR 5 in this post, and the last one, JBR 6 as a separate post. Cheers, Anne.
JBR 5 - Leaving Nusa Lembongan & Kuta 23 - 25 March 2006
Thursday 23 March 2006 - Fine, Hot
Woke up at 5.30 am to find that for the first time in our stay at Nusa Lembongan that we can see the very top of Mt. Agung in the distance, on previous days there had been cloud covering the top of this volcano, so we take some terrific photos from our balcony. What a lovely farewell surprise!
Nyoman makes our breakfast - poached eggs, tomato, vegemite and toast and then we wait for the Perama pick up boat transfer at 8 am. Sam and I had decided by now that after having carted a jumbo sized roll of toilet paper with us most of the way around Bali, that at this point we felt that we really didn't need it anymore, so we decided to leave it in our room.
Just as we are getting on the transfer boat at Playgrounds Nyoman comes rushing out, hey you have forgotten something .... Yep, it's our jumbo roll of toilet paper back. Ah well, we'll find some way of disposing of it, so we furtively left it on the transfer boat. After everyone was loaded on the Perama boat and we are just about to leave ...hey, you have left something behind .... in front of everyone ......... how embarrassing! Sam just cracked up laughing, and I now have a photo of me clutching this jumbo roll of toilet paper on the boat (which we finally managed to ditch at our next hotel!!). It was a nice smooth trip back and we passed the local boat on the way, some of the locals enjoying their ride on the roof of the boat.
Back at Sanur Alex's brother Made was there to meet us. Sam promptly tells him that he can now ride a motorbike and so how does he go about getting a licence and motorbike as it's his last 3 days in Bali, and despite my misgivings as a mother, he's determined to ride a motorbike in Kuta. Made makes a photo call to someone at the police station in Denpasar ... no, it's way too busy in there, take ages, just don't worry, carry 20,000 rupiah with you to give to the policeman if you are caught without a licence. Made arranged a manual motorbike through his uncle for Sam to be delivered to the hotel. Sam paid 45,000 rupiah per day (included insurance so it says on the Letter of Rent A Motor Bike Contract).
Alex has sourced for us an excellent hotel just off Poppies I called Suji Bungalows for 150,000 rupiah a night which was a great rate. We got a twin room (no. 19), large, with TV, air con, fridge as well as inside and outside bathrooms. http://www.sujibglw.co.id The grounds were spacious and not cramped and the swimming pool was large with a massage bale at the side of the pool. Breakfast was not included in our tariff which I didn't mind as the Tree House Restaurant was only around the corner and they serve great breakfasts.
After settling in and using safety deposit we headed off up towards Poppies II and waited ages at the Warung Pama for Nasi Camphur (15,000 rp) and Chicken Satays (7,000 rp), pineapple juice (3,000 rp), Mixed Fruit Juice (5,000 rp) for lunch. Surf videos were playing on the TV. It felt strange to be back in the hussle and bussle of Kuta after the peacefulness of Lembongan.
We cooled off with a swim and I had a good massage with the hotel massage lady Made. Of the 50,000 rupiah she charges, she gets to keep 40,000 rupiah, so I think that's fair arrangement and organise a massage from her everyday. Only thing is she likes to crack your knuckles, and sometimes my knuckles don't co-operate for her .... So she keeps on trying.... I silently pray please knuckles crack so she doesn't keep on trying!
We then head up to Sammy and Suzie's for a bintang on the beach and meet Petron (Jean) and Roo Ted, and it's good to catch up with Sammy and Suzie again. I have to show Sammy and Suzie my old photo on the photo board that Smokey had done up for them, as they don't recognise me cause I've lost a lot of weight since my last visit. For tea we go to Wayan and Friends and have great steaks with mushroom sauce - sometimes it's nice to have a change from Balinese food! Afterwards we ride on the bike to the Bali Aget Restaurant in Singo Sari Street to see if we can catch up with our favourite barman Spike. I'm impressed by Sam's motorbike skills in Kuta and feel very confident riding pillion with him. He's done some exploring around Kuta already so knows his way around quite well. Unfortunately Spike's just knocked off but we see Ayu, who is happy to see us. The Bali Aget has been renovated since last year and no longer has the wire meshing over the front, so it looks good. We have a yummy fruit platter (10,000 rupiah) and buy a Herald Sun Newspaper for 25,000 rupiah.
Friday 24 March - Hot
2nd to last day in Bali for Sam, so I'm happy to go along with whatever he wants to do but he's mainly just happy riding the motorbike around and content to be my chauffeur which is great.
I get in my water exercise session in the pool and then we have breakfast at the Tree House, it's good there for breakfast (American Breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, fruit platter and bali Kopi is 12,000 rp (A$1.71) Sam has a banana and avocardo mixed juice - he's addicted to them by now (5,000 rp) and then go for a bit of a walk around, it's nice and peaceful in Kuta before the shop keepers have opened up for trading. A massage with Made and then another swim. Sometime while we were out Alex has dropped in our other bags, full of donated items for me to take to the village homestay.
I want to explore Jalan Double Six, having only been there briefly on a previous trip, so I direct Sam up Jalan Legian. Unfortunately we miss the turn off and end up in Seminyak so we have a look at the beach and are immediately pursued by the beach sellers touting the usual shirts, bracelets and sarongs. We have a bit of a chat over a Bintang and Coke, buy some shirts and things and keep them happy and set off to find Jalan Double Six.
There is certainly a good array of sarong shops in Double Six as well as a great place for lunch called Warung Melasti - a lovely choice of traditional dishes, it is a very popular place with tourists and they are doing a roaring lunch time trade. I decide to meander along Double Six, so Sam heads off on the bike and I end up buying 2 shoulder bags and wooden bracelets. It gets so hot I stop at a portable stall (one with wheels) and sit down and have a refreshing fresh pineapple juice - I think I needed it as I ended up walking all the way back to Suji Bungalows near Poppies I - must have been a good 4 kilometres at least! In Legian I stop to have a look at the Sri Ratu, but it doesn't take my fancy as it has a 'closed in' feel around the pool area, but I'm sure some of the BTF's like it there so it must be OK. In Jalan Legian (No. 371A), just before the Melasti corner I find a nice shop called Shinta Collection and I buy some beautiful cotton cut out lace sleeveless tops and linen sundress with beautiful cut out lacework. I finally feel totally shopped out (how could that be?) and arrive back at the hotel at 5.30 pm. We head off to one of my favourite little spots, the Secret Garden (owned and run by Welshman, Alvin) and I decide that with my energetic day I deserve to have one of Alvin's famous cornish pastie's - 20,000 rp, thick crusty pastry top and lots of tomato sauce - yum, and I worked out it had been 16 months since I'd last had a pastie too!
Sam tells me that he's going to head to the Bounty for a night out (heck! He's only 17!) oh well, I decide not to worry, he's become Kuta savvy now, and with warnings about taking care in case of spiked drinks, and not to get into any gambling type activities (he knows not to do drugs), I decide to hail a horse and cart ride and head off to the Hulu Club, the driver says he knows where it is as I've never been there and we end up going way past it way up into Legian, so he has to do a three point turn with the horse and cart and go back to Jalan Sahadewa (Garlic Lane). To my relief I find Jean and Roo Ted there as well so it's great to have their company again on what is a rolicking night with two very great shows at 10 pm and 11 pm. The girls are very talented, very good at miming and dancing, and look georgeous in their dazzling outfits. Jean tells me that Roo Ted's favourite girl is Angela, a beautiful raven haired beauty. The girls love teasing males in the audience during their shows, and happily mix and pose for photos with the audience afterwards.
After the last show ojak's (transport guys on motorbikes) wait outside, and I get a ride home through the little back laneways of Kuta to the Suji Bungalows at 12.45 am and find Sam fast asleep in bed. So much for the teen being out later than mum!
Saturday 25 March - Fine, Hot
Sam's last day in Bali - he's flying back to Australia tonight and I'm going onto the village tomorrow. Sleep in and breakfast again at Bamboo Corner. Sam decides on his last day that he may as well do some shopping (with Mum cause she's got the Credit Card) so we head over to the Surf Outlet Shops on the By-Pass road. Gosh, it is scarey on the back of the bike because you are going more than 15 kph! on those roads. Thongs on and all!! He buys up big while I patiently wait around and pay the bill. We rode back to the Bali Aget in Singosari Street, Kuta and have a tuna salad (12,000 rp), shrimp cocktail (13,000 rp) and chicken satay (29,000 rp) for lunch.
Sam's now decided that he wants to buy some paintings for his room, so he look at two shops but he can't get them for the price that he wants. I start packing our bags, loading 5 kgs of kopi into his bag to take back for me and Sam goes off to get my photos transferred to CD's (it ends up 3 CD's of photos) to take back to show the family at home. I wait ages for him to come back and he's been shopping again and a large painting rolled up to put in his bags.
I decide to take him somewhere up market for his last dinner in Bali (having fed him rather cheaply for the last two weeks) so we go up the beach road (Jalan Pantai) to find Papa's Cafe. They have a security guard out the front and I have to show the contents of my bag, it gives me little comfort as we are seated out the front right next to the road and potential drive by incident possibility. Oh well, it is a beautiful night and sunset and I put it out of my mind.
It has been a wonderful time sharing Bali with Sam as he's good company and I'm feeling a bit sad he's going back home already (with his 10 kg of school books he has brought all the way to Bali in his school holidays and only read one English novel!)
We ordered their trademark volcano pizza (74,000 rp and they took me into the kitchen to see it being made. The base is like a usual pizza and then a dough lid is put on top. They use a little hand pump and pump air in between the base and top and blow it up, up and up, it is amazing! It's then put in the oven to cook. I kept this a surprise from Sam, and he certainly was surprised when our pizza came to the table looking like a minature Gunung Agung! I took some great photos but unfortunately accidently wiped them off my memory card, so I'm going to have to go back there again next time to take some more photos. The waiter was really fun too and showed us his party trick, turning a folder servette into what he said was 'Madonna's bra'! I liked their bathrooms too, very flash indeed 10/10 on Filo's scale.
Then it was time for Sam to go, Alex called by and we dropped him off at the airport, I was trying hard not to cry and told myself that it was all a very good experience for him to travel on his own. On the way back Alex dropped me off at the Hulu Club, I assured him I would be quite fine, and was glad to find Tcoup and her husband Tony, along with Roo Ted and Jean there, so that cheered me up considerably.
An ojek ride home, luxuriated in the bath (I was going to be having cold mandi's in the village from tomorrow) and bed.
I was glad to be heading off tomorrow to what I call the 'real Bali', I'd had enough of the southern tourist area for the time being.