Being down south in Nusa Dua we knew that we were going to need to hire a driver for a day or two just to do some shopping and such. We took our time about it over the first week because we had planned to scuba dive a lot and most restaurants, shops, and dive shops will actually pick you up if you arrange things in advance.
Every hotel has its own group of drivers who hang around looking for a few dollars. During the first week, every day that we walked out of the hotel we were routinely accosted for a fare, or a tour, or 'what about tomorrow'. Clearly, life is too easy for these guys if they can afford to lay about under a tree waiting for tourists to hire them. My wife started telling these guys that we were going home tomorrow. After the second day they started believing her, and after the fourth day they knew better than to approach her. Sometimes, she's brilliant!
Because we stopped diving early in the trip we hired a guy named Dino for a half-day, the day after Galungan. That was a mistake for a couple of reasons. Dino had his ideas about where we were going to go for the day and they were clearly different then our ideas. His ideas looked a lot like his family owned a few shops and a restaurant. After the first shop, and much haggling (something I detest) I pulled a fast one by walking into a shopping area rather than get back in the van. We were in central Kuta and I told Dino we would be back in 2 hours. We even managed to get in a massage in that time for a price that was far less than the spa Dino had in mind.
Later it was time for dinner and again Dino had his ideas about some seafood at his mothers restaurant. I had some ideas about the Ye Olde Foo-kin Pub but if you scroll back to my post from a week ago, you'll know how that turned out. We couldn't even the find the fookin place and the Aussi-Bali restaurant was closed for Galungan.
Anyway, after this little bit of adventure we decided to stick to the taxis. The bluebird group taxis turned out to be slightly cheaper than the other beige coloured taxis. On our second attempt at the Foo-kin Pub the cabfare from Nusa Dua in to Legian was 73,000Rp and the driver practically begged to pick us up later.