Been back about 3 weeks, had decided not to bother with jbr as too many things were happening on our arrival back but now I'm on top of things decided to do a quick one.
We stayed first at Green Garden Hotel in Tuban now known as South Kuta. The first night was a disaster, we had a good ground floor room but unfortunately we had some very loud neighbours who decided to stay up all night drinking and swimming. Now the hotel does have rules but for some reason these were not adhered to. Finally around 3.00am it went quite, sleep at last until the neighbours on the connecting door side came home from wherever and decided to well......maybe they were honeymooners...but then they argued after, so at 5.30am my hubbie shouts 'Doesn't anyone in this hotel sleep'. Deadly silence then. Once I'd showered I went straight to find a different room. Lucky us top floor family room was available, a little big for us and what were we going to do with the bunk beds! Anyway for 3 nights we slept and could eat more because of walking up those 3 flights of stairs!
Whilst in this area we got some clothes made by Bali Brumby, we had a couple of shirts made, one with an embroidery logo and the other with a printed one, a pair of trousers, 4 pairs of shorts, a summer top, and my outdoor setting cushion covers copied. All were excellently made, service impeccable. Also had another outfit made for my sisters fancydress shop, Superwoman, again a copy and so well done. We did the Geneva run but this time I only picked up a few fridge magnets, Sita fashions for another metal gecko, Makro for holiday and take home supplies, also Rice for our drivers family, ACE hardware for numerous little homeware/car items, dvd shopping, sports shoes and spectacles from Optik Seiss in the Discovery Mall. Loved the new Dorothy Perkins, TopShop and Marks & Spencers but didn't buy anything, have to wait to lose a bit more weight. Found the R2B (Ready to Buy) shop but thought it a waste of time, too much stuff, dirty and dusty and nothing priced and the staff were too busy with locals purchasing for their businesses to worry about a couple of tourists.
So 4 days later we moved to our timeshare at Tanjung Benoa, Peninsula Beach Resort. We spent 7 days in luxury lazing around the pool, did get to do snorkeling and walked out on the reef. Finally tried Souffle in that restaurant across the road called Papillion. Very nice and the rest of their meals were good too. Had a drive up to Candi Kuning Markets, passed Pacung Indah, Ghost Palace and onwards to the mountains. Visited the Bali Botanic Gardens, saw the treetop walking but did not participate. What a different part of Bali that is with its fir trees and chilly weather.
Back to Green Garden where we were assured we had a quite room for our last 2 nights, wrong you guessed it, we changed the next day for our final night. Sorry Green Garden won't have our patronage again, this is not the first time that noisy guests have disrupted our holiday, it's not the hotels fault and it is unfortunate because the staff, food and locality is excellent.
We had massages/spas at both Febris and Green Garden whilst in Tuban and used the Peninsula spa facilities whilst there. Also visited GWK Park and had lunch with our drivers'family.
Went to a new looking restaurant called the Pandan opposite the Discovery Mall, very nice food and ambience. Also had the usual meal stops at Daddy's, Green Garden and Bali Colado.
Used Bali Sim card to call and sms to Perth, Australia, no problems at all. My driver keeps a note of my number and does a regular small top-up on it for me so that's as soon as we land it's operational.
Paid VOA in Australian Dollars and no problems either, change in Rupiahs.
Flight was with Garuda and no problems, didn't get our frequent flyer package either, no one at Perth or at the Kuta Paradiso Office had heard about them. We did pre book our seats on the phone in Perth and got them for the trip there and back. Did go to Kuta Paradiso and confirm flights and seats personally though. Since been back our frequent flyer cards have arrived in the post. Used the Prada lounge on leaving, 120,000 rupiah each, higher than I paid last time but still worth while.
We checked out a number of hotels whilst there for our stay in August, we were to be taking some newbies but that has fallen through so most likely just the family will go and we'll use our timeshare.
All in all a great holiday, different as it was just me and the husband and we didn't have a lot of shopping to do, once you've been a few times it starts to dwindle down to just a few items. We did take donations over to Smudge who gladly collected them in our first few days.
Probably forgot heaps of things, any questions please ask.