26th July - 9th Aug. Myself and hubby flew Singapore airlines from Adelaide. My 10th trip hubbies 8th. Exchange rate Rp.8,000 when we arrived then hovered around Rp.7,800-7,900.
12 noon flight direct to Singapore with approx 1 & 1/2 hr wait then 2 hours back to Bali arriving 9.30pm. Staying 6 nights Kuta Seaview cottages, 2 nights Tegal Sari, Ubud, 2 nights Aditya hotel, Lovina then 4 nights Hard Rock hotel, Kuta. Singapore airlines were fabulous, individual screens with many choices of movies,TV shows, games, documentaries. I watched shrek the third, Chaos and a few TV shows. The 7 hr flight to Singapore went quickly with plenty of food and drinks being served regularly. Before leaving Adelaide I did the internet check in and seat allocation. This worked really well, changing our seats to where we wanted to sit plus at Adelaide airport stepping up to the internet check-in counter, avoiding the long line.
On arrival in Bali VOA and immigration was slow. You would think they would combine these counters like they use to. Anyway at last we are in paradise. No crosses on luggage so off to Kuta Seaview cottages. Stayed here 18mths ago. We booked a double deluxe cottage but we had 2 single beds! Back to reception, they couldn't change us that night but next day we moved to a double super deluxe cottage. Woohoo! Lovely. This super deluxe cottage was huge! I will post photos later. This hotel has really gone up market. Lovely outdoor bar (use to be indoors), lounges with tables all along the front of hotel looking over to the beach, very nice. Breakfast was included but a much busier hotel. Threw our bags into our room had a quick shower then off to Hard rock hotel to see the band 'Siluet' Hubbies a singer in a band here in Adelaide and has often sung with these guys over the years.
Next day our regular leather guy came to visit at our hotel so I could order copies of my favourite sandals. Also I took over my old leather jacket to be re-blacked because it had faded. I had pre-ordered dvds from 'H' through email and he promptly delivered. He doesn't supply new release movies unless they are of better quality. What a lovely man to deal with and so easy to order this way.
Next day with one of our regular drivers we went to Carrefour shopping centre. Great and cheap. I decided to turn our spare bedroom into a bali bedroom so I purchased one of those round hoop mosquito nets. It came with the wood hoop cut in two places but I didn't want to carry this around and it wont fit into our case so decided to not to worry about the hoop.I couldn't get the girl to understand I didn't want the wood hoop because its too big and we will fit it when we get back to OZ but she insisted I take it because it goes with it! OK so I had to take it. Then I thought we could get someone to cut it into four pieces so it will fit into our case. Well that was easier said than done!
More on that later. Next stop Geneva handicrafts to pick bits and pieces for my bali bedroom, candles, incense,etc.
Next we went to Bali Rani hotel to Kresnha Jelwelry gold & silver to have a heart shaped gold and diamond pendent custom made. I am sooo happy with the results. I took over my grandmothers old amethyst & diamond (2 small diamonds) gold ring and another old silver and diamond ring (6sm-med. size diamonds). I took brochures from jewellery shops here in Adelaide to show what I wanted. They loved the brochures and had their heads buried in them as we left. It took 3 days to make. There will be a photo when I post them if anyone wants to see.
This is getting a bit long. I will keep it shorter next time.Coming up, tailor, ubud, crackers bar, lovina, visit to sponsor child, hard rock hotel,restaurants,entertainment, earth quake.
Kay