arrived on saturday afternoon , flew from adelaide via perth with qantas , everything on time . this time staying at sanur for the first time we stayed at the puri santrian , in the club section , nice rooms good clean hotel but found the place a bit big and full of europeans who did not seem to have much interaction with other guests or even themselves , it was not unusual to see a couple lay around for ages and not even speak to each other . swapped the afternoon tea vouchers for full breakfast with no problems .
caught up that night with son and his mates who had been surfing for a couple of weeks and staying in kuta and doing surf trip on a boat for a week , they had had a couple of big nights and were not drinking that night but just on the lemon juice .
dinner at bobbys cafe on the beach good food great atmosphere .
day 2 , got our bearings and started to get into bali rhythym ie.
get up , brekky , shop , lunch , drink, shop, drink , shop,drink , dinner. shop and drink
day 3 caught up with workmate who arrived and staying also at sanur but up the other end went out and had a few beers with ron at the beach bar and then went to have dinner at mings , this restarant was probably one of the best we ate at for atmosphere , food and service .
the artwork in the immaculate toilets are worth a look .
day 4 decided to hire a motorbike as we were doing a fair bit of travvelling from one end of sanur to the other and for 35000 per day it was great . i have a bike license here and had taken my international one as well so was no problems however no one even asked me even when i got the bike , my wife who has not been on the back of a bike for years said having the bike was the best part of the trip and i have to say i felt a lot safer riding a bike in bali than i do on the roads in adelaide because the drivers are more aware of motorbikes , we did venture out to the carefour centre on the bike and even though the traffic was busier it was ok
we had dinner at the cat and fiddle because tuesday night is irish and they get a good few people in .
day 5 ( or thereabouts ) well and truly in bali mode and today we went to ubud for a change of scenery , bought a couple of things there that we did not see anywhere else so if you see something a bit unusual just buy it because you might not see it again
dinner at cafe jepun very good
day6 relax and more bali rhythym
day 7 day in kuta and check out the s&s in the afternoon went to indo national with other forumites and had a good meal and good company
bought a plate that we liked but was so heavy we kept saying we couldnt buy it but the price kept coming down and i wasnt even making any offer just saying no thanks its too heavy , she said but it only weighs 1.5 kilos and i was picking it up thinking i wish my fish were this heavy when i caught them it finally weighed in just under 3 kilos and made it home in one piece. for 80000rp
day 8 had dinner at the little warung next to the s&s&s bar on the beach and were joined by ron and irma great meal , very cheap , good atmosphere and good company and cold beers , also were joined by son and 3 mates who rode over from kuta for another quiet night also met up with pete from the senia hotel and had a few more beers a great place to watch the footy or rugby from on the big screen tv thanks guys for making the holiday and i felt like i had been there for ages
day 9 did the bike baik tour and cannot speak highly enough of the trip and guide who explained the customs and things we were seeing so well and the feast at the end is worth it , nearly all downhill except for a few hills at the end must say when we got dropped off at the hotel after this it was very hard to walk up the 3 flights of stairs for an afternoon siesta ( in fact it felt like 30 flights )
went to mings again that night but just had a light meal because the lunch was so good
day 10 well just a few more things to buy ( yeah right ) and squeeze evertyhing into one suitcase and 3 bali sportsbags way over weight and was expecting excess for sure but met son and mate at airport who were on the same flight and spread the load so were ok ,
got home thriugh customs and only lost one small wooden fork in a set of placemats and one small tray got broken
in summary
cant wait to get back we have left it too long between visits
met some very interesting people but the balinese people are so warm and welcoming that on our last night i was thinking of sending for the dog and staying ( the kids could look after themselves )
the haggling can be fun but sometimes you just want to get something that you already have and off it goes again
felt safe the whole time except when there was an earthquake in the night and the whole room shook and belive me i was asleep not doing anything else it was a quite unnerving
had no bad food experiences
and thanks ron and pete for your local knowledge
also thanks to all the staff and shopkeepers who are doing it tough but you still keep smiling and making us want to come back for more and that is what i have been telling my friends
also the tips and advice gleaned from this forum can be very handy