JBR Aug 4th -18th The trip & the hotels.
Flew Garuda, Perth to Denpasar, 8.00am flight, no problems. Scrambled eggs on top of roast beef on top of muffin with sides which I can't remember. Movie was The Painted Veil, a love story so I didn't bother watching. Got the seats (7 & 8 windows) we had previously requested by phoning the Perth Garuda office. Husband thought the flight went quick but my bum sure didn't! Did use the toilet down the back of the plane to change into summer clothes, the back of the plane did look very squashed up. Some people attempted to use first/business class toilets up the front but were turned around.
No problems with Visa, we had some leftover US dollars from a previous transaction on eBay. Usually pay with Australian dollars. No problems with luggage or customs.
Our driver friend was waiting for us so no problems getting to the hotel. We had chosen the Secret Garden Inn for its location. We had a newbie 18 yr old with us and my daughter who would be nightclubbing and shopping. Unfortunately the girls wanted real not fakes so spent most of their shopping dollars at the Surfer shops and Discovery Mall. The nightclubs they went to were also a taxi drive away for lazy teenagers. So the planned location wasn't quite as good as I planned but not the hotels fault.
Secret Garden Inn is a basic budget hotel, for $100.00 each for 7 nights you can't expect too much. Actually because of the exchange rate I think it was about $90.00. The staff here was, as usual in Bali, very nice, being a small hotel it was nice to see the same face and being able to recognise someone. The rooms were very clean, the bed comfy although a little on the hard side with a side table either side of the bed, a large fridge, wardrobe, desk, drawers and a TV which only played 1 English station. No tea/coffee facilities which we knew beforehand. No bottled water supplied. Towels were a little worn but did the job and you could ask for more if needed. They didn't have pool towels so you used the same ones in your room. We had at least 4 each day because we had to use them as floor mats in the bathroom. The bathroom would be the reason we wouldn't stay there again. The shower is on the wall at about the 4 foot height, it is a handheld shower. There is no curtain, rail or floor lip. The water goes everywhere including down the toilet! Trying to do the limbo whilst washing your hair with 2 hands was very painful. Breakfast was 2 eggs anyway you like, 2 slices of toast, tea or coffee, and a plate of fruit. I found this quite adequate in the fact that you could definitely have lunch, some places you have the big buffet type breakfast and then miss the next meal! I believe you could order extras for breakfast. We swam once the second day, much too cold and too deep. No wonder they say not recommended for children, only ladders into the pool, no steps. Pool lounges if you wished but not much sun gets into the area by the pool. The hotel had supplied pool noodles/chairs and toys. The staff attended to our requests immediately and with no problems. We did try to use our laptop here but unfortunately the phone system of the hotel was too old. We had quite a few noisy neighbours; I seem to be very unlucky in my hotel choices because usually at the same time I attract the drunken tourists. This time it was a European in the next room singing and dancing outside our door at 2.30am with his door open so we could hear his music that he was singing to! The security staff came and talked to him at 3.00am and he did shut-up by 4.00am. We didn't see him again. Why do drunks think that everyone wants to share their happiness? We stayed for 7 nights here and then moved onto Tanjung Benoa and stayed at The Peninsula Beach Resort, our timeshare hotel.
I've written about the Peninsula before so if you want details you can checkout my last jbr's. We had a 2 bedroom apartment this time as we had the girls with us, ground floor as requested by the pool. Wrong move as someone above decided to rearrange the furniture each night at about 1.30am...if you've been there you know the marble floors and marble furniture make a great noise in the middle of the night. We told management but it kept up for the full 7 nights.....future we'll do upstairs and walk or use the lift. The hotel was full as far as we could tell, pool lounges gone by 8.00am to towels, no people! One morning we had to wait for a table to be seated for breakfast. Breakfast as usual was really nice with a great variety buffet. We only used the pool once; again the water was very cold. The hotel did appear to have more children this time, someone once asked about children at this hotel and I had seen very few on previous trips. We had room service twice this trip for our main meal at night and both meals were good and reasonably priced. We ate around the pool once also, and again this was good as is expected of a hotel of this calibre. We did use our laptop here plugged into the wall socket, the reception gives you the passwords etc, no problems. Bottled water was supplied each day.
Our driver friend returned us to the airport at 10.30am at the end of our fortnight; he as usual kept a record of my Bali sim card and will keep it topped up until we return. Through to check-in where we and everyone else were asked to stay an extra few hours as the plane was overbooked. They offered 60 US dollars each, transport to and from the hotel, a 3 minute phone call from the hotel to Australia and the day at a hotel, no mention of which one. All meals included. The next flight out was 00.40am arriving into Perth a little after 4.00am. We decided if we didn't get our pre-booked seats we would stay, we got row 6 so we were on the flight. Hate to think what would happen if you got there later than us and really needed to get back to Australia. The flight was uneventful, the food good, the movie Codename The Cleaner, a comedy. Of course we were first off the plane and our bags were last! No problems through customs or immigration. We only declared a leather jacket and some sweets but were pushed through sight unseen.
More to come about the land we were looking to buy.
Booking for May next year for the month but may have to fly over if the right plot of land turns up.