Hi everyone,
Just to begin, when we arrived the exchange rate was 7600 rupiah per AUD and went down to 7100 when we left. We took $1400.00 and came back with $100.00. I went with my boyfriend and we are 24 and 25 years old.
I just arrived back from a 7 day stay in Bali. I was there from 14/8/2007 to 21/8/2007. I stayed at the Bali Garden Hotel which was in the best location. It was so easy to get to all the places we wanted to go. It was a 30 second walk to both the Discovery Mall and Waterbom Park. It was probably about a 5 minute walk to the Matahari which was not too bad and there were plenty of places to eat and drink in between.
I found the housekeeping at the Bali garden was probably their worst feature. Some days we would get a bath mat, some days we wouldn't, I waited three hours one day to get some toilet paper delivered. I had to call 3 times just to get it so they weren't the best. We also had to ask them to restock our mini fridge all the time because they just didn't do it. The drinks are quite cheap also, 5000 for soft drinks.
The room we had was #279 (Requested via email beforehand, they said they could not guarantee it) which I requested because someone on the forum had recommended it. I was pretty happy because it was a Deluxe room so we had got an upgrade from superior without too much effort. It was straight past the lobby and I was glad I didn't have to walk up all the stairs! I would say it has been recommended as a good room because of the view, you look straight out to the pool and beach. The bathroom needs an upgrade that's for sure! Very tired looking and a bit dirty. The door to the balcony didn't shut properly, and the wardrobe doors didn't either, my boyfriend who is a carpenter found this quite amusing! We didn't let it worry us, it wasn't a problem.
Now....the breakfast. The first day we had the rice and noodles that were on offer from the buffet. YUCK. It wasn't worth it, it was dry and also looked like crap. Don't waste your time on it, go straight to the white counter at the back of the outside area and get yourself, fresh made fried eggs, omlettes and pancakes. All were yummy and you don't have to wait too long!! The breakfast area is pretty packed between 8-9am so maybe get there early if you are a big family or there will be nowhere to sit.
The pool was nice, lots of chairs around it to sit at and shade also. The pool has rust spots on the bottom and could do with a spruce up. The pool was extremely deep so watch your kids extra well. A good tip for the pool which we picked up from others, go to the Matahari or Centro store at Discovery and get yourself some blow up pool toys for your stay. They cost a couple of dollars and makes the pool even better. When we left, we passed them onto other people to enjoy.
I loved the Matahari and supermarket there. It was the best, so many cheap things to buy. Shoes were good too but I have a size 40-41 foot. They seemed to have nothing in my size so a good tip is to look in all the boxes underneath the displays, heaps of sizes and quicker than asking. I brought lots of toiletries from the supermarket, everything is so cheap and worth a look.
I also like the Discovery Mall. There were lots of shops, some expensive but some cheap. I spent alot of time in the Centro store, some good bargains on houseware and other stuff. Lots of things are 30-50% off. Don't waste your time with the electronic store on the top floor, nothing is cheap. It's a very clean Mall and well air-conditioned.
We ate at The Stadium Café A LOT, it was so yummy and a great place to stop for a drink. I highly recommend the carbonara and my boyfriend loved the burgers. It's located on Jl Kartika plaza. Here is the link to their website. It's a sports bar and they show all AFL footy on weekends too. http://www.stadiumcf.com/stadium-cafe_main.html
We ate at Pizza Hut, very nice, good sizes, just like Australia. They also deliver. I didn't like the McDonalds burgers, the meat seemed like it was uncooked and I just couldn't eat it. The Hard Rock was nice, a bit pricey and nowhere near as nice as Stadium. We ate at the Jimbarian Bay (Not sure exactly of the spelling), its right across from The Stadium and was ok, not brilliant. Good prices though.
We brought back around 70 DVD's, all pretty much good copies, we got them from the DVD store on the same side as Stadium Café about 3-4 doors down. It was buy 10 get 4 free. We hired a DVD player and checked some of the DVDs and watched a few. Any older movies are pretty much guaranteed to be ok, it's just some of the very new ones like Rush Hour 3 that were bad quality. They happily exchange if it's a bad copy.
I am a big girl (size 18) and did find some clothes to fit me. You have to ask though for bigger sizes. Shop 111 in the arts market (Just before Kuta Square) had bigger sizes and the lady was very nice.
We were paying on average 30000 rupiah for t-shirts, sunnies, etc.
I was sooooo sick of the people handing out the cards where you could ‘win' something, in the end we started saying we had plenty and or just said no and kept walking. We also said we had been here a couple of times before or they just tried to suck you in with everything. My boyfriend was a real sucker as it was his first time, in the end we would tell the taxi people, clothes shops etc that we had been a few times, it makes life easier and they don't hassle you as much.
I also needed to buy some prescription glasses. I ordered them through Optik Melawi straight across from the Matahari. They have expensive frames downstairs and cheaper ones upstairs. Of course I virtually ran upstairs! I paid $100 AUD for the frames and lenses and I ordered them at 10am and had them by 4pm that afternoon. Excellent service and price. I love my glasses and it was a lot cheaper than the $400 I was going to pay in Australia.
I had a ring with a fairly large diamond remodelled by Audrey at Bali Gold Jewellery at the Katrika Plaza Hotel. Her store is in the Lobby. I paid $85 AUD with my own gold to have it made into a pendant. I basically chose the style I wanted from Aussie catalogues. I am not 100% happy with it. I will probably get it done again in Australia as it looks ok from a distance but up close it's not so good. The diamond also does not look secure enough.
Waterbom park was good as usual. Can complain, good fun, not too expensive, great for families and adults also.
I could probably keep going but I think that's enough!!! Any questions please contact me and I will try my best to answer.
Thanks