We flew to Bali with Air North on 16 January and the service was great. Our flight departed Darwin on time at 7:30pm and arrived on time at 8:30pm - a 2.5 hour flight. We were through all airport procedures and at our first hotel, Segara Village in Sanur, by 9:30pm.
Segara Village and the Sindhu Beach area were a great choice for the first four nights of our holiday. Our first room at Segara was an older room when we had expected a renovated room based on what we saw on the Wotif website so we changed rooms the next morning and were more than happy with our new room. The gardens are amazing at Segara and when all the renovations are completed and the new beachside pool opened it should be just great.
The nearby restaurants were just wonderful - good food, prices, service and atmosphere. We enjoyed dining at Spirit Café, Tootsie, Beano, Mango and Bonsai.
We shopped mainly at Tootsie and Jenny shops in Sindhu Beach Markets and also had a number of prescription glasses made up at Hardy Optical.
Next stay was at Amed. We started with two nights at Life in Amed, the only accommodation in Lean, which was just delightful - lovely pool, peaceful surroundings and a great little restaurant. Next was 3 nights at Bayu Cottages in Lipah Bay. Despite the change in owner/manager since out previous stay this also proved a pleasant stay. The food was still good thanks to Wayan's cooking and snorkeling off the beach in front of Pondok Vienna occupied many hours. While in Amed we distributed some aid of school supplies and hygiene products that we purchased earlier at Makro. We decided to pass our aid to ANAK Help to Indonesian Children, who provide a range of services in Lean and we had a great chat with Yuliana, a volunteer who teaches English and weaving. We also provided aid to Nengah and Anik from Sails Restaurant for distribution to schools as part of their ongoing work with Rotary in the Amed area.
We ate very well at Life in Amed, Sails, Bayu and several of the Lipah warungs including Kadek and Wayan. The live music and cold beer was also good at Wawa Wewe I.
Our last destination was Ubud where we spent five nights at Adi Cottages in Jalan Monkey Forrest. The hotel was just right (well rice padi views would have been nice but....).
While in Ubud I enjoyed a great day out with Bike Baik and would thoroughly recommend their services (www.balibike.com). The bike riding was fantastic fun and not too difficult, with just a few uphill sections. The day was not so good for my partner who had acquired a dose of Bali Belly but the staff did their best to assist including locating a toilet in Desa Manuk. She ended the journey in the support vehicle and cheered up towards the end at Wayan Sujana's home.
We also (both this time) enjoyed a day at the Casa Luna cooking school. We did the market tour (which was perhaps a little long and off topic at times) following by a great hands-on lesson/demonstration of Balinese cooking with Made. While we were expecting Janet to give the class Made was great also and I did get Janet to sign my copy of her book Fragrant Rice.
With an evening check out we arranged day use of a room at Swastika Hotel in Sanur to enable us to collect our glasses, do some last minute shopping and say goodbye to Bali. At the airport we learnt that our Air North flight had been cancelled. Their brand new E170 jet had been damaged by a baggage tug in Broome and a spare part was going to take at least 7 days to acquire. Air North very efficiently arrange for all 80 or so passengers to stay at Patra Hotel in Tuban overnight and met our transfer, accommodation, dinner, breakfast and lunch costs until a new plane could be located to complete our journey 24 hours behind schedule. The replacement plane was a charter operated by Skyairworld, a Brisbane based charter company recently linked to the Lion proposal to establish a domestic and international service in Australia. The Skyairworld plane was also a new E170 and the very tired staff were great in getting us home, although many of us would not have minded waiting a few more days for Air North to locate a replacement plane.
Overall a great two weeks (plus one bonus day) stay in Bali. Thanks to many for the wonderful tips from the Forum.
Tony