As I got such a lot of information and a few laughs from the forum over the recent weeks prior to my 2nd trip to Bali, I thought it only right that I reciprocate. I'm actually still in Bali, yes I know it's pretty sad to be on your laptop while on hols, but I have had to do a little work while here to keep an eye on my business.
Her indoors and myself flew in yesterday with Qantas, good flight and we were right at the front of the plane, so got through the VOA and customs pretty quickly, only about 20 mins or so from landing. This was heaps better than last time we came, when it took over 2 hours! Thought it was hilarious that the luggage from our flight was put onto the Air Asia carousel rather than the Qantas one. But the wife has keen eyesight and spotted someone from our flight getting their bags of the carousel labelled Air Asia. They are so relaxed here, you have just got to laugh and shrug it off, but I'm sure there would have been a few from our flight wondering where their bags were.
We had arranged a pick up from our hotel and he quickly had us on the way with Bintang in hand.
We were meeting up with some friends who had already arrived on flights the day or so before, we are staying at the Komoneka Resort in Ubud for a few nights, then to the Sofitel for a week, then the Kartika Plaza for the last bit of our 2 week hol. Boy am I looking forward to 2 full weeks of Bintang, Margaritas and Nasi Goreng! Hotel is beautiful, although we have just a deluxe room with no view and one of our friends have a deluxe room that overlooks the rice paddies, that seemed like a really relaxing spot and our other friends had been upgraded to a villa with its own plunge pool. I'm struggling to contain my envy! Take a few breaths I think. We have been really spoilt in the past having done a bit of travelling from the UK and we had managed to stay in some great hotels usually with fab views. There is something about waking up on holiday and opening the curtains onto a view of the local scenery (I'm having a Falty Towers moment and thinking of John Cleese and his 'this is Torquay madam, what do you expect herds of wilderbeast?') Anyway the room is actually really nice, with a great bath that I intend to get some use from. It's also very quiet and we are hearing from our friends how they are being kept awake at night by Rudy the Meth Amphetamene addicted Rooster and the giant frogs in the rice paddies. We slept beautifully last night I must say. The hotel give you these toga style pyjamas, which gave us a bit of a laugh before retiring! The hotel is wonderful, with a great infinity pool overlooking the fields. It's very small, seems like there is only a few people around. They also do an afternoon tea around the pool in the afternoon, with Satay, Wontons, Carot cake, Ginger tea, coffee etc, with is all complimentary, I can get used to this!
We ate at Café Warung last night, which was in a lovely setting. Had a pretty good Margarita, spring rolls and Nasi Goreng. I thought the food was pretty good, but the other half was very disappointed with her Saffron chicken. Probably wouldn't go back. Our friends had been to 3 monkeys the night before and were raving about the food, so we'll maybe try 3 monkeys today to see what it is like.
I must say I like Ubud, we had not stayed here before and it is lovely, much quieter than the Kuta area, not as much hassle and you feel a little more like you are in the real Bali up here. The wife and I were up at our usual time, and being on Perth time we were up and about before 7. The wife was on a major dieting and exercise regime before we got here in preparation for the trip and she is still keen to keep moving and not overindulge too much. I've not committed to this, but I'm making some sympathetic comments along these lines to provide some support. But it's a beautiful morning, so we take off for a brisk walk through Ubud, to kill two birds with one stone, get some exercise in and check out the sights and sounds. We walk up past the school and the kids sound like they are chanting a school moto or some such thing. The locals are out getting to where they have to go, everyone seems happy as always and we are pretty much left alone to see the sights, although I must admit you do have to look down mostly to avoid losing a leg down a drain. This does limit your sightseeing somewhat when you are trying to walk briskly(ish). We walked from near the Monkey forest, up into Ubud, then down through a gorge thing, across the bridge and back again, taking a small shortcut along a little lane on the way back, which had some beautiful family compounds, which I thought was really interesting. Wish I had my camera, but having said we were on an exercise walk. Mmm can I do this every morning I wonder? I think the answer to this may depend on the number of Margaritas I'm having the night before.
So now I'm sitting in the lobby (which has wi-fi) feeling a bit annoyed because our work email system is down, so can't really do much work. But hey I'm already on Bali 'time', it can wait till later. I think I'll try to find a good spa and get a massage to work out my walk weary limbs.
I'll try (but won't promise) to submit other SHR (still here reports) later on..........