Quick intro, me aussie expat, teacher in Jakarta, husband is Indonesian (javanese/ambonese) and this was our honeymoon we were married in Jakarta on March 29th.
Since we only had 4 days, we didnt really have much time to do anything :)
Flight from Jakarta 1.5 hours, was smooth with Garuda (business class) and on time :) Got the luggage and was out of the airport in about 5minutes.
We stayed at the Laguna Nusa Dua in a pool access room. A tip, ask for "even numbered" rooms which face the middle of the resort and the pools, if you get "odd numbered" they face the back with only the lagoon for a view, and not much else to look at, and doesnt get much sun at all except midday.
Service in the hotel great, the resturants were ok, but the selection of food wasnt much to our liking.
The room floors can be very slippery after swimming, or in the bath room. You have to climb into the bath, I think is quite dangerous for young or old.
Hotel was quite busy on sunday and today, as alot of people came for a conference.
The breakfast buffett, is the standard for 5 star hotels.
Our first full day we ventured up the east coast, Klungkung, Candidasa, Tenganan. We had lunch at the Lotus Seaview, there is work going on the beach, due to the damage of the recent high tides, it didnt spoil the view though, as the workers all stopped for lunch at the time we were there and interesting to watch the women cart the sand to and from the work site.
We ordered bebek bertutu 200,000 (whole duck) would be enough for 3, my husband shared that with our friend.
And I ordered calamari rings, 65,000.
Two iced teas at 10,000 each, a coke and aqua with food all came to 355,000 thousand.
From here drove to Ubud to check out a few art places, (just drove thru the town, as not interested in doing the monkey forrest again) the town centre was very busy, and with traffic everywhere (still nothing compared to Jakarta traffic). In the end we only picked up one painting, but pleased with our choice.
Didnt bother with visiting safari park, have heard enough about it on here, n seen it on local tv, to know that its not as good as the one in Jakarta, where you can drive thru in the comfort of your own car and feed the animals from your window (except lions n tigers of course) and dont have to join a tour bus. :)And the Jakarta one is cheaper too :) hehehe...
The evening we decided to visit KuDeTa, what can I say, to be honest very overrated, it was very busy, the food just standard, and service also. The waiter had really bad BO. Sorry to be honest!! hehehe..
Sunday, we just hung around the hotel in the morning, swimming, and just being lazy, there was a wedding on also, I think they were Japanese, lucky to have beautiful weather too :) Now when I see weddings, am so glad ours is over and done with, it was so stressful planning it in Jakarta even when your fluent in the language!!!
In the afternoon, we visited my favorite fixed price shop "UD ERLANGGA I" Jl Nusa Kambangan Denpasar, and bought heaps of things.
Glitter thongs (flip flops) for 10,000 each, 2 batik sheet sets at 90,000 each (king size) several "bali t-shirts" for 12500 each, 1 ashtray 20,000, 1 batik shorts n shirt set 22,000, 3 ikat "blankets" for 65,000 each.
They have heaps of things availabe, jewellary, paintings, wood carvings, anything you can think of actually, after this I had planned to visit Geneva but I got everything I was after at Erlangga.
Flight back today, was with Garuda again, and was delayed for 2 hours, as it was coming from Jayapura (Irian Jaya) and delayed due to bad weather. The Business class lounge in Bali domestic airport is ok, however the food was gross, the drinks werent even cold either. But I guess it was better than waiting outside.
Got back to Jakarta, right in the middle of peak hour traffic (thanks Garuda) and took nearly 2 hours to get home...arrggh...
Anyway probably bored you all to death, if there are any questions, ask away!