Greetings BTF readers
Sitting here pondering happy thoughts of our recent trip, I though I would jot down a quick JBR and share it with you all, in the hope that it adds some more benefit to someone's time. More of a story type than a factual blow by blow account and cost of every thing. I am happy to answer any questions though if there are any.
This was out 3rd trip to Bali. We arrived home about 4 weeks ago. We have also been to Thailand many many many times and with my work in the gulf of Thailand, we actually lived in Phuket for nearly two years and can see the glaring differences in culture and lifestyles of locals, tourists and expats.
The biggest difference I found in Bali to Thailand concerning visitors was a lot of people from Australia went to Bali and enjoy the High Class restaurants and most of these people didn't seem to be very impressed with either the local Bali food or Indonesian food in general and searched out the more expensive places that were recommend to them by other travelers and also BTF. We found from our time in Thailand, many people seem eat more Traditional local food while traveling there, but this is no way the only difference, and I don't want to start a war of differences of people and I surely don't want to get flamed heavily for it, jus an observation.
Both Bali and Thailand are fantastic places to visit and both worth the time.
We traveled with Garuda from Sydney, no troubles except just after take off when the plane banked left to head toward Bali, it dropped abut 15 meters... we all knew about it, the wife had that, oh no, hope that sound wasn't my duty free breaking in the overhead compartment look on her face, while I had the, I hope no body smells what was just forced out of me look on my face.
All good - no worries with flight, nice service, we usually fly Singapore so we were ready to be let down on service this time, both over and back were pleasantly surprised. Not totally full on way to Bali but was packed on way back from Bali, we invested in the Prada Lounge on the way home at Denpassar airport, the night flight is a killer we got to airport with about 2 hours to kill, went to lounge, found a comfy chair and got some sleep while sipping down a few beers to calm the nerves. Cost 300K I think was worth it, my beautiful bride was to happy and said we would make it a regular thing from now on.
We traveled were in Bali for 2 weeks. One week in Ubud and one week in Kuta.
In Ubud we stayed at the Ubud Village Hotel. While the front was under construction and was quite dirty the hotel was not too bad. The Pool was a bit small when lots of people are about, and kids running crazy, but the location of UVH was quite decent. We have stayed before at the more expensive hotels on the fringe of Ubud and it's always a hassle getting around.
Of the places we ate at that are striking in my memory about Ubud were the 3 Monkeys, upstairs we got a table, was beautiful and I had the best Grilled Tuna in my life. I asked if I could shout the cook a beer because it was so nice, and the lovely waitress was stunned. This young guy came up who could not speak any English, I just said to him... top work cobber, have a Binnie on me mate. He smiled.... Hope he got his beer I never checked.
Naughty Nuris - is a favorite of mine and a couple of the World Famous Martini's later I was anyone's... lucky I am married... even luckier she was with me! Try the Ribs... We sat at the front table and met some great people from Spain and the UK and of course more Aussie larrikins, we stayed for ages drinking, yelling and having a great time, made me feel quite young again. I was impressed with my brides effort on the sauce, a quote from the young Aussie Bloke from Melbourne '...geez... she can hold her piss for an old bird...', I thought that term of endearment, I can't remember the rest of the night, the ‘old bird' got me home no worries.. Old bird... Top Bird I say.
On a suggestion from the BTF we tried Café Des Artists, because primarily they are supposed to be a Belgian beer bar. WHAT A LIE! They had a Stella in the Bottle but that was it. Also the place was DEAD QUITE. Not quite as no customers but Quite as no noise. I felt a little out of place, we had an entrée' and left, Belgian Beer Bar my ass!
Nomad Bar - always a delight. Book a table on the side where you and sit on the pillows, nice place, top cocktails.
Of course we did the Favs- Jazz Café - WITH A COVER CHARGE! Not impressed!
Also the Dirty Duck and Café Wayan. Of which both were pretty average from last time and quite expensive? Dirty Duck seems to have gone down hill?
Unfortunately the Raga Bar - Putra Bar had been closed down. I enjoyed going there last visit for some beer and local produce :) , but not the case this time.
We Hired motorbikes and rode our selves about quite a bit. We got 2 bikes for 20K a day each, for 3 days hire. Went to the Volcano, had lunch along the way at a lovely little place just past the rice terrace town, near wood carving town? No one could speak much English. Was nice food though, and very cheap.
We also took a day trip to Padang Bai, I Highly recommend this place, this was our last place left to visit in Bali and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We found a nice place for lunch to the north of the town where all the dive shops are. Many Europeans about, doing dive trips. We utilized the beach and a had a quick dip to cool off before a decent journey home again. The north east of Bali is very beautiful and I think I will book long term accommodation there in the future.
We looked into bar, Ozone at Padang Bai, but it looked really bad and much of a dive, wife did not want to drink there.
We got lost heading back to Ubud from Padang Bai but some helpful locals guided us on our way and all in all was quite easy to navigate Bali on Bikes, I also recommend doing this, as it was easy straight, forward and anyone with half a sense of balance can do it.
In Kuta we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. The Wife chose this hotel. She just loves the pools. I'm not to fussed about it but great walking distance to many top spots. The main bar was closed when we were there which was not so good, they have this crappy little bar down stairs, but when they have band in there... your like sardines in a can, we had our welcome drink and jumped in a cab and headed for the Bounty!
If I were younger and wanting to party more I probably wouldn't stay at the Hard Rock as it's a good walk to the night clubs and traffic moves so slow... just get a nice place near the action. I was happy though, sexy dancer show over the road at night, I was allowed to visit when I got the night off from being a Husband :) - I ventured over the road with a couple of other Aussie guys I had met earlier at the Hard Rock Pool Bar, we made it a Mission to escape the Wives for some Party action! Hi Steve and Jim, if you are reading, more bloody piss taking Melbournians, good to see. When they say sexy dancer show, it's not like a Thailand dirty sexy dancer show .... (worse luck) but more like some good looking young girls on podiums, fully dressed... Just fine for me and healthy good fun to be had and drink prices were fairly cheap.
We also did a few trips down Poppies 2 and made sure we stopped off at Pub Bagus for a lots of beer, always a great place for a few coldies. Also ventured to the stadium café for drinks and food to see some Footy, but prices there have gone up a far bit! Steep for bali prices.
Too Many places in Kuta to mention all the food places, but we did eat at Made's Warung and unfortunately got the dreaded Bali belly, we tried to narrow it down and think it was the Indonesian style ribs at Made's, we did eat there twice, not saying it's a bad place at all , because it is actually quite nice, just roll the dice sometimes. I Lost 2 days out of holiday Wife lost 3 Days, worse luck. A suggestion from our room maid, was to get some rice and let it soak in some water.. and pour off the water and drink water not the rice. I had never heard of this, even in Phuket, Wife was NOT keen, but I gave it a go, and it seemed to fix me up a bit faster, rather than the regular Loxfandel and inner health plus.
We day tripped to a place called Paradise Beach? (maybe golden beach or something, old memory failing) South of Kuta well past Jimboran where you drive through the golf courses to get to. Picture perfect beach, a little heavy on the seas but nice for a swim and the colour of the water was the nicest in Bali. Many developments going in there at the moment.. will be popular in the future. The road down to the beach is not finished yet, very rocky still.
We found this trip the Balinese people were very persistent and more in your face than our last trips. Other visits you would get the odd, 'I have car... 'Or 'I can get you discount at .....' but this time it seemed like every was trying to make money doing many different things. Drivers would get quite frustrated when you said to them, no don't stop here, no I don't want to see that, one driver actually got very agitated on a journey to Sanur, we just wanted a lift there and to go for a walk along the sand and find a place for a meal. He was dead set on making sure he got a tout fee at a restaurant, and was very rude with us. Wife said... 'Stop the Car Pal!' he did we got out and paid him and hailed another driver... just to aggressive with us.
But I'm not going to complain any more about a little thing like that, our trip to Bali was wonderful and we will return in the future.
Of course the wife did tons of shopping, adding to the already huge hand bag collection. We have a spare room for her bloody hand bags! We found prices in Ubud were better than prices in Kuta. Maybee by that time I was over bargaining downthe price of 5c. I did buy a couple of pairs of sneakers that are about half the price at home, quite good quality I can go running in them no worries, at the shoe shop in the top of matarharis. As in Bali I wear my Thongs everywhere, if you go to buy shoes, do watch the socks they hand you put on, I was handed a f-ing FILTHY sock with blood, a part of a pussy scab and pubic hairs on it!! I was a little offended, so I opened a new pack and used them and paid for the new pack.
We went to the Discovery Mall? (think thats the name) were over the road from the waterslide park and it's a Hole! Just utter crap, very few peopel shopping in there, prices were very high, I couldnot tell the difference between the brand name shirts and the shirts on the street.. which one will I buy?
Thanks for reading my JBR so far.
If I can remember more of the juicy details I will post again.
Mattie Moo