I'm sorry, this one's a novel!
In brief-
Hard Rock - Awesome, so glad we stayed there and well worth the money.
Safari Park and Rafting - Great day's out, recommend doing both (not on the same day). Spend the whole day at the Safari park, don't rush.
But especially thanks to the many people that contribute to this forum! We found some unreal placs to eat and recieved some good advice. All of which I printed out and took with us.
23/10 - With bags packed we hit the highway to Perth Airport. Leaving plenty of time to purchase our duty free and make the most of the Qantas business class lounge. Our travel mates had told us that business class was the only way to go after they experienced it last year. And after some cold beers and beautiful sandwiches in the lounge, we were starting to see why! We boarded and the suprises continued. Being a tall guy, I was surprised by the amount of room there was in the bc area. That coupled with the awesome service and nice food made up for last year's disasterous trip. Hit the airport in Bali, we're the first through immergration, our bags are waiting for us at baggage claim and we're off to Hard Rock. Despite arriving at HR around 10.15pm, the place is pumping, we check out the pool and instantly fall in love with the place. Especially after discovering that our room had some Metallica memborbilia hanging above the bed! Metal heads heaven.
24/10 - Didn't do much on our first day. Checked out the sites and sounds of Kuta Square, before catching up with our friends at the Kuta Art Markets. After an afternoon dip we hit Stadium Bar to catch the International Rules game and despite loving this place last time, the atmosphere just wasn't the same as it was during the AFL season. So retire to the chill out pool with our duty free and drink the evening away.
Highlight of the day - The day full of highlights, after all it was our first full day back in paradise.
25/10 - Second offical day in Bali and we didn't want to waste a second of it. After breakfast we hit the HR pool for some swimming and girls sun bathed. Changed some money and it was time to hit the surf factory outlets along JL By Pass and surrounding areas. Given that I'm an extra large in most clothes, I usually struggle to find clothes that fit at these places. Found some nice Quicksilver shirts (59,000rp ea) and Atticus tshirts (about 100,000rp ea). Hit Kopi Pot for lunch, chicken satay sticks and an ice cold Storm Golden Ale YUM! Although the satay wasn't as good as I remembered. Just chilled out at the rooms for most of the evening drinking duty free and mapping out the rest of the holiday.
Highlight of the day - Actually fitting into genuine surf shirts.
26/10 - After our mid morning surf and swim in the HR pool it was lunch time. Which meant one place - Rosso Viro. We discovered this place last year, we love the chilled out vibe, with the red lounges and beachside location. Had a beautiful brushetta and an ok wood fired pizza. Next it was time for Poppies II and a trek along Legian St. With not much money to play with my wallet stayed in my backpack. But our mates spent up at Star Surf and at the many Roxy / Quicksilver shops all offering massive discounts. Then back to the pool, before hitting Bumba Gumps for dinner. I remember this place so well from the last trip. This time it wasn't as enjoyable. Had the baby back ribs again, nice, but nothing to rave about. With Bali experiencing a tequila and bicardi shortage, we were unable orderer the famous BG Margaretta! Which in case you didn'' know are delivered to your table with half the staff singing and dancing. Very funny! So instead we asked for the song with our last round of drinks. Total crack up, especially the look on the faces of the Danish group sitting next to us.
Highlight of the day - Finding some amazing graffiti to photograph! As a photographer I'm always looking for interesting things to shoot and some of the street art was awesome, worth keeping an eye out for it.
27/10 - YAY! Safari Park! One of the places we wanted to make sure we visited this time. Expecially after not leaving the Legian/Kuta region last year. After hearing so much about it from this forum, I was positive it was going to be a great day. And it was! $25 US gets you entry, a seat on the Safari bus and one photograph with an animal (which I didn't bother with). Our friends who love their cats, were blown away by the lions and tigers, especially the white tigers. My wife and I loved the elephants! Probably won't go back to this place in a hurry, but so glad we went. Dinner time and we were off to Gracie Kellys, a place my mate raved about. Nice place, but probably the let down of the trip for me. Beer was warm and my meal was average.
Highlight of the day - The amazing photographs I got at the Safari Park. I managed to fill up most of my 2gb card. Crazy!
28/10 - Woke up feeling rather sick, so took it easy for the morning chilling in the HR pool. Which by the way is very easy to do, just lounging on the beach area. In the evening we headed back to Poppies for dinner and to order our suits. As another recommendation from this forum we headed to Koris for tea, sizzling steak was AMAZING! We ordered our suits from Janoko'' just over the road. I ordered 2 suits and 2 pairs of work shorts. Total spend was around $120. My wife ordered 3 outfits and 2 pants and she spent around $160. We were both blown away by the service, quality and the price. I was stoked because I now had a suit to wear on Melbourne Cup day! We then hit an old favourite hang out of my mates, Tubes (I think). We were the first people there and the only people there for the entire night. So we whipped out the Metallica cd just purchased and spent the night playing pool with the crew.
Highlight of the day - Tasting Arak for the first time. Actually it was more of a lowlight, but hey!
29/10 - WATERBOM PARK! No need to go into detail on the wicked time we had here. Thanks again to more forum advice I deposited Aussie dollars onto my Waterbom band, getting a better rate than the money changers. Firstly we grabbed a cabana by the pool and then hit the new ride. Still feeling like crap, I decided not to hit the boomerang, but still loved the day! After the horrible meal I had last year at Poco Loco's, I promised never to have mexician in Bali again. But my mates talked us into going to Che Che's and I'm glad they did. Had a beautiful dinner and it was very cheap.
Highlight of the day - Checking out the Paradiso and realising we'd made the right choice to stay at Hard Rock.
30/10 - Today we decided not to spend the whole day together as a group. So my wife and I booked a pool side cabana (which you get free when you stay at Hard Rock), then headed out to explore some more shops. For anyone thinking of visiting Hard Rock for the day, do yourself a favour and book a cabana. Well worth the money. Great to just chill out in! For dinner we went to Macaroni, which was nice but nothing to rave about.
Highlight of the day - Watching the fire dancers at Macaroni. Very entertaining.
31/10 - After being stuffed around with transport, we finally made our way out for some white water rafting. Awesome day! It didn't go for as long as I expected, but well worth the money. Cost us 300,000rp each for the rafting and another 100,000rp each for transport. Halloween! We always knew this night was going to be a big one. My night to choose where we ate, so thanks to everyone's advice we headed out in search of the infamous Yutz. We made a pit stop on the way to stock up on UFC dvd's, then after asking numerous taxi drivers we found it. And boy was I glad! It was one of the best meals of the trip! After dinner it was drinking time, so we headed off to Paddy's Bar for a few quite ones (yeah right!).
Highlight of the day - Spending the rest of the night in the empty bar next to Paddy's watching a wicked band, playing anything we asked them to play.
1/10 - Heading into the home stretch with my wife not having found as many clothes as she'd liked, I knew that today was going to be all about shopping! We headed back to the surf outlets, where to her surprise she managed to find a whole swag of nice stuff. With young niece's and nephews to buy for, we then headed back to the Kuta Art Markets for some copy shirts and shorts. We also headed to Matahari, where I finally found some sneakers that fit me, so I bought 3 pairs! Lunch was at Il Foiri (can't remember the name, next to Waterbom). I had a lovey pasta, which was super cheap and really hit the spot. We picked up our suits at Janoko's, which fitted perfectly and we were so happy with. The only thing that annoyed us was that we didn't order more. Armed with a long list of resturants to check out, my wife and I decided to head up to Seminyak. After not seeing much of the place last year, I was glad we had the time to check out somewhere new. We were dropped off at Ku De Ta, but were unable to get a table. This place was AMAZING! But a little out of our budget, espcially after all the shopping! We walked down to Ultimo, which again was recommended. It was great, my wife claims her meal was the best she had on the entire trip. Very well priced, great atmosphere and awesome food!
Highlight of the day - Spending the day with my wife, exploring new places and finding a wicked Billabong shirt for my favourite nephew.
2/10- Last full day and we all knew it was going to be a long one. With a 2am check out the next morning, we decided to make the most of what time there was. Three of us had planned to get tattoo's today, but after over spending the day before, my wife and I couldn't afford ours. We still spent the morning watching my mates wife get hers. It was fun, I'd never seen a tattoo being done before and it was interesting. The studio was just off Poppies II, so I roamed around in search of some more interesting sites to photograph. Back to Rosso Viro so my mate could finally try a volcano pizza, then it was packing time (which of course is the saddest part). After catching an amazing sunset, we headed down to the Ocean Beach Club. We had passed it 100 times and we're so glad we checked it out. Everyone had great meals and it was reasonably priced. 11pm rolls around and it's time to head to the airport.
Highlight of the day - Witnessing one of the best things Bali has to offer, an amazing sunset. Best of all it didn't cost a thing!
3/10 - Get to the airport only to discover that our plane is delayed (GREAT!) We checked our bags in, which we under weight thanks mostly to the extra 10 kilos each, due to flying business class. We then spent the next ten minutes watching a stupidly drunk Aussie guy fighting with airport security staff, who didn't want him to board the plane. We just laughed and made our way to the lounge, so some rest, a few early morning beers and a shower! 4am seemed to take forever, but it finally arrived. And we were so glad that we invested the $300 per ticket for business class. That extra room on an early flight home is an absolute luxury!
Highlight of the day - Getting home, showering and finally getting to REALLY sleep after being awake since 8am the day before.