Hi All,
Just back today from Bali. Left Melbourne on 8th November.
Flight uneventful and left on time and got there 15 minutes early..
I had decided to to the VIP VOA because there were around 9 planes all flying into Bali that night within a 2 hour period and having been a few times before I just didnt want to queue for hours with my bad back so paid the $ 38.00 through netfare for Bali Concierge VIP service. Worth every penny too...I was met at the bottom of the stairs by a man holding my name up and was taken to a lovely lounge where they served cakes and drinks etc..and yes, they do serve beer. While I was stuffing my face with cake another man was busy organising my visa and luggage and before I could even finish my cup of coffee he was back to get me and escort me through customs. It didnt take any more than 15 minutes..It was so quick that the other couple who had also bought the service kept saying "this is unbelievable, I cant believe this is so quick" etc..Out we go, past a queue of about 300 people...it was fantastic...I will definately do this service again..
This time I was staying at Febris hotel and spa in Tuban. I have never stayed here before. I will give an honest run down of the hotel. It was clean, the rooms were a nice size and well appointed, exactly what you would expect from a hotel of this standard. The pool was nice and surrounded by frangipani trees that provided more than adequate shade from the sun. Some people had commented that they had found the pool cold and I was expecting to jump in and freeze but to my surprise the pool was very warm, lovely, no problems here with the pool, it must have heated up!..A lot of families stay at this hotel so if you are wanting a quiet vacation steer clear of Febris, as children do, they are noisy and squeal a lot and love to run around like they are being chased by demons, quite amusing but can get a wee bit wearing..also, right next door there is a bulding site and the hammering starts at 7am and doesnt end until 10pm..it absolutely drove me up the wall..there was no peace to be had AT ALL!!...I have no idea when it will be finished but from what i could see it will be a quite a while...the staff at Febris are lovely. I only ordered one thing from the restaurant menu, a club sandwhich which was so dry that if you chewed on it and spat it out it would have come out in a spray of crumbs, it was like cardboard..hahah..had to laugh because it was so wrong it was funny...breakfast okay, same every day but adequate..
We had suits made at Anika taylor down the road. I think I paid too much. After 10 trips to bali I am still crap at bargaining, really, really crap. I am not going to publish the cost of the suits for fear of being really embarassed by the more astute forumites that are good at bargaining, i know I paid too much..Anyway, they fit me and look nice which is what really matters isnt it?.
On day 2 I took a trip to the volcano (again) as the person I was travelling with was a bali first timer so a trip to kintamani is a pre-requisite. My old friend Ketut was our driver. He was probably the best driver I have had in bali so far, so careful and patient and the car was lovely, a van with a great airconditioner. I have sometimes felt very scared on the roads in Bali but not with Ketut, he was really good. If anyone is interested I have Ketuts details. We did the usual stuff, stopped at a jewellery place to buy silver which of course we did and then off to the ubud markets. I really like the ubud markets, they seem to have more variety than the ones in kuta..more than just bintang shirts and board shorts. We bought a few things from here and thought we had gotten a really good bargain buying a bowl for 50 thousand and 3 stalls down we hear the store owner shout out "I give 3 for 60 thousand"..see, crap..had to laugh, again..I laughed a lot on this trip...One thing that was not so amusing was when Ketut took us to see a largish temple just outside of Kintamani. Now I have been to bali a few times and know about the sarong hiring etc so was fully prepared to have to do this, no problem..well, we pull up to the temple and two ladies proceed to wrap a couple of dirty old sarongs around us. when they had finished they said that the fee to hire a sarong was 200000rp each..two hundred thousand rupiah..each...I thought I had heard her wrong and made her repeat it a number of times...yes, 200 thousand rupiah to hire a dirty old sarong...thats up around 30 bucks...seriously..I said no way was I going to pay that much money to hire a bloody sarong and started to take it off, I was done..she had overcooked it this time...all the time the sarong ladies were saying yes, 200 thousand, my friend had had enough too and we were walking back to the van and of course it was then 100 thousand and once we had opened the car door it was 50 thousand each...too late..not interested...hahah..had to laugh later though at their cheek...I mean, I am all for a bit of bargaining etc but that was purely trying to take advantage and we were not having it..haha....just before we got out of our car I saw 2 other tourists enter the temple with sarongs on..god knows what they paid..
One thing that I noticed this year that was different was how much more expensive bali has become. Obviously with the financial concerns lately this has not helped and it has made prices for eating out in bali not quite as affordable. for example, when I got there the rate was about 6400rp to the aussie dollar. At a restaurant in Padma Street, sorry forgotten the name, the price for a pizza was 60000rp..now thats nearly 10 bucks..anyway, just an observation, it seemed a lot dearer to me this year than any previously but we are in weird times so its very volatile. It is still pretty cheap relatively..it wont stop me from going!
Bakungsari street is pretty chewed up at the moment, they have dug a big trench down one side to lay cable...its pretty hard going walking down there at the moment.
Because I was travelling with a first timer it sort of gave me first timer eyes all over again, I was seeing things as she must have been seeing them. The dirty streets, the cracked gutters with holes all the way to china, the stench of sewerage, the mangy dogs, the people shouting "transport", the taxi's continually tooting you for business, the shop owners innocently saying "i have large model, will fit you"....the smiles of the people....the way that everyone says good morning and hello...Bali to me is all of this and more but if it wasnt for the beauty of the people we probably wouldnt go because its easy to forget about the smell of the streets when someone who is unblocking a drain takes the time to lift their head, smile and say hello to a stranger...