When I got home, I was asked what was the highlight of my trip. Nothing in particular came to mind as much prupose had been a low key reaxing break. But after a while something did come to mind. THE MANGOES!! How I love mangoes, and I was in seventh heaven being able to have mango jiuce and the occasional mango dacquiri at a very reasonable rate! I think mangoes are the great advantage of travelling at this time of the year.
Now for other things...
Shopping: Well I did go a bit overboard as I had plans to do a substantail amount of Christmas shopping. Purchases included handbags, Doona Cover for my daughter (one of the ones with the sari material in the middle and fabric down the sides, from Total Cushions in Padma Utara)clothes for the kids (teenagers) from a variety of places, including markets, department stores and shops in the streets, tailored clothes for me, and paintings. My tailored clothes were from janoko tailor in Poppies 2. The first time I went, I was served by a man who was not very interested in helping me, when I said that I wanted stretch material to make 3/4 pants. I mentioned Alta Moda and he basically told me to go there first. So I did! I was served by the older man who seems to own or manage the place, who shoed me around and helped me choose fabric, told me how much I needed and then gave 30% to 40% discount on price for each thing. Enough material for each pair of pants cost somewhere around 40-50,000Rp depending on the width and quality of the material! Janoko then charged 70,000 Rp to make up. When I went back with the material to Janoko, I was served by a woman who was much more interested and helpful and knew exactly what I was looking for. I also had two camisoles made for 110,000 each in more dressy materila. So some very cheap new clothes. I also bought a length of lycra to make some bathers which I had made up or copied from an old pair at Climax swimwear in Jl Legian. I told them they could cut up the old ones to use the bra cups as they do not have these, and women of my age and physique, need extra help in this area!! Lycra cost about 50,000 and about 160,000 to make up. I think I could have bargained more on the making. I found Alta Moda was much better than I anticipated but you need to have an idea of what you are looking for. Great if you were looking for a more formal evening dress and would have liked to have had my daughter here to get something for school formals.
I also went to Animale factory outlet in Jl Seminyak, and porbably tried on most of the shop. It was good to see that I fit in a lot more of their things with the loss of some extra padding in the last few months. One things I did notice. On some of the tags, I saw it said made for TS. I suspect this is the store in Australia called TS or Taking Shape, which caters to ladies of larger builds, or plus sizes! The styling is similar to that sold in TS, but the prices are MUCH cheaper. I may ask in our local shop here.
I went to Sukawati market as I had never been. Interesting but most things are available in the more tourist areas. Just a lot cheaper here, if you are an avid bargainer.
Next Installment: restaurants, eating and drinking. ...