It had been about 3 months since our last visit and our Jetstar disaster, and this time we were happy to fly direct from Brisbane to Bali with Virgin Blue, our tickets costing $450.00 each so all was good. Flight left on time, no problems. Arrive in Bali picked up by Made and straight to Yuli Bungalows to find all in relax mode. I won't bore you with the seemingly endless work side of the trip but we did find plenty of new product. Over the next 3.5 weeks the weather varied from great days to rain mainly at night or afternoon, and it was bloody hot. The last part of our stay saw a lot more tourists in the street, and my contacts confirmed that most of the hotels along the beach of Legian are quickly getting solidly booked pretty much for the year
as is the case with Yuli Bungalows, Hidden Garden etc in Gg Abdi. Money rate was good around 7500/7700rp and a bit higher just before we left
Food was sensational as usual with Nyoman at Warung Kartini providing one of my favourites of snapper with black bean sauce - amazing and only 30,000. Jen was missing her salads so Zanzibar along the beach strip got the thumbs up and saw us returning quit a few times. I must ad that lunch from Warung Rai needs also to be mentioned as her Nasi Campur is a taste sensation and at only 6000 what can I say - wow. One morning on our ritual walk to Tuban there were a few dead dogs washed up on the beach obviously from the Bukit as a result of the rabies drama out there. My surfing mate Wayan told me how poison darts and blowguns were used to cull suspect dogs which had to happen to contain the disease as rapidly as possible. The dogs on the disposed of quickly and on speaking with Nyoman (security at mbr) who lives at Uluwatu I was told that they have contained things and all is well, so no need to worry about that any more. I should also say that the govt provided thousands of free injections for locals pets. Things in general a getting more expensive in Bali , I notice a lot of the hotels along the beach have increased rates and charge in US dollars which can be annoying for Aussies. I went a checked Kite Beach at Sanur and it looks really good for kitesurfing with flat water and outer reefs, although not much wind at the time I will be taking my gear next trip when the trade winds kick in. We lunched at Cafe Kesuma Sanur which is like old bali rest with sand floor right on the beach, had the freshest snapper/chips &salad for 30,000rp - so good. A first for us was the flight home as it left at 4.40 in the afternoon, instead of the dreaded midnight
Shuffle, all in all everything went really well and now we will set our sights on another cheap flight in about 3 months time.
Brent