Flew with Garuda, flight left one hour earlier than was stated on our ticket, this was a nice suprise. We landed without any other planes in front of us, we sat in row 9 so were the first out, the first at immigration and our luggage was amongst the first out.....way to arrrive in Bali, YES.
We stayed at the Ida Hotel in Kuta for the first nine nights, this hotel is great and we enjoyed ourselfs staying there. The staff are very friendly and if anything the Hotel is over staffed as the service was always very promp and A1. Our room was one of their Delux Bungalows with an outside bathroom. These rooms have two queen size four poster beds with the post joined together above with artwork and the traditional elegant roof ceiling above the artwork. The surrounding gardens are so tranquil, it is easy just to sit on your balcony and relax.
Our last six nights we met up with friends who were staying at the Losari Hotel in Legian, so we checked in there into one of their Villas. Thei Villa was large enougth with couch, a large flatscreen television, a large fridge which was very cold and your own plung pool which had a coolish temperature but not cold. The food in the hotel was reasonably prised and enak sekali (very tastie).
In one day, my wife found a purse containg a mobil phone, keys and money belonging to a Balinese. The first number we dialled on the phone was answered by the owners husband who was fratically looking for the purse as it had the only key to their shop in it. He arrived within a minute and was very happy to have it returned. The same night my wife Regina, lost here purse after we returned home on the back of a motor bike each at the Ida Hotel. She had dropped it in the car park and she wasn't aware untill the next morning that she had lost it. Luckily one of the night shift staff had found it and returned it to me we i went to reception to see if anyone had handed it in. Leanne, the manager told us that when she took over the hotel, she was informed that the staff were very honest and reliable, so it was nice to hear this and see that their honesty was still honorable to them. Several of the Staff members have been at the Ida hotel for some 30 years. Ayu a friend of many years who is now Marketing manager at the Losai Hotel also lost her purse with two mobil phones in it a few days later, but unfortunatlly she didn't get it back
We didn't shop much as this was our fortyth trip to Bali but we did by some jewllery and Regina had four golden rings, some with diamonds and emeralds remade into a new ring which is now her combined engagment/wedding ring. They did a wonderfull job and Regina was very pleased with the finish. This was done at the jewllery at the Bali Rani hotel.
We are learing Bahasa Indonesian with an Australian teacher at home and the night before we left to go to Bali she dropped ain and gave us an assingmnet to performe once we were in Bali. The assignment was written in Bahasa. We had to catch a local bus to Denpasar and chat to a local and find out three things about them, go to the market and buy original batik, asked several questions about the batik and then go to the fruit market and batah for one kilo of snake fruit. Then we were allowed to return to our hotel by Taxi. The task was daunting, but very enjoyable and it was fun. We went at night due to the heat and ended up in a local night market as we got lost and couldn't find where Bu our teacher had wanted us to go. Very few spoke english and the ones that did were very limited.
We didn't have a bad meal or service for the two weeks we were in Bali
and ate at several favourite places as well as many new to us. Regina likes smaller warung style and i like finer dinning places so we took it in turns of sellecting a hotel each day. here is a list of the places we atye at;
KUNTI SUSHI BAR - JL Legian. Great sushi and cheap.
TAKE II JAPANESE Rest. JL Padma Great Japanese with tepenyaki available.
BEACH HOUSE - Echo Beach. We went on Sunday which was BBQ and Band night, loved the sunset, view, meals and music, reasonable pricing.
KORI Poppies 2, always a favourite, went twice.
WARUNG 96, JL Benisari, Yum Pizza, cheap, quick, another favourite.
GABAH - Ramyanha Hotel Kuta, Nice cocktails, food great, Rp 450000 for the both of us.
SEASIDE - Semenyak, food good Rp 1,000,000 for 5 of us with beers and cocktails.
DROPS Jl Padma, This was new to us, went three times, the best Bebek
Betutu (Balinese Duck) Ive ever had and Regina loved the fish dishes.
Average with 3 cocktails each was Rp 420,000 for both of us. Also loved the Mango Dakeries.
WAYAN AND FRIENDS Jl Padma. A great cheapish restaurant, great sandwiches and rolls as well as indonesian dishes.
MENEGAH Jimberan Bay...a busy place, we went with a dozen or so expats who used to eat their regulary and we were all a little disapointed on what things used to be. I think also that personally I am over Jimberan Bay dinning.
UN's Kuta, another first for us, just loved this place also, the Mahi-Mahi fish was devine, also the frozen Dakeries. Rp 420,000 for 2
KETAPUT - Jl Legian, Great Indonesian dishes with fine dinning for Balinese standard, Rp 240,000 for 2 with beers.
IDA HOTEL has the best lunch meals, its hard to go out of the hotel for lunch when they have such tasty meals but like most hotels, it is hard to stay in for dinner when there are so many great restaurants to eat at outside of the hotel.
BALCONY Restaurant, Jl Benisari. on the dog leg to the beach.
This place has the same owners as UN's. It was our first favourite restaurant, now second to DROPS. Rp 350,000 for 2 with drinks.
BALI CORNER - Poppies 2, Opp Barong hotel on Corner. Very cheap meals and drinks, very tasty, always have the Crab/Egg Soup....YUMMMM
FLYING PIANO - Legian, We had our german type dishes her and loved it.
This is a pleasant restaurant with Swiss/German, Indonesian and Thai dishes. Something that stood out was the bunch of Expat Swiss guys who were a little under the weather and took a dislike to a few croups of ozzies singing english songs as the three piece band moved about the restaurant. It seems the Swiss guys would of prefered Swiss songs, altho I only heard them sing in english even when they sang happy birthday to one of the swiss group. It didn't bother me, it was ammusing
LOSARI HOTEL, had one luch and one dinner as we were to lazzy to shower and go out for dinner. Meals were very good, exspecially the Behun noodles.
SAMMIE & SUZZIES BAR, or the little warung style place under the tree next to S&S, We had lunch here three times, the Nasi Goering is just magic and at 13,000 (under AUD$2)/.
Sussie must of been put of a little bit, for our last day she brought us Nasi, Sate Lalit chicken and Bubi Guling and Sumbal Mata. Enak Sekali, Sussie.
Our trip home, we visited the Prada Lounge at the airport for two and a half hours, a very relaxing to waite for your plane. we both sleept a little with the plane being 70% full. Arrived back in Melbourne, collected our duty free, used the electronic immigration, had nothing to declare so were out of the airport within twenty minutes of landing.....first time for a long time.
Back in the mid August, so not so long to waite this time..
Cheers, Bob and Regina