Hey Kiddies - We're back !
JBR - 24th April ( meant to be 25th but that's another story) back home 13th May.
Moi, Hubby, Daughter ( all been a few times) & her BF ( Bali virgin).
Anyway, a quick update for those who have missed the saga thus far. A week before we left our favourite friends at Jetflap decided to cancel our domestic Tassie flights and our Melb-DPS flights. Found out thru here ( thanks again Fraz) and rang them. Many frustrating calls later, loads of wrong bookings and straight out lies - we were sent via Perth the night before - as you do. So, straight after work flew straight to MLB, 2 hour wait then off to Perth. We arrived about 2 in the morning ( totally wrecked and on the wrong time) and they expected us to sit in the airport til 11am the next day (...). It was lovely and warm in Perth even at that hour and the Lorikeets were all chatting over the top of each over in the trees. No one could help re luggage lockers, but yes, we could take the shuttle bus to the International terminal - if we didn't mind waiting til 3 am. I booked us into Mantra on Hay for the princely sum of AU$275. Got going the next day ( still wrecked) to arrive back in the Isle of the Gods at last.
It was either travel thru Perth or get a refund. As I didn't happen to have $4000 laying around to rebook thru someone else, I was trapped.
Insurance thru Insure4less - happy to add an extra day after our changes with no extra charge. No claims made thru them.
During the flight ( which was full), another passenger was telling me how she had over bought on her duty free so, as I had no grog, I offered to take it thru for her. She insisted I keep the ‘extra' and brought down a nice big bottle of Moet! Well, how lucky was I? It was chilled to perfection and enjoyed on the beach one evening at Nusa Lembongan during one of their spectacular sunsets for our 25th wedding anniversary.
First time I hadn't arranged transfers. No answer from our regular driver so I headed to the taxi rank. The touts wanted stupid prices and were disappointed I knew the approx amount and only offered that. Taxi rank insisted we have 2 taxis. No station wagons in Bali. Grrrrrrrrr. Welcome to Bali. Met Robyn from the Bali Beach Shack who very kindly offered us a front row seat if we wanted for dinner and show. Bit late for us to dine so only went for the show that night.
Eventually had to get 2 taxis, 2 x rp 120 000, not happy. Wanted to travel together or take ojeks.
Grand Kumala
I don't know why this hotel doesn't get a better rap. Rp275 000 night. Huge rooms, ½ on the ground floor if that's what you prefer. To give you an idea of the size, the kids room upstairs also had a single in it and there was still room for another 2 single beds. Also, upstairs in the older part every few rooms, where the stairs come out there is a living room bit with a couch and table etc. which is good if you are all staying and waiting to meet up for meals etc. I had heard someone say they had the best shower in Bali ever here, and so did I. Brilliant pressure. Who was the bleach King/Queen on here? They would have used an entire bottle on the black tiled shower stall ( that was becoming white) but I ran the gauntlet and lived to tell the tale. King size bed, safe, decent size cold fridge, TV had one English channel, so good if you needed a fix, 2 waters each day. Brekky, small buffet ( included). Toast, fruit, juice etc. Also included in CBF was a 1 egg omelette. First day we didn't have a voucher and no one cared. We also had a scoop of nasi or mie each morning and no one was bothered about that either. Restaurant down the back near the bigger pool, quiet and private. Bought a kettle at Bintang ( pink of course) and as we had bought a couple of souvenir mugs went to reception to ask for a tea spoon. Came back with 2 cups, saucers and tea spoons, which housekeeping managed to leave in our room by the kettle each day. 2 pools. 1 at the front, nice enough but impossible to get out of. We are all reasonably fit but found the ladder too high up out of the water. 2nd pool down the back. Bigger, and deep enough for mucking around. Had new sandstone steps and despite no handrail, easy to get out of. Nice gardens, well maintained. Mature coconut trees so squirrel watchers heaven. Traditional style buildings at front section, more modern style at rear, private, 2 floors, quiet. Huge lounge, bar, telly at reception and each afternoon a million guests all swarmed there with their laptops so I presume it is a hot spot thingy. ( Tech heads feel free to help out here) A lot of French and Europeans around. Room service if you wanted, we ate at the restaurant and had cocktails 1st night - all good. The big plus for this place that I found very pleasant indeed - was the staff. They will all acknowledge you, they are all friendly and obliging. Nothing was too much trouble. For that reason alone I would gladly stay here again. Laundry, grub and shops right out the door. Housekeeping fine ( or maybe it was the rp20 000 on the pillow each day?). When the kids accidentally smashed a glass, the staffs 1st concern was whether they were alright. How refreshing is that?
Only minus for this hotel - the time share gang on the phone. No one knew we were staying here. On the immigration card I had only put ‘Legian', so the hotel had to have given our names and room numbers out. Not happy Jan. 3 calls. 1st time my daughter answered and they just assumed she was married to her BF and called her Mrs by his name - all was going well until they asked her age. 16. They hung up. BF was straight to the point - No Thanks. Hubby enjoyed his call and kept them chatting for an hour. ( giggle) Had 5 nights here and would recommend.
As some of you may know I chickened out of going to the orphanage and asked Smudge to pass on our donations. I was pretty keen to do that early so we could free up 3 suitcases. When we rang Smudge just happened to be at the Bintang supermarket so how lucky was that? 6 of us out to tea at Blue Ocean ( next to Zanzibars?) on the beach. Very nice to catch up with Smudge & Made again, and hear more of their deeds. Also to take a moment to remember our good friend Filo. x Everyones meal except mine was good. That was a pretty sad Caesar salad, but I'll live.
Down to Rickys - nothings changed! Met up with Fraz and friend ( Hi Jan) for a sharing forum on Jetstar! Their ears must have been burning off. Fraz & Cos next stop was the cocktail party at the Niksoma with the GM! Pretty impressive hey?!
Bali beach shack for the girls show. Yeah, look it was O.K. but thats about it. We were made very welcome, great staff, drinks cold etc.
Tommys, 1st time. Can't believe I've walked past this place a million times and never gone in. My loss. Lovely staff, bit slow, great food. Salad rolls etc and 1 chip sandwich. Fraz and Co taking photos of my lunch - can't believe you guys have never seen a chip sandwich, dripping with sauce of course! We are all going to have to inject some food culture into Backwater Melbourne kiddies.
Kusnadi - 1st time. Food fair to middling, nice in bale, asked for mosquito spray, no worries. Asked for a look around as this was our original choice of accom. 1st impressions, pool just as nice if not nicer than website. Rooms lovely, grounds very quiet and private. It was only the price that made us change.
Down to Ketuts for a garbage bag full of clothes for Hubby and Moi. Cheap as chips and now have something to wear! Very easy shopping, bit hard to find though as the gang has a number not a name, but the locals were happy to direct us.
Money changer, 1 up from the corner of Rum Jungle - honest, slow, no tricks. He got all our business. Throughout most of the trip, rate didn't change much and anyway, what's a couple of hundred rp anyway? 7600 ish.
Bank statement at home for each rp 1 mill from ATM, cost us AU$134.52 incl overseas transaction fee AU$3.91 (ANZ).
Our 1st massage ever and we chose Briella. We semi chickened out and went for ½ an hour traditional. The rooms were private and quiet and apart from everyone giggling at the squeaking bed, we soon succumbed and floated out ½ an hour later. After neck surgery, I was worried when my neck hurt the next day, but that went away in a day or too so all good. We would go back if that was our thing.
La Casa - had a couple of evenings here with Yogi and Co and as usual - food was brilliant. There must be something in the grog ( Arak Attacks) though, cause when I left 1 night, the roads were swaying back to Grand Kumala. Thank God the traffic was non existent. The rest of the gang staggered up to Captain Cooks to finish the night with an 8 ball comp.
On that walk, after the dog leg with the convex mirror, there is a little shop that sells hand made acoustic guitars. Hubby & BF spent a bit of time there playing and were highly impressed. It is one piece wood not the factory laminated stuff.
Fantastic coffees with Johnny be Good (Bad) at Beach Melati Apartments as usual. It feels a bit posh stirring your cappuccino with a cinnamon stick watching the world go by. Nice club sandwiches too. He ended up at La Casa with us too, fantastic to catch up with everyone.
Checked out Three Brothers for future reference. Wow, looong walk thru the gardens to reception. In the dark and tripping up everything including steps up and through Balinese doors in the gardens. It is certainly tucked in so should be quiet. Staff happy to show us rooms, very nice with A/C, private balcony, huge soaring roof, fridge, TV ( staff didn't know what channels?), outdoor bathroom. Rooms had a little couch or 2 soft chairs tucked inside the door which is a nice touch. Good location, pool lovely. Very nice. It's a pity they don't update their website because on the spot, and looking at their brochure, they are way nicer than the website indicates.
IndoNational for tea. Good as usual. The walruses had to be wheeled out and hadn't finished everything on plate! We ate early and they were filling fast as we were leaving, so I guess as popular as ever.
Waterbom for Kids - same as usual, nothing to report.
Breadtalks bread and butter pudding - BIG Disappointment. They are now smaller rp 9000. This gives one the issue of having to buy twice as much and looking like a pig ( no swine flu pun intended). What to do? Really, they were ½ the size. Its funny what you look forward to isn't it?
Renos on Kumala Pantai coming along at a frantic pace. Guys would be working there all thru the night as well. We were watching this progress from the Internet café opposite the new entrance most nights. The GM was sitting out there one night going thru the blue prints with someone, making sure everything was right.
Not so the renos of the 5 story concrete place next to Sus Prince Cottages as I heard ( not the Su's opposite Kumala Pantai, the one further up near Jl 66). I gather this has been going on for a while, but a chap staying there was telling me about how the previous night, a huge chunk of concrete had fallen off the top story and gone straight thru the roof of the villa below. Very lucky - the occupants had just gone out....... Next day, only in Bali of course, the builders were trying to jigsaw the concrete together so they could glue it all back up?? Then another piece fell ! Despite that, this chap was saying the rates are very good, nice little lounge and kitchenette etc. They were happy.
There appear to be a couple of issues with time share folk at Jayakarta. It centres on the maintenance fees being paid, but not acknowledged and people not being allowed in their apartment... someone who knows more may like to take up this story. We're not just talking about 1 or 2 couples here either. Those suites really need an update and/or renovation. One couple we met called Jayakarta ‘the beginners' hotel'.
Lost the kids one day in Kuta and spent the entire afternoon circling in a taxi like vultures looking for them. Stormy, that's when we did a few blockies past the Nusa Indah and each time I was craning to look inside and was thinking, I must stop in there and take a look for you. I didn't. When I look back, I think its pretty sad that I didn't have time to look thru a hotel for a friend, then when I think about the day, it was hot and we had lost the kids and close to getting lost ourselves, getting annoyed with one way streets and traffic jams.......... Sorry.
Kiddies, I'll be going against the flow here, but, the DVDs we ordered through a certain friend were not that good. Pausing, catching, title menu not working so can't advance etc. so that was our first and last time for ordering. We did have his number, but by the time we saw them, it was too late. What do you expect for a $1.10 anyway?
There are no Go Karts at Kuta anymore, so don't bother getting excited, booking a taxi and turning up, like we did.
End of Legian, spent our days wandering around, looking, eating, reading etc. Had to allow time for BF to adjust etc. which he did after the inevitable culture shock. Next stop - Nusa Lembongan, then Sanur and Tanjung Benoa.