Well it's been and gone, and how quickly things occur these days. It was like yesterday my nephew and I were getting all excited about leaving. Now home, though, after 14 days, I was ready to make the trek home to some fresh air!!
Overall the trip was brilliant. My nephew, for his very first OS trip absolutely loved it as I imagined he would. He shopped like a pro over there, was very proud of him, and only had 19 kilos of luggage to come home with.
FLIGHTS - over from Mel to DPS Garuda Business Class was great, I slept a lot of it, but mostly just chatted to sam about all the things we can do. Very exciting landing. Through imm and customs within half an hour. Great being first off the plane.
Trip home was uneventful. I dozed the whole way and woke when we descended. Missed brekki, but that was OK, the trip went quick. Through customs in no time. Not before we had the rudest b1tch in Customs, which I will be complaining about. (I can not stand people in customer service who assume every person has travelled before, and not only that, but rolling eyes and shaking head when my nephew didn't hand over his immigration card straight away, he didn't hear her, he is deaf in one ear, christ she was rude about it) Anyway that ticked me off when arriving in Oz. (But I will go to bunnnings!!!! lol)
HOTEL - Bali Garden Beach Resort. Had room 355 and it was nice as usual. Beds comfy and the noise from the street is basically non existant at night. I only had brekki the first week, then never felt like it after that. Brekki was nice, I used to have the poached eggs, nephew the pancakes. Big range of stuff there all the same. The pool and surrounds were excellent. I did a lot of lazing around the pool. The beach sellers were good, left me alone until I wanted to buy. Massage off Putu (she's softer) every day. I will miss those!!! I do not know who invented the game "marco polo" but they should be shot. The kids who played this game one night were driving me and all around me absolutely insane! God little kids annoy me! ;-)
FOOD - Ate at quite a few of the usuals. I can not recommend highly enough UN'S. The food and ambience is beautiful. Nephew had the lamb shanks and still raves about them. I had chic maryland and then the next time breaded prawns. Both lovely. Frozen margarita's here were the nicest I tasted, only 25,000rp.
THE PUB - again, the satays and chips there were excellent. Beer cold and company friendly. Always like to catch up with Brian who's a regular drinker there, great fella and wealth of knowledge also.
INDONATIONAL again for crab and grilled seafood. That was lovely too.
POPPIES was it's usual tasty self. Would only have the pina colada's if you've not had one before, they do add quite a bit to the bill if there's a few of you.
CAFE BATAN WARU again very nice food.
MUDI'S, My sister found this little warung up from Ramada Bintang, towards the airport. It was really yummy food and cheap. 330,000rp for 4 of us with half a doz or so bintangs and some other drinks along with the meals. Highly recommend that too, for somewhere tasty and cheap. (about 4 or so shops up from Ramada Bintang resort towards the airport direction).
HAVANA CLUB in Poppies 1 was nice, if you're mega hungry, go the "kebab for the hungry", it's about a foot long, other friend had it, it looked sensational. Nephew had maccas and said it was really nice, I had KFC and the spicy chicken was beautiful too.
BOARDWALK - cafe at bali garden was really nice too. Ate there two nights I think. Lamb shanks I had and they were very tender, well worth it if you're venturing into that restaurant. Had a few other things around the pool, pizza and burgers etc. Also nice too. In fact, we didn't have one bad meal the whole time we were there. DOUBLE-B - restaurant across from stadium cafe was OK. I had seafood platter, it was nice enough. Not spectacular but certainly worth a crack.
PANTAI - in Tuban, lovely food. But something which I have never found in bali before, the waitress seemed to be a tad disinterested in the whole thing. The food did take a while to come, but it didn't really bother us as you're sitting around chatting and drinking on the beach, but to others it might be a pain. Prices were very cheap here too.
STADIUM CAFE - ate there once, while watching pies beat west coast. Had a burger and it was pretty good. Others had chic parma which they said was nice, and nacho's which weren't very nice.
I have come to the conclusion I can't drink much when in Bali anymore. I used to have a few with dinner, but that pulled me up. Drank mainly beer or frozen something's. (apart from the pocari sweat and water in between). Found the arak attacks varied from place to place. Some made with orange juice, others seriously tasted straight diesel fuel! No OJ, they were clear. Christ they were strong ones. But dunno why the two diff for same drink.
WHITE WATER RAFTING - We did the Telaga Waga (sp) river. It is a full on 2 hours of rapids. You stop half way down and have a breather and a drink, but then it's into it again. 4m drop at the end is great. What people don't tell you though, is the 360 steps to get back up to buses. Let me tell you, I am relatively fit, although overweight, and I thought I was going to die walking up those steps. If you're not very fit, I would not recommend this rafting as those steps were friggen killers!!! I don't know which one I did two years ago, but there were a few steps down and none up, but dunno where that river was..unfortunately.
GOLF - I had managed to get nephew a game of golf in a little competition they have at New Kuta Golf Club each Friday. I had organised this before we left. He played on the Friday after we got there. Same course that Indonesian open was played at in Feb this year. He said the course was beautiful, greens were slow. He said he played crap, but won longest drive of 320 yards. So won some balls and other stuff. He also went to the driving range the night before to try the clubs he was borrowing. Word from the other blokes was, he was hitting them pretty bloody good!!!
OTHER TOUR - We hired Andre again and went out to our silver haunt in Celuk. Bali Sari Silver. Bought up there between us. After there we were taken to this beautiful restaurant in Ubud overlooking rice paddies, as you do. Forget the name of it, if I remember will post later. Overlooked a huge pool too. Meal was very nice there also. On way back went through Denpasar then home back way through Kerobokan. Stopped outside the prison. This is one scary place. It's revolting. ewwwwwwww!!!
SHOPPING - I bought new glasses from Optik Seis in Kuta Square. 970,000rp for frames and lenses. Bargain!! I finally bought one of those Paul Smith bags with the stripy mini on them. I'd looked at these for last three trips and thought I must get one, finally did, it's nice. Pleased with that purchase of 550,000rp. BALI SARI SILVER - I got my silver again from here in Celuk. Dream ball, chain and a really nice bracelet for about 600 thousand rp. Well worth the trip out there. Got 8 sunnies for 200 thousand on beach. The usual beach beads and stuff for pressi's. Boardies at 30 thou, bintang singlets from 15 to 25 thou. Bali bags at 25 thou. The regulation 499-938347 DVD's. Sam bought heaps and heaps of stuff. Ed Hardy stuff was all the rage, he bought lots of those T shirts, and a couple of belts. He bought some nice caps from a place called Octopuss, at the end of Kuta Square, art market end in those shops which lead to the art markets. Set price and apparently pretty cool caps, and you have to leave the sticker on. I went to both DIANNE and KETUT'S fixed price shops. I found Dianne was slightly cheaper. It was handy that it was just up the road too, coz once you got sick of bartering, we just went there and got what we needed. What she didn't have, she got in. She also made some sarongs up into skirts for my sister. I always do that, much easier, just sew em up at the ends, stick some elastic in, and away ya go!! My sis got some tops of hers copied, they were a perfect copy. It is amazing what they can do. I got a few wooden nic nacs also, some from geneva and some from shops around the traps.
Sister and bro in law stayed at Ramada Bintang, that place was beautiful. Their room was great, huge bed, overlooked gardens down the middle of hotel. They said brekki was brilliant also. In a good location and the beach front was great.
Overall, the trip was excellent. I didn't really find things more expensive. I am sure they were, but I didn't really notice it that much. Certainly not the shopping side of it anyway. Perhaps restaurants have gone up, and most definately the accommodation, but all in all, I found it same same! I reckon next year I will go only 10 days. I think once's you've done most of what you want to do, 10 days of R&R for me, will pull me up! Nephew wants go to back, he actually didn't want to leave. He's snuggled up in bed as we speak, probably wont get up until tomorrow. I snoozed today but didn't sleep and will try to get some tonight.
I will post pics up once I have got them done. I would go to Bali Cyber Cafe and transfer pics from card to usb, then I got them all printed at the FUJI shop in Kuta square. 1,600 per pic. Cost me about 250-300 thousand I think. Damn sight cheaper than here. Forgive any spelling mistakes, I can not be stuffed going over it again. lol
Enjoy the read.
Cheers
Lisa