Hello All. We are a couple in our mid 20's who recently returned from 12 days in Bali, staying in Kuta, Legian and Ubud. The trip was part leisure, part planning for our wedding in Bali next year! This was our 3rd trip to bali.
May I firstly thank everybody for all the valuable information which you have shared that made our trip sooo much more fun and productive. I check the forum multiple times a day, but this is the first time I have actually posted anything.
We flew Jet* from Darwin, no complaints what-so-ever. There is never much to complain about considering the fact that it is only a 2hr and 20 minute flight. Left Darwin at 7.50 and arrive in Bali at about 9pm. Straight through VOA and immigration, our bags were waiting and we were out of the airport within 20 minutes.
We didn't have transport organised so we went straight to the taxi booth and we were on our way. Our first stop was Inna Kuta Beach for 7 nights. The traffic was so busy that I think it took us close to an hour to get to Inna.
I must admit it wasn't a very good start to our holiday. We were shown to our room (132) which was on the ground floor, close to the pool. The room was very tired and the bathroom in particular was old and dirty. This wasn't a major issue and it wasn't something we would complain about. There was also a lot of mosquitoes in the room.
We thought we would go for a walk and check out the sights of Kuta that we had missed so much. After a quick walk around we stopped at Flapjacks for some pancakes (which were really yummy). We then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. THEN at about 3 in the morning we were woken repeatedly by the young groups of guys that were staying in the surrounding rooms. There were making a lot of noise and the walls didn't seem to contain the noise very well, we could hear every word they were saying. After an hour of continuous noise I called reception to be told that the hotel was full and there isn't much they can do. In the morning we returned to reception and the agreed to move us after 12pm that day.
The room we were moved to (323) was really nice - on the 3rd floor, recently renovated, with a nice view of the pool. It was also much quieter and there was not the constant traffic of people coming back from the pool and beach. We didn't mind the stairs.
After this we enjoyed our stay at Inna, I found the breakfast pretty average (compared to Ramayana - where we usually stay). Staff were friendly and the pool was nice - didn't have too much trouble finding a lounge by the pool. The location of Inna is excellent. As it is owned by the government it does lack a few of the things that you might expect at privately owned hotels.
I think that we will stay at Ramayana when we return next year.
We enjoyed out stay in kuta - we had soo many great meals. Our Fav restaurants are Uns, Kori amd TJs. But we didn't have one bad meal. (Actually the dinner we had at the Inna Kuta beach restaurant on the beach was pretty average.)
While in Kuta we had many many appointments for the wedding. These included photography and videography, wedding invitations and few trips up to the wedding venue to finalise prices and details.
I must mention the invitations we had made....2 young guys (who were recommended on the forum) agreed to meet us at the hotel and show us some samples. I didn't have much idea of what I wanted in terms of invitation and I will admit that many of their samples weren't really what I had in mind. But one of the samples was really nice and was (of course) the most extravagant invitation that they had to offer. After a bit of discussion we agreed on a price and we then emailed them what we wanted written on the invitation. They then made up a sample a brought it to us a few days later. We were more than pleased with the result and they even added a few little extra touches which made them really special. Spelling etc was 100% accurate as they prefer to copy and paste what we sent them (this was the same with the guest list). The invites were very well priced (22,000rp) - which probably sounds expensive, however they were actually made to be like a little book with cardboard and metallic paper, which then had another piece of cardboard around them and a ribbon. They also printed the names on the invites for us. Anyway...if anybody would like their details please let me know.
The photographer who came to show us his portfolio was amazing and his work was exceptional. They are also much more reasonably price in comparison with 2 of the others we were considering. So we have that organised and we paid a deposit to secure the date. (Again, if anybody would like the details please let me know).
Our wedding venue is in Uluwatu, so we made 2 trips up there to discuss the detail, and to pay a deposit. I must stay that this particular venue is absolutely stunning...and although it seemed expensive to begin with, they are very fair and will negotiate the prices to make it within your budget.
We went to Geneva to buy small gifts for the wedding guests - we also bought hand fans from a shop poppies II.
We had a shopping day in Denpasar. I bought a lot of make up at Ramayana...and apart from a few other things (like shoes) that was all we bought. We then stopped at the Tupperware outlet in denpasar. I found it really good - although there was a language barrier our driver was very happy to help us communicate. We basically went through the catalogue and wrote down everything we wanted - and then they went out the back and got if for us. Because we bought so much they also packed it into these nice Tupperware bags and also gave out driver a couple of Tupperware items to thank him for bringing us. I think we spent about $250 Australian - but if i bought all of the same stuff in Australia it would have costed close to $1000. I highly recommend making a trip there - if you have enough space in your luggage. We had to put container within container and pack other small items into the Tupperware in order to have enough room.
Other than that we just did a lot of shopping and relaxing while in Kuta.
Our next stop was Ubud. We stayed at Tepi Sawah Villas, which is about 5 mins out of central Ubud. We really loved it there - it was really pretty. Our room overlooked ricefields and had a huge bathroom and was just beautiful. The grounds of the hotel were also really nice and we spent a lot of time on this huge day bed by the pool. It was never a problem getting into ubud - we just called reception 15 mins before we wanted to go and the shuttle would be waiting. After we finished dinner or whatever we would give the Tepi Sawah card to the waiter when paying the bill and they would call them to pick us up. It was very easy and we had a really nice 3 days. The only tour we did was the Bali Buggy tour - we shared a buggy and had a really great time. We did get a bit muddy but there were only 2 other couples on the tour with us so it was really casual and we all got a long really well. Lunch was pretty reasonable.
Our final 2 nights were at Melasti Beach Resort in Legian. When we arrived the service was pretty poor for Bali standards..we waited about 10 minutes until they decided they were ready to serve us and check us in. We were shown to our room (deluxe room 169) which was big....but disgusting. I guess we are clean freaks...but the bathroom had the most fowl smell that we felt like we were going to die whenever we walked in there. The hotel grounds also really really needed maintenance. There were a lot of families staying there but I would be hesitant to let my children (if I had any, my only child is a lopp eared rabbit at the moment) run around the grounds when it looks so dangerous. Breakfast at the hotel was ok...
We enjoyed legian but this is the first time we have stayed down there - and I think we are more Kuta type people. Although those horses in Kuta make me so sad everytime the run past (...)
So anyway, after 1 night at Melasti we felt that we didn't want to stay there any longer so we changed our flight to fly home late that night - instead of late the next day. This cost us about 100 dollars but we would have had to pay a 50US late checkout the next day...so for us it was worthwhile. So we did our last minute shopping and had some more spa treatments before heading to the airport. Flight on the way home was also good - we were a couple of kilos over but it didn't seem to be a problem. We went into the Prada lounge - we were first in line to check in so we had over 2 hours to kill. The seats inside prada were really nice - we didn't eat much - but we had a couple of drinks. I would recommend going into the lounge for the sake of about 10 dollars.
What have I forgotten??
I bought my wedding dress in Bali - Mary Lynn Bridal (near kuta square) has some absolutely stunning wedding dresses. I would recommend this place to anyone.....their dresses are so beautiful an unique. I paid 8 million for my dress - all similar (not as nices) dresses I had seen in Australia were about 2000 dollars.
We also organised out wedding cake at Ixora cakes - it is really beautiful and i think it was 300 dollars- it is a 3 tier cake with a lot of decoration.
Most things for the wedding are organised except transport and alcohol which im still working on. Also trying to organise a pre wedding dinner.
Sorry this was so long and boring!! I ended up rambling a lot more about the wedding than I planned to.
If anyone has questions, please let me know. The countdown begins for the next trip in
August 2010.