General Observations:
Air Asia: Flight left early, arrived early. Staff Excellent. I don't know why certain people complain about the seats, we had row 1 and was excellent leg room. The seats reclined properly and I have to say I felt safer and more comfortable than I ever have on Garuda. My wife and I are both tall people and solid but not obese/overweight, we had no issues with the seats and like I said, very comfortable. Food and Drink service was fine, and our half of the plane was a Bogan Free Zone. Will always pay the extra to get front row. Was out of Airport and in Transport within 15 minutes of landing and in hotel room within 30 minutes of landing.
First few days HOT HOT HOT, then one night had a massive shower, flooding streets the next day and then coolish after that.
Traffic became a nightmare on the 17th of December, lots of domestic travelers and big influx of tourists (Aussies everywhere).
Rate anywhere from 8550-8000. Noticed that mid week it was definitely better than later in week, maybe just a cycle of exchange rate also.
ATM's: Had great success with Commonwealth, managed to withdraw just over $1500 from one transaction (Repeated withdrawals of 3m RP at a time) at the Commonwealth ATM on JL Melasti in Legian. Also, noticed
an increasing amount of Commonwealth ATMS around Bali.
Bali Collection: Japanese Economy being down is obviously affecting trade, lots of specials at Bali Collection Sogo, much better value than normal. Other retailers within complex also had big sales on. They've also expanded Coco Supermarket to include a very nice, albeit expensive, Billabong store.
Markets: Had great success at Legian (In Particular, JL Sahadewa aka Garlic Lane) and Sukawati Market. Sukawati never disappoints, this time got some lovely canvas paintings at a ridiculously cheap price. Legian Art Markets are doing it tough, the girls were all very down compared to normal. Also noticed a lot of the markets starting to close around 7pm due to it being so quiet.
Taksis: Many great experiences, only a few bad ones. Went with Bluebird where possible, sometimes waiting an extra 5 or 10 minutes for one. Of note were two bad experiences, one was in a Bluebird where we were going from Kuta Square to Legian, he must have thought we were newbie's as he continued to take us around Kuta, back down to hard rock, along ocean road and then up to Legian via JL Melasti. He claimed he could not speak good English and was only way he knew, I claim he wanted a bigger fare (Normally Kuta to All Seasons was 25k, not a bad fare for normal route and they normally get somebody at the hotel so works out well, his fare was close to 70k, ok, not a lot of money, but I don't like being treated like an idiot). The other bad experience was coming out of Ku De Ta, they force you to take a certain brand of taksi and of course not Blue Bird, we asked to go to Nusa Dua and I've never seen a meter go as fast as his, it was ridiculous, all in an excel worth probably $500 at the most. Needless to say, not happy Jan!
Spas:We tried a number of spa's we had not been to previously, mainly because when we first returned to our old favorite - Spa Bali - they were booked out and could not fit us in and were quite rude about it. We later returned and got a massage and body scrub but it was not as good as it used to be which is disappointing because this place was a gem. It was not as clean as it used to be and the niceties of flower bowls under the bed etc were gone. We tried the Melasti Spa near Water Bom and Angelina Spa in Kuta, Melasti was good but I found the massage lacking a bit of energy, Angelina was the worst massage I've ever had, way too much oil, noisy surroundings, people singing and talking in the same room as we were being massaged and generally not nice. The Carla Spa in Legian just near the All Seasons was a great find, brilliant massages, clean facilities and so cheap (80,000 for 1.5 hour).
Surf Outlets: Definitely impressed with the surf outlets this trip, especially the ones on JL Ngurah Rai Bypass, there is a big Rip Curl Event on at the surf outlet where two shops are side by side, red building, this is on until 11th of January and is excellent value with very nice quality gear. Plenty of Aussie sizes and genuine discounts. Just down from there though towards Kuta is the Billabong outlet, you really need to keep your eyes peeled to find it, it's about 250 meters down on the same side of the road as the Rip Curl event, it's a very narrow 4 level building, we got so many great bargains here and we were the only ones in the store. It was surprising because last trip, this place was packed and it was dead this time and the prices were better.
10 Pin Bowling: Went to the bowling next door to WaterBom, excellent value for money compared to Perth prices. Don't be concerned when you rock up to a big warehouse looking place looking unfriendly, once you get inside and get down the long corridors, it opens into a big hall with some really nice pool tables, bar area and 12 or so lanes for bowling. I can't help but think we were getting gaffed on drink prices as there was no prices listed and the price for the lanes seemed to be made up on the basis that we were not local, however it was still a cheap couple of hours (Around $30 for 2 games for 3 people with shoe hire and a few cokes).
Waterbom: We had an excellent time here and found it to be good value for money, I won't go into any further on this as it's been done to death, I had a bad customer service experience when we went to leave but not enough to worry about.
Babysitter/Nanny: We were recommended from Helen a lovely lady Casey, she was not cheap at 50k per hour but the kids adored her, we trusted her and she was money well spent. We used her every second day between 10 and 2 and it gave us time to go out without the kids, have a massage, have a quiet lunch and a proper shop. Casey took the kids into the pool and down to the beach and always kept them busy at the hotel or around the hotel while we were out. Definitely could not recommend highly enough, she has a real love for kids and it shows. Email me if you would like her contact details.
Well, that's it for now! I will post up more when we're at the end of our stay at the Hard Rock and hopefully will have plenty more to write about! :)