Well as I am home now doing washing and paying bills, thought I would write this up. Oh, and there will not be part 1, 2, 348728462, you don't need to know what I did every day, lol. So only one JBR....probably as long as hell...oh well.
FLIGHTS - Garuda BC Mel/Dps. Very uneventful. Plenty of food, my god, I was so full when I got there. Nice trip as usual, left on time, arrived on time, through to the end within 15 mins. Landed at 2.05pm and at the hotel at 2.35pm.
Dps/Mel - had the new planes, so had the flat beds. I slept all the way home, took off on time, landed on time (7.15am), through to the end and home in my house by 8am. Flat beds were great, but they are flat on an angle, so I slipped down a bit. lol. Otherwise, all good. QANTAS lounge at departure was very nice. At least it was only BC travellers in there.
HOTEL - Bali Garden Beach Resort. As usual, this was a brilliant stay. Had room 223, same level as reception and it was so good not to trek upstairs. It was renovated to the point of all new furniture. It was very nice. The pools, as usual were great and staff lovely. The hotel is in a perfect location. The beach sellers are nice and massages off Putu, brilliant. Lots of kids, unusually, for this time of year, which pleased me to no end. hahaha. NOT! They were all pretty good, all the same.
EATS - Un's was a favourite again.
*Mudi's is brilliant for a nice tasty, cheap night (bintang and nasi goreng 52000rp). The nasi goreng at Mudi's was the best I've tasted anywhere.
*KFC is sooo nice over there. It isn't as greasy as it is over here in Oz, I loved it. You just have to have it once just to taste it.
*Poppies restaurant is still going strong, ate there first night, very nice.
*The Pub's satays are still by far the best in Bali. All other restaurants were very nice too, ate at these; Kuta Steak House, Garis Garis, Cafe Batan Waru, Hotel's boardwalk restaurant, Nero Bali. All yummy.
SHOPPING - Got two suit jackets made up for work, at Janoko tailor in Poppies 2. 250000rp each. Fitted perfectly, a charcol and a black one.
*glasses at Optik Seis in Kuta Square. I bought esprit ones and they cost about 900000rp, they were ordered and made within 4 days.
*got the usual bintang stuff for the nephews. Hurley seems to be the "IN" brand over there at the moment. So got a few of those for the boys. I can't remember the price of them coz I got a heap of stuff at once from Ketut's, so just paid it, didn't look.
*all the brand bags, small shoulder types, 120000rp on beach (might have paid a bit much). They're quite nice little bags.
*watches for 35000 on beach
*foot massage 30000rp on beach. I pay a little more coz she's good.
*finger and toe nails on beach, 50000rp
*got two plaits put in for trip home, 50000rp on beach
*sunnies at about 25000rp each.
*little silver gamelan balls which I generally get from Celuk, I got one for 30000rp off the street. Not sure if it's good silver though. Time will tell. For 4 bucks, who cares. lol
*All stars converse shoes. I got these in Legian st for 100000rp. The guy said I made him very sad as he tossed the shoes to me. I drove a hard bargain. Got them for the same before, so wasn't budging. Nice green colour.
*DVD's, the old regular, buy 10 get 3 etc etc. Some were just out and not too good a copy, I did buy one anyway, just to see, coz you can sometimes watch them. But this was no good, so chucked it out. My DVD seller tells you, but I bought it anyway...ya never know.
MOTORBIKE/SCOOTER HIRE - this was recommended to me off here by hodgeishot. The hirer is called "Tours of Bali". The main man is Kadek. I could not recommend this place highly enough. They drop the bike off to suit, they pick it up to suit. The bikes are almost brand new, mine had done about 2200kms. I got it for 400000rp for 14 days hire. I didn't ride every day, but enough to need it. I filled it from almost empty and it cost me 15000rp, I didn't use all of it. Give Kadek a go. You'll need to show your international drivers licence when you sign the forms. So ensure you're all legit.
ACTIVITY - I put singular as I only did one thing while here. We went out on one of those boats which take surfers out to the reefs. I went for a walk one morning and one of the guys asked if I wanted a boat. I thought it would be a nice thing to do. 250000rp for an hour for 5 of us. So 50 each, bargain!!!. He took us from up near the pantai restaurant, out there for about an hour. Close to airport, then to the surfers reef then across to legian. It was one of the best thing's I've done in Bali. Loved it. KING KONG is the guy who took us out. He brought the boat to the shore to get us on too, coz I couldn't have jumped in from the deep water like the surfers do. hahaha. To find KING KONG, if you walk along the beach footpath to the lane at the end of the Pantai restaurant (towards airport), ask for King Kong and tell him Lisa sent you. You won't regret it, small activity and it was a great time.
MELASTI SPA - I did this twice. Once was a 4 and a half hour treatment, massage, scrub and this oil thingy through my hair. Weird but felt good. Then a creame hair bath after that. Then on my last day I got a body scrub. That felt so good. Nice and clean of oils to come home. They were very cheap too, the 4 hour one was about 350000rp (I think) and the body scrub, 115000rp.
Well I basically sat by the pool every morning, walked about half of those mornings, had a massage every day. Went shopping or walking around or riding around on the scooter in the arvo then back home to chill for an hour or two before getting ready for dinner. Ate dinner and most of the times came home. I like to be up and about early, so no nightclubbing for me. I went to the stadium bar to watch two games of football, the stark contrast between crowds on each night was amazing. I have never in my life met a crowd of ferals in all of my life the night Freo played. I was absolutely disgusted in the behaviour of these 50yo+ women sitting behind me. I was embarrassed for them. I would never go there to watch another game where a WA team is playing. Arrrghhhh, gross. I now call the stadium, "bogan central". You know though? People actually "pack" their football jumpers to go to bali. Bizarre!!!
The aussie dollar went into free fall when I was there. I got there at 8200rp to the dollar, left and it had got down to 7525rp. I got a better rate back in Oz. I only got two hundred before I left, but both were at 7900.
Mozzies were again bad over there so dengue was on a lot of the locals minds. You must make sure you spray yourself each time you go out, and a good idea to saturate the room with baygon when you leave. The two mozzie things recommended to me where OFF and this other little bottle called soffell. You can get them at all supermarkets and little stores. The BGBR had them in their little shops too.
I once again met some great people at the hotel and met my usual bali going friends over there too. Great company, great holiday and sad to be home, but nice to be cold for a change!!! I used to wash two face washers in eucalyptus oil and put them in the fridge for when I went out shopping. They were then nice and cold.
OK I think that's it. Possibly the best trip I've had to bali.
Cheers
Lisa