Luckily for hubby I worked until midnight so he got some sleep before I barrelled in the door at 12.30am telling him to quick, get up, we have to get to the airport! We flew out of Perth on 7.15 am flight. The flight itself was good however the service was poor but didn't dampen the spirit because we were on our way to beautiful Bali. We disembarked onto the runway and were bused to the terminal. No probs with that, we were in Bali. We used VOA but the Bali airport officials certainly have addressed the slowness issue since we were there last year. Our transport took us off to the Lokha Hotel in Legian where we were greeted with a lovely cold drink and told our room was not ready and would not be until 2 pm. So we raided the suitcases in the reception and I changed into shorts in the loos. As hubby was about to go change we were told they had changed our room to one that was ready and we were finally booked in. The room was clean, comfortable and had a balcony. However we both noticed the strong scent but put it down to the room having been freshly made up. That evening, totally exhausted after having missed sleep the night before, we only wanted to crawl into that huge bed and have a very large sleep, but, the sickly sweet stench was so strong our asthma was starting to make itself known. After much flaffing about the hotel's very friendly reception staff tried to get the smell down. The scent was jasmine, a very bad one for asthmatics and we requested please do not spray any more in this room while we are here. Unfortunately it did keep happening but not quite as strong.
The staff are very friendly and keen to help. Breakfast was quite sufficent and tasty. The location of the Lokha is excellent and is surrounded by excellent shopping. The room service food was very good and probably the best food we had on this trip. The music at the pool bar we found was too loud to the point with the room closed up we could not have an afternoon nap and was unpleasant trying to relax on our balcony. Would we stay there again, no.
We went on a day trip with friends to the Sukawati and Ubud markets, Kintamani and Tanah Lot. Loved the markets and got some good buys. Was reminded of how beautiful Kintamani is and Tanah Lot at sunset was amazing.
We did lots of shopping but were more particular this year and got some great DVDs from Shreks in Jl Padma about opposite the Casa Padma. Never a problem with his DVDs. It worked well stocking up on daily needs from Carreforre and loved the fruit. It seems to have so much more flavour than our Australian fruit. It was good to be able to afford bananas which are very expensive in WA at the moment.
We ate at Mozzarrella twice after reading good reports on the forum, the second because the first time was pretty poor and perhaps we just got a bad night, but alas,no the second time was no better. Sapino's pizza at the front of the Lokha had very good pizza, Legends in Garlic Lane had great satay.
We went to the show at Legends, Elvis impersonator. Aah, dont give up your day job.
I was under doctor's orders to keep walking at a minimum so we used more taxis this time. Most drivers were very good, however there was the usual piglet around. We had a driver booked for three day trips but that didnt come off and next year we will be ensuring we have a driver that speaks English and turns up. You know there is an issue when you are told the driver speaks English and rather than going to the lakes you end up at a temple. You ask about getting coffee and end up at a temple.
We took the opportunity to check out hotels for our trip next March and booked the chosen hotel.
All too quickly it was time to go back to the airport for the trip home. We were both impressed with the speed of the departure process with immigration after last year nearly fainting in the cues and waiting sooooo long to get the passport stamp. Very impressive.
The flight back on Garuda,the service, was worse than going over. Hubby's meal was so bad is was inedible but he was not offered anything else to eat. We were flying over Australia before the food cart arrived and prior to that when I asked for a lemonade (I was so thirsty) I was told to wait for the food cart that would be coming soon. We are not flying with Garuda next year so the comparison will be interesting.
Perth airport, another surprise. From the time we landed and the door was eventually opened, we were through all the necessary checks, picked up our duty free, got a taxi to our car and changed the flat tyre all with 45 mins of landing.
Now we look forward to next year's holiday and start saving spending money!