Move to Seminyak
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At the end of our week, we moved to Seminyak for a few days. I haven't stayed here before and we wanted to explore the boutiques and good restaurants we'd read about.
We stayed in the Astana Kunti Apartments. They were acceptable value for the discount prices I paid, but would be a ripoff at rack rate. The room was small (for an apartment) with very little storage space. It was a little worn, but well maintained and clean. The place was quiet and the service was good in general. It's about a 15 minute walk to get to any decent range of shops and restaurants, so it's a little off the beaten track. Taxis are easily arranged through the front desk. Breakfast is delivered to your room and is a very basic choice of options under an American or Indonesian breakfast.
Things I didn't like about AK...the pool is much smaller than the photos indicate; they got our breakfast order wrong all three mornings, the air conditioners in adjacent rooms are very noisy. We don't use our A/C. Going from tropical heat to chilled A/C and back again is a surefire way of picking up the common tourist cold. So we live with the warmth.
Day Trip - Bali Orchid Garden
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The orchid garden is on the edge of Denpasar, about 40 minutes drive from Seminyak. If you like poking at and photographing tropical orchids, this place is a must. If you don't, give it a miss. We spent a few hours enjoying the gardens and flowers and taking photos. I bought a flask of orchids to bring back with a phytosanitisation (s?) certificate, which I brought through Aust Customs without a problem. Declared, inspected and passed.
Shopping
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We did a lot of walking and browsing in Seminyak. We really didn't need much, but we enjoyed exploring. We bought a few bits and pieces, but nothing of extreme note.
Eating
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Again, we sampled a range of eateries. The surprise highlight was a little Italian Restaurant called Sasa. The food was excellent and the prices reasonable. It was very nice little place, run by a couple of friendly Italian gents. The seafood soup was excellent and their wood-fired pizzas are brilliant.
Warung Made lived up to it's reputation. We enjoyed Indonesian food here a couple of times. Sila joined us for lunch here on our last day. His comment was 'This is exactly what Indonesian food should be cooked like!'
We were very disappointed with La Sal. The food is wholesome, fresh and well prepared, but as to the claim of being authentic Spanish...that goes no further than the sprinkling of Spanish staff working there. Compared to the tapas I've eaten in other countries, this food is bland and uninteresting. Despite ordering a variety of dishes...we did not get the odyssey of flavours tapas should be. For the premium you pay here and the effort they've put into running a high class joint, they've missed the point of Spanish tapas.
We tried Warung Bale one night. It was described as a Balinese/Chinese restaurant and we hadn't tried Chinese in Bali before. It was ok for an experiment, but we won't be going again. It was acceptable, but not a bar on the better places we'd tried.
Return to The Cold - What Volcanic Dust Cloud?
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We were booked on a domestic 9pm flight to Jakarta, to hook up with a 11pm flight to Sydney. There was nothing going into or out of Sydney and Melbourne on the day we left, and the next day was looking hopeless. We decided to give it a try anyway. Worst comes to worst, it would be up to Garuda to accommodate us as transit passengers, until they could move us.
Our bags were booked through to Sydney and we left Denpasar a little late, but still with plenty of time to make our connection. We were surprised to find that our flight from Jakarta was departing as scheduled. The transfer went smoothly and we caught a half-empty flight...in the hope we'd be able to land at the other end!
To our surprise, we were awoken in the morning by an announcement that brekky was on the way and we'd be landing on time in Sydney. When we left the plane, we were met with an amazing situation. We seemed to be the only passengers there. Sydney airport was like a ghost town. It took 20 minutes to get from plane to exit, including picking up some duty-free booze and having my orchids inspected. It was surreal...if you've seen an old telemovie called the Langoliers, you'll know what I mean.
** Footnote - Drivers
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I know many forum regulars have a reliable driver they use whenever they're in Bali. I've never recommended my friend Sila, because he's been working for a Russian travel agent and had plenty of work. Last week, he told me he'd much prefer to work with Australians. Thus I'm throwing his name in for your consideration.
Sila is a smart, reliable and hardworking native Balinese, who speaks great English (and Russian). I've known him for six years and we've become very good friends. He knows Bali back-to-front. He's worked in a number of tourist organizations there and knows all the sites and can arrange any activities.
If you're looking for a driver, I highly recommend him. I've left my email address above if you want his details.