This is my first JBR so please bore with me if it is long and tedious. I will attempt to make it as entertaining as possible but as I was travelling on my own, things were pretty tame.
Left a raining Melbourne on Friday 1st Feb with Garuda. Flight left three minutes early, drinks trolley was out within thirty minutes offering booze & peanuts. Selection of movies was ok but not very current. Flight was only half full so there was plenty of room to spread out. Lunch was either fish or chicken. I had pre-ordered a vegetarian meal & was given rice, curried mushrooms and panir cheese. Not to bad for a plane meal. Flight arrived forty minutes early.
Once in the airport, it took about forty minutes to do the visa thing, wait for the bag & get through the baggage scanners. While waiting for my bag a large group of very drunk Australian men descended on the baggage hall. They were all sporting "Official Australian Drinking Team" singlets, yelling loundly, covered in tatts, swearing profusely & hanging on to eachother for support as they could hardly stand up. Ah. Sometimes it just makes you so proud to be an Australian.........
Once out I had to wait about ten minutes for my driver to arrive & then we were off. The traffic was snails pace almost the entire way to Seminyak but at least it gives you a chance to check everything out on the way. We had to pull over at one point to make way for a police escort. I got all excited thinking I was about to see a celeb but it turns out to be a group of Harley Davidson bikers who pull into the Harley store just up from where we stopped. Bizarre.
Finally get to the villa after about an hour in the traffic. I am staying in a villa I found on airbnb.com. Have not used this website before so am hopeful everything is as it appears. I needn't have worried, the villa exceeded expectations. Yanti, the maid, was there to greet me & show me around. Open lounge, dining & kitchen with water cooler, fridge, cooker, kettle etc. Decent sized salt water pool and two bedrooms each with king sized beds, air con & an ensuite. The location is brilliant. It is down a gang beside the new Bistro restaurant on Jl. Laksmana or opposite CoCo supermarket & the Red Carpet champagne bar. It is owned by a guy who lives in Australia and managed by an Australian lady living locally.
The clouds are going, the sun is out & it is stinking hot so the first thing I do is jump into the pool to cool down. I then decide to go for a bit of a wander so head down Jl.Basangkasa & then Jl.Kunti to Sunset Road where I locate Sunset Fitness and sign up for a three day membership. This is apparently the year I am going to get fit & so far I have done bugger all so I am thinking I will lift my game while away. We'll see how that goes.......
Head back & stop off at Bali Deli for a couple of things, wander past the Prana Spa - planning to do yoga here. Again, we will see how that goes. Walk back to the villa stopping off for a look in many shops to get a few ideas of price & whats around. Did a lap of Jl. Laksmana, checking out the new restaurants that have materialised since my last visit 18 months ago. Stopped off at Bali Vision DVD store & got fifteen dvd's for $10. Seems to be the going deal.
Dinner this evening was at Chandi which I did not go to last time & was very keen to try. My table was the first one you see as you walk in so they sat the single, middle aged Australian lady here so I am the first thing that people see as they walk in. Lucky diners! The meal was outstanding. Tempeh and vegetable spring rolls to start with - no oil, very fresh fillings and good balance of flavours. My main meal was prawns, calamari and scallops on black and red rice. Again, an excellent meal with plenty of seafood all cooked well. The scallops almost melted in your mouth. All up for the meal & two beers it came to $24. Chandi gets a 10/10 in Katt's notebook.
Back to the villa to settle for a night of watching dvd's in between swims and a couple of vodkas. Too scared to drink too much out for dinner on my own as I have a history of clumsiness (breaking arm & wrist playing cricket, breaking my nose falling down some stairs in the city) and given the state of the footpaths here, I am certain to be the unlucky one that misses a hoe and ends up A over T and in an open sewer.