Well we should have smuggled a Bali Gardener back......After all the flooding we have come home to our own tropical paradise...
Flew J star Brissy via Darwin...all good..
1 Nt Rama Beach, very nice rooms..brekky good..off to airport to fly to Lombok....still raining, flight delayed a couple of hours.
5 nts Novotel Kuta Lombok, very nice, bit isolated but plenty of options to see the sights....We did not like the first rooms we had, up a level but very closed in, so upgraded to a lovely ground floor with patios..good for the morning coffee, afternoon drinks, surfboards, and the fagger (me!) Very happy:)
Novotel offer free tours,
we did the Tanjung An beach tour, beautiful scenic stuff all around...
we did the market tour, very interesting and a lot more to Kuta than we had originally thought (did a day trip a couple of years ago from Sengiggi and only thought there was the beach road !!)
Did the monkey walk from the resort round the hill and bingo well behaved, healthy monkeys....who wait for their daily feast of peanuts, coconuts..that the local kids sell to you, and willing tourists, some great photos here!
As it was raining! the bike option went out the window and found ourselves a lovely local lad..Alex... a gem, taxied us to and from town for dinners, took us on a day tour of the other fabulous beaches west of Kuta, took the boys to Grupuk for surfing. It was their first time to be boated out to a surf break, and they loved the whole experience, also took us up to Bangsal (boat to Gili) and picked us up again beautiful scenic drive back to airport. He was friendly, polite, quiet but informative, helped us with some new words and his prices were good :)
also did the cooking class/demo...we did fried rice and it was a fun hour with the chefs and was very tasty...one of us had to then cook it for them...Go on Mum!!! I got the thumbs up from the chefs so all was good:)
We had good quality and inexpensive food in town.....
Full Moon warung...giant prawns :)
Bule...couldn't eat all the food (but we had also spent a bit of time in the afternoon at the Novotel happy hour!!! they have yummy nibbles!!)
Bong warung.. for a brekky..different!
Ketepang... yummy food here and cocktails!! :)
We had a couple of breakfasts in the Novotel...plenty to eat
and a couple of their theme night buffets....all good.......
Off to Gili Trawangan......
Bangsal is the pits.....the local shuttle through one of the guys before you actually get to harbour charged us 35,000rp each, then we had to load our stuff on to the horsecarts, thought the guy said 20,000rp for them......turns out they wanted 20,000rp per person...so I am thinking I am giving them extra when I hand over 50,000rp for the two :( no mam no mam.....had no more small money..so two cranky horsecart men!..rush rush on the bloody skinny local boat...thought the guys who grabbed our luggage were the boat staff...no! money mam..three very unhappy "porters" as we are squished between people and boxes.....Not happy Jan!!!
Anyway if you are staying at Kokomo or the Beach House (as we were!!)
they use a different jetty, so much more pleasant at Teluk Kelod.......and yes it is considerably more than 35,000rp but I would never do Bangsal again!!:(
3 nts KoKoMo ....Heaven.......beautiful 2 bedroom villa Chempaka very spacious, staff wonderful, breakfasts I will dream about till next time.:) All on a wonderful little island with no traffic...:)
Did the island walk (9klms)
Did the sunset bar....twice :)
Did the snorkelling....well Mal & the Kids did....I had the flu so I had a very relaxing time chatting to Captain Andy about nothing in particular and watching My Family have a great time...and the luxury of a very clean glass bottom boat....:) They snorkelled 3/4 spots around all three islands, then dropped us on Gili Air at a cheap little warung on the beach where we ate drank, chatted and bought cheap "pearl stuff" happy happy happy......
We had giant kebabs and mojitos at Tir Na Nog.
Had nasi/noodles at the local night markets and pancakes of course...
And a Tapas dinner at Kokomo, devine.
Our stay on Gili at Kokomo s was splendiferous...:)
On to the speed boat ten minutes to Teluk Kelod...no dramas :) Alex was waiting, life was good....back to Bali
3 nts Mandira... mmm raining....rooms good, breakkies good, and a bonus was the free buffet dinners each night due to pool renos, which worked out handy as it poured for two of the three nights!!!
Mandira is in a great location ...as there was only shopping and lunches to be had :)
Take 11 for Japanese, Yogya warung for local foodies, iced coffee from where the Logi used to be yum yum.. And of course the beach for beer and corn and watching the world go by :)
Kids left back to Brissy.....
We moved on to Sanur, Sanur Beach Villas 3 nts....never long enough but it was great to catch up with Hilary and Brian, and meet new guests, always interesting.
Watching Mr Ron celebrate his 60th Birthday with a few mates, with a few beers and a pig was worth every second XX
Yes Ron, Mal grabbed a plate of the most succulent tasty pork and we ate it going to the airport, Thanks X Yummy
It is all about the food !!!
We ate at Kesumas, twice.
Had the most delicious crispy duck at Bamboo.
Fried bananas and Nasi Ma Ma Putus enak sekali :)
But the best is just popping in to the local Mertasari Beach shop and grabbing a few satays, then the lumpia man, then stroll up the beach a bit and sit and watch life in Sanur ;)
All over..... time to check out cheap flights to somewhere different, then go and book Bali... happens a lot:)
To those about to go on Holiday anywhere....enjoy!
And to those who have just returned home and are miserable like me....book another holiday helps pass the time!:)
Deb. :)