Arrived home on Sunday morning after spending two weeks in Bali. Stayed at Masa Inn whilst my parents stayed at Kuta Town Houses and my sister and friends stayed as Bali Garden.
This may be a little long, but have tried to capture most things, if you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Accommodation -
•Masa Inn - great location in poppies one, breakfast is not really much but across the road you can purchase a full American breakfast for 20,000. For a single person the price is great at 200,000 per night with hot water, air con, safe and TV
•KTH - once again the location is excellent, my parents stayed in a studio room located on 4th floor, with no noise from the street heard in the room and a balcony that attracted the afternoon sun. The staff, food and service here are all excellent and free wireless internet available in the rooms or restaurant. Would recommend this place and my parents will continue to stay there again and again.
•Bali Gardens - the rooms are still run down but the breakfast, gardens and swimming pools are excellent. I personally find the location to be a little out of the way, but that's because I enjoy poppies 1 & 2 and the restaurants around this area.
Places to eat -
Each trip we try and eat at new places but still return to some of our favourites.
•Kuta Town houses - great meals and staff
•Tom Yum - across from KTH, great cheap meals, mixture of Indonesian and Chinese
•Basil Leaf - next door to secret garden, a tiny little place, excellent service, very cheap and delicious meals
•Billy's Bar Legian - one of my favourites, the staff here have so much fun and make you feel very welcome, the meals are awesome and the bands are great entertainment
•JB's 27 - poppies 2 - love this place and go there often. The staff here are the best, Komang and Ketut really are two of the nicest guys. The service is quick and they have a real variety on the menu
•Cozy Corner - Sanur, found this place on my last trip, excellent meals and worth the trip out there, Wednesday nights are the best with a cool little band that play
•Jimbaran Bay - didn't eat at a restaurant this time, but instead decided to try something a little different, had one of our friends Eric (excellent driver from the beach- if you want his details let me know) take us out to the fish market mid morning, here we purchased fresh snapper, squid, prawns and Cray fish, all up we spent under $80 which feed 6 of us no problems. Had the food cooked out the back of the fish market for 8,000 a kg and headed back to kuta beach to sit, relax eat and enjoy. This was such a different way of doing things, way cheaper and the taste was amazing, would highly recommend doing this.
Tours -
•Bintang cycles - this was the best cycling trip I have ever done, cost 250,000 per person which included hotel pick up and drop off. The actual bike ride was fantastic, 40km down hill with 1-2 hills - my mum and dad both aged over 60 managed to do this and had an absolute ball. The lunch at the end was superb and a great way to finish the day.
•Tree Top Park - I didn't do this personally, but my sister and party had a great day out, I feel I missed out and next time will be there for sure. They said it was challenging but so much fun and for $18 US well worth it.
•Waterbom park - a must do, we all enjoyed 2 days here, playing volleyball with the locals and thoroughly enjoying all the water slides, the kids pool is the best with the big tipping bucket.
•Gili Trawangan Island - this is so different to Kuta - if you want a few days of peace and relaxation this is the place to go. The beach is absolutely beautiful, there are no beach sellers and no one wanting to braid hair or paint nails. It's only a small island with many nice places to stay and eat.
Whilst in Bali I also came across an interactive CD called Bali mouse E mag, I picked this up from a mini mart and must say it had some very useful articles, apparently it's published monthly so I have now registered and can't wait for the next edition.
Well back to life in Melbourne now and hoping the next 15 weeks go quick so I can return to the island of paradise.