The motto of this trip was that we had to stay somewhere we hadn't stayed before and we had to eat dinner at restaurants we had never eaten at before.
This was our 10th trip and the 5th in the last 5 years, and this time it was just the two of us, as opposed to last year where a quite trip for two ended up a trip for 17 which included 12 'kids ' between the ages of 15 and 25.
Flights
We flew Jetstar from Melb direct on $400 fares purchased in May, two weeks before going I had the option to upgrade to business for $190 each and did so for the trip going to Dps.
Was it worth it?
I don't know and my butt is still sore from sitting on the fence over this issue.
Apart from being very well watered and fed, including bubbles before we took off, basically an endless glass of wine pre and during dinner and Port or Baileys with the cheese platter after dinner, in my opinion the biggest advantage you are paying for is time.
When we arrived at Melb the line to check in was probably an hour long, but we just walked straight up to the business class check in and checked in.
When we arrived at Denpasar, we were pretty much first off the plane, having sat in row 4, I went straight the VOA counter and paid for the two of us, and had no one in front of me, then we went to Immigration and had no one in front of us also.
Our bags were first of the plane; as such all in all it took us less than 10 mins from the time we walked off the plane to be standing outside waiting for our driver, including changing $200 at the airport money changers.
Luckily our flight was very quick and we landed half an hour ahead of time and in front of a Singapore Airline flight, which no doubt helped with the speed of our transit through the airport.
The other time you save is queuing to use the toilet on the plane, with 2 toilets for the 38 people in business class it is a far better ratio than for the rest of the plane.
It did intrigue me the ratio of kids to adults in business though as there were 7 kids from babes to 10 year olds amongst the 38 seats, in business class.
The flight home we flew Economy and it was pretty full, no problems except for a 1 hour delay in departing, due to the late arrival from Melb.
We paid to use the Prada lounge and whilst it is better than sitting on the floor, it is getting tired and was very full due to a delayed Virgin flight to Perth.
That flight was delayed by 5 hours and there were certainly some understandably tired and emotional travellers waiting, at least they got their monies worth in drinks at the Prada lounge.
Accommodation
In keeping with our motto we chose to stay at Villa Bali Asri for this trip, this is an 11 Villa complex in Jln Sari Dewi in Seminyak.
All our previous stays have been around Legian including Mandira, Padma, Rumah Santai, Casa Padma, Club Bali at Jayakarta and some of the private apartments at Jayakarta and at Beach Melati for the last two trips.
Jln Sari Dewi is a small street that runs parallel to the beach from Jln Camplung Tanduk through to the Oberoi.
Bali Asri was a perfect choice; we had Villa 1 which is a 1 bedroom Villa complete with outside bathroom, including bath, fully enclosed air conditioned bedroom, the usual open kitchen / lounge area and a 13 metre swimming pool.
We had a separate wifi modem in our Villa which is included in the tariff as are airport transfers and breakfast every day.
The breakfast is cooked in your own Villa at the time you ask for and includes a choice of continental, American, Pancakes and Indonesian varieties.
The food was very good and it was nice to sit and eat at your leisure.
From our Villa it was a 2 minute walk to the beach down a narrow gang where Luna 2 is situated. This is a 5 bedroom private hotel right on the beach with a weekly price tag of over US $20,000 per week.
They are building a new set of 14 apartments behind Luna 2, to be known as Luna Studio, their website describes them as: 'cosmic pads for globetrotting gastronauts'!!
Anyway it was a quick walk to the beach for us, and we used this route everyday as we would walk to Legian along the beach every day, and slowly make our way back to our villa along different roads before venturing out to lunch.
Food
In keeping with our motto we ate dinner over the week at 6 restaurants we have never eaten at before; these were:
Mama San
Bumbu Bali
Chandi
Sardine
Gado Gado
Pearl
Our motto wasn't complied with for lunches so we also ate at TJ's (the first day after our walk into Kuta) and Mades Warung in Seminyak, the second day.
Both old favourites and it wasn't until we sat down at Mades Warung that we realised how popular it is with Japanese tourists, as we were the only non Japanese patrons at lunch.
A quick review of the menu showed why, with quite a selection of Japanese food available.
Anyway, TJ's was as it has been for the 20 odd years we have been there and Mades food was as good as usual also.
We ate another lunch at a non descript cafe on our third day which was so forgettable I cannot remember the name, the other days we became very predictable as detailed below.
Mama San
I booked a table at Mama San via email before leaving Melbourne and had a confirmation email from them the day of our booking.
The restaurant itself would not be out of place in any trendy suburb of a major Australian city with its exposed brick and large bar, it is a two storey building with a large mural on the wall downstairs where the restaurant is situated, upstairs is a lounge and bar in which smoking is allowed.
Smoking is not allowed in the restaurant.
The food was very good, especially the Vietnamese Mince Pork Belly starter.
We had a mixture of starters and mains to share along with a beer and glass of wine, the cost for the two of us was 700,000.
I am not sure if it was because Mama San was the first restaurant we tried or whether it was the lack of atmosphere provided by some of the others, but to me it didn't leave a lasting impression of wow we have to go back here.
The restaurant also has a dress policy, which they don't seem too tough on policing as thongs are specifically not allowed.
Not that I care, but the night we went, it appeared that every second person was wearing thongs and eating!
Mama San has a sister restaurant not far from the Living room called Sarong, we didn't have enough time to visit here.
We walked home after dinner, taking approximately 45 minutes to make our way back.
Bumbu Bali.
We had friends staying in Nusa Dua and arranged to go to Bumbu with them on our second night, Bumbu have 2 restaurants and their cooking school in Bali and are well known for their fine Indonesian fare.
All four of us had the Rijstaffel, now I was warned not to eat much lunch which I headed with some scepticism and with some scant regard, well I should have listened closely.
The food was beautiful and in such quantity that we didn't finish all of the deserts.
The girls shared a bottle of wine, whilst the boys had 2 or 3 coronas throughout the meal.
Total cost for 4 of us 1.8 Million.
It was like a bit of a floor show during the night as the kitchen is open near the front of the restaurant, whenever patrons were greeted with good evening by the staff member as they walked in and responded with a 'good evening', the whole kitchen would reply in unison with Selamat Malam.
The only disadvantage with going to Bumbu if staying at Seminyak is the drive. The road works associated with the new underpass meant our trip took 1 hour 10 minutes on the way over but only 35 mins coming back.
Would I go back, certainly!
Chandi
Our friends reciprocated on our third night and the 4 of us headed to Chandi in Jln Laksmana Seminyak for dinner, this was about a 10 to 12 minute walk from our Villa.
This is a large open fronted restaurant on Jln Laksmana, again it is two storey but we only ate downstairs so cannot comment what the upstairs is like.
There is a large open bar on one side; the back wall opens up onto a garden giving a large open air feel to the place.
The food is superb; at dinner we shared a number of starters amongst us as well as the seafood tasting plate and sate plate.
We ordered so many starters that it quickly became apparent that with ordering the tasting plates for two people we were going to have enough food to feed a small nation, so we quickly asked to down size each of the mains to single serves which was done without fuss.
Desert was had by a couple of us along with a coffee.
We drank 4 Coronas, 2 Bourbon and cokes and 2 bottles of wine.
Total cost for the 4 of us was 3 million.
This quickly became our favourite place, the food was sensational and following dinner we ate lunch here for the next 4 days.
The lunch menu is smaller than the dinner one; generally it cost us between 200,000 to 300,000 for two for lunch including generally 1 beer and 1 juice.
There is a two course lunch special at 78000 per person which we had and a Rijstaffel for 2 at 178000 which was again superb.
There is no publicised dress code at Chandi, but smart causal appeared the norm for dinner, at lunchtime anything seems to go including singlets, shorts and thongs.
This place is a must, and their menus are on their website to get you salivating.
As with all the restaurants we ate at all the prices were ++.
Sardine
The next night we booked Sardine, we were a little trepidatious as the reviews on TA over the previous 10 days had not been flattering.
We decided to go regardless and find out for ourselves, with the backup plan that if it was no good, we could always cross the road and go to Metis as one of the reviews on TA stated.
No need to worry, we were not disappointed.
The setting is absolutely gorgeous with the open restaurant looking over a flood lit rice field.
As the name suggests this is seafood, if you only like food that has had 4 legs, your choices will be limited.
Highlight of the dinner was the scallop starter and the Barramundi cooked in banana leaf.
As there were only 2 of us, drinks included a couple of Bintangs, a Margarita, and a glass of Domain Chandon sparkling.
The bread served here was the best we have ever seen in Bali, I don't know if it is baked in house, regardless it was an exceptional start to the meal.
Cost for dinner for two 900,000.
I would definitely go back, not only for the food but even just to have a drink enjoying the vista.
Gado Gado
Long time visitor, first time customer.
After going to Bali for 27 years, this was the first time we had ventured to Gado Gado.
This was only a 5 minute walk towards Legian from our villa so once the decision to go there was made after another lunch at Chandi, we decided to walk there to check out the menu and make a booking.
The heavens opened up as we arrived so we decided to stop for a Bintang and do some people watching.
Gado Gado is right on the beach at the end of Jln Camplung Tanduk.
The restaurant is raised above street level and there are flood lights illuminating the beach at night which makes for a pretty setting.
The food was very good, especially the Pork done 3 ways, the Red Snapper was also very good and you could have that as either an entree or a main.
So we complied and one of us had it as entree and the other had it as a main.
Instead of desert we ordered the cheese platter to share, which consisted of 5 different cheeses with a choice of breads etc.
Cost for the two of us including a bottle of wine was 1.2 million.
After dinner we walked up Jln Camplung Tanduk to see if any of Banchong Bars were in full swing, but they weren't so we ended up walking to Bintang Supermarket, buying some sate blocks and Vanilla pods for home and then caught a taxi back to our Villa.
Pearl
Again this was the first time we had eaten at Pearl, and again as we were out walking up Jln Double Six during the day we dropped in and made a booking for dinner.
It seems a little weird eating French food in a garden and in such a hot climate.
Yet again we were not disappointed; the chef came and visited every table to ask if needed clarification with the menu.
We had beef and Barramundi for mains and both chose the scallops for entree.
The highlight of the meal was the desert tasting plate which was sublime.
We had a visit from the pet rabbit that lives there and I pondered how lucky it was to be held in such high esteem around a French restaurant.
Again we ordered a bottle of wine with dinner and the tree course meal and wine came to 1.5 million for the two of us.
I am not generally a desert person, but would return just for that.
We walked home straight down Double Six and along the beach, amazed at how quiet the night was and it was only about 10 pm.
Other Comments
On our last night we had 3 entrees to share at a small restaurant in Jln Sari Dewi, not quite in keeping with the standard we had set during the rest of our stay, but as we were leaving for the airport at 7 we had no time for a millionaires dinner.
Cost was less than 200,000.
On the way over we took Vaseline and baby food for the Bali Vaseline Drive and dropped it off at Beach Melati, Pediasure the recommended brand of baby formula is cheaper to buy in Bali than in Aus by about $10 per can.
We saw it for sale at the Bintang supermarket.
We bought the usual 100 odd dvds and the quality this year was much better than last year where a heap of them stopped part way through, i think it was the quality of the actual disc that was the problem.
We also visited Matahari in Kuta Square and bought what seemed like a heap of make up, I was assured it was about 50% of the price you pay in Australia, so think of the money we saved!!
The traffic is an ongoing issue and I see no way of it ever being anything other than chaotic, the roadworks for the next 12 months will ensure that, and the number of new construction sites on the go will only put more pressure on the infrastructure going forward.
The sizes of some of the new construction sites are massive, ie whatever is being built next door to Potato Head, and it is hard to imagine how the environment will cope.
All in all another fantastic trip, leaving us with fond memories and full tummies.