With the high quality of HNRs and JBRs lately (dutchnat and bagusbabe in particular), I'm a little shy to post but still, if one person has a bit of a chuckle or finds some handy information, that'll make it worthwhile. And this has taken me ages too - I'm blown away by those who just jot down some absolute gems daily, don't know how you do it, but I'm really glad you do!
This was a 12th anniversary trip for my husband (H) and I. I got some Virgin business class airfares on special ages ago (half price from Sydney) - in a vain attempt to keep this JBR from assuming War and Peace proportions I'll put up a separate review on that so you can read about me and my pillow or not as you choose!
PS I refer to the road that runs from Kuta up to Seminyak as Jalan Legian, even though it officially changes name a few times along the way.
Mon 8/10
Anyway at 8.30 the husband (H) and I set off. The airport was chaos because of the end of school holidays but being in business class we swanned through check in and immigration on the priority lines and ended up in the (ANZ) lounge with hours to spare. We sat back and wondered what the poor people were doing as we stuffed our faces on the free food. The flight was delayed as well so more time in the lounge but finally after a bus trip out to the plane, we were off.
At the other end, old economy habits die hard and we shot off the plane at a great rate, elbowing kids and the elderly aside - we then got through VOA, immigration, baggage and customs in 20 mins flat even though I declared some tea bags. Customs weren't interested, didn't even bother to look, just shunted everyone through - obviously no Chapelle's on our flight, fine by me.
After staying at the Padma for the last four visits, I found their recent 30% price hike just a bit too much so I investigated somewhere different and found Villa Blubambu via Trip Advisor. It's tucked away in Seminayak, had great reviews and the price was right so we gave it a try. I loved the small size (only three rooms) and the easy access to the pool (fall off your patio into it basically), and by the end of the week, it really felt like home in a way the Padma never had. An added bonus was catching up with tony_bali and his missus while we were there - hey, Tony! I've done a full review on Trip Advisor so if you want, you can check out all the details.
Anyway they organised a driver to pick us up so after that first breath of Bali air, we followed Putu down to the car park and sat back as he fought his way through the traffic - I wish I could say it's improved even just a little but it's worse than ever - the roadworks were horrendous and it took us 1 hour to go the 40kms or so to Seminyak.
After being greeted by Gede and checking the place out, it was dinner time. We went up onto Camplung Tanduk (commonly known as Jalan Dhyana Pura after the large hotel at the end) and found the Cedana Hotel's restaurant. Nothing to write home about (or even to the forum about!) but we got gado gado, prawns, mango sago and 2 pineapple juices for 170,000. Picked up some water on the way home (Aqua, supermarkets for about 3000 to 4500) and went back to VB and crashed.
Tues 9/10
Up at 6am and our stomachs were rumbling by the time breakfast came around at 8am. Met a French Canadian couple, M&D at breakfast and M mentioned he was doing a surfing lesson that morning. This was one of the things on H's list to do so he seized the day and crashed M's surfing lesson with Toby (300,000 for a couple of hours, rashies and boards provided, out the front of the Dejavu restaurant at the end of 66). H can basically turn his hand to anything physical except golf so of course he was a natural - luckily, because Toby's offsider, who was supposed to be teaching him, seemed more interested in teaching something quite different to some girls who were swimming. We found out later that the offsider actually got the sack over it so Toby doesn't muck around!
Once Moondoggy's lesson had finished, we parted company with M and D and wandered along Camplung Tanduk. Our stomachs told us it was lunch time so we stopped at Warung Ocha on Raya Seminyak across from the end of Camplung Tanduk. Cheap, basic but good Indo food and great papaya juice (happen to have the bill - grilled calamari, nasi goring, spring rolls, Nutella crepes, acqua, 2 x juices for 185,150). We then wandered back down Camplung Tanduk and found Santai Spa for a massage (just OK, 120,000, airconditioned, has a great view from the couples tables on the second floor). While H decided on a nap, I made my way up to Prana Spa (on Jalan Kunti, beautiful place) to scope out the yoga, and fitted in some shopping on the way.
Dinner that night was at Mozzarella on Jalan Padma in our old stomping ground - very nice food but the menu hasn't changed since last year. Pretty crowded but good service. One strange thing is that although it's an open-air place (no walls like most places), the loos are airconditioned. There you are, bet you won't get that news in any other JBR!
Wed 10/10
We were up early for the Bintang bike ride I'd organised on the Internet (early breakfast at VB? No problems!).
We were picked up bang on time and we up to the Dusun to pick up our fellow pedaller Richard. During the long drive up to Kintimani we stopped at the requisite coffee plantation - not sure if the luwak coffee isn't just a load of, well, you know what I mean, but the ginseng coffee and the chocolate were very nice. We purchased some scandalously overpriced coffee to take home and were off again. Once at Kintimani we got a deep fried banana fritter to keep our energy up and got onto the bikes. They were in pretty good shape with gears, mildly padded seats and additional gel seats, however I do think when the Supreme Being was handing out the padding for bums (at least for the bit on bike seats), I was holding the door - sorry about the mental image but just in case you were holding the door with me...!
The downhill ride was mostly no effort at all, even for a non-bike rider like myself - except for the three or four upwards hills where I got off and pushed the bike up. There was a good breeze which meant it wasn't really hot like I thought it might be but I wish I'd worn sleeves over my shoulders - even after reapplying copious amounts of sunblock I still managed to catch a good burn.
Lunch at the Bintang depot was really tasty and enough even for the two guys. And their seats were very soft!
The drive back down to Seminyak was even longer - looking back, we should have done the ride from Ubud as it was 3-4 extra hours getting there and back.
After a soothing soak in the pool, H headed off to Aikido (martial art) and I went for some cooler evening shopping. I found a vegan Hare Krishna place on Camplung Tanduk for dinner which was nice even though I'm not a vegan - always like to try something different.
Thurs 11/10
Finally managed to sleep in a bit and then went down to Gecko Leather to see if they could copy a bag for me. I was a bit apprehensive as I had some clothing disasters last time but the bloke asked all the right questions and said no problems, he could have two copies done by Saturday - my other choice had been Tommy's on Jalan Padma but I was put off when I read that they need at least a week's notice. Anyway Gecko were great - when I got the bags back on Saturday (I dropped in early and they had just been delivered) I found they had turned out very professionally, exactly what I wanted - I highly recommend Gecko and I'll be going back next time.
So after dropping the bags back we had lunch somewhere along Jalan Legian (didn't note it down at the time, food was not memorable so doesn't matter) and then took a chance on a massage. We'd seen touts for Joisce spa on Camplung Tanduk, just a bit east of the exit lane from VB. It was up some really steep stairs and I thought it looked a bit dodgy - to tell the truth I thought it was a massage palour of a totally different kind! So much for my intuition - it was the best massage we had the whole time. 85,000 and the lady was obviously very experienced, and from what H told me, there was no mention of a happy ending!
Then we went to yoga before dinner at Prana Spa. Oy! No airconditioning or fans so we got a bikram session in at the same time! It was a really challenging class and we were both dripping wet when we finished but it was enjoyable despite that - although I can't say I didn't heave a sigh of relief when the teacher said ‘lay down for relaxation'!
After a quick much needed shower we had dinner at Mannekepis on Jalan Legian - it's a Belgian cafe and has really good French Belgian food - bit expensive by Bali standards but worth it. I had snails, duck a l'oronge and something French for dessert (unlike me to forget a dessert) and it was all great. They also had a live band with some blues music which we listened to for a while.