Friday 12/10
While H stayed home and played on the PC, I got into some serious shopping. I went down to 66 via the beach determined to get some sarongs to cut up and sew summer tops and skirts from. I discovered that after 6 visits to Bali, I still don't understand bargaining. One bloke who had some nice sarongs said his price was 200,000. I said it was much more than I wanted to pay but he wouldn't budge, even when I walked away. This wasn't a posh upmarket shop, just one of the basic open tiled jobbies, with no marked prices. The next lady was nicer and dropped by 5,000 but that was it. She was cheaper than the first guy so I got a few sarongs but I later found shops of the same style in Ubud who bargained down to half their asking price quite happily (and probably more if I hadn't been put off by this first experience). Has anyone else had that kind of thing? I'm frankly baffled.
Anyway once I'd exhausted the delights of 66 (bought less than I thought I would) I went back down towards the beach and caught up with H. We had lunch at Dejavu. Nice Western-style food, relatively well priced and a lovely outlook. Would be good for sunset.
I dragged H into Sacre Saison on Jalan Legian (somewhere between Camplung Tanduk and Jalan Padma, on the eastern side, sorry can't remember exactly where) - it's a tiny shop but they have a good range of men's linen shorts and shirts - H is allergic to shopping in Bali but even he said later that he wished he'd bought more there. They have some nice women's linen too but mostly in larger sizes, none of which fitted me despite last night's French feast!
Then it was time to change for drinks with Richard (from the bike ride) and his wife who were staying at the Dusun. Oo-er, it's nice! Private villa, huuuuge bathroom, own pretty large pool and lovely open lounge-dining. Great if you want privacy, although I must say I do like catching up with other visitors. We all wandered along Laksmana and finally settled on the very cheap, but quite nice Warung Murah (their fans could have been a bit more effective). Basic Indo food but quite tasty, and a good black rice pudding. Thankfully this last seems to be more widely available now - it's one of my favourites. And for those who are interested (probably no-one, once you read it) Murah used to have one of the last squat loos a few years ago - but they've now updated to Western style. Another symbol of the old Bali flushed away!
Sat 13/10
H went for another surfing lesson and I went to have a facial at Ambient Spa on Jalan Sahadewa (aka Garlic Lane - north end). I went here last time and they do the best facial I've ever had, Bali or Aust. It's only about 145,000 but the salon is airconditioned and quite upmarket, the products are good quality and the service very professional. There are other Ambients around but they seem more expensive so this is the one I visit.
H and I then went up to Laksmana to search for lunch - it was super hot, and the street doesn't have trees like Jalan Legian so we ducked into the first place that looked decent. It happened to be Bistro Batu Kali (behind a hotel which has another Ambiente spa in it, didn't note the name of the hotel). We had mie goreng, nasi campur (my first and definitely not last), crème brulee tasting plate, 2 x waters, 2 x lemon mint juices and 2 x lime juices for 294,525. Not super cheap but the food was really tasty and well-presented so I'd recommend it.
Due to my powers of persuasion, H and I returned to my Ambiente spa and had massages (160,000 for an hour) which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Despite recent reported issues with the fish, we decided to risk Mozzarellas by the Sea for dinner and had an excellent night. I did a separate HNR post about it at the time - they had a Beatles tribute band who had everyone up dancing, even shy lil me! We had snapper, duck breast, brushetta and crepes, with water, beer and mocktails for 375,000. The food was quite nice but the band really made it - don't miss them if they're on while you're there.
Sunday 14/10
Gede found a day trip for us to do seawalking and today was the day.
After a pretty long drive, we got to, I think, Nusa Dua beach to find the place thronging with Japanese doing all sorts of hair-raising watersports. We got kitted out in wetsuits (just what I need in the Balinese sun!) and taken out to a boat moored someway off shore. By this time I'm packing it - seawalking involves getting a large helmet placed over your head (like the old-fashioned divers used) and then plunging to the ocean floor to walk around. Given my claustrophobia with snorkelling (I blame it on the bath incident when I was a kid), I thought this might ease me into the water but anxiety said no. Stuff you, I said to anxiety and jumped bravely into the water - clinging tightly to the reassuring Ketut-type who was there to look after the scaredy cats. After settling on the sea floor I calmed down enough to release Ketut and join H, and found that it was really quite fun. It was a very small area with a staged reef but we got pieces of bread to feed the fish and my, weren't there a lot, including some clown fishes aka Nemo. It probably only lasted for about 15-20 mins but I enjoyed it, and felt quite proud of myself for not chickening out.
This was all pretty tame for H who decided to go parasailing next - I figured I had been courageous enough for one day so he was on his own - well it's a solo thing anyway. They had quite a production line going and for 200,000 you got a temporary life jacket, thrown into the very recently vacated harness and whipped up into the air for approximately 45 seconds. He liked it but he said once you're up there, it's a nice view and that's about it. No screaming involved - show off.
Next we were taken down to Uluwatu, on the western side of the bottom bulge of the island. It was nearly lunchtime and very hot, so perhaps this influenced my opinion of it but I must say I think Tanah Lot is much more beautiful. We panted down the long walk to the temple, vigilant for thieving monkeys but I think they were sensibly snoozing in shady trees somewhere because we only saw a few - one bearing a striking resemblance to Jabba the Hut. Obviously the pickings are good.
After taking the obligatory photos, we belted back to the airconditioned transport as quickly as possible and went to lunch at the Cultural Centre. I'd never heard of it but it's an old quarry on the hill overlooking Jimbaran Bay. Currently they have two whopping statues, the Big Vishnu which is Vishnu's torso about 20 metres tall, and the Big Garuda, which is Garuda's head and shoulders about 30 metres tall. Apparently these are only parts of a finished statue of said Vishnu on aforementioned Garuda's back (ala all those wooden statues). If they get it done, it will be a whopper, probably 100 metres or more high - I'm assuming it will be able to be seen from Kuta/Legian/Seminyak easily and perhaps beyond. Apart from that, the cultural centre is a bit piss-weak world - the lunch was not bad but not anything to go out of your way for, there were a few overpriced shops but that's about it.
We were plum-tuckered by this time so had a nanna nap when we got back home.
Richard had recommended Potato Head so we decided to go there for dinner and to see the sun set. We obviously left it far too late and there was quite a line to get in, meaning we'd almost certainly miss sunset. After some discussion, we concluded that being hard to get sometimes doesn't get you got, and went to Kudeta instead.
It's a lovely spot right on the beach- when clouds don't conspire against the sunset. Seems you can go there for drinks only or have dinner too. We had dinner - a main-sized salad for me, main for H, dessert for 2 and two drinks. The food was good but not great and maybe I was just in a bah humbug mood but I found the price pretty hard to swallow - 1,500,000 or something, I threw the bill away in disgust - I tell you the ++ taxes really add up at that level. Nothing wrong with the place but with so many other restaurants with excellent food at far more reasonable prices (I cite Bridges in Ubud for instance, not that it's really geographically convenient to Seminyak), I wouldn't be interested in going again.
Monday 15/10
Our last morning in Seminyak - off to Ubud in the afternoon.
H fitted in one last surfing lesson (he's getting pretty good by now), and I, you guessed it, got in some more shopping. Got home and packed up then left our bags at VB before going back to Gecko to get H a premade Diesel bag (1,500,000 - far better value than Kudeta as far as I'm concerned!). We had lunch at the Kopi Pot down towards Kuta on Jalan Legian. I love their food - Indo standards done very well and really reasonably priced.
At this point I'm going to throw some extra notes in on the Legian/Seminyak area before we leave:
We found Blue Taxis were pretty reliable - the meters of other brands seemed much faster and once I think it started ticking over straight away rather than staying on 5000 for ages as they usually do. So no other taxis except Blue Bird for us from now on. It's only the difference of 50c or so but it's the principle!
The shopping is good as always but this time I found a lamentable increase in the smocked and gathered dresses - not really flattering on us shorter folk. Given where we were staying, I tended to keep to the northern end of Jalan Legian and I found lots of nice silver shops and good clothes shops interspersed with a few cheaper, old-style shops selling the usual Bintang singlets and a perplexingly large range of wooden penises. I can't imagine who'd buy them, especially as you have to declare them going back into Australia - wouldn't look good if you were a man or a woman!
I'm fussy with my clothes and prefer cotton and linen and I found a reasonable range of unsmocked items. There was one shop with some lovely clothes, which had branches on Jalan Legian up in Seminyak, Laksmana and one down across from Matahari. Don't remember the name but the dress labels say Rascals and the shops had brass lady hands for door handles!
Can't say shoes have got any better in quality - I found one pair of denim slip ons but everything else was just uncomfortable.
Bintang supermarket on Jalan Legian as read about on BTF has quite a good range of day-to-day groceries including fresh fruit and veg. They also sell toiletries, baby stuff, a small range of knick nacks and Crocs although only a few colours and styles. They're probably about the best place I found for sunblock but nowhere near the range or prices of Woolies in Aust, so this is one thing I wouldn't recommend buying over there. Grabbed some travel sized face washes and BO bashers, very handy for travelling, and blocks of satay sauce.
We didn't get any rain during the week and had mostly sunny days - the first few had tantalisingly cool breezes but the last five were just damn hot.
We also boiled water and let it cool down for teeth brushing - seemed a waste of bottled water when the kettle was there. Gede did say they had a water tank that improved the quality of the water but he still recommended we boil it, and we didn't get sick so it must work.