Posted by lauren on Friday, 9. October 1998 at 09:19 Bali Time:
Was in Bali from Sept 21 to Oct 2. We stayed in 4 really good hotels
Tanjung Sari in Sanur. Charming, right on the beach. About US$ 160/night. Food is expensive though, but there is a good restaurant across the street called the Village Cafe. Beautiful Frangipani flowers everywhere.
Melati Cottages in Penestanan, Ubud -- not the cleanest place, but adequate and a good bargain at US$35/night including breakfast. Stay in room 25 which is right in the rice paddies. Don't be surprised by the noice level at night -- frogs, crickets, roosters etc.
Hotel Ibah in Campuhan, Ubud -- beautiful hotel with only 10 bungalows. Huge rooms with private garden and outdoor reading and dining areas. US$250/night.
Puri Lumbung Cottages in Munduk (see earlier posting, it's wonderful).
Hired an ex-pat American (in Bali for 25 years married to a Balinese) as our guide. Expensive, but well worth it. She took us to see the best craftspeople and saved us the time of going from place to place to place. Also, she took us to a mass cremation (lots of other tourists too), and to a trance barong temple ceremony where we were the only non-Balinese in attendance. It was pretty wild -- a real treat. Her rates are US$120 for a full day and $80 for a half day. Email me if you would like her information. We used her driver for the rest of the week at US$20/day and the bonus is that she planned our itinerary (suggestions based on our interests)at no extra fee.
Food wasn't great on the whole -- not nearly as good as Thai food, and not much variety. Ubud eateries: Cafe Warung was good. Casa Luna has good western food, the bakery stuff looks good, but doesn't compare to home. The Kampung Cafe in Tagallalan (sp?) is wonderful and has a great view of paddies and a river gorge. While a number of people had good things to say about the Dirty Duck (Bebek Bengil), we found the food to be mediocre and some friends actually got sick after eating there. Whatever you do, DON'T order the wine. It is universally awful and costs twice as much as any of the food. The Bintang Beer is good though. In Sanur the Village Cafe was quite good.
Exchange: We got the best exchange rate by far at our hotel in Sanur -- the Tanjung Sari. The rates on the street were between 10,400 and 10,900, and the hotel gave us 11,000 rps per us$. The rate at Hotel Ibah was also good, but they didn't have any cash! The banks seemed to have worse rates than the changers on the streets. When I did a Visa cash advance at Bank Danamon, they charged a service fee.
Things to buy: Great ikats at Jani's Place on Monkey Road in Ubud. Good selection, knowledgable sales people. Double ikats are cheaper in Tenganan, if you're heading that way. The lowest price I found was US$75. The best place for woodcarvings is Ida Bagus Tillem in Mas. However their prices are on a western scale -- we found it quite expensive. It is worth a visit just to see their gallery and to see what beautiful craftwork they do. There is a great maskmaker directly across the street, but his name escapes me. The Bali Bird Park has great coconut wood and coconut shell bowls and utensils (It's worth a visit for the birds too. Try to have lunch there as they have a lovely dining area). I did my xmas shopping there. I had a suede jacket made in Sanur for 700,000rp. I don't have the name of the place, but it is on the main street directly across from Bank Danamon (not too far from the Hyatt). I dropped off the jacket that I wanted copied at 9:15 at night and picked it up the next day at noon. They did a fantastic job, and the suede is of a very high quality. Their leather did not look nice.
Words of caution: If you expect Bali to be a tropical paradise, I am afraid that you will end up like the people who have expressed disappointment with Bali here on the forum. The roads are crowded with cars, motorbikes, dogs and chickens, they burn trash everywhere, there is a lot of poverty (get a look at a typical Balinese kitchen, they're scary by western standards), and there are a lot of hawkers. Also, the beaches are not great -- the sand is coarse and the beach in Sanur has a coral reef, so it is about 1 - 2 feet deep with out any waves. But , it is too hot to lie out on the beach anyway. Also, no matter how nice your hotel is, you will have bugs and lizards. Luckily the geckos are really cute. In Sanur, in addition to the hawkers there were a number of beggers. But both the hawkers and the beggers are just trying to make enough money to feed themselves and their families, so take it in stride.
The currency crisis has hit Bali quite hard. Food prices have tripled, while wages have not. Rice has gone from US$1.50/kilo to $4.50. They do not grow enough rice to feed themselves, and thus need to import from overseas with their weakened currency. The painters import their paints, so their costs have gone up. The ikat manufacturers import their dyes, so their costs have gone up. The Balinese can no longer afford to buy many things other than food, so many people who work in the portion of the economy that depends on purchases from the locals are out of work.
Lots more, but I'm out of time.