Posted by Mark on Friday, 23. October 1998 at 21:12 Bali Time:
We just got back from 2 weeks in Bali where we have just spent our honneymoon. I had spent a few weeks in advance of going reading the Forum and appreciated all the helpful tips and advice. Enclosed are our views on Bali along with some tips we picked up on.
We flew via Singapore where we spent two nights. Visit this city. It is amazingly clean and modern. We flew Singapore Airlines Economy, but it was very impressive nonetheless. SA have a special Singapore Stopover deal where you can stay in a 4 star hotel for £10 for the first night and slightly more for further nights. Excellent value. We stayed at the York Hotel, just off Orchard Road. We told them we had just got married so they upgraded our room at no charge.
Singapore has great bargains in terms of cameras, sports equipment, glasses / sunglasses and of course clothes! You should also take in the Night Safari (unforgettable), Sentosa Island and a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel (a tad expensive at £8 each but worth in in terms of the experience).
Anyway we arrived at Denpasar Airport in Bali. Got picked up by representative from Nikko Bali, the hotel where we stayed in Nusa Dua. The hotel was excellent, the rooms were fully AC and had everything we wanted along with an ocean view. It couldn't be faulted except that it was a bit secluded from the rest of the island. However taxis were ridiculously cheap so getting about wasn't a problem. Go for the blue metered taxis, run by the government. All the "private taxis" (i.e anyone who has a car and nothing to do for a few hours) tend to rip you off. Don't be afraid to haggle for a fair based on what the metered taxis charge.
In terms of what cash you need, well it was our h'moon so we went a bit overboard and spent loads, even for Bali. I only brought my credit card and £ sterling with me, helpful advice from the forum. The money is slightly confusing as any time you change money you end up with a pocketful of Rupiah and feel like a millionaire. However we got slightly caught out in that when we arrived we got 18,500Rp to the £ and when we were leaving we only got 13,200Rp. I wish I had brought some $US with me. Bummer, but its good to see the Indonesian economy picking up.
We bought a guide book to Bali in one of the supermarkets. I never usually do that when visiting somewhere but this was a good buy. It explains the incredible culture, customs and religion as well as places to go and visit.
We toured round the island to most of the tourist spots, Tannah Lot, Celuk, Ubud, the moutain and the volcano etc. The culture was amazing and the people we found very friendly. We also visited a few places off the map, one place where we were shown round a local's house, which makes Westerners seem like slobs.
There are a lot of hawkers nearly everywhere we went. Even when we stopped off at a village way off the map, in less than 5 minutes kids were running up to us with something to sell at a "good price". There are two ways to deal with it. You can be rude and tell them to **** off or you can politely decline their offers. We chose the latter but were tempted a few times as they can be quite insistent. I kept telling myself that they are only trying to make a living which in truth they are.
There are no beggars in Bali. They look after their own and no-one goes hungry. They save most of their money for their funeral (to enable them to pass onto a better life) and material possessions are not encouraged.
We did buy a couple of wood carvings from a master woodcarver near Ubud. They are beautiful and worth the money (approx. £60 each) but we were able to knock them down approx. 50%. We probably could have got more off but I still think we got a bargain.
I loved the food but my wife didn't which made dining difficult. We ate at the the hotel's 4 resturants (good variation and excellent quality) and we also went to the Galleria in Nusa Dua a few nights, where there was a good selection of cuisine on offer. We both got a few upset stomaches but nothing too severe. Don't drink the water, even to brush your teeth in. Luckily the hotel provided guests with complimentary bottled water, but we bought some every few days also.
We went to Jimbaran (??) Bay a couple of nights to sample the seafood. There are a row of approx. 30 cafe type resturants, all selling fresh fish, lobster and prawns, BBQ'd on cut open steel drums using coconut shells as fuel. The first night we went down about 8pm. The place was deserted and we were not very impressed. However we learned that the time to come was 5.30pm to watch the sunset. What a difference! The place was packed and the view was spectacular. Eating Lobster, drinking beer, the smell of burning coconut shells and the sounds of wandering minsterels, all while watching a magnificent sunset, unforgetable.
We went to Kuta a couple of times mainly to stock up on clothes. Its not the nicest part of the island, but we did find a few nice shops, one being Kids A GoGo (right beside Hard Rock Cafe), where my wife bought a beautiful summer dress.
All in all we loved Bali. I was saddened to read some people (JANE) slagging the place off. Yes it is a 3rd world country and it does have its problems but these are far outweighed by the culture, the scenery and the people. Everyone spoke English to some level, one taxi driver pointing out that his livelihood depended on it and everyone wanted to know where we were from. Unfortunately we only found a few people who had heard of Ireland, and that was only after mentioning U2 and Guinness!!!
It is a teriffic place to spend a honneymoon, where at the moment everything is relatively cheap, the weather is brilliant and you can do as little or as much as you want to. We will enjoy boring loads of people to death with the photos and will certainly be recommending it to friends as a place to visit.
We will go back but maybe not for a few years. 18 hours (all in) is a long time to spend in a plane.