In Reply to: Aston Bali posted by Lynne on Monday, 5. April 1999 at 23:22 Bali Time:
We are Canadians and have just come back from Bali last week. We stayed at the Aston Bali, and agree with Lynne's comments on the hotel being very nice.
We had a lot of massages from the ladies in yellow that Lynne mentioned and were very satisfied.
Jukung, which Lynne mentions is a good and very reasonably priced restaurant. It seems that a lot of people who stayed at the Aston ate there, as the price at the hotel for meals and drinks is outrageous - I'd say at least 5 times as much. Once when we passed by one of the restaurants at the hotel, there was only one couple eating there at dinner time, and at the same time Jukung was almost full. Another nice place is the Bumbu Bali Cooking School, which is also close to the hotel, but in the opposite direction to the Jukung i.e. go left from outside the hotel, as opposed to right from outside the hotel to go to Jukung. The Bumbu Bali Cooking School is more expensive than Jukung, but still way cheaper that the hotel, and is worth trying - we ate there twice.
Drinks are also very expensive at the hotel. For example, a can of coca cola from the mini bar in the room is US$2.50, whereas from the stores nearby, they are 3,500 rupiahs (approx. 40 cents US)
For tours, we took the Northern Bali one and the Kintamani one, and that is the only I thing that I differ with Lynne on. We prefered the Kintamani one because it stops more often, and does not feel like continuous driving - but then it is a matter of likes and dislikes.
For changing money, I would recommend either the Nusa Dua Galleria (to which there is a free shuttle bus every hour at 35 minutes past the hour from the Aston, and returning at 15 minutes past the hour from the Galleria, except that they have a break between 12 noon and 1 pm); or there is a store just across the hotel to the right (I believe it is the third store from the parking lot, right next to the "Laundry" sign, and it has a money changer sign with rates posted. The rates at both these places (although they do vary slightly from each other) were much better than at the hotel - about 300 to 400 rupiah better for the US$ and about 500 rupiah better for the Canadian $. Neither of these places ever tried to rip us off, and in fact both places insisted that we count the money before putting it in our pockets. You get better rates for cash than for T/C's and $100 bills often get you batter rates.
For our laundry, we used the place across the road - see last paragraph - "Laundry" sign. The hotel was charging 10 times the cost at the place across the road.
For transportaion, we exclusively used Blue taxis. They have meters and are very reasonable. Don't ask the hotel to get you a taxi. Just go on the road and flag down a Blue taxi - you should be able to get one in maximum 5 minutes. Just as an example, we asked the hotel how much it would be for a taxi to Kuta and they quoted 50,000 rupiah one way. We got a Blue taxi from outside the hotel and it came to 16,000 rupiah to Kuta. Blue taxis have a "flag" of 2,000 rupiahs which includes 1 km. After that it is 90 rupiah per 100 metres i.e. 900 rupiah per km. Waiting time is also on the meter and is charged at 10,000 rupiah per hour, and is cheap enough to get the driver to wait. If you go out of town, there is a 20% surcharge. One afternoon we had the taxi for over 5 hours, and it took us to Denpasar and then to Ubud and return to the hotel, and it cost us 140,000 rupiah including the surcharge and a tip.
If you have any other particular questions, post them and I will try and respond.