It seems to be the time to go to Bali at the moment, with so many trip reports being posted - and here's another one! I'll try not to babble on too much (as i have a tendency to do) ...... and I hope you enjoy reading this as i do reading all the other reports.
My boyfriend and I got back from Bali 2 days ago (31/7) after 2 wonderful weeks staying at the Ramada Bintang Bali Resort in Tuban.
THE AIRLINE/AIRPORT
We flew Ansett direct from Sydney to Denpasar. No problems what so ever. Our flight left Sydney at 8.40am, so we'd stayed at the Airport Parkroyal the night before, which is a good idea if you have an early flight and don't live close to the airport (they look after your car for 10 days for free, then $5 a day after that, and they provide a shuttle bus to and from the airport).
We arrived in Bali on time at 1pm (local time). It wasn't as humid as i remembered from my last trip, but still hot. It took about 45 mins to get through immigration, and get our bags. We were a little worried about customs, as we'd each bought a carton of cigarettes which contained 250 smokes, and the limit for Indonesia is only 200. But we didn't claim them, and the customs guy just let as walk straight through.
Didn't even have any porters ask to carry our bags, but there were a few around (maybe because my bag had wheels?!). A guy from San Michele was waiting out the front (along with millions of other transport people) to transfer us to our hotel, only 5 minutes from the airport. He gave us a few tips on the way (most I'd already read off the forum) such as be careful of the money changers, only get light blue taxis, etc.
THE HOTEL
The Ramada Bintang Bali was a first class resort. We were welcomed with a drink, got to choose which area of the hotel we wanted our room in, and were escorted to our room to find a huge KING sized bed! We chose room 1033 which is on the ground floor only a few hundred metres from the pool. The room was clean, well maintained and the air conditioning worked very well (thank goodness!). Our room was cleaned and sheets changed daily, plus in the early evening they would come and turn down the bed and give us fresh towels if needed.
Other facilities around the hotel included swimming pool (quite big, with small waterfall, constant activities - pool volley ball and basket ball and water aerobics), never any problem getting a deck chair, pool bar, jacuzzi, cold dip, tennis courts, games room, 3 bars including one down by the pool/beach, Coconut Wharf cafe on the beach and La Brasserie a la carte restaurant, games room, water sports and tour desk, internet hire, beauty salon, and several other small shops.
We were also supplied with a pool towel card to exchange for towels. They weren't supposed to be taken past certain points, but i saw other people taking them out of the hotel with no worries.
For an idea of prices:
1 hour tennis = 50,000Rp (includes rackets, tennis balls)
Table tennis - free
Pool/billiards - 4000Rp/game
Food and drink - we only ate at the hotel once, as, as said before, the hotel prices are much higher in comparison to out on the street, and besides, we wanted to try as many different restaurants as possible. Mini bar prices were outrageous (12,000 for small Bintang, 7,000 for small can of coke). I lived on mixed fruit juice which you can order from your deck chair by the pool and charge to your room for about 18,000Rp.
After walking along the beach into Kuta we also discovered that the Bintang is one of the only hotels on the strip that has direct beach access (the rest have big cement blocks blocking the hotel from the beach).
KUTA
To walk from our hotel to the main strip in Kuta (Jalan Legian) took us about 20 minutes if we didn't stop to look at anything, and there's heaps going on (hawkers, shops, cars, motor bikes) along the way, whether you walk along the road or beach. I was a little concerned the hotel might have been too far from the centre of Kuta, but it was fine.
TRAVELLING AND TOURS
We tried to do as much travelling and see as much of Bali as we possibly could, and i think we did pretty well. We didn't have any tours included in our package, so we did a variety of different types of touring.
1. THE TREKKER - this is a tour company offering adventure type tours at reasonable prices - their brochure can be found at most hotels. We booked a rice paddy trek for $US29 each. The trek was one of the highlights of the trip and well worth the money. Our guide, Danny, was great, spoke excellent English and was good at what he did. We were picked up from our hotel, and along with 1 other couple were driven to a place not far from Ubud. We then got out and were on foot! The walk went for about 2 1/2 hours passing through traditional rice terraces with the natives ploughing and digging. The scenery was breathtaking. There were a few difficult downhill rocky parts on the trek, and you had to be careful of snakes, but the rest of it was quite manageable. The trek ended going through an ancient kingdom carved out of stone at Gunung Kawi, again with breathtaking views. We were then taken to Ubud for lunch (included in tour cost) at Casa Luna. We had a special menu, but there was still plenty to choose from, and the food was delicious!
2. HIRING BEMO & DRIVER
We did this twice. The first 2 guys were waiters (Nyoman and ?)at a restaurant we had lunch at in Nusa Dua. They charged us 200,000Rp for the day (9am - 5.30pm). Neither of their English was that good, but we were able to communicate well enough to get by (I did 2 years of Indonesian at highschool which helped too). This trip included a Barong dance at Batubulan, Celuk (silver and gold), Mas (woodcarvings), Kintamani (Gunung and Lake Batur), Pura (Temple) Ulun Danu Batur, and Tampaksiring (another temple and President's Palace). A good day, but hawkers are very bad at Kintamani and don't eat at the big buffet restaurant overlooking volcano (it's a rip off and the food was cold and not very good).
Our second bemo driver, Made, we met in Ubud. He charged us 175,000 (and he would have done it much cheaper if we'd been staying in Ubud rather than Kuta). He picked us about around 8.45am and we didn't get home until 8.30pm. He would have been happy to keep going all night! He spoke good English and was very gentle and nice. Made took us up north to Jatiluwih (meaning truly marvellous, which the views were), Bedugul (botanical gardens, Lake Bratan, temple), Git Git (waterfall), Singaraja (old capital), Lovina (black sand beach) and Tanah Lot (temple and sunset). A very long, but interesting day. We ended up giving Made 220,000Rp - he was well worth it. One warning if you go to Git Git. Young school children try to walk you down to the waterfall. Made had told us about them and said don't give them anymore than 5,000Rp. My boyfriend ended up giving him Rp40,000, plus he bought 2 shirts from the boy's sister's shop. I know it's less than $10 and it probably was very much appreciated - just a warning if you're a sucker like my boyfriend!
3. KAMINI TOURS - is located on Jalan Pantai Kuta. There are heaps of similar tour places everywhere. They are small, local set ups, that are much cheaper than the big professional tour companies, and as we found out, just as good, if not better. We paid 70,000Rp each (we could have paid 45,000 for no air-con) for a tour to the east of Bali. Our guide, Yon, was also excellent. A little older than the other guides we'd had, and very knowledgeable. The tour ran from 8.30am to 5pm and included a Batik making factory in Batuan, Goa Lawah (Bat cave temple in Kusamba), Besakih (the Mother temple), lunch overlooking lush rice terraces (not included) and the ancient court of justice and museum in Klungkung. The definite highlight was Besakih. We were sort of expecting just another temple the same as all the rest, but this one was truly beautiful. It is the biggest and oldest temple in Bali. It's a steep walk up to the temple from the car park, and then Yon walked us all around the outside of the temple and up to the top of one where we could see beautiful views of the east of bali.
4. PERAMA - this is a shuttle bus/tour company located on Jalan Legian, that offers cheap shuttle services to places all over Bali. We booked a return trip to Ubud for a total of 36,000Rp. We left at 10.30am from Kuta, and left to return from Ubud at 6pm. Once in Ubud we just used the Lonely Planet guide to show ourselves around (you can rent bikes quite cheaply too, but my boyfriend had a bit of the Bali Belly and didn't feel up to it). We went to the Monkey Forest (3000Rp entry fee), looked at a few galleries, the market, had a massage at Nur's Salon for 55,000Rp each and lunch at Café Lotus. The massage was divine. We had to get totally nude, and they massaged just about everywhere, and they had a woman massager for women and a man for men. It was much better than a massage we had in Tuban for 66,000Rp each.
5. We also got taxis to nearby places and looked around ourselves on foot. We did this for Sanur, Nusa Dua, Denpasar and Uluwatu.
GETTING AROUND
We mostly used the light blue taxis which are very cheap (flag fall 2000RP and goes up in 90Rp lots). A trip from our hotel to Jalan Legian was less than $1. We hired a bemo a few times to go short distances, but found the taxis were much cheaper for relatively short distances. The hotel also offered a taxi service but that was significantly more expensive.
SHOPPING
We didn't buy all that much, as we preffered to spend our money on sightseeing, etc. I bought a bikini from a fixed price shop for about $30. From Kuta Art Market we bought 3 Hawaian shirts for 90,000Rp, a short wrap around skirt (20,000Rp), Bintang t-shirt and stussy t-shirt (about $6 each), a Batik shirt (70,000Rp), 'doodle' ashtray (18,000Rp), a few music Cds (60,000 - 85,000Rp), some CD Roms (Office 2000 Premium for 200,000Rp and Windows 2000 Beta for 60,000Rp - both of which work), some batik tables cloths (35,000Rp each) and a few other odds and ends.
It was fun bargaining with the hawkers, but it can get to you after a while. Some of them are better than others. We got ripped off a few times, but it was all a learning experience. If you think you're being ripped off just walk away and they'll probably call you back. We also bought some chips, krupuk, bintang, coke, etc from the matahari supermarket to put in our hotel fridge (all very cheap).
EATING
We definitely did too much of this over our 2 week trip. I feel like I should have put on 10kgs, but I think all the walking we did made up for it. You can get your typical satay, nasi and mie goreng, spring rolls, etc, just about anywhere. Plus, if you're not into Indonesian food, Western food is readily available. Just to warn you, a lot of the places we ate at were expensive in comparison to other places in bali, but cheap compared to home. Our cheapest meals were at bali Aromas on Jl. Hartika Plaza (about $12 total for 2 courses + drinks) and Suci on Jl. Panati Kuta ($5 for satays, spring rolls and drinks). The satay house in Kuta centre was also good and quite cheap.
Fave restaurants:
Indonesian - Ketupat on Jl. Legian (very authentic and beautiful setting) and Bintang Lima (right up the top of Jl. Legian in Seminyak).
Mexican - Poco Loco (huge servings - shared entrees, 2 mains, shared dessert and drinks for $A23). TJs and Chi Chi's were also good.
Pricey but beautiful settings - La Lucciola in Seminyak and Ocean Restaurant at bali Cliff Resort in Uluwatu.
Breakfast - All Start Café (breakfast burrito and banana pancakes), on beach in Sanur ($3 for fruit plate, toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit juice and coffee).
Disappointing - Made's Warung and Poppies. Yes, Poppies! It had nice surroundings, but the mains weren't too good (maybe we ordered the wrong things) for the price.
Jimbaran Bay - beautiful sunset, but the lobster was quite expensive (170,000Rp) and there was only about 6 small mouthfuls of meat on it. If you're sunburnt - wear a jumper as the cool sea air will be freezing!
Well, I have so much more I could tell you, but this is long enough already. I hope it's not too boring, but I know how much I enjoyed reading trip reports before I went, and writing this is enjoyable for me too! We'll definitely be going back one day (hopefully soon). I've really got the 'bug' now. I'm back at uni, and all I can think about is the beauty, great weather and friendliness of bali and its people. As long as you have an open mind and are willing to try different and new things, I encourage anyone who hasn't been to go and experience it for themselves.
If anyone had actually managed to get through this whole thing and has any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Laura