Our 'just back' appears below, but a little bit about us first. This was our fourth trip to Bali and as on previous occasions we travelled with our friends. We're two middle-aged couples. We enjoy eating out and a few Bintangs but are not into pub crawls, clubs and endless shopping in Kuta, so if you're interested in those things, perhaps look elsewhere on the Forum. We were away 12 days and stayed in three different locations, Legian, Ubud and Jimbaran for 3, 5 and 3 nights respectively.
ACCOMMODATION
We started off at Villa Rumah Manis on the Legian/Seminyak border. A very pleasant hotel, not too big. Each 'room' is a Balinese compound with its own plunge pool and accommodation upstairs and downstairs. There are two types of accommodation, one with an internal staircase, most suitable for families (I would suggest Mum and Dad upstairs, kids downstairs as the footsteps upstairs can be quite noisy!). The other units, called Ayu, have an external staircase, making it ideal for friends to share as you have completely separate bedroom and bathroom arrangements. The hotel is just off Jalan Legian and we found this an extremely busy road, difficult to cross until we got the hang of it after a couple of days! The staff at the hotel were very pleasant, and the cost of meals/drinks at the hotel was reasonable compared to the nearby restaurants.
Our next stay was Pondok Saraswati south of Ubud. This consists of four two-storey bungalows overlooking the rice paddies at a village called Silungan south of Ubud. The cost was $A45 per night including breakfast and we loved our five nights there. The views are lovely and the pace is very relaxed. It's about 10 minutes by car to Ubud. There are several Ubud restaurants that offer free pick-up, and if you get really hungry snacks like pancakes and jaffles are available throughout the day if required. A driver is also available to take you to Ubud or anywhere else for that matter. There is no swimming pool, but guests can use the pool of a hotel about 20 meters up the road. The four of us had two separate bungalows, each with open air bathroom downstairs as well as a meals area, table, chairs, daybed etc. Upstairs was an enclosed bedroom complete with mosquito nets (mozzies were not a problem, coils were provided each evening) and another lovely sitting area with wonderful views over the rice paddies.
The final stay was at the Intercontinental at Jimbaran Bay. This was a complete contrast to our place at Ubud as this is a very large hotel. We upgraded here to Club Rooms and would certainly recommend this. The cost is not that much more and the benefits are considerable. It gives you late check-out, full breakfasts either in your room or at the restaurant, use of the Club Room where tea, coffee and cool drinks are served all day, and where there are complimentary cocktails and nibbles from 6.00pm 8.00pm each day. We certainly made good use of these :) ! There is also a separate pool for Club guests and we used this all the time, and of course the rooms are more spacious. You can also have your clothes pressed when you first arrive! Wish we had that service at home! All in all, it's a five star hotel with the accompanying features and costs. The grounds are lovely and there are several pools and restaurants to choose from. Meals and drinks are expensive. Whilst there we walked along the beach to the Four Seasons at Jimbaran and that would be my preferred option for a luxurious 5 star stay. I like the idea of the individual compounds compared to the large blocks of rooms at the Intercontinental.
TOURS:
Whilst at Rumah Manis we organised a driver for the day through the hotel tour desk. We were unable to contact a driver we had used previously and thought that organising a driver through the hotel tour desk would be very expensive. We were pleasantly surprised when the seven seater air-conditioned vehicle and driver worked out to about $A35 for the entire day. Our first stop was the Subak Rice Museum at Tabanan, had read about this in the Bali Rough Guide. This is well worth a visit, although hardly any tourists seem to go there. We were the only people there the day we went. The museum explains the different aspects of rice growing and in particular the allocation of water, irrigation matters, equipment used and so on. After a lunch stop we headed through magnificent rice paddy country side around Jatiliwuh, stopping many times for photo stops and just to enjoy the scenery. The museum stop gave us a better understanding of what we were looking at on that day, and on other occasions when we were driving or walking around the rice paddies.
From Ubud we organised a car and driver to take us to the eastern side of Bali. We had previously done a trip to Candi Dasa and Klung Klung, so this time we thought we'd head east but in an inland direction. We started at 8.30 and travelled through wonderful country side to the Water Palace near Amlapura. An interesting place, mainly restored from earlier catastrophes like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. We then finished up in Amed where we swam and snorkelled. The beach here is black sand, the water was clean but quite cloudy. Other people there commented that it tends to be clear early in the morning and then gets cloudier as the day progresses. The coral wasn't anything much, but there was a good range of fish. We just snorkelled off the beach, but others were being taken to the reefs by local fishing boats. Unfortunately we didn't have time to linger longer, but I think it would be a great place to stay for a couple of days (next time!!). We also had a beaut lunch at the Amed Café. The setting is great, right on the beach, and the food was excellent, an open kitchen so you could see your order being prepared. I think they have accommodation nearby as well. We drove home along the coast through Candi Dasa, a long day but interesting as it showed us a part of Bali we hadn't been to before.
Also from Ubud we visited Gunung Kawi the massive stone carvings (tombs) near Tampaksiring. You need to climb some 200 steps down to the carvings. The size is very impressive. There were not many tourists around, although it was late in the day when we went there. In some ways it reminded me of Yeh Puluh and I think both of these sites are more interesting than the more touristy Elephant Cave.
The Bali Bird Park was another excursion from Ubud. It's been mentioned very favourably in the Forum and I can see why. It's well laid out, the birds look very healthy and well-cared for. Definitely worth a stop.
We also did the Sobek bike tour from Kintamani to Ubud. I can't remember what we paid for it (around $70) but it included transfers, breakfast, lunch etc.. We were picked up at about 8.00am and taken to a restaurant near Kintamani for breakfast, this was just bread, fruit and coffee, but it was accompanied by a million dollar view. It was a bright, clear sunny morning so Lake Bratur and the country side around it was just beautiful. We were then driven to our bicycling starting point, provided with helmets, gloves, water and bikes and off we went. This really is a ride suitable for all ages and abilities. We split into two groups, Easy and More Difficult. We opted for Easy. The other group takes half an hour longer and finish up having to carry their bikes the last part of the way (this prompted us to settle for Easy!!). Each group is accompanied by guide who cycles in front and by a support vehicle. There are several stops along the way and many hello's and hi-fives from kids in the villages. The only part of your body that aches is your left hand from braking. It really is down hill all the way. We were taken to the Bridges Restaurant in Ubud for a delicious lunch to finish the day.
SHOPPING
Not much to report here. We've basically seen it all before (and bought a lot of it last time around). We just couldn't get in to all the bargaining and shopping around, although I had intended to visit Tootsie's in Sanur. The Uluwatu lace shops (in Sanur, Kuta and Legian) are always worth a visit. We've bought clothes from here before and the quality is excellent, so we were quite happy to buy several items knowing that they'll last and will wear very well. Not cheap and no bargaining, but very well made. Apart from that we only bought some men's shirts and cds at Kuta Square.
EATING:
We dined at La Lucciola after reading all the Forum comments and it was superb. The setting is wonderful, the cocktails just like everyone said they would be and the food was also excellent. We booked a couple of nights in advance and got there at about 5.45 in time for sunset. We also enjoyed La Porchetta in Kuta, and had a particularly fine Thai meal at the Kokokan Club in Ubud (free transport included). We enjoyed many good meals at great prices and didn't really get any duds. We enjoyed the seafood meal at one of the many places near the Intercontinental at Jimbaran Bay. The sunset was wonderful and the food was very nice (snapper and prawns). As others have mentioned it does get very smoky and I feel it's the sort of thing you only do once per visit unless you're an absolute seafood addict. Probably the worst meal we had was our last night in Bali when we decided to eat in at the Intercontinental Hotel at Jimbaran. It says something for the quality of all the other restaurants and warungs they were all better than the five star hotel...
OBSERVATIONS:
1. The hawkers in Kuta are gone. This was the single most obvious difference between this and our last visit. They have, to a considerable degree, been replaced by these awful Holiday Resort people who push these scratchies under your nose at every available opportunity, particularly around Kuta Square/Mataharis. I think they are a bigger nuisance than the watch hawkers ever were!!
2. Money changers no problems encountered at all thanks to us being wary as a result of the posts on this Forum. We tended to use the ones recommended on the Forum, like the one inside Matahari and the PT Central ones. We took Aus dollars, no travellers cheques. Expected to use the ATMs but didn't need to, ie we didn't run out of Aus dollars :)
3. The roads in many parts of Bali were atrocious. This is obviously due to the economic crisis that this country has suffered, and is still suffering. Away from the bigger centres like Kuta and Ubud the roads were full of potholes with very few road workers in evidence. The infrastructure has been seriously affected. Around Amed, Jatiluwih and near our village in Ubud the roads were particularly bad requiring careful navigating around huge potholes. After driving through a particularly bad section of road near a lot of woodcarvers, our driver, stuck for English words said something along the lines of: 'Sorry, about road, road is like woodcarving' I thought it summed it up pretty well.
4. The people are wonderful. I am not being soppy or generalising, but I just found everyone we dealt with to be warm, generous and with a great sense of humour. We laughed a lot and very much enjoyed their company.
5. Massage this was really the first time we ventured extensively into the whole massage thing. Loved it!! All four of us had 'the works' at Bodyworks in Ubud, ie a full body massage, followed by a scrub, being covered in yoghurt, then a bath filled with flower petals and finishing with being covered with body lotion after yet another all over wash. Haven't ever felt that clean before or since! The cost was very reasonable and a great experience. The guys also had massages at Rumah Manis and all of us had another great neck, shoulders and scalp massage at the Intercontinental Spa.
6. Dance practice this was a real highlight that I read about in the Bali Rough Guide. In Ubud there is dance practice for the young girls at the Ubud Palace on Sunday mornings and Tuesday afternoons. Free of charge and you're welcome to just wander in and watch. This was just wonderful and I would certainly recommend it.
7. APS Camera - I bought a new APS camera duty free and had plenty of film with me. I usually have film developed in Bali and have always been happy with the results. I found it more difficult to find places that process APS film (plenty of places stock APS films, but not many process it). I'm sure they must be around in Ubud but I couldn't find any that could produce wide angle and panorama shots. I ended up getting them developed at Mataharis in Kuta. The quality was fine, but it cost about the same as what I paid on my return to Australia.
GLAD WE TOOK:
Cask of red wine and a couple of good whites as wine is very expensive, a torch as blackouts are fairly common, a tube of waterless soap bought at the pharmacy - sorry can't think of the name - but it's an antiseptic clear jel that you "wash" your hands with when water and soap are not available, prescription for my reading glasses as I lost my glasses on Day 2 and had to go to Denpassar to get a new pair.
I know that my travel companions also read this Forum, so they may well add their own point of view. What about it guys?? Will we go back to Bali? I think so. There are so many other places we'd like to go to, but I can see another trip in a few years time, just to enjoy the views over the rice paddies at Pondok Saraswati and perhaps a few days at Amed...
Happy travelling!