In Reply to: Driving in Bali-place to stay in UBUB posted by Phil on Tuesday, 3. August 1999 at 20:11 Bali Time:
We went to Bali and Lombok last year in October and to hire a car is easy to find in many places. We hired a car with a driver for one day for 120 000 Rupiah (Kintamini Tour in Lovina) and another time for 150 000 Rupiah (on Lombok). The exchange course last year in October was varying from the beginning of October was 1 USD = 10 500 Rupiah and in the end of the month down to 1 USD = 7 500 Rupiah. The roads on Bali were quite nice and they didn't drive too fast, so I don't think it would be that dangerous to hire a car, but to have a driver is not so much more expensive. To hire a car costed last year under 100 000 for one day.
In Ubud we stayed in a nice and clean place called Swan close to a ricefield and payed only 40 000 for a room with breakfast. It was a family that had two small bungalows on their backyard. It's easy to find room also, just walk around a bit and compare, they'll always show you the rooms first and then tell the price.
The Oka Wati's sunset Bungalows beside the Swan's seemed to be nice place for 30 USD/night.
kind regards
/Nina
The view from Swans and Oka's:
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/p/i/a/pianina/bali/ricef_.jpg