This is a lot longer than I had planned! Hope you enjoy it!
Kristina
We (My friend Shavon and I) just got back from our 9 day trip, and we had a wonderful time. My friend and I, two 23 year old black women, felt perfectly safe the entire time we were there, and met a few single women travelers who also felt comfortable. This is an extended report of our trip, if anyone has any particular questions they want answered, drop me an email! As for the length of our trip, I was satisfied with it, another 3-4 days would have been perfect, but, I must admit that I was starting to miss some of the creature comforts of home. And, it's always better to leave a place wanting to stay a few more days than to be hanging out at the airport, counting the minutes until your plane leaves!
I arrived by plane in Denpasar, on China Air. China Air was perfectly acceptable, it got me there safely and on time, and didn't lose my luggage. The flight was cheap from San Francisco to Taipei, Taipei to Denpasar. Horrible food, but, then again, no one gets on a plane for a great meal.
We started our trip in Ubud, it took around an hour to get from the airport to the hotel, and my friend had been in Bali a day before me, so she had booked the driver for the day for 100,000rp.
Ubud is a very nice little town. We stayed at Artini 2 cottages, which I would recommend. We paid 200,000 rp for the first night, and 150,000 for our additional 3 nights. We probably could have gotten a much better deal, but, this was our first stop, and we hadn't picked up the art of bargaining yet! The rooms were clean (the inside walls and ceiling are woven, so you feel like you're sleeping in a wicker basket!), with hot showers, (although no hot water in the sink) there is a very nice pool, and they provide breakfast. The breakfast, however, leaves a lot to be desired, so after the first morning, we hit the town for the morning meal.
The one negative aspect about this hotel was the very pushy room steward assigned to us. It seems that tourists at Artini 2 are not expected to know what they want to do or where they want to go, or be able to set anything up on their own. But, thanks to the forum and the Lonely Planet guide, we already had a good idea of where we wanted to do, and enjoyed setting things up for ourselves. This made our steward angry enough to treat us with undeserved attitude-He wouldn't earn a commission on the activities we booked ourselves. Because of this, we gave him a much lower tip than we had planned (thinking back, we shouldn't have given him anything at all!) so he was the only one hurt in the process. I would encourage everyone to book their own activities and drivers, as you can often negotiate a much lower price and make your funds last a lot longer!
Be warned, there are a lot of roosters in Ubud, and in fact, everywhere we stayed on Bali had roosters. Not being a farm girl, I was under the mistaken impression that roosters crowed once or twice, at dawn, to herald the new day. Boy was I wrong. They start in about 4:00 in the morning, 2 hours BEFORE dawn, and don't really quit until 9:30. Either they've got some overachieving or really stupid roosters. But, you get used to it, and it's not that bad. J By the third morning, we were ok.
We found that in Ubud, we couldn't leave the hotel without buying something. There are a lot of great little shops lining the streets, and we had a great time trying on "vacation clothes" and looking at hand woven baskets, carved chess sets, silver, art, essential oils and handmade soaps, and iron work. The prices are great, and despite what you think, they can always come down a little bit more than you will imagine. You will have a great time in Ubud.
The second day we were there, we hired a driver to take us down the road to Kuta, to look at woodcarvings, silversmiths, paintings, and weaving studios. We paid him 100,000 rp for the day, from 10:00 in the morning until we returned at 7:30. We bought some silver jewelry, a painting, and enjoyed looking around. If you are on a budget, I cannot stress enough the importance of bargaining. Start WAY below what you would pay in the US, state a price that you think is ridiculous. They may laugh, but don't worry. The better we got at bargaining, the more often they would accept a price very close to what they had originally laughed at. If you're not into bargaining, I myself just figured out what I would be willing to pay for something, stated my price and stuck to it. I was also willing to walk away if the vendor would not meet my price. Usually they would try to get a little more out of me, but in the end would generally accept my first and only offered price.
In Kuta, we had a late lunch/early dinner at a Mexican Restaurant, TJ's on Poppies I, not as cheap as we were used to in Ubud, and being from California, I would NOT recommend this place for Mexican food, but my friend, who had spent the last year in Japan, enjoyed her food immensely. We then worked our way toward the ocean on Poppies I, checking out the stalls and making a very few purchases. At first, you may be amazed at the prices for t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, etc, but I didn't end up buying anything, because the quality is extremely poor. I had much more fun just looking around. Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't find the hawkers unbearable, not much more so than those that inhabit Fisherman's Wharf or Venice Beach. The only problem is that "no" doesn't mean "no", it means "maybe," and it can be hard to get your point across. If someone is really persistent, offer them 500 rp, and if they accept your price, you're out a grand total of 15 cents. My friend got a 15-cent baseball cap this way, and most of the other people gave up when they realized we weren't going to be a good mark. We got to the beach watched the sunset, which was kind of disappointing, as the day was hazy, and then returned to Ubud for an early bedtime.
The next morning we went to Café Temac for breakfast, good food, good prices, and plenty of people around for conversation. Their ginger tea is excellent. The second day we breakfasted at the café right next to the Café Temac, and I had the most wonderful Ginger Pancakes! I highly endorse them. The rest of the day we spent exploring, took in the museum, which is worth a visit, and logged on to the internet for about 15 minutes at 500 rp per minute. That evening we visited Nur's Salon for the floral bath/massage treatment. This was wonderful. 85,000 rp for an hour and 45 minute massage, body scrub, and bath scented with flower petals. You leave feeling incredibly relaxed. We had so much fun, we did it again the next night at Milano's salon! Both were the same price, and similar quality. Milano's salon is a little more modern, but either one would be great. At the price, you may as well try them both! Also got a manicure/pedicure at Nur's which I would NOT recommend. We had dinner at Casa Luna, which was alright, I was not amazed. But then, I come from a foodie town, San Francisco, where excellent food is almost ordinary. The setting was very nice, however. We sat on the third level down, which, after seeing the first two, I think is the nicest.
The next day, we took a tour, set up by our hotel, which only confirmed my fears about allowing the hotel to do anything more than provide a room. We stopped many times at workshops, a woodcarving place, a weaver's, a painter's, and were expected to buy something. These were "extra" stops on our tour, and I did not appreciate this. I enjoy shopping, but I also enjoy having a choice about which stores I want to patronize. The same goes for a restaurant-our driver took us to one place with no alternatives. Highly disappointing. The most interesting stop on the tour was the view of lake Batur. In my opinion a precious day was wasted. Don't take a tour. We had dinner at the local Lotus chain, it was alright, nothing to write home about.
The next day, we hired a driver to take us from Ubud to Lovina, and we paid 100,000 rp. It's a long ride on a not so good road, but doable. In Lovina, we stayed at Manik Sari, a great place and for 65,000rp you get a very nice, clean room with a hot shower. The hotel restaurant served good food, but with very small portions. We ended up eating two dinners-the second at a new American-owned bar called "The Wounded Dog." The highlights of the wounded dog are the owner, Greg, a friendly, talkative guy, and the fact that the kitchen is clean. There is no health code in Bali, so restaurant workers don't have to wash their hands, the kitchen floor, the utensils, the counters, get the idea? It's no accident that so many people get "Bali Belly!" But, nevertheless, the food just wasn't all that good. We saw the sunset from the beach, incredibly beautiful, and spoke with some friendly beach hawkers. I ended up buying a double size blanket/batik, woven for 30,000 rupiah that turned out to be one of my most useful purchases.
We took a dolphin tour at 6:00 the next morning, in boat #19. It was a beautiful sunrise, and there were dolphins to be seen. It was kind of a farce, though, there are about 30 boats, chasing the dolphins all around, and then trying to "trap" them in a ring of outriggers. It's no wonder that the dolphins don't hang around long. Imagine if someone was in your house, every morning, chasing you around: "Wait, look, she's going to the shower! Hurry, everyone! Oh no, now she's going to the refrigerator! Run, run! She's turning on the radio, catch her!" It's really kind of ridiculous, but it is nice being out on the ocean, and it doesn't cost too much only 30,000rp. Enjoyable, and I would recommend it.
That day we left Lovina for Amed, and I must say, out of everywhere we visited, Amed was my absolute favorite place. On the recommendation of an Englishman we met in Ubud, we wanted to stay at Good Karma for 60,000rp, only to find that it was full. We ended up back trekking to go to the first hotel you hit when entering Amed, the Amed Café. It was decent, although cost twice as much as we had expected to spend at 110,000rp, passable dinner included. Cold shower, but nice pool. If I were to return, I would stay at the charming 3 Brothers, right across the street. They have 3 bungalows, each with individual lily ponds, right on the beach (Amed Café is on the far side of the street). 3 Brothers also has a restaurant that makes good food. French fries were the best we had in Bali. And the people who run 3 brothers are very nice. Part of the reason I enjoyed Amed so much was that not everyone I met was trying to sell me something. John, Bobby, Wayan, (not the 3 brothers. I don't know where they got the name) and friends, the staff of 3 brothers, were wonderful hosts, even though we weren't staying in their hotel. The view of the ocean from Amed is incredible. We spent the afternoon lounging on the beach, and stayed up late into the night, built a fire and watched the stars. No distracting lights near Amed, so you can actually see the Milky way. Plus, we were there during the optimal time of year for shooting stars. I saw 13 that evening. It was magical.
From Amed, we took a driver to Padangbai, for the ferry to Lombok. DO NOT let anyone pick up your bags for you. If they do, tell them you're not going to pay them and be amazed at how quickly your things fall to the ground! If they succeed in carrying your bags on board, they will expect a ridiculous sum of money. Our porter wanted 20,000. We gave him 5,000, grabbed our bags and refused to give him any more. The ferry trip itself was uneventful, but very long at 4 hours. If I had to do it again, I would fly from DenPassar, which we did on the return trip. The flight is only ½ an hour, and costs about $30. When you have a limited amount of time, consider paying extra for the convenience. Once on Lombok, we took a transport to Senggigi, where we stayed the night at nondescript homestay for 60,000 rp. If you are interested, I can look up the name. This was just a stopover for us, as we were on our way to the Gilis.
Next morning, we left early for Bengsal, the port for the Gilis, to catch an outrigger to the tiny islands. You have to wade, with your bags, out to the boat. Once again, a number of people will offer to take your bags to the boat for you. If you choose to do this, be sure to arrange the price in advance! The trip takes about ½ an hour, and is a nice one. We stayed on Gili Air, which has it's strong points, but, were I to do it again, I would have picked one of the other islands. The other two islands, I found out on our last day, have the beautiful, powdery, white sand beaches I was expecting. Gili Air has rocky, coral beaches, and no real surf. You can walk very far out, easily 50 yards, and still be wet only to your knees, but the bottom is not sandy, but rocky and overgrown. If you are going for the beach, either one of the other islands has Gili Air beat hands down.
But, Gili Air was still a great place to go. When you get off of the outrigger, there will be horse and cart transports waiting to take you to the hotel of your choice. NEGOTIATE THE PRICE IN ADVANCE! We hired a driver for 10,000 rp to take us to one of the closest hotels, and when that was full, ended up driving almost all of the way around the island to find the MataHari bungalows. Our driver wanted us to pay him 30,000. The original 10,000 we offered would have been VERY generous, 5,000 for the whole trip would have been appropriate. When we offered 15,000 and not a penny more, our driver became outraged, picked up a stick the length of a baseball bat, and began beating the railing of the building in an attempt to intimidate me into giving him more money. We were appalled. I looked at him as if he were insane and said "What in the world are you doing that for? Are you going to hit me with that? Put that stick down. I'm not giving you any more money." At which point he kept at it a while longer, and when I simply put the money down and walked away, he finally picked it up and proceeded to leave, cursing at me all the way. This was by far the worst experience we had, and even the people who ran the hotel could hardly believe it.
ANYWAY, the Matahari is, in my opinion, the best budget place on the island. At 45,000 a night for a double with breakfast (choice of omlette, eggs and toast, or jaffle, with fruit and tea or coffee) we were happy. Not hot water, and rustic is not the word for the bungalow (I could have built our cabin, and I was an English major!), but you must remember that unless you are willing to pay a lot more for accommodations, (I believe Gili Air hotel is about $75 US/night) everywhere is the same. You just have to get into the spirit of things. There were no blankets, so my 30,000rp purchase came in quite handy. For some reason, it's the only place to stay on the western coast, so it has an excellent view of the sunset. And, there are these wonderful gazebos facing the ocean, stocked with large lounging pillows. Both guests and staff spend the day pretty much lounging about, reading, sleeping, eating, and talking in these Gazebos. We ate all but one dinner at the Matahari, mostly for convenience, and because the island is pitch black at night, and we didn't relish the idea of a walk through unfamiliar territory without light. The food was fine, fresh fish, chicken, rice, and vegetables, some soups. The mixed rice was very good, and only 10,000 rp. Everything was done on credit, because we were staying there. We paid our bill for daytime sodas, lunches, and dinners all at once, along with our room bill.
Gili Air is a very relaxing place. No one knows, or cares, what day it is, much less the time of day, and some don't even know what month it is. We had a lovely time. The guys that ran our hotel were incredibly friendly and entertaining, their English is excellent, and they were quite willing to talk or spend time with us in companionable silence. At the end of our stay, one staff member trusted me with the enormous (for a Balinese) sum of 200,000rp to send him a pair of used levis.
In the evenings, the staff and a few guys from neighboring hotels converge to play guitar and sing. It's not a performance, it's strictly a way of entertaining themselves, (There's not a whole lot else to do!) and if you are around, you are expected to participate. It's a lot of fun and very relaxing, singing into the night. After 2 days of blissful nothingness, we took a three island snorkeling tour that I would highly recommend. I don't even know how to swim ( a travesty, I know, but I really don't even like being in the water that much! I'd much rather hang out on the beach.) It cost 15,000 rp, and I went along mainly for the ride. I'm very glad I did. The water was incredibly warm, I got to relax on the boat and swing my feet in the ocean while my friend and our fellow travelers snorkeled. We also spent time on each of the other two islands, which was when I discovered the sand thing. It was a great trip.
That night, we went to a "party" at one of the establishments by the harbor. It was nice, they played dance music and there were drinks available. At first, it's a little bit of a culture shock, because other than the tourists, there are no women dancing. All the men just dance alone, or approach a tourist for a dance or two. The only odd part about this night, was that because of the lack of light on the roads, and the fact that we didn't really know where we were, we had to wait until the people we came with (the hotel staff guys) were ready to leave. This was much later than we would have liked, but as there were no transports, we had no alternative. We slept that night out on the gazebos, listening to the sounds of the ocean and watching the stars.
The next morning we left, got to the airport on Lombok by 11:00, just in time to catch an 11:30 flight to Denpassar. From Denpassar, we took a blue taxi to Sanur for 25,000rp, and checked into Yulia's homestay (the one by Coco's, not the other Yulia's) Our room was very nice, for 55,000 rp, with cold water and breakfast. We went out for shopping and lunch-ate at the Local Lotus chain, pretty good food, kind of pricey considering what we were used to. I spent a little money at a great place called Castaway's, the owner Astawa, had some great handmade paper products that will make nice gifts. As we had been up since 6:00 that morning, we got a quick, early dinner and turned in early, it was my last night in Bali, and I kind of wasted it, but I was tired, so it was ok!
The next morning, we had the hotel breakfast, nothing to wait for, and we did have to wait! I recommend fending for yourself. Did a little more shopping, and then caught a ride to Kuta. I had one final massage at the Kuta Milano's-I don't recommend it. The Ubud facility is much nicer. In Kuta, it is right under an overpass, so your massage is set to the music of street noise. I would have gone to the famous Teddy's but I couldn't find the direction! We went to the Hard Rock Hotel (my friend had one night left, and decided to really splurge $190 a night! That was more than twice what we paid for all the other nights combined.) Hard Rock is a great hotel. Her room was wonderful, and extra so after our more rustic hotels and homestays. But, personally, I'm not rich enough to make it worth while. After a quick lunch at one of the Hard Rock delis, it was off to the airport (15,000rp in a blue taxi) for my flight back home. All in all, a wonderful trip.
Some tips:
I used OFF! Unscented mosquito repellent, spray version, every day and only got bitten once. My friend had this other medicine, with deet, but it was a lotion, and she was eaten alive. (I did offer to share, but she didn't take me up! She's a little bit odd.) I also brought citronella tea lights and lit one or two every night there, kept the mosquitoes out and doesn't smell bad at all. I got mine 12 for $2 at Target.
Try to carry small change, in case you get tired of walking and want to order a short hop back to the hotel, or give someone 5,000rp to carry a bag or two.
I carried a bottle of gentle astringent, and some cotton balls, to clean off my face after a few hours out in the dust. Very refreshing!
Drinking lots of water-bottled, of course-is very important, and I met a woman who had brought along a container of Crystal Light Lemonade to make the water more appetizing. I thought it was a very smart idea, and a very cheap drink!
Don't bring too much!!! I had one duffle bag, on small backpack, and a medium sized woven bag I used as a purse. In retrospect, I would have cut out the backpack, so that I only had 2 bags to contend with for travel around the island. You really don't need that much stuff.
Lonely Planet is only partially useful, not a lot of useful information about the different hotels, and sometimes erroneous. It listed the exit tax as 30,000, when in fact it is 50,000, and the flight from Lombok to Bali as 119,000, when in fact it is 224,000. Be careful! I found the tips on the forum much more useful. In general, I found their prices to be much lower than the reality, from food to hotel to taxis.
If you are a reader, bring any books that you might want to read or trade. There are many little "libraries" where you can take something or leave something behind, in many different languages.
You can also bring tshirts, or shorts, or towels, or anything, really, to trade with Balinese for stuff that they have to sell. That would have been a much better option for me, just before I left, I gave away a big bag of stuff to Goodwill that would have been very handy to have out there.
For black people: nothing to worry about at all. There really aren't any black people to speak of, so you kind of get to be a celebrity with the locals. We were the only black people we saw on our entire trip, except for one Montery Ca, transplant who had been living in Ubud for the past 2 years. Everyone thinks you're from Jamaica, or are personally related to Bob Marley! Get used to hearing snippets of reggae as you walk by. I wear my hair in braids, and tons of people wanted to come up and touch the "Rasta Girl's" hair. It was fun being able to interact like this.
Ok, that's about all. I hope this helps someone, or at least, I hope it's not too tedious to read! If anyone has any questions, please drop me an email at kristinanoel@hotmail.com
I hope everyone enjoys their trip as much as I did!
Kristina