This morning Mum, Natasha and I set off by foot to the Kuta Paradiso hotel to get our tickets extended at the Garuda Office. The hotel is just next to Sakura, its quite a dirty area of Kuta but inside the hotel its nice. The lobby area was nice, toilets were nice and there were delicious looking cheap cakes at a patisserie shop there. Service at the Garuda office was quick and efficiant, nice and air conditioned with comfy waiting chairs (my legs hurt after the walk!) We had a look at the Paradiso pool - its certainly not bad, not as nice as the Padma and much smaller but still good. There was no one swimming in it which was surprising.We met up with some friends who were staying there in the lobby and had a chat, they said that they were loving the hotel.
Next stop was Sakura. They didn't have a big range of CD Roms on site, but I did manage to find a 10 in 1 DVD Rom that would satisfy most of my computing needs. It cost 70,000rp and we also bought some CDs for 10,000rp.
Next stop, Matahari. I loved some of the shoes there, I found the cutest sneakers I have EVER seen but they didn't have my size Then I found some other really cool shoes but they also didn't have my size. So I got the same shoes in an ugly colour, but for au$10 on sale who cares!? Mum found a pair of really comfy leather slip ons for $18.
Revlon is really cheap there, Natasha bought some eyeliner for $7 that would cost lots more here. Maybelline is also a bit cheaper than here, not as much as Revlon. Nothing caught my eye in the teen clothes section, however I did see some really cute around the house tops for 11,000rp each. They were plain white with little cartoons on them, sooooo cute. It was one size fits all and they were WAY too small for me. I'm size 10 and I doubt they'd fit size 8. Moral of the story: smaller kids can get clothes from this section too. Mum wishes she had bought some of those tops for Kate.
She did buy 2 t-shirts from the kids section for Kate though. 20,000rp-25,000rp each, good quality. At this point we were going to check out the bra section which I have heard is really great, but Natasha felt dizzy so we had to leave
We had Haagen Dazs for lunch (YUM). Then we did the rest of the shopping in Kuta square and a bit down Jln Legian.
Here are some good shops:
Pretty Fit - some really cute stuff, cheaper prices than in Aus. Mum found some really cute, comfy shoes here that were on sale. SO cheap.
Variationz - Really cool teen clothes. I bought a top from here for about $20. Cheaper than in Aus and some really original designs.
Body and Soul - MUCH cheaper than Aus prices. Not such a huge range but I did buy a skirt here for au$30.
Surf Shops - worth checking out because with the exchange rate I reckon you can get some good deals. I got a Rusty Devil Beanie for $14 and the boardies were all about $55-$65 and tops $30 or less. (for girls). I also got a small Mooks bag for $12. Paul Frank (genuine) is as expensive as here.
We caught a taxi back to the hotel.
At this point Dad and I went to STAR DISC to pick up the list of 120 DVDs I had dropped off. My advice is: DO NOT USE THEM, THEY SUCK. Last year they were great, this year we were very dissapointed. We had given them 3 days to get the list together and they had promised it would be ready, and that they'd get in the software we wanted and any DVDs they didn't have. Sure enough they hadn't even started putting the DVDs together. This was not good enough. We were annoyed and we should have walked out, but we wasted our time waiting for them to get it all instead. It took about 45 minutes because they had to get stuff from another shop, and even then they didn't get lots of items. "Not available anywhere in Bali, you check in other shops". Yeah whatever, they were everywhere! The guy was actually quite rude and I'm 100% sure that if I had gone there without Dad to pick them up, he would have brushed me off. They didn't get any of the CD Roms they had promised. *Rant Over*
I would advise you to go instead to either SOFTCOMP or MULTI DISC on Jln Padma Utara. These shops both had the best range, a good range of CDs, Softcomp has a huge range of CD Roms and the service was excellent. Never again Star Disc!
For dinner we went to Taman Legian Garden Restauarant (Legian Garden). What a great meal, and very good prices! The Pepes Ikan Udang Jimbaran (fish in bannana leaves) was the best meal we had during the whole trip, it was absolutely spectacular and melted in your mouth. Juices were OK, only 3500rp during happy hour. A large Bintang was 12,000rp.
It was time for more market shopping. I have no idea what I bought though
Back at the hotel we had a late night swim. The Padma say they close the pool at 8pm, but we went at 10 and there were people swimming no problem
End of day 3.....