The saga continues.....
Awoke early & hungry on our first morning in Bali & decided to go jalan-jalan-ing (see how good my Bahasa is now?!?) along the road outside the hotel. We came across Casa Luna and decided to stop there for breakfast. What? I hear you say - There's no Casa Luna in Benoa! Well, right and wrong.....We had a great meal of bacon & eggs, sausages, toast, pancakes, fresh juices and coffee for Rp94,000. It wasn't until 10 days or so later when we arrived in Ubud that we discovered that the Casa Luna in Benoa is not related to the Ubud restaurants and is one of many around the island trading on the name. Well, we had a good breakfast and a good laugh! We then walked into the town of Benoa and had a sticky beak at the daily chores & activities taking place. It was really interesting & the little shops for locals were fascinating. We encountered lots of guys giving out time share tickets but when we told them "jalan-jalan" they let us be & were all friendly and smiley.
Then it was time to do the first of LOTS of damage we did to our bank account: First stop, Geneva. We quickly found out that you need to pronounce it Geneeewaaah if you want to be understood. We had the address so it wasn't a drama, but when we got there our driver said "Oh, you mean Geneeewaaah, you no say Geneeewaaah, I know Geneeewaaah!". We were really impressed with the range of stock - for those who haven't been there before, it consists primarily of wooden & basketry articles: bowls, spoons, baskets, boxes, statues, small furniture such as CD towers, etc. They also have sandals, handbags, the ubiquitous wooden surfboard keyrings, some bracelets, a few hats and a few shawls, beaded lamp shades, etc, etc. But no sarongs, no necklaces when we were there (but apparently they've had them there before). A full list of our purchases and the prices are listed below for those who are interested. When I read JBR's on the BTF before and people mentioned the great prices and the fact that they spent AU$80 or so I must admit I thought "ha! amateurs! I can do a whole lot more damage than that!". Well, I must confess, I filled a trolley and then some and when we got to the register the total was Rp450,000 - yes, that's right - <AU$70. Disgraceful! I was amazed - we got presents for all the kids in Bronte's class, gifts for her teachers, Christmas presents, loads of stuff for us and still it came to <$70. Bloody fantastic! The staff are really nice, as is the owner and as the prices are fixed it's easy shopping. It's a great place to start your shopping as the prices are rock-bottom and your shopping elsewhere can then fill the gaps of what you can't get at Geneeewaaah.
On the way back to the hotel we came across Great Find # 1: In the 'middle of nowhere' we spotted a restaurant set amongst the rice paddies that looked great. We stopped to check the prices expecting it to be quite pricey and were pleasantly surprised. We polished off a seared tuna w/- salad, a beef burger, fries, nasi goreng, onion rings with a wonderful home-made BBQ sauce, steamed rice, 5 cokes (one for the taxi driver) and 6 lemon iced teas (yum!) came to Rp181,000 (AU$27.80). The food was excellent and the setting sublime, including a beautiful blue pool that you can take a dip in, and as it's an open-sided bale there's a beautiful cool breeze through it. It's called "Bg's Restouran" and is at: Jalan Sunset Road, Simpang Dewa RWCI # 88 (ph 764 788) and is just 2-3 minutes by car from Kuta Galleria. We'll def. be going back!
Then back to the Conrad where we did the cookie baking and bread making class. What a laugh! Much to the horror of the pastry chefs a group of 10 kids and 8 adults managed to mutilate the dough in ways I'm sure Stephen King would be proud to dream up! The end result was something akin to the appearance of doggy-do's but once you got past that they actually tasted great! We all got "Little Chef" certificates (now proudly diplayed with our degrees in the home office!) and we got to pig out on our creations! This was just one of the free activites at the hotel which also included sandcastle building (also failed this but the kids passed), aerobics classes (yeah, right!), Bahasa lessons (not that I needed them!), social tennis and scuba diving demos/tryouts. The ONLY problem with the Conrad is that you'd have to take out a second mortgage to eat there!!! US$30pp for breakfast, for example! So, venturing out in search of sustenance resulted in....
Great find #2: A few doors north of the Conrad on the same side of the street is a little 'seafood warung', seemingly with no name (or maybe it's called Casa Luna!?!?), which sets up each night. Our first (of many) meals there consisted of nasi goreng, mie goreng, 'chicken fried noodles', 2 steamed rice and two 2L bottles of water for Rp20,000!!! We half expected for at least one of us to not wake up in the morning! But we survived it with no BB and became regulars there for dinner. The guy who runs it is adorable and works really hard until he runs out of food. They also do a really great chicken schnitzelly thingy (sorry for the technical lingo). Highly recommend it if you're in the area.
Keep an eye out for JBR Part 3, coming soon to a BTF near you!
For those shopaholics amongst us, our shopping list from Geneeewaaah follows:
*Square moss green string handbag w/- cane handles 24,500
*Purple sequinned woven handbag w/- round cane handles 35,000
*Brown/Cream checked string handbag w/- wooden handles 24,500
*Set/2 lime green finely woven handbags w/- satin drawstring lining 52,500 for 2
*Hot pink cane placemats 6,000ea
*Sandals with satin straps & wooden soles 7,700/pair
*Sandals with woven straps & rubber soles 7,700/pair
*The ubiquitous wooden surfboard keyrings 980ea (a surprisingly huge hit with the 8-9 y.o. boys in Bronte's class, considering what ugly little things they are - oh, and the keyrings aren't too pretty, either ;o)
*Indian Bead & engraved wood bracelets 3,500ea
*little wire & Indian bead jewellery boxes 4,900 ea (larger sizes available for a little more)
*Large woven beach bags-hot pink, blue & lime green 27,300ea
*Small gift sets with soap, essential oils & bath salts 10,500ea
*Wooden 'clacker' musical instrument (perfect gift for the children of people you don't like - we bought them for our own kids, I wonder what Freud would say about that?!?) 14,000
*Mini Gamelan instruments 17,500
*Lime green crocheted kids sunhat 12,600
*Beautiful ultra-fine hand-woven shawls 5,950ea!!
*Large wooden serving spoons 4,200/pr
*Large wooden spatulas 1,540ea
*Dessert spoon sized wooden spoons 700ea!
Not bad, huh???