ASICS RUNNING SHOES
Sports Station is a shop opposite McDonalds entrance to Matahari in Kuta Square..well, along a bit, but you would be able to spot the yellow sign from there. It would pay to check out what you want size and style-wise at home before you go. My local shop here has quite a few Asics on special right now, but anyone would still be saving more than that buying in Bali. I paid 587,000 for a pair of men's running shoes, Asics Gel Landreth, Style TN414 (navy, silver, white colour with tiny bit of lime green trim). There were many styles cheaper and a few dearer. I tried to get them to drop the price by offering to buy two different pair, but she said they were already on special, couldn't go lower. They did not have any of the 2070/2080 style I prefer so I just tried on several and bought the pair that felt the most comfortable. They were still a bargain! Another pair I liked that were about 480,000 I just saw on special price here at home for NZ $139 (about 810,000 rph). Gee, I wish now I had bought them as well!
GENEVA HOMEWARES & CUSTOMS ADVICE
I filled a trolley there and it cost me about $130 NZ..brilliant range and amazing prices! One thing to watch out for though...before you put anything in your trolley check it carefully with your eyes. We had one little carved, painted mask declined at Customs. The customs agent also let us break a bit off one of the stand-up painted wooden shadow puppets (largest, dearest about 29,000) and keep the rest..all because of two tiny borer holes. They just looked like the hole a drawing pin leaves in wood. He also dug around in the holes of the block stands for the puppets as they can be hidey places for insects, so get a stick or cotton bud or something and clean those out well before you pack.(I had also put all my wood and straw stuff in a box and sprayed it well the night before I packed, but he still checked it all). We knew not to bring back anything with banana leaf and thought we had checked our wood well! I got a great set of three temple baskets in dark and lighter brown weave, not decorated, that cost about 52,000 the lot, and by separating the tops from the bottoms and packing stuff inside them and around the gaps between the basket halves they really did not take up any additional space in my luggage. Another treat was a selection of wooden things for our walls..one had coat pegs and others are decorated wooden rails for hanging fabrics or paintings from. (They packaged the metre-long coat rack well with corrugated cardboard and I just carried it on the plane, tucking the wooden carved snake walking stick I got for 70,000 later on Jalan Legian with it). Was amused to see 7 foot high wooden giraffes there..all created so you can take them apart to carry them home in a case or whatever. Daughter worked out that they cost about $80 NZ each.
Gifts for friends - if staying in Seminyak there are two supermarkets quite close together on the main street. Both have upstairs sections. The one further north has a great range of stuff upstairs at excellent prices that you can take home for friends. Daughters also bought bottles of Arak here.
Had a massage at the Baleka Beach Resort Spa. The ambience was disappointing but the staff were good. If you want to know more, here is my recent post on it. http://www.balitravelforum.com/archive200407/93330.html
House of Komang. I took my own material and had a sleeveless evening top made from some Chinese brocade for me. Price was 60,000 and the work was good.
Makro-
Oh gosh...what a wonderful place! We spent heaps there but not as much as the woman we were queued behind on our second visit (taking back the Bintang crate of empties for our 33,000 or so credit, and to get a few more goodies). She was an ex-pat and we watched as she bought DVD players and TV and a few other appliances. Got chatting and she explained thieves had taken everything she was now replacing. No insurance. We were so saddened to hear of such a thing happening. Did wonder about this whole karma thing...surely thieves would just attract bad karma to themselves doing something like this?
Anyway...some of our purchases:- 6 cans pocari sweat for 18,273; twin large cans of anti-mosquito spray, two for total of 28,951; 4 cans coca cola for 12,059; 2x1 litre boxes unsweetened orange juice for total of 18,432; cheap plastic electric jug for 14,500; 24 cans bintang for 98,545; 12 tubes ciptadent toothpaste for total of 9,150; steam/dry iron for 59,000; two boxes of chicken noodle packets, 40 in each box, 26,026 per box, so 52,052 total; 3 x 6litre containers water at 8,737 each to refill small bottles; 25kg sack good quality rice for 119,000. I have not listed the confectionery or toiletries my girls stocked up on, but the prices were very cheap! I was tempted to buy a rice cooker too as they were good prices, but would not have had room, in retrospect, to get it home.
SPIDERMAN SUIT AND DVDS AND CD'S
While sitting at the Crown in Jalan Legian a guy walked in and sold me a Spiderman suit (small child size). I bargained to 20,000 and got it for that, as I remembered paying that much the year before in Jalan Sahadewa.
We also got to know one of the wandering CD sellers who hover near there, and bought heaps from him on a couple of occasions. Deal was 10 @ 10,000 each and you got an extra one free. No duds as yet.
Saw Star DVD and Video shop over the road so went over and asked if they had a list. The guy went off and photocopied it for me and I took it back to the Crown and filled it out with my family between ordering our meal and meal arriving. Took the list over later and the staff at Star filled it, bar two DVD's, which he sprinted off to get, returning five mins later as promised. Great service! Deals - buy 20 DVD's and get another 7 free. Buy 10 and get three more free.