We have just returned yesterday from a very quick trip to Bali. We had a sensational time, this was trip number 4 for us. I am sorry if this is a little long (in advance).
Day 1
We arrived at Sydney airport early, as we wanted to spend a little time duty free shopping before we went, our flight was due to leave at 12:30pm, so we spent about 3 hours duty free shopping when we arrived at our gate only to be informed that our flight would be delayed, (the flight had arrived from melbourne going to denpasar), we got delayed for 4 hours because unfortunately someone had passed away and the police and the coroner had to do somethings before the plane could leave. So we finally boarded and arrived a little after 6pm. We had booked VIP VOA and this was the best thing we could have done. (we highly recommend this to everyone) My husband was worried that VIP Voa wasn't legit, but it was fantastic, it took us 10 minutes to get through customs and collect our bags, so we were then on our way to Nusa Dua, we stayed at the Inna Putri Bali Hotel cottages and spa. We normally stay in Seminyak. When we got to the hotel, we were impressed the foyer and the grounds of the hotel are beautiful it is in a traditional balinese setting. We got taken to our room which was a standard room and decided to upgrade to a suite which overlooked the beach (worth doing) for an extra AUD300. We had a gorgeous lounge room and king size bedroom. The rooms in the resort are a little bit tired and the pool is undergoing renovation, but all in all it is quite a nice place and for what it lacked the NUSA DUA beach made up for it.
Day 2
Caught up with our friends that stayed at the Grand Hyatt Nusa Dua (wow what a resort) this is pure luxury. And we spent the day on the beach and headed into Kuta at around 3pm for a spot of shopping. We negotiated with the local transport guys and the trip into Kuta cost us 40000 Rupiah 1 way, which is a really good price(as some people in our hotels were paying 150000 Rupiah 1 way). We looked around Matahari and chated to a few of the local business people. That night we went to POCO LOCO for dinner have been there before and once again it was awesome the atmosphere and the food are fantastic, by the time we left we were fairly happy, the staff organised transport back to Nusa Dua for 40K rupiah and it was one of the funniest rides in a car I have ever had. We laughed ourselves stupid with the driver, My friend is a very funny person and she and the taxi driver where making us laugh until it hurt.
Day 3
We spent the day at the Grand Hyatts pool, which is very beautiful but quite hot it was very difficult to cool down in it as the days are around 35-36C so after a couple of hours we talked out friends into going for a swim in the Ocean and they couldn't believe how beautiful it was. The water is so clean and clear and the temperature is around 22C so it was perfect for cooling off. The sand is made up of broken shells and coral and is quite nice and the water wasn't to salty, there is also plenty of shade up on top of the beach with umbrellas and trees. At around 3pm we decided we would go to Jimbaran Bay for dinner, so we got transport for 15K Rupiah at around 4:30pm and got him to drop us off and we walked along the beach and looked at all the restaurants. I had read that there was a great Seafood restaurant called Lias but we couldn't find it so we walked the beach until we found one we liked call Lagoon Bali Cafe, I bartered with the owner (it has only been open 4 Months) and we got 2 x 2.6kg lobsters for 80k rupiah a Kg and then .5kg of prawns, a snapper, god knows how many bintangs and the total bill for 4 people came to 560K Rupiah. The food is unbelievable (highly recommend) it was the best seafood meal I have ever had. They also have the best staff as well. The sunset was perfect as always and it was one of the greatest days I have ever experienced.
Day 4
We decided to go shopping around legian and Kuta, we had found a money changer in legain who was quite good and had an unreal rate 6995 Rupiah for AUD1 but he had no money left so I decided to try the one up the road from him and we got scammed, they tried to rip us off 300K, we had left the shop and realised so I went back and demanded he pay it to me. To keep it short after 20mins of me yelling at him and him trying to take more money from me I finally got the 300K and told him that I would tell everyone what he did and not to use him (there was a bit of a crowd gathering outside the shop by this stage), I left infurriated and went to Neros for a drink with my husband and friends (also highly recommend these guys are great fantastic food and quite resonable, ate here 3 times this holiday). After I cooled off we went over to see Andrea at Legian Music (always buy our DVDS here) and put in our order of 176 DVD's my friend also purchased over 200. We went back to Neros for Dinner but not before my best pair of shoes(hahaha) had a blow out, so I was forced to go and buy another pair (what a shame hehehehe) my husband shook his head and told me that it was just an excuse to get another pair of shoes, so my beloved globe slip ons went to shoe heaven (it is funny I through them out and 2 days later happened to see them lying in the gutter in Kuta with the top part that had Globe written on it torn from the shoe) We got picked up by a dark Bluey/green taxi and negotiated 40K to get back to Nusa Dua. We got talking to the driver and he was a really lovely young guy so we arranged for him to pick us up the next day and take us out.
Day 5
We all went to the Waterbom park, this was the first time our friends had been there, and we had a blast. Our taxi turned up as we had requested him to and we got to know him a little more, he told us that he could organise a 4wd and take us any where we wanted for 1 whole day for 500k, so we took him up on the offer and organised this for Saturday so we could go shopping. Anyway we finished at the waterbom park and we walked up to the markets before kuta square. In here we found a fantastic Painting shop, so we each purchased some paintings (average price 175K ruphiah) they took them off the frames and rolled and wrapped them for us. For dinner we took our friends to Trattorias at seminyak, this restaurant is unbelievable, it is the best Italian in the world, it is run by 2 Italian Guys and the food and hospitality is second to none. It is very popular so you do need to make a booking but it is well worth it and it is so cheap, for the four of us with mains, dessert, wine and bintang it came to 300K rupiah.
Day 6
Today we spent on the beach and worked on our tans and brought somethings from the beach sellers. It was a lovely relaxing day, our friends weren't feeling to well from the heat so they decided to have a night in, so my husband and I went into kuta to do some shopping and to have dinner at poppies 1, as always the food was great, we had Garlic Prawns and Garlic lobster, truely amazing. After dinner we walked around kuta square and had dessert at Hagen Daaz Ice Creamery, this is somewhere everyone should visit and try the Macadamia Icecream. Very Nice!
Day 7
Today we were met at 10am by our taxi driver Komung (it was his day off and he picked up his friends brand new 4wd to take us shopping) he was on time and very pleased to see us, we decided that we would head to Ubud first as my friends husband had never been there, on our journey we found out that our driver Komung was 27 and he has been married for 1 year and he and his wife are expecting their 1st child (balinese people are extremely family oriented, it is so lovely) he also told us that bali has been very quiet and that they aren't making much money. He drives a dark green/blue taxi which is Komondo bali taxi, and that all the dark green/ blue taxi's are balinese owned. He told us that the light Blue taxi (blue bird who use the meter) are owned by big business in jakarta and pay their employees very little and that they take all the money that is made back to Jakarta. We asked him about his boss and he told us that his boss owns 2 taxis and that the drivers lease the taxi from him for 250K rupiah a day, anything made above this the driver gets to keep, but if he doesn't make the 250K he has to make it up out of his own pocket. This is the same for most of these coloured taxi's, so we decided after that we would only use the dark green/blue taxi's and when you hop in you either ask the driver to put on the meter or you negotiate a price, we felt that it was better to keep the money in Bali rather than supporting a company in Jakarta. In Ubud we went to a few silver places but they were very expensive so we decide to visit a few art galleries these to were very expensive, so we headed into the big market place in Ubud where we brought a few things, we decided that we wanted to head back to Tuban, which we did and we had lunch at the Stadium Cafe, the food here is quite nice, but a word of warning, if you order a hamburger, and they ask you how you want it cooked, order it well done, I ordered it med rare and the mince was rare in the middle, but other than that the food was great and nice and cheap. We headed over to the art shop in the market place in Tuban called MFF Art Painting and purchased some more paintings, then we headed off to legian for some more shopping, we asked komung to meet us near the Sari Memorial, by the time we had finished shopping it was 8pm so we decided to head back to Nusa Dua. On the way home we laughed and joked around with Komung, he told us that his wife loved KFC, but we told him that it was the baby that like KFC as well as his wife. When he dropped us off we paid him the 500k Rupiah as well as a 100K tip. He truely is an amazing guy and we felt a little bit bad that it was his day off he had sacrificed to drive us around shopping, when he could have easily spent it with his wife. We arranged with him to pick us up in the morning and take us to Body works for our last massage. We headed out locally in Nusa Dua for Dinner to a German Restaurant called Nyoamands, they make the best chicken Schnitzel in the world, and it has a great atmosphere.
Day 7
Well today is the day that we headed home, so we got up packed the bag and headed over to Grand Hyatt to meet our friends and meet Komang our driver, we went to Body Works in Seminyak for a 1.5hr Aromatherapy Massage, it was heavenly, after the massage my friend decided to go back to the resort, as she was tired but her husband, my husband and myself decided to do some last minute shopping (for 3hours) so we got dropped off outside Legian Music and walked down JL Legian to Kuta Square and then on to Tuban, we had arranged for Komang to pick us up at 4:30pm, I stopped off at the Painting shop to get some last minute paintings, and then we headed back to Nusa Dua. When we arrived back at the hotel, my husband and I decided to give komang the last of our rupiah in our money belt, and my friends husband did the same, he was so happy we all almost cried, he has now become our friend and when we return to Bali next year he has invited us to come to his village near Lovina and meet his wife and new baby.
If anyone is looking for a great driver I highly recommend Komang he drives a Dark Green/Blue taxi Number 142 or sometimes 141, he has a mobile number but at the moment he doesn't have a phone or a watch as he had to sell them to get some money for his family. He told us that he was hoping to have a phone by christmas, if business was good. So anyway here is his number if you want to try it 081 338 623 380. His name is Komang Suatra (sorry if I have spelt it wrong a few times).
So once we returned to the hotel we showered checked out and went back to Nyoamands for our last dinner in bali before we got picked up. We were all quite sad to leave, we would have loved to have stayed longer.
We will be going back in September 05 and we can't wait.
I realise that this is a little long but I just wanted to add a few more things that might be of help to people heading over there.
Ok, we found that this year prices have gone up we were paying the following for things: (but put into perspective it is still very cheap)
Watches 40000 - 270000 (depending on the quality)
Sunglasses 20000 - 50000 (depending on the brand)
T-Shirts 40000
Shorts 40000
Sarongs 20000
Ladies Bali top 40000
Paintings 140000 - 600000 (depends on the shop)
Shoes 40000 - 60000 (depends on quality)
Louie Vitton Bag Sml 50000
Louie Vitton Bag Med 60000
Louie Vitton Bag Lge 200000
(overnight Bag)
Handbags 40000
Photo Albums 40000
Photo Frames 20000
Place matts 20000
Cushions 40000 EA
Table Runner Sml 50000
DVDS 10000 ea
Kites 80000
Taxi's 10000 - 40000 (depending on where to and including tip)
Bikini's Sequince 40000
Versace Jeans 99000
Suitcases 100000 - 420000
Bali Bags Lge 40000
Bintang Can Cooler 6pk 30000
Silver Braclet 60000 - 450000
This is all I can think off at the moment but I am sure more will come to me over the next few days.
We also highly recommend the following restaurants as well:
Poco loco - legian/Seminyak
Trattorias - Seminyak
Neros - Legian
Lagoon Bali Cafe - Jimbaran Bay
Nyoamands - Nusa Dua Village
The Stadium Cafe - Kuta/Tuban
Poppies 1 - Poppies Lane Kuta
As I said at the begining I am so sorry this is so long, and I also apologise for any spelling mistakes, I am still in Bali mode speaking pigeon english and Bahasa Indonesian.
So for now Terima Kasih (thankyou) and Selamat Malam (good evening)
PS: As more comes to me over the next week I will post, but I promise it won't be as long.