arrived in denpasar on 3rd nov at about 3pm , was over whelmed by the heat , took us 45 minutes to get through customs and then another 20 to get sorted to go to kuta seaview cottages (great place )POOL was clean quite big, not as big as Hard rock , lol , the rooms were beautiful and had the best air conditioning ,and no mossies , did see the odd ghecko outside . but if you are going to stay there please ask for a ground room , as climbing the stairs after a massive day of shopping is bloody tiring especially if you shopped as much as we did, We found the dark blue taxis to be the best they used meters and were gracious and patient so we stuck to them ,no such thing as traffic rules beeping was the most agression they showed , they were even curteous doing that , lol , they are all calm and curteous , found a great place next to the paradisio to eat , it was called couple b , it is an out door bar and they have live music , the service was fantastic and kids are welcome , we paid 58,000 rupee for a steak and vegies , but it was well worth the experience, it tasted like heaven , we went there a couple of times to eat , shopped in poppies and legian st, found a lady by the name of maria second last stall on the left of poppies 2 on the left hand side, to be honest and cheap , if you go there say kaz (mama) , sent you from oz , we spent a bit of cash there and she was lovely , went to softcom brought back over 100 cd,s they all work , brought some great leather bags , a real bargain too , visited the telegraph pub in kuta , meals were horrible , would not reccomend it to eat , was ok for cold beer tho, had a drink at the baguspub , met some great aussies , hired a driver and went to the monkeys in ubad and visited the temples they are a must do for everyone , the are gorgeous !!!! went to denpasar market i could not handle the smell there , there are a lot of gold dealers there if you want to buy gold , we used only kodak shops to change money and found a place on the corner opposite the original paddy's , always count your money back , the best advice i was given and i took was my calculator ,it became my best friend !!! currency was between 6700 and 6800 , the smaller shps are higher but they want a commision, there is a place next door to the matahari on the left side, right next door who helped herself !!! to a couple of bucks , i couldnt be bothered arguing ,i guess i shouted her dinner, lol went to bali aussie , not a bad place , did a fair bit of shopping at matahari in kuta, not airconditioned so go in the morning or late evening , watch out for street hawkers offering you a scratch and win , it is a sham and they come to your hotel and drive you mad , also for the boys offering you jig-a-jig , have a laugh smile and say politely no thanks , i have taken home the most beautiful memeories and am saving for next year ,the funniest was i went out to buy 6 bintang and gotr back to the motel with 1 , lol , it was the only aussie thing to do , give the security guys on the gate a beer , lol every day they looked forward to (mama)SHOUTING THEM A BINTANG, dont know if the flight home was so long and horrible because it was thundering or i was sad , i know a part of my heart , remains in this beautiful country , cant wait for next year . if you have any questions please email me, and thanks to all the people who with there advice made my trip so much easier , i even enjoyed being ripped off, lol ,ONLY ONCE, these people are generous, kind and giving , they have taught me alot about myself and how precious life is , if only i could return there sooner, cheers kaz ..