Wow my first JBR, and I can gladly say it will be one of many : ) Firstly I'd like to thank you all for your help in the months leading up to my fantastic holiday in Bali! I really don't know what I would have done without this website!! Although I will say, nothing can prepare you for your first day on the Streets of Bali, but that's another story :)
We checked in at Sydney Airport on the 1/11/04 at 9.00am all excited and nervous at the same time for our Bali adventure. It was my BF's first time overseas so we found ourselves at the Airport Bar having a beer at 9.30am to settle some nerves, Nice!(I guess we were just preparing for when we got to Bali) We flew with Air Paradise. Flight left on time which was good, a bit worried after hearing other reports. The flight was ok, staff ok and food was average. I didn't think they really served up enough, I was hungry. But anyway the bintangs were very cold: )
We had no probs when we arrived; we were through in about 25mins. We found our driver and were off to the Dewi Sri. We near died when we saw the roads and how they drive, but by the end of the holiday I thought they were quit clever. Dewi Sri for 2 Star Acc was fantastic. The staff were ok, The restaurant was lovely and the breakfast was eatable but really what do you want for $32.00 a night?? Only complaint was our room wasn't ready, so we spent 2nights in a room with 2 single beds!!(So much for a wild first night, jokes)
After unpacking we thought lets hit the streets! Well, I thought I knew everything, but really I had nothing!! We got lost, drag into about a thousand shops, had bracelets tied on my arms and we hated it and thought ‘What the hell are we doing here'!! After having lunch and a few bintangs we thought, let's just get out there and get into it!! And that's what we did the next day!!
We ended up meeting some friends that were staying at MBR, so they showed us some really good places to shop and eat, the ones I can remember are: Pocco Locco, El Mondo, Sharkeys and an Italian place on the main drag!! What fantastic food!! The Italian place has the best food it was better than the food I had in Italy! I really loved the hot chips and tomato sauce, yummy
I stuck to Aussie angels shopping list and it was pretty spot on, Thanks Again Aussie!! We bought heaps and I did my Chrissy shopping, love it!!Bought about 100dvds, 50 ps2 games and wood carvings and got them all through customs!!
I got 3 pamper session whilst in Bali!!! 2 at MBR and 1 at Dewi Sri!!! You can't go past MBR!! T and I both got a full body massage, full body scrub and the most gorgeous petal filled bath at the end of it!! It went for about 2h 45mins and was 362,000 for both of us!! The staff is fantastic!! Dewi Sri wouldn't do again, staff chatted and there was people going in and out so u couldn't really relax!!
We hired a driver his name was Benni I got him off this site. Whole day cost 250,000 saw the volcano, went to Ubud, Celuk, saw the wood carvings, the barong dance and did the elephant safari!! Elephants were great, not to sure on the name of the place where we went but it was next door to the water rafting if that makes it easy!!! It was $42us each which was pretty good for about 45mins and plus we chatted and got to get photos at the end!!! It was smiles all round!!
We booked to go to J – Bay with Jimmy Gorgeous who we got our DVDs off!!! He took us to Sharkeys, How good was that!! We got about 4kgs of seafood, 5 large bintangs, veggies, rice, chips and a few soft drinks and it cost about $50.00aus!! The food was beautiful!! Would go there again for sure!! If you need a great driver, please go and see Jimmy, he is wonderful and he provides a very interesting magic show after your dinner!! I think he's shop is in Padam street?? Just drop me an email if you want he's details!! He also donates 2% of all profits to a local orphanage, which is so nice!!
Umm, what else!!!
Oh, we did the bounty sun set cruise which was pretty good! $35aus for all you can eat, beer and soft drink!! Oh and the cocktails were only 20,000!!
I just love this place so much, so much I've already started getting prices for next October, yeah!! Gotta take my Mum and Dad!!
Since I've been back from Bali I've put so many things here into perspective, its not till you meet so many wonderful people, who live it such horrible circumstances that you relies just how lucky we all are, really what do we have to be so cranky about??? I spoke to many of the bal anise people about the bombings and its so bad to hear how it effected them!! You can really understand why the want us to keep coming back!!
That's it for me (Until next time) thanks again and if any questions please ask!!
PS – if you want to go to a great bar when in Bali go to the Reunion Bar next to Troppo Zone staff are great, lots of fun!! Cheers