Well, I got back early on FRiday morning and had my sons 21st on the weekend so have finally got my thoughts together to post a JBR.
Only went for 4 nights so wont do a blow by blow description but just put a few thoughts down on paper.
First - the Pelangi Bali
Nice rooms, if a little small. Bathrooms good, shower nice and strong. Balconies are small. Ground floor is probably better.
DEluxe even better as they are closer to the pool. Pool is nice if a little sqeezy. We didnt have any trouble getting a deckchair. The hotel is on the beach so that was good. Breakfast was good. The massages ladies down the front were fantastic, really strong, but I found myself getting annoyed when someone would start working on my feet and hands while I was getting massaged and I couldnt relax.
The staff at the hotel were fantastic, couldnt really fault them.
Even made us a pizza at 10.45 at night, when we finally found our way back from Kuta after a hard nights shoppng.
The main problem with this hotel is that Bluebird taxis are not allowed in this area,(I think this hasbeen mentioned before) so it was a case of bargaining every time you wanted to go somewhere or catching another taxi if you couldnt find one and get overcharged or bargain a price with the taxi driver.
Every time we caught a taxi, the metre was running too fast. Cost me 10,000 from Geneva to Seminyak with another taxi. Just annoying in the heat. Itis really really hot at the moment.
There is plenty of good restaurants along there, and plenty of nightclubs, but the other shops you had to walk down to Legian street about 1 kilometre at least.
OK if you want to party.
I think I will in future stick to Legian or Tuban.
Pelangi was the only hotel in that week where we could get in because of the Ramadan holidays.
We had a walk thru some of the other hotels, Niksoma looks great, straight out of the Freedom catalogue. Also Mandira looked really nice.
Also because of Ramadan and the influx of javanese the traffic around Kuta and Legian was horrendous. We sometimes had to practically beg the taxis to let us in when we said we wanted to go to Seminyak.
I spent some of time working and managed to buy myself some new sun lounges from Geneva ($115 with vinyl cushions)and a couple of frangipani lamps ($90 for the two) from Balistones. Geneva handicrafts section has now expanded to the 4th Floor. Saw a few things there I was intersted in, but didnt buy them because I thought I could probably get them cheaper out the back of the jail, but unfortunately because of the holidays most of the smaller shops were closed. Needless to say I never got back to Geneva.
Found a really good bag shop in Jalan Seminyak (50) called GV LI-LING ART and bought some great bags there as presents. I was particularly interested in material bags as opposed to cane or natural material so that I could wizz thru quarantine on the way back to Oz.
We finally found our original beauty salon that we used about three years ago and lost the business card.
Nardyas in 66 Jalan Kuta, near Supernova.
We have tried lots and this is really the best value for money.
120.000 for 3 hours. We had mandi lalur. Massage and then body scrub, steam room and then a warm bath to wash all the gunk off and then a facial.
You would have to bok though as it is popular with the locals.
Cream bath from there is fantastic too, makes your hair really shiny.
Well thats all I can remember at the moment,so if anyone has any questions, just ask and I will do my best to answer.