Hope this JBR is helpful to all forumites. I definitely used prev JBR's to help me guide my wife and i on our first trip to bali. We travelled 20/3-27/3.
Flight over was with Air Paradise, and couldnt really complain. The planes were a little older but they fed us well and the service was great. Request rows 14 or 15 as the economy class seats are a little tight.
We stayed at Hotel Padma (Deluxe Chalet), was brilliant. Walking around the place it felt like we were in a national park with all these monuments everywhere. Pool is massive.The location is ideal for 1st timers as we often walked to Kuta square without any probs. Buffet breakfast was excellent, best Ive ever seen.
Spent first few days hanging around legian and kuta, just getting used to the place.Certainly different to other trips we had been on..(europe and USA).
Met our driver Made Wardana (smiley) who was an absolute gem. Ill post his details later, but I thoroughly recommend him. 300000 a day, and on 1st day with him he took us to Barong dance, town of Celuk (to do some gold and silver shopping), Ubud (make sure you eat at Lotus cafe) brilliant!!!,and Kintimani (breathtaking) and finally the rice paddies.Overall 12 hours with him and he leaves you alone when you want....he is great.
Next day he took us to Kedaton Forest to see monkeys (heres a tip - when walking around leave your hands open as my wife was attacked by monkeys as they thought she had peanuts in her closed hand), went to Tanah lot, Smiley stopped by to show us some Cock (rooster) fighting-which was funny, Nusa Dua for some snorkelling and finally Ullawatu( a must).
The last few days we dd our shopping.
Linda Tailor (melasti St)for suits - excellent service.
French Collection (sudaweha st) for leather jackets X 3.They turned out fantastic. 115 each and they were extra long.
Sakura DVD - buy 100 45 for free. Be careful with the brand new releases such as hitch, be cool, ring two etc...they arent as good quality as older dvd's. The great thing about sakura is that they have 6 dvd players and you can test as much as you want.
Also bought some more at softcomp-very good.
Geneva handicraft - my wife loved that place.
We had massages at the Mandira Spa at the Mandira hotel in Legian. ARound 264000 ($35 for the hour) but much better than the dodgy places which give you massages in dumps for 10/ hour.
Places where we ate -Mykonos, greek retaraunt in Seminyak. Had drink at Ku De Ta ...great views.
Made warung - best balines restaraunt.
Golden Lotus at the Bali Dynasty - best chine restaraunt in Bali.
SHarkeys - Jimbaran bay....get there early (5.30pm) so you can get front row on beach to see sunset as this place gets packed. Very good food and Fresh!!
No prob with customs...they didnt care about the 200+ DVD's, but did check all of the wooden stuff from Geneva. No dramas. Bali surpassed our expectations for a first time trip, and definitly will be going back.
Hope this helps and am more than happy to answer any questions.
:)