Just arrived home with my 14 year old son from 4 nights Legian Beach Hotel and 6 nights Inna Grand Bali Beach Sanur. We flew Garuda this time - definitely better I felt than AP. More leg room and food was better. Just my opion though.
LBH was good once they sorted out a decent room for us. Handy to the beach, S&S, shops and easy to grab a taxi. Hotel quite spread out, i.e. a long way to walk backwards and forwards to meals and the pool etc as opposed to IGBB which was handy to almost everything.
Weather was excellent and $Aus was around 7,300rp but has dropped a little now.
DO's
Do check out the volcanos, the monkey forest at Ubud(5,000rp entry), go jetskiing(don't pay anymore than 15,000rp for 15 mins.), go to Sammy and Suzy's for a couple of drinks (Hi to the usual crew - Smudge UK, Roo Ted, AnneSwan, sorry can't remember all the names),and shop till you drop. If in Sanur have a meal st the Seven Seas Restaurant on the beachfront near Sindhu Beach Markets. Good food - great prices, friendly staff (it appears I have acquired myself a 'Bali Boyfriend' called Slim - he is the barman- yes my eyes are wide open.)Buy some fireworks for the beach. My son and some friends had a great time doing nightly shows for us all. And yes they were careful and no injuries received.
Don'ts
Be careful of the monkeys at the Monkey forest (I left quite scared although they were fascinating),always use a taxi with a meter - preferably a Blue Bird Taxi as 'transport' ripped us off every time.
Remember that once you ask a price and bartering process starts you are obliged to buy if they come to your price. I had a woman in Ubud hit me across the back as I was leaving as she came down to my price but the goods were tacky when she finally let me hold them. Not very pleasant. Also don't buy any wooden products with bark attached as customs conviscate them - lost a beautiful carving of an owl.
All in all we had a great time. Not sure when we can go again, after all my last trip was only in January of this year. But my 'Bali Boyfriend' beckons.. Who knows, I might go back in another three months.
Last word of warning......
Once we had arrived at Bribane Airport (at 5.55am in the morning Bris time and 3.55am Bali time), we had just gone through the start of immigration and were in the process of collecting our bags when a very rude asian looking female immigration officer came up to me and asked to see my passport(not my sons). She offered no reason why and after asking why she wanted to see it again she became smart with me. She refused to tell me why she wanted it even though I had handed it over to her when she first asked. This was whilst we were standing at the baggage collection and the sniffer dogs were doing the rounds. She then got more smart with me and said that I looked suspicious and was acting abnormally. Hey I had just gotten off a plane after 6 hours of no sleep and just wanted to curl up and die. Anyway she finally said they liked to pick people out and check them further. I am a 43 year old chubby woman with a 14 year old son. How suspicious can I look? Anyway, I was marked from then on. She pointed me out to other officers and my every movement was followed. Once we had our bags and were proceeding to the quarentine section (I had filled out my card stating that I had wooden products- carvings and food - lollies my son had)she came running up pointed to me and yes they took me aside and stated that I was suspicious and needed to have a full search. All our bags were completely gone through with a fine tooth comb - dirty laundry and all - was placed in full view of all and sundry and nothing was found what so ever. We were as clean as a whistle. It was very embarrasing and demeaning to say the least. Yes they have a job to do but I was very upset by this time. The least they could have done would have been to do it privately. Anyway a supervisor came up to me towards the end of all this and I told her what had happened. She was very courteous and very interested to hear how the original officer had treated us. She assured me that she would take it further. It has left me with a really sour taste in my mouth after what was a real good holiday. I really do not know what 'suspicous' or 'acting abnormally' means.
Its a pity customs have officers like this working for them as it really does nothing to brighten their image. I am still angry for the indecency of it all.
Anyway, that is all, thanks to all the forumites for previous info and advice and I hope I have not been too long winded in my JBR.
Cheers, Janet.