The Wife and I got married two weeks ago and went on our honeymoon to Hong Kong for 4 days then Bali for 8 days. We arrived in Bali from HK at 1.00pm Friday last week. (Nearly a 5 hour flight with no time difference)
When we arrived at the aeroport it was wet. We were informed it had been constantly raining for the last 3 days.(which is very rare at this time of the year) I just wanted to stay on the plane and go back to HK. We really enjoyed HK.
Going through all the various channels of immigration and customs was easy, no problems.
We were picked up by our pre-arranged transport Tour East who were very efficient and friendly. We arrived at our hotel sanur beach at around 2.00pm. The weather was cloudy but it had stopped raining.
The hotel was really nice maybe not as nice as the one we stayed in at HK but different. Everything in the HK hotel was spotless no paint or varnish missing anywhere, The Sanur beach hotel has slightly weathered at bit with age. the footpath leading upto the hotel was a bit uneven in places, the rooms and bathrooms were very nice but not as upmarket as the one in HK with its balck marble suite and jaccussi etc.
I know its not much but when its wet and you have been staying at a hygenically clean hotel in HK I noticed a difference.
I wasn't that impressed to be honest.
We unpacked and went for a walk down the beach path for a couple of miles then back along the road. We were harrassed by every street vendor. Transport, massage, looky looky at my shop then they would follow you even though you had told them that you weren't buying anything today, whats your name where are you from etc. It was like being in Turkey again.
I got the impression into my head it was going to be like a holiday we had in Jamaica where you had a lovely hotel with everything you needed but outside it was a shanty town. It got a bit annoying saying ''no thank you'' 60 or so times before we got back to the hotel. The one thing I did notice was the lack of tourists. Sanur is a massive place but hardly any tourists. I felt sorry for the local people and understood why they were trying the hard sell tactics.
That night we didn't want to venture far so we decided to stay at the hotel (it has 4 different restaurants) the buffet meal was fantastic and they had a evening of entertainment in the form of all the traditional dances. We really enjoyed this.
The following morning was cloudy and it started to rain. I wasn't impressed. I know you can't plan the weather but the objective of our honeymoon was to enjoy a city break and chill at a beach resort. The shopping around sanur was like running the gauntlet with all the vendors. By 1.00pm the sun was shinning and so was my smile. We headed for the pool and enjoyed the rest of the day. That evening we had already decided we weren't that impressed with sanur town and the lack of tourists so we got a cab to Kuta 15 mins 55,000 rp there (the hotel took 15000 rp off the driver) and 40,000 rp return.We really enjoyed Kuta. shops, fantastic bars,cafe's. restaurants etc not much hassle from the vendors. It was like being back in civilisation. We went to Kuta every night of our stay and really enjoyed it. trying locally restaurants and the the theme restaurants, Hard rock cafe, Planet hollywood, TJ's, Maccoronnies etc. We did poppies 1 and 2, Legian street, etc.
We booked a trip for Monday but had to delay it until Wednesday when the Mrs had a mild bout of Bali Belly. she was ok for going to Kuta and staying by the pool but didn't want to be stuck in a mini bus for hours on end. Eventually we did the trip we visted a massive temple somewhere which was fantastic, it was a special day and lots of worshippers were there and street parades everywhere we went. we then went to the rice paddy fields and eat some of the local produce some sweet balls, crisps and chips made out of some vegetable. it was really nice. The tour guide was really good and explained all day the local customs and history all day. We then went to the monkey forrest. this was the highlight of my holiday it was fantastic we bought som monkey nuts and feed the monkeys they are so tame. i was half expecting to see a couple in trees in the distance not 100's of them running around at your feet. Also we show fruit bats in the trees and one guy has a few on a stand that he lets you hold them for photos for a small donation. From here we went to Tannah Lot temple. it was very impressive but it started to rain very hard. so we did n't stay for the sunset.
Highlights of my holiday.
Friendly people.
Monkey forrest.
good food
cheapness of everything.
Bintang
wood carvings
Kuta
Sanur beach hotel
haggling for a special price.
things I didn't like that much.
Being offered drugs everynight in Kuta square as soon as we got out of our taxi.
pushy vendors in Sanur (but eventually got used to it once we had been there a few days and chilled to a Bali pace of life.
overall yes we really enjoyed it. it took a couple of days to chill into the pace of things but I was sad when I was leaving.
Would I go again ? yes but in a few years time and it would be part of another twin centre holiday (It took 28 hours from leaving Sanur Beach hotel to arriving back in Burnley (near Manchester England) Bali to Hong Kong, then to London Heathrow the to Manchester. I am jealous of you Aussies who can fly there in 5 or so hours.
Finally I would like to thank everybody on this forum for the useful information they have provided.