Returned last week after two great weeks away with the following observations and recommendations:
Accommodation: Bakungsari Hotel - well located with back entrance at top/bottom end of Legian St. We had a Superior Room which was clean and comfortable & serviced daily. The bathroom was pretty basic but how much time do you spend in there? Private balcony overlooking pool area was a nice spot to relax. Breakfast ok but restricted to 4 basic servings:
tea or coffee - eggs of choice with bacon or ham - fruit juice or fruit salad & choice of toast, pancake or rice. We dined in a couple of nights & highly recommend the house pizzas, all other main meals were well presented,tasty and inexpensive. Staff were friendly and had no problems with "cranky types "that had been reported before...We didn't pay the world for this place but would certainly recommend it to the budget traveller. I have stayed in some ordinary motels in Aus for a lot more...
Mobile Phones: I had a mate staying at the Padma so to make life easy for comms we went to Matahari (bottom floor-supermarket end) and purchased 2 local sim cards for our phones, the girls there will check your phone to see if it will work on the local network & if ok you pay 100,000rp which gives you a sim card & new mobile no with 70,000rp credit. We spoke several times over the two weeks and still had credit at the end which we splurged on a call to Aus. The girls said local calls (mobile to mobile)were calculated at 2,000rp (27cents approx)pm which was pretty well spot on. Calls to Aus were 12,000rp pm so not such a good idea, although cheaper than using a Aus connected mobile. Be aware,this applies only to GSM and not CDMA phones.Apart from Matahari there were plenty of other places to get connected.
Transport: Can't beat the "Blue Taxis" for local trips and as long as you confirm the meter is on you will have no probs. We were lucky enough to find a local driver for extended trips ie Ubud etc and I can highly recommend Wayne -Aussie Name- His car is a as new Toyota Kluger with leather seats and dark tint and good air con. Very polite with good local knowledge and loves all things "Holden" I managed to spot an old EJ & a HQ on one of our trips and he new the model and year straight up...Please contact Wayne on the following local mobile number - 081338757405 - you wont be ripped off or disappointed with his service.
Shopping: It's a buyers market so at the end of the day if you are happy with the price you have paid then sleep easy. As advised in BTF don't splurge in the first couple of days as you will need to get a feel for how the bargaining system works, after that you can shop with confidence and obtain many specials. Just remember that 5,000rp is only about 70 cents so bare that in mind when screwing the down the trader, they still need to make a living...
Warning... Try to organise as many "other than shopping trips" as your budget will allow or you could find youself shopping-shopping-shopping. More to follow when time permits....