We are back from our holiday in beautiful Bali. We were there from November 20 and arrived back in Melbourne yesterday (1st December). It was my second time to Bali, last time I travelled alone and stayed in Sanur. This time I went with my husband (his first time) and we stayed in Legian.
It was very quiet in Bali and a lot of shop keepers and restaurants are doing it very hard, it was sad and it was hard to say no to some of them.
Stayed at Legian, the service at the hotel was fantastic and the room was lovely. Frozen cappucino's became our daily pleasure! The pool was excellent and the location terriffic, we walked to Tuban along the beach to go to discover mall one day and on other days either walked around Legian/Kuta but we also walked to Seminyak a few times. Found the shopping in Seminyak really good and the shop keepers not so demanding.
We went to see monkey'sin Ubud - We called Bali babe's driver Made, he was unable to make it but sent a friend of his Jerry, who I highly recommend, lovely man, newly married with his wife expecting their first baby.
I bought banana's to feed the monkeys. BIG MISTAKE. Two steps after purchasing them, big monkey runs up my leg, grabbed the banana's and scoffed the lot whilst I stood there dumbstruck.
Bali is so very... bali. We had this nice man approach us and he knew all the monkeys, he fed them and was very helpful to my husband and I showing us around. We got up to one of the temples and he explained that people pray there for prosperity with the markets and then he reaches behind a statue and presents us with a little picture he had drawn which he thought we might like to buy for good luck! So cute and yes I have the picture! hahahaha
I wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to Balibabe for the Bali bible and the recommendations. We ordered dvds before we left and about the third day we were there he sent me a text telling me they were ready, bought them to the hotel, all are fantastic.
Also, we found the shopping guides really helpful, especially the price guide - although my husband seemed to forget this on his first -and last- alone shopping experience where he effectively purchased 3 singlets for around 300000 Rupiah (42 Australian!) - Of course he thought he had bargained well having "got them down from 850000! - Was very funny. He did make it up during the holiday with some hard bargaining later...
We went to the elephant park and did the elephant safari thing, I agree with others, it's expensive but WELL worth the experience. It was great fun and we enjoyed our time there.
We felt safe in Bali although avoided the Big Discovery shopping centre over the weekend. There really weren't many tourists around at all. I encourage everyone to go to Bali, it was a wonderful break and we'll be going again next year.
Thanks to everyone who has posted here, I have found everything to be really helpful and in the lead up to our holiday it was great reading through everything in the exciting lead up to our holiday. Cheers Everyone!
We found a few really great places to eat too.
Well, that's about it from me, I hope that this has been helpful and if there are any questions anyone wants to ask please feel free to do so and we can get back to you.