A brief intro: Myself, Jill 29, 8th trip to Bali and David 33, 1st trip to Bali. Departed Perth boxing day and returned 2 weeks later on the 9th Jan. Stayed 10 nights in Kuta, 2 nights in Amed then another night in Legian.
Flight from Perth was pretty much full. VOA was pretty quick. Paid in A$ and got change in rupiah. Enough for transport to hotel - 50K. Customs took ages because we were last off the plane.
We had organized a driver before leaving Aus and he was waiting to pick us up and take us to the Barong Hotel. Checked into nice room upstairs overlooking the rear pool. Room was clean and comfortable. Bathroom very basic but acceptable. I had heard of problems with noisy aircon and no hot water but our room was great. Everything worked as required. Awesome water pressure too for those who like there showers. Friendly staff always willing to chat. The balcony was great also as I love sitting and watching people. It was a good view to the pool. On a downside it can be noisy at night sometimes as the rear pool is open 24 hours.
I had heard of good things on the forum about Makro so thought we'd check it out and stock up on some supplies - plus I wanted to get the drum of chubba chups !! However I was a bit disappointed. It is a lot further out than I thought- about 30K each way in a taxi. It would be good if you were getting lots of bulk stuff but it wasn't what I'd expected and I couldn't find the chubba chups. Never mind it was still an experience.
Before leaving Perth we had also organized some DVD's from the person we can't mention. Hel*i. So far all have been great copies. Any on our list that weren't good copies he didn't give us. But we still bought more and more and more out in the shops. How many DVD shops are there in Bali !!!!! We also hired a dvd player. 150K for 9 days
I had a few hair cream baths whilst there at different places. I would have to say that the best was at Secret Garden for 65K. With our airline tickets we were given a voucher for a pampering session at Green Garden resort. So we spent 3 hours of relaxing there one day. We had the hot stone massage. It was fantastic. Highly recommend it for something different.
Waterbomb Park. I can't believe that I have been to Bali 8 times and this was the first time I have been to Waterbomb Park. I absolutely loved it. We were pretty knackered by the end of the day because of all the steps you have to go up, but it was a brilliant day. I loved the Lazy River. It was great to chill out and float around for a while after going up the stairs so many times. Cost 145K each plus rental for towels and locker.
Bali Buggies. This was another fantastic day. Picked up from hotel and taken somewhere out past Ubud. Beautiful scenery along the way. Actually I'd been looking forward to this so that David could see the real Bali instead of just Kuta. We were the only people for our session of Buggies. They can have up to 6 people at a time. David drove - I was too scared. We had a guide who led us through the terrain and little villages, to lookout points of rice paddies etc. It didn't rain while we were out but it had been raining earlier in the day so there were lots of muddy puddles to try and avoid. We were unsuccessful and ended up rather dirty by the end. So if you do this tour in the wet season, wear old clothes !! My favourite memory of this day was the children running out to slap your hand or to just simply say hello with a huge big smile on there face as we drove past. The buggies were quite noisy so they could hear us coming. Definitely recommend this tour. 108USD for the two of us. It's a bit expensive but it was so much fun. Lunch is included and was really quite yummy. And for those who don't eat rice and curries they also serve French fries !!!
More to come....