My JBR April 13th - April 26th
This is just a quick JBR to let all you guys know the stuff we got up too in Bali and all the valuable info from this forum which helped us have the best holiday I've ever had. Am doing it all from memory so there might be a fair few names i forget or get wrong, sorry in advance. Hope it's not too boring but I'm just going to start typing and see what comes out.
Setting Off:
We arrived at the airport 2 hours before leaving Melbourne at 6.40am on Thursday Morning. We flew Australian Airlines and everything was fine, nice roast beef meal, check in was a breeze. Was a bit concerned about our weight flying back so we all packed lightly, 3 bags and two surfboards only weighed 32kgs so we were fine.
Arrival in BAli:
Arrived in Bali half an hour early which was good, went straight through customs without a trouble and caught a taxi to our hotel in Kuta for set price of Rp40,000. Having our first Bintang in the Pool Bar within 1 hour of landing.
Our Hotel:
For our 13 nights we stayed at the Aneka Beach hotel in Kuta, On Jalan Pantai Kuta between the Hard Rock Hotel and Poppies 1. Could not recommend this hotel highly enough. It was in the perfect spot for what we wanted. Close to beach so could check Kuta Reef easy, close to all shopping and cheap food in Poppies 1 and 2 and only a short taxi to any other places we needed to go. Meals were reasonably priced and the pool and the icy cold bintangs from the bar were great. When we first arrived the hotel seemed really quiet but it got steadily busier the whole time we were there. The staff and rooms were great. The 3 of us (all guys) first stayed in a Junior Villa (one without the private pool) for the first week which was great, showers, and beds and air con all working well. The second week my girlfriend arrived and we moved into 2 rooms overlooking Poppies 1, at first was a bit worried about the noise but hardly heard a thing, we didn't really go to bed before 12 each night but most mornings could only really hear very muffled motorbikes zooming along. Also right next door is a 24hr Circle K Store and a 24hr McDonalds which was great after coming late at night after a few too many bintangs.
Places we ate at:
Ate at most of the restaurants along Poppies 1, very cheaps and mostly good meals.
The best restaurants we ate at were;
-Ketupat on Jalan Legian, near McDonalds, the best satay we had in Bali and a very beautiful setting by the pool, nice huts to eat in, this place i cant recommend highly enough, excellent.
-Zanzibar on Jalan Double Six, great seafood and pizzas, another highlight of the trip, would also recommend this restaurant to everyone.
-Ketumbar a new restaurant opened on Jalan Melasti, similar to Zanzibar, excellent Pizza and Garlic Prawns, at the end of the night the owner came over with 4 shots of a lemon tasting spirit which topped the night off or really got it going actually.
-Georgia Restaurant in Jimbaran Bay. This was the best meal we had all trip, maybe even the best meal of my life. We went their on our last night while waiting for our plane to arrive. It was my the four of ours first time to Jimbaran so we walked along the beach to try and pick a restaurant, this was a huge task in itself, all meals, settings and prices seemed about the same everywhere so in the end we decided with Georgia because the man who raced down and met us on the beach was really friendly. Between the four of us we had 2kgs of prawns and 1kg of lobster, the meals all came with rice, chips, corn soup, vegetables and a fruit platter for dessert. We all agreed that they would the best prawns any of us had ever had. Also drank a fair bit of bintang whilst watching the sun go down which was great. We were also serenaded by a band for a few songs and my girlfriend bought a genuine?? Pearl necklace for $10Aus, its seems pretty real but for $10 im not that sure, anyone out there know about the legitimacy. Was told that a lot of the restaurants use rigged scales, rip you off, overcharge, etc... But even if the did rip us off, it was so much cheaper than here in oz and the whole meal experience was awesome. The only problem i had was that it was our last night because i would have loved to go back there a many more times.
Also had a lunch (missed out on breakfast by 10 mins) at La Lucciolas. Great spot, excellent setting but we were all a bit disappointed with our meals especially for the price we paid, and was also really looking forward to a breakfast there but we left it late getting (12.10pm) and could not order off the breakfast menu, I know its our fault for getting there late but still disappointing. But the juices and granitas were amazing.
Places we drank at:
Most afternoons we started drinking in the pool bar at Aneka which was great, the bar wasn't actually opened but they would bring you drinks from the restaurant bar, as soon as you put an empty down they would be there with a full bintang, nice and cold too.
Then we would head off too different restaurants and have a meal and a few more bintangs.
After our meals we would head to another bar, the first good one was the Sports bar right opposite Fat Yogis in Poppies 1, excellent bar were we could watch the afl, soccer and what ever else sports were on. Also had a heap of pool tables and the staff were all great, although being up above street level it seemed to not catch as many people's eyes so it was a bit quieter than other bars.
Another bar we liked was the Espresso Bar on Jalan Legian, near the bounty, good live music and a good warm up spot before heading to the bounty. Staff was also great here.
Most nights when the clock struck 12pm we would head to the Bounty for a few more beers, really fun place always seemed busier than the other clubs. Also spent some time at MBarGo which was a bit more expensive but stayed open later than the bounty.
Bali Belly:
I have used Sunyasia Raspberry Cordial(one shot a day after showering) the last three times I've been to Bali and have never once got Bali belly and once again it worked, not sure if its the cordial or if i just haven't been exposed to the bug but I suppose it helps. One in our group had the belly and was in bed for two days when a Balinese friend recommended Strawberry Fanta, it started working straight away and he was back eating and drinking that night, although he did say it tasted terrible.
Fun Things we did:
First of all we did White Water Rafting with Bali Adventure Tours on the Telawaja (spelt correctly?) River which was great fun. Whilst in Bali all the tour booths had 50% off rafting so it only cost $31US to do. It was a great day, rapids were okay but the scenery was excellent and the buffet meal was great and the views even better. There was only a few steps to the starting point but their was a fair few back up to the restaurant and car.
Waterbom Park
Went here one afternoon, this was great fun and a think an afternoon was the perfect amount of time for us too spend there. The new ride (the Boomerang) was amazing fun. I think it cost $21.5US to get in.
Elephant Park
My girlfriend and I went along for the day to do this and it was amazing, really good fun and my girlfriend absolutely loved it, riding and feeding the elephants was an amazing experience. Although our guide said out of the 27 elephants which were there only 5-6 of them were ridden, the others were just chained up the whole time. Also the guide said after doing 60-100 rides a day pre-terrorism they are now only doing 8-12 per day which is pretty sad. Also the buffet lunch was excellent.
Three Island Cruise
We did this cruise with Lembongan Island Tour Company (i think this is what it was called) and it cost $45US compared to $69US quoted by Bali Hai Cruises. This was a great day out, seeing all the amazing cliffs, bays and beaches was great. The snorkelling was okay, coral was a bit grey but the fish were brilliant. We had lunch at Coconuts Beach Resort were we could swim in there amazing horizon pool overlooking Lembongan Bay, seaweed farms and boats. After lunch we went on the glass bottom boats, banana boat rides, kayaking and more snorkeling, all included in the price, these weren't included with the other tour company which was a bonus. The boat ride home was also great fun as the seas were fairly choppy. This was another great day out, wouldn't recommend this trip for people with bad backs or likely of getting sea sick but for everyone else it would be great.
All the tour booths which are everywhere seemed to give 10-15% of the brochure price which you would get back home and for different tours there seemed to be special deals.
Shopping:
Did a heap of shopping, the usual things, t-shirts, shorts, wallets, bracelets, watches, hats, didn't mind paying a bit extra because all the sellers seemed to be doing it very tough, most not having a sale till late in the afternoon when we walked into there stalls. Centro seemed a bit big and just like the big shopping centres here in Melbourne. Went to Geneva Handicrafts on our second last day to pick up some presents for back home. Only problem was there was to much to chose from, you could spend a day there but we only had an hour so we were running around like crazy trying to find the things we wanted. Also ordered a lot of our DVD's from H--- which was pretty easy, my friends also just walked into a few shops in Poppies 2 and the girls there would just grab your list and race around grabbing all the DVDs for you which was easy enough for them too. Have only watched a couple, but so far, so good.
Also bought a pair of Versace prescription glasses from Optic Seis near Matahari for around $200Aus. And 2 suits from Janako, standard material one $65Aus and a Cashmere Wool one for $75Aus which seemed pretty good, didn't have to bargain he just had set prices. Ordered them on the Friday afternoon and went back Sunday afternoon to try them on, the waist on both mine was a bit big so they fixed them and had them ready the next afternoon. On the Sunday arvo my girlfriend decided to buy a suit with pants and a dress and they were also ready the next day which was real good.
Transport:
We just got taxis around everywhere which was so easy. But sometimes we jump in a cab after 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the drivers said they hadn't had a fare all day which is pretty sad. We got the hotel transport to take us to Jimbaran Bay on the last day, and then take us to the airport which cost us 100,000Rp for the night.
Coming Home:
Wish i was still there, am counting the days till i can go back, hopefully in July if i can find some flights. Wasn't worried or felt threatened at all while over there, would go back in an instant. Even though we got home and parents said there was a terror warning for a particular day while we were there, but we didn't hear a thing on the street. All the Balinese just wanted Australians to come back to Bali and seemed to go out of there way to be extra friendly. We went to the airport 5 hours early to check our bags in, so we could then go to Jimbaran Bay and arrive only a bit before a flight was scheduled to leave, but when we got to the airport we were told we could only check in 3 hours beforehand which was a bit of a pain, i thought we could check-in as early as we wanted but we were mistaken. Luckily our driver, Comma, was still waiting so he said he could drive us to Jimbaran Bay, bags in toe, and he would wait, and then take us to the airport to catch our flights. Got through Customs quickly and easily, they had a quick look through our bags, checked out our wooden items and the spices we brought back which were all fine, didn't even look twice at the 300 DVD's i had and the 300-400 the others in our group had, then we were home.
Hope this JBR was okay, just read through it and it's a lot longer than I had planned, hope it wasn't too boring. Excuse any spelling mistakes and errors in names. Thanks everyone for all the valuable info received from this forum and i hope that this helps a couple of people out in return.
Thanks again
lbh