After our 4 beautiful days at Amed, we were collected by our driver Nesa, who was part of the deal with the house we were renting. I found the house via Mic's site and after a 3 hour drive down from Amed we were very pleased to arrive at a lovely 3 bedroom 2 bathroom 2 storey house with a nice pool in the small village of Ketewel, just north of Sanur.
Nesa is the driver, who is there anytime you need him and his wife Wayan is the pembantu, who cooks breakfast each morning and cleans the house. The house was 3 double bedrooms, all airconditioned and we were looked after so well. Nesa has very good English, but Wayan's was very limited so it gave me a great opportunity to practise my Indonesian a bit more.
Our first day we arrived around 1pm, did a trip into Hardy's to stock up on the essentials and then wandered the 100m or so down to the black sand beach at Ketewel. A good surf break here, but not really suitable for swimming for young children. Lovely beach though, with local kids flying kites and old ladies collecting the rocks that wash up on the beach for sale as garden accessories.. Ketewel is a gorgeous little village, narrow roads and family compounds with friendly people. We had a little wander around and were greeted by everyone and invited in by one man doing some renovations.
Our agenda each day was fairly similar, up to breakfast, out for the morning to do whatever and then back mid afternoon for the little tacker's sleep and for us to drink beer by the pool in peace. Then out for dinner in Sanur and back home by 10ish - I know , we are a pretty boring lot.
The next day is Friday and we head off to Sukawati to check out the markets. Ketewel is in a great position, only 10 minutes to Sukwati, Celuk and Batubulan, 10 minutes from Sanur and about 25 minutes from Ubud. Bought plenty of things at Sukawati, paintings, beaded thongs, umbul umbul, men's shirts, beads, necklaces, earrings etc etc. Really liked Sukawati and returned here later in the trip to find things that we could not find anywhere else.
Saturday we are off to Ubud for a wander around the markets (need those fisherman pants) and to have babi guling at Ibu Oka (yum yum)Elephant Cave and some galleries.
Sunday is Galleria day (much to child in pram's disgust) to stock up at Matahari, kids clothes, Revlon, Martha Tillar, shoes, business clothes for hubby. Plenty of clothes for my son and husband but not much for me, but that's okay because I dont have room in my cupboards anyway. Over to Geneva, takes about 40 minutes to get there, and of course, it is closed because it's Sunday!!
The rest of the week alternates between beach, markets, markets, beach, beer, relax etc. I'm sure you get the picture.
Went back to Geneva on Wednesday but have to say I wasn't overly fussed with the place. We did get some beautiful cushion covers and table runners that we had not seen elsewhere, but there was a lot of stuff there that I would not have bought anyway - mainly wood and bamboo. Some of their ceramics were nice.
Enjoyed a lovely 3 hour spa treatment at Secret Garden for 275 000rp which I though was great value, massage, lulur, facial, herbal bath, manicure, pedicure. Had two people with me most of the time, was just beautiful.
Went to stone carvers at Batubulan for some small statues, bought them at the carvers which are all set up along the road.
Meals: Stiff Chilli (great wood fired pizza); Zoo Cafe - absolutely beautiful 5 star cuisine for about $5 per main course; Bennos on the beach, nice fish and chips; Guinness Pie at Cat and Fiddle; good food at Kami Sama on Semawang Beach; Donalds on the Beach at Cemara - this was not a good meal (hubby's chicken arrived raw!) but they were very obliging and keen to assist I would return here; terrific Ayam Goreng at Billys Cafe on Jl Danau Tamblingan, some great Nasi Campur at local warungs.
Paid the 100 000rp to go into Dewa lounge (skip the Dewi lounge it was much more worn and short on food and drink), home to Perth at 1.30am, clear customs and on the road by 2.20am (man, its freezing here!!) and home in our bed by 6 am. Child wakes at 7.45am, mum can I watch the DVDs???
Ahh, need a holiday.
Sorry, this is really really long and dribbly.
Any questions please ask
Cheers
Alanna