I hope this isn't too boring. As I was typing I couldn't decide if I was writing it for the forum, my kids, or just to have as a diary, so it's a bit of everything.
Day One
SATURDAY 5AM
The alarm goes off and the first waking thought is that its time to get up for yet another working day, but that suddenly changes to excitement as I realise that it's the day we leave for Bali!! Yeehaaa.. out of bed I jump without a thought of wanting to stay under the doona on this cold and still dark Perth morning.
We leave a bit late (so what's new!!) and Tarryn and Adam kindly come with us to drop us off. We are really grateful that they are happy to take us, I'm sure not too many 19 year olds would be prepared to leave their nice warm beds on what's normally a sleeping in day.
Checked in knowing that our suitcases were already over 20kg,.. and they weighed even more on the Garuda scales than on ours at home. Luckily we have quite a bit of stuff that won't be coming back so I might be able to do just a bit of shopping!! I always say that I won't be doing much shopping this trip, but it never seems to work out that way.
After a bit of a wander around the duty free shop we decide on gin for Glenn and baccardi with lemon for me. I'd thought about taking a few bottles of bubbly instead of buying duty free as it's cheap in Bali to buy spirits, and I know I will miss my champers. In the end I didn't get around to it so I'll have to make do with Baccardi. Damn shame but I'm sure I can live with it!!! I might even try some of the local bubbles.
We took off right on time, seemed to be more leg room than on previous flights. I think perhaps they gave us more room by making the seats less padded. When I sat down it was with a big thump.. not much cushioning there that's for sure. (Lucky I have plenty of my own!!) Mind you. I did have to do a bit of a wriggle every now and then to relieve the numb bum, but it was only a three hour flight so who could complain? The breakfast was good and the movie was.. wellll.. not the best choice for travelling!!!! It was the remake of 'The Poseidon Adventure'. Sure, we were on a plane not a boat, but it was just a tad disconcerting to be sitting on a plane going through turbulence with the old Poseidon doing it's thing. Haha!!.. I decided to have a bit of a snooze instead, the sound quality was bad and I knew the ending anyway!!! lol
After a fairly quick trip through VOA and customs we were outside and looking for our friend Billy (Wayan). There he was waiting for us, with a big welcoming smile and hug. We chat chat chat about everything that's been happening since we saw him last as we head towards Sanur.
Billy has never heard of the hotel that we are staying at, the Sri Phala but that's not a problem as I've done heaps of research on the net and know where it is.. sort of. We took a bit of looking around to find it, the address on the website is Jl Hang Tuah, but in fact the main entrance is off the Bypass Road. Glenn had got more and more concerned about this place that I had booked as we were discussing it with Billy. He was starting to think that it was going to be a bit of a dud. I kept assuring him that it would be fine but not until we walked in to the hotel was he convinced.
It certainly is a beautiful little hotel. The grounds are magnificent with lush tropical gardens and a small but deep and sparkling pool. The room is probably the nicest that I have ever stayed in.
Our room is in a perfect spot being on the first floor overlooking the pool, but with trees to filter the view and create a little privacy. There is a good sized terrace with comfy chairs and a table. Glenn is very impressed, I think this is one of his main priorities, he loves to sit outside at the end of the day with a Bintang or a G & T and contemplate life. This is just the place to sit back and realise just how lucky we are.
The room is huge and tasteful, furnished in Balinese style. It's nice and bright with huge windows at the front and also at the side so plenty of natural light. The bed is king sized and comfy, with big squishy pillows, that are just what I like. The linen is spotless and white. Air con is quiet and efficient. The bathroom is marble and a reasonable size, it's clean and bright, with a shower over the bath, and there is a pull out clothes line over the bath. There is no hairdryer but that doesn't bother me.
Billy is most impressed with the hotel, I hope impressed enough to recommend it to others. For the price it is exceptional value. We paid $US45 per night through one of the local booking agents. Bit the bullet and paid by credit card online after doing a bit of a check. I have had no problems and three months down the track still no big spend ups made by persons unknown!! I later found out that the hotel received US$40 from that booking so no doubt the price is negotiable. You can book directly with the hotel and pay when you arrive, which I will do the next time I stay there.
We had a lovely lunch in the hotel restaurant, accompanied by a couple of Bintangs. Billy joined us but as always only ordered a drink, professing to have just eaten. I know he doesn't like to order a meal so I shared my nasi goreng with him. He gave the chicken satay a thumbs up, and I had to agree that the food was great. It was nice to find tiny calamari rings through the rice, something I haven't noticed before. Glenn had the mie goreng with extra chilli and thought that was very good too. The meals were very reasonably priced, Rp 35000 each, with service charge and tax added came to Rp 42000. The large Bintangs were Rp 27500 after the tax etc. Not bad for hotel prices.
After a swim and a bit of relaxing around the pool we decided to go for a walk to check things out. You can go out the back gate of the hotel then down a little laneway that takes you to Jl Hang Tuah. A left hand turn and a walk of maybe 3 minutes takes you to the beach. At first glimpse I thought that I was looking at a very ugly stretch of beach, but then realised that the tide was way way out. It's a full moon at the moment so no wonder!!
There seem to be a few reasonable looking restaurants around and of course plenty of market type stalls with all the usual garb. Being quite north of the centre of Sanur I was glad to see this, as I didn't want to have to jump into a taxi every time we wanted to eat.
We walked along the beach path towards Sanur and of course were greeted with many hellos and 'you want manacure, massage, look in my shop' Sadly for everyone we didn't want anything, especially as we had yet to change some money, and only had enough rupiah for a drink. We had drinks at Mango Beach Bar (or was it restaurant?). I think we waited for about half an hour for a coke and a mixed juice, which reminded me of Bali as it was back when I first used to visit. The juice was well worth the wait, and we spent the time chatting to one of the beach ladies. Drinks came to Rp12000
We had planned to walk further but the wind was blowing strong and cold so we decided to head back. I was surprised at how cold it was for this time of the year. A lot of the locals were bundled up in big jackets.. no wonder if we were feeling cold they must have been freezing!
We had decided to change money at one of the money changers along the path, and the first one we came to was Kodak type place with two lovely young girls at the counter. One filled out the official slip of paper, while the other one gave the money. Glenn and I both looked at our money.as it sat on the counter.. instead of 680000 there sat 608000. I think these girls must have thought we were first timers, because it certainly is easy to get confused with the denominations when you are unfamiliar with the money. I certainly did on my first ever visit. We just laughed and said that it wasn't right, but good try. I suppose we should have said that it was bad to do this, but times are tough and I've always said that it's buyer beware when you are in Bali.
We cut through the Bali Beach Hotel on our way back. It ‘s not very appealing. Perhaps there are sections that are nice, but it looks so run down and sad. I'm sure the view from the top floor must be great.
After stocking up on a few mixers at a small store just up from the hotel we headed back to the hotel, to enjoy our beautiful terrace and a few nips of the duty frees. The hotel really is paradise, it's just what I like.. small and friendly. In the distance we can hear someone singing .. in Indonesian, using a microphone. We found out later that it came from a café on the beach, which we will investigate later. It was a peaceful night with the music drifting across to us adding to the atmosphere.
Dinner was at the hotel. We really didn't need to eat, but how can you resist the chance to chose what you want from a menu, be served by a friendly waiter, eat a delicious meal then just walk away from the table after paying so little. We had a beautiful meal once again. This time I had chicken cooked in mushrooms and cream, which was served between two potato cakes, and came with beautiful fresh vegies. Glenn had the pan fried snapper which was also served with vegies, and had small chunky potatoes. It was very good. The prices were the same as the meals we had at lunch time.. Rp 35000 with added taxes etc. Fantastic meal for $7 each. At this rate we could be tempted to eat here quite regularly!
We met Heka, who I think is the security guard, but he also fixes things.. our toilet was looking like it could be starting to get blocked and he came to fix it. He also noticed a blown globe and replaced that as well. What a lovely friendly man.. full of welcome and smiles and handshakes. All of the staff are lovely. The people of Bali really are what makes it so special, and what keeps me coming back time and time again
We hit the sack early after an early start to the day, happy and excited to be in paradise once again..