Well that sounds good in theory!!!!
We (party of 4 girls) headed off form Perth Saturday 13th. Due to daylight saving our 12.30pm flight became 1.30pm. Another hour of waiting!!! Flew with qantas and had a good flight with no problems. Left and arrived on time.
I had organised a driver to pick us up,Justin ( a friend of a friends) and he arrived as we walked out and deliverd us safely to our destination for the week. Puri Raja. Chose this hotel over the Mandira because of its size. I like to get to know the staff where i stay and get to know us they did!!!!
My only prerequiste for hotel was that i wanted to hear and see the beach and the Puri Raja suited. It was wonderful sitting in the restaurant and looking at the waves rolling in.
We loved the rooms. Asked for ground floor and got them. Would have liked connecting but they have double plus twin together so the next best was we got 2 twins with a path up the middle. Could still chat from our verahdahs. Even though we did spend lots of time on each others!!
Couldn't fault the hotel. Loved the position and the staff were great.
Would certainly recommend it and stay there again.
We ate at the hotel first night and we think we liked it. Memories never good after the first hits of Bintang. 1 of the girls hurt her foot on first night which saw us at BIMC the next morning. A good start a couple of days on crutches and taxi rides rather than walking too far.
Taxi rides were interesting to say the least. The roadworks slowly worked there way up the street and every trip saw another road closed. To get to Legian we had to go via Double six. We were coming the wrong way up streets. The drivers were even asking us could you get through this way. Bit of a nightmare but made for some excitement.
Second day saw us hit the shops We went to centro a bit easier with crutches. Lots of shoe sales there. Just need to have a smaller foot. I take a 41 so no luck.
We ate lunch up stairs overlooking the beach. Very nice!! Can't remember the name. We ate there again it was so nice.
We made a pact not to wear our watches so they ut in the safe for the week. We ate when we felt like it. It was great not relying on the time so much.
We went to a salon in Poppies 2 2 had full massages the other had foot massage and pedicure. Awesome!!
as 2 of us werent keen on shopping we decided to head to dreamland to escape the shops. I have been before and loved it. This time it has been changed and they are doing some work there with big machines so it was little noisy. Water was great but very strong and was hard to stand so we didn't swim for long. Had a nice mee goreng at the warung we were at. A nice day. Had leg massage and bartered hard with the beach sellers. They really tried to charge so much. Times are tough. Always end up giving more though.
We ate at Poco Locos that night. Wonderful tequilla sunrises and great food. We had a stater plate with some samplers on it then all fajitas. Bloody beautiful!!! Service was great. Just loved it. Stopped at Rickys on way home and had a great chat with Ricky. A nice little bar.
We also ate a Dolphins in Garlic Lane. I had some great Sates but the others had a pretty ordinary pizza. Had some nice cold towels though so that was nice.
2 of us settledin at Legends while the others shopped at the markets at the end of the street. I went to Ketuts and got 20 Eagles & Dockers sarongs. We ended up leaving the other2 shopping and walked home.
Next day we headed to Geneava. A great store and saves the hassle. I loved it.
We then made our way to The Pub for the famous sdates and cold bintang. What a shame hardly anyone in there.
We went dressed in bathers today cos we weren't going home before dinner and figured we would need a swim somewhere. We separated after lunch. 2 went shopping the other 2 walked to the Dynasty via several bars and hotel. Quite astounded at the price of bintang ans we went. Stopped at the Balin Rani cos we have both stayed there before.Wanted to see the Made's behind the bar but told neither of them there anymore. We gave them a room number to get a towel.
Also did this at the Dynasty. We did the happy hour there. Buckets of sex on the beach for 55000. Got 4 drinks out of the bucket. Excellent and i cant say enough about this cocktail. Tried to get them to make it at Puri Raja but it wasn't any good. LOads of people around bar for happy hour!!!
Then into Grace Kellys for more sex on the beach and dinner. Very nice as usual. We happened upon a quiz night. One answer was wrong!! Good fun though and not sure how we managed to get so many wrong. Perhaps it was those buckets.
We went to Diane's store to purchase some clothes. I was not shopping much but got most of it here. Cant argure with her prices and she has good stock, Even had some shorts made for one of us and then delivered them to the hotel.
The next day saw us with Bali Belly. I had fever and it was coming up both ends. 2 of the others spent day on toilet but didn't feel unwell. They all went to legends for tea taht night. Me i slept. Fine the next day but the others spent rest of time with toilet close by.
Went for early tea to Zanzibars. 2 ate meal. I had the spring rolls. So very nice would have been the best thing i ate there. so fresh. Yummo!!! 1 of the girls had been up visiting a friend so when she came back we decided we wanted mexican again so we went to poco locos to buys a couple of dips to takeaway. Excellent they did it so home we marched with dinner in plastic trays. Just love those dips!!
We went to Legends on Friday night for there show and BBQ. Salds were great. Had a choice of meat and it was nice but must say we all fought with funny tummys the next day. Drank the pool bar out of dry ginger but thing it eased the load. They kept there steaks in a big plastic container by the bbq. We got there bout 8 so steaks had probably been sitting there for some time in the heat. They dont get this refrig thing do they. What a shame. We saw the Elvis Parsley show, Micheal Jackson made an appearence and there were also some drag queens. The yellow band played also. Have to say i much prefered the other band that was there during the week.
Whilst the show was happening the crew from the fookin inn pub crawl arrived and certainly livened the place up. What a good time they were having. We will do this next time.
Our last day say us finish our shopping. Bought DVds across form Puri Raja and they were good telling us whether they wer worth buying or not. They couldn't get my games though said they were too new but i found them at softcomp in Tuban. I do like that store.Spent the day have final pedicures, manicure and massages. All done at the hotel. The girls were great. Massage hut at front of hotel near beach was excellent. Wandered up to Zanibars agin for small lunch and had to have spring rolls again.
Got lover Lover in front of Jayakarta to call Sahara for me so friends could buy pearls. He had beautiful lomok pearls made in bracelts for 20 000. Friend bought loads of pearls to be set in Jewerllry when she gets home. We went back twice to get more braclets. They were in all colours and awesome. My best buy for the week.
Last night saw us head up to Fookin Inn for dinner. Sat and chatted to Rick . Very interesting to learn how a young Aussie ends up owning a hotel in Bali. Meal beautiful and you could see the aussie influence in the way it was presented. Toilets were so clean!!! He prides himself on this fact.
Our flight home left Bali at 12.55am. It left on time and we had no probs with overweight luggage much to our surprise. Flight was once again no probs. Both flights on qantas from & too Perth went Via Singapore. They were both full.
All in all had an excellent time with good company and we are already talking about going again. Lots of people are jealous and are planning on joining us next time. We didn't really get into too much mischief which surprised us all i must say.
I found all balinese telling us how quiet it was. We found that we could walk for ages and just not see many tourists like you used to. There were a lot of women with babies begging on the streets at night and i have never noticed that before. Even had kids trying to sell us things at a time when they should have been at school.
We took some books and clothes and pencils over Southerncross bali and Smudge came to the hotel to pick them up. We were sorry we couldn't take more but qantas didn't allow anything extra. I spose even a little helps!!