We, wife, 23 year old daughter, 21 year old son and I flew to Bali ex Melbourne on a Jetstar flight. Do not have a negative comment to make regarding the flight or services offered by Jetstar. Was surprised that they gave us a complementary water not long after take off, which was approx. 30 minutes late.
Stayed at the Barong Hotel, (booked direct with the hotel via their web site and got a really cheap room rate)on the recommendation of our daughter who had stayed there in May of last year. Being a Budget rated hotel, it was more that satisfactory. Staff are really friendly, good location and some really down to earth fellow travellers that we meet there and shared many a Bintang, Arack attacks and stories with.
Did a variety of touristy things, including visit to a Barong Dance performance. Jetsking, parasailing, banana boat riding, snorkelling (was disappointed with this as the quality of marine was not as good as what I had expected) at Nusau Dua. Sightseeing around the volcano, visited many of the more bigger religious temples. Stopped off along many country roads and took many photo's of the country side and people. Our young adults went to many night clubs, and came back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Visited the Bali zoo, elephant park and waterboom park. We all went bike riding with Bike Baik countryside tours. Approx 4 hours of actual bike riding (mostly downhill) through picturesque countryside and villages. Local children came out and said Hellow Hellow and held out their hands for high five's.At the end of the trip we had lunch at Wayan Sujana (team guide) home. Additionally, Wayan wife also runs Balinise cooking classes. The food both quality and quantity was superb. Highly recommend this tour for an excellent day out at a reasonable price.
The ladies had a different types of massages nearly every day, from full body, facials, feet and refloxology. All of us went to the Green Garden Day Spa for a massage. Son was surprised when he was given a pair of disposable, semi transparent jocks to put on.I was disappointed with the massage as I thought that it was too gentle.
Daughter and wife recommended Jennifer Massage in Ronta Lane (around the corner from the Bogus pub) which thet frequented more than once.
The ladies made the most of their time shopping, and had MANY items of clothing manafactured as per pictures that they had cut out of magazines. Janoko & Toke tailors in Poppies II made a significant hole in their wallets. All of us had leather jackets made by Dolphin Leather, son had a suit, additional trousers and I had a jacket made at Brisbane Taylors. Additionally, many other bits and pieces were purchased at the many markets and shops that we went to. Purchased approx. 400 DVD's, 250 of these we preordered from Hel**e. We have not encounted any problems with any that we got from him so far.
Ate at a varient of different restaurants, including Kories in Poppies II , excellent food and service. They have a musician and singer there on wednesday and saturday nights and went there a few times for drinks. Poppies in Poppies I, staff that seved us did not seem as friendly as other paces that we went to. Dirty Duck in Ubud was excellent, good food, service and excellent ambience. We found some really cheap places with good food in Rontane Lane linking Poppies I and Poppies II
Additionally we went to some of the other resturants recommended in this forum, including Gloria's, (they provide a free pick up dropoff service), Dolphin restuarant, Bamboo Corner in Poppies I, Warung 96. All were good.
All good things come to and end, and so we had to pack to come home. I was concerned about the weight in our suitcase/bags that we had accumulated and the excess cost that we might have to pay. Borrowed some scales from the local post office (the hotel ones were inoperative) and everything seemed to be OK. This was confirmed at check in at the airport. However, there were many other travellers on our flight who had to pay excess luggage costs, and were not happy with Jetstar because of this.
Got back home, and after looking at the many photo's and discussing what we did, didn,t do, we have decided to go back in September of this year.
In closing,I would encourage all fellow travellers to provide feed back via this forum, as it provides an excellent source of information which contributed to a wonderful holiday.