Myself, Mrs Hools ,Blue and Gail, and old Bruce(82)and Shirl(79)left Sydney with Jetstar on the 23rd March and returned on the 16th April. The trip over left 1 hour late ,but made up 45 mins and arrived in Bali only 15 min late . We have had better flights, but had no problems with Jetstar.
During the trip over a lady in the same row as us (33)asked if one of our company was Hools. I replied yes I am! How did you know? She replied I recognised your pillow(meaning one of my previous posts where I had stated I was taking my own pillow and it was built in ,just above my belt),I quicky realise I must have had the biggest pillow on the plane.
As it turned out it was Lauren and her mother Sue who both post on the BTF as Lozza.
We cleared VOA and Customs it was close to 11pm by the time we reached the Dewi Sri. We only had two nights there and for a budget hotel it was alright ,no complaints .
On our second night in Bali we had a date to meet the Marthar Tilaar brigade at Billies .
We arrived there around 7pm ,and what a lovely bunch of girls, Didiaust ,Sharon27,Tina G and daughter Belinda ,Struth, Sue and Lauren (Lozza from the plane), Julie57k (with that deep sultry voice),
Irene and Helen.
We had a great night and I even submited to an MT facial ! I mean after all it was the least I could do. I didn't even mind them shoving the MT down my throat ,but at least thought they might have taken it out of the bottles and jars first.
Lovely girls ,great night!.
25th March ,off to the KP for the rest of our holiday and as usual we were not disappointed.
The hotel was pretty busy and work has started on the extensions next door,I believe they are building another 70 rooms and another pool(but don't hold me to it ,some things do change).There was no noise, and you wouldn't know there was any building work going on , but that might change when they get further into the construction, but not to the degree some people anticipate. It certainly wouldn't stop me from booking there during the building ,in fact, they are already heavily booked for September.
We said hello to the finches ,squirrels and the little dove nesting outside our 2nd floor window ,and then down to the beer garden ,come restaurant to say hello to Ari, Desu ,Martini, Putu,Jaya ,Budi and Tut Nik(pool) and all the other wonderfull staff that work there.
Apart from having good rooms,a great pool and beautifull gardens we believe the main asset for this hotel is their staff, very friendly and very professional!.
We ate at the Italian in the hotel ,Yutz, Le Casa (opposite Yutz), Lanai, Zanziba, Drops, Wayan and friends(Mrs Hools clashed with the waiters over the size of the tip,food good, service crap), Indo National,Legends, but in our opinion the best was the Seaside which is next door to the KP and has a tree growing through the centre of the buiding and a gym, which I definately did not use!. We ate there four times and enjoyed it every time .On one night they served 260 meals.
I believe that they are also about to do extensions and put an extra restaurant up on the roof.
We did not eat at the Blue Ocean which is next door to our hotel. Even though they do have good meals we were all turned off by one of the regular european locals who insists that his dog sits at or on the table and shares his owners beer with him, lapping it out of the same glass that you or I might be drinking out of next.
Because the buffet breakfast at the KP is so good we virtualy only had dinner of an evening and an occasional snack in a Warung,I must say we didn't have a bad meal anywhere during the 24 days.
The weather was hot and bloody humid with a few thunderstorms of a night. Although you could get a breeze on or near the beach ,walking the streets was oppressive and Blue and I found that quite often we could only make it from the front entrance of the KP to the Fookin Pub then on to Rickies ,then the Corner Bar before we had a two hundred yard walk to Bamboo Corner Bar and a beer with Max (Waxy maxy on other forum).
Then of course we would have to run the gauntlet again on the way home.
That's about all for now ,next installment Hools meets Mr Bloodyron and mum,and Hillary (Aunty Jack) and her Kuta Cowboy husband Ivor Scoop!, also my mate Bluemc (red headed Irishman)explodes and stops the traffic.
Cheers hools