Week 2 of our trip. Thanks for all the great comments on week 1
Day8:
Up early, started laps in the pool (starting to feel the Bintangs and Food spreading) Walk down to Kuta via the back streets, stroll poppies lanes and Kuta square.
Dinner that night was @Warung Italia (JL Kunti) great home cooked Italian food and chilled house red. This place is great. Very popular with the expats, the prices are super cheap
Day9:
This morning we are on a mission. Taking the plunge and ordering a Bale and 30 stone pieces. Head off to Balistones on Jl Nakula and spend a couple of hours with Felicia, an Australian girl who has lived in Bali with her Balinese husband and kids. She is very knowledgeable, easy to talk to and has a lot of local savvy. Ended up with a 2.5m Bale, flags and Bamboo Poles and about 30 pieces of Stone ranging from 2mt statues, wall lights, garden lights, pavers, wall cladding etc. Felicia also handles the cargo and can pick up and pack anything that you buy elsewhere. We are using an Import Agent recommended by her in Sydney who is a Taren Point, very close to where we live. After this spending frenzy we went back to the hotel to recover and then off to Zanzibar on Blue Ocean Beach. As posted many times this is a great place, very popular with great food and location
Day10:
Off to our third Massage at Callego, then down for more shopping @ Centro, back to the Beach for a few hours and then off to Café Bali for dinner (second time so must be good)
Day11:
On a whim decided to spend a couple of nights in Ubud, rang our trusty Driver Wayan (we use him every year) and headed off to Ubud via Bintang Supermarket. Once each trip we take Wayan shopping at Bintang and he fills a trolley with basics such as coffee, milk, rice, sugar, toothpaste and various groceries. All up $48.00 between 4 of us.
Arriving in Ubud we try for 2 night accommodation at Tegal Sari. Nothing available (no probs short notice) so we wander in to the Greenfield hotel next door and score two great rooms (upstairs and downstairs) right on the rice paddies. Beautiful rooms, very big, great marble bathrooms and big Balcony. Beautiful saltwater infinity pool looking onto the rice paddies. You order breakfast each morning and they bring to your room and serve on the balcony. Dinner tonight is @ Barandi which is on the opposite side of the road not far from the entrance to the Hotel. Great food and Service (yet again)
Day12:
Breaky on the Balcony and then a wander around Ubud, Markets, shops and all the usual. Lunch today was at Ryoshi Japanese on Jl Raya. Downstairs has great views into the valley. Sat on the floor and had great Japanese food, top quality as all the Ryoshi are.
The one amazing thing about this place is the toilets. If ever one could be described as a throne these were it. Once inside you a presented with a hand basin (and Urinal in the men's) and a flight of stairs up to the ‘throne' it is about 8ft in the air with a long modesty Curtin hanging from the ceiling and a very tastefully lit artwork on the wall. Probably one of the more unusual toilets I have seen anywhere in the world.
Dinner this night was @ Indus, which has been reviewed many times on this forum. We found the location stunning and the service and food quite good.
Day13:
After breaky off to the Sukawati Markets and wander for a couple of hours. These markets are huge and have pretty near everything that Bali has to offer. Back in Seminyak and hit the beach for the afternoon, then of to Yutz in Rum Jungle road for dinner. Great restaurant with arguably some of the best steaks in Bali. Swiss/German flavour with a big range of sausages. We never miss Yutz at least a couple of times each trip.
Day14:
This morning Callego for Massage # 4 then beach all day playing Bubi Guling then off to Seaside for sun downer and dinner and all the normal Sunday Night frivolity.
That's all for week 2 more to come soon.
Gary