Just back Monday morning - via Kuala Lumpur for a few days. Spent 10 days in Nusa Dua, Ubud and Seminyak. My sister and I, and two friends.
Flew out Sept 9 - the day APEC finished. Sydney Airport was busy with lots of the international leaders jets parked on the apron. Was exciting to see. The staff in the Qantas 1st class lounge said there were 9 extra commercial flights that day, and 11 on the Monday, to accomodate all the media and entourage accompanying the various leaders.
First class lounge - had heard so much about it and was pretty disappointed. It's really very noisy although the food in the restaurant was nice and the first drink of the holiday - moet - went down smoothly. Tried to get an appointment in the spa but even at midday they were booked out for the rest of the day!
So we all ended up back in the general business class lounge - much quieter, less people but sadly no Moet.
Jetstar flight over was pretty full. Service good although the DVD players seemed not to work properly. I didnt bother preferring to read.
Arrived at 11pm or so - not too busy at immigration. One friend declared medicines at customs and got thru no problem without a bag check or anything yet they searched the bags of a friend with nothing to declare (no white crosses either)! I love Balinese mental machinations!
Off to Novotel Nusa Dua apartments for first few days. I hate Nusa Dua as it is too sterile for me but thought it would be a good introduction for my newbie friends. The apartments - we had a 3 bedder with 3 bathrooms which was really nice and spacious. The resort is nice but a bit of a hike to the beach. Staff are friendly and the spa there is really nice - good western levels of service and cleaniless, but almost western prices. There is a free shuttle to bali collection (with shops and supermarket for stocking the apartment) so that was good, and we had a really great meal at the Coco restaurant there. Highly recommend. The restaurant at the Novotel was good and the pool area very nice with lots of lounges and no pool hogs. Breakfast was one of the best I've had in Bali.
Next instalment will be shopping and Ubud.
Louise
ps I do have to disclose that I compare everything to the Bali Hai in Tuban which has been the family hotel of choice for our last 4 trips. Daggy and run down, but still it and the staff felt like family and home. So I was secretly in mourning the whole trip but determined I had to find a new Bali base.