We're into the last few days of our trip so we're buying those things we have seen on the way and didn't get the first time.
We're re-visiting those shops that gave us the best prices and did another day at WaterBom. The girls have left me to be Mister Mum more than once in the last few days so they can zip out and get just one more pendant or to visit Margret (that's how she spells it) on Melasti Street (didn't they spew when we went there tonight and she was shut) I breathed a sign of relief. Margaret is very easy going and if you tell her what you're paying she simply matches the price. If there is something you want and she doesn't have it, she'll have it there in five minutes. Her address is Melasti Street 83D In Art Market Phone: 759912.
They say not to look a gift horse in the mouth (Who 'they' is has never been explained to me but they're obviously really smart).
We finally caught up with our friend Steve who lives in Bali. He was a wealth of knowledge when it comes to eateries. The first restaurant he suggested, Lanai next to Zanzibar, was awesome and they've been progressively better since with only one hiccup.
He made me look silly. Remember the laminated notes I made? Well he wrote the name of 10 restaurants on the back of an old food bill and they have turned out to be better than my three months of research. Damn him......But we still enjoyed every other restaurants I found, his have just been......better......damn him......and did I mention he was good looking and his girlfriend is hot.......damn him.......
The list is as follows:
LaLucciola Seminyak
Ku De Ta
Trattoria
Rumours
Pizza Club
Mykonos
Zanzibar
Warung Asia (Thai food)
Made's Warung Seminyak (suppose to be the best Indo restaurant in Bali)
Bali Deli
Moka
We went to La Lucciola for brekky one day. That would have to be one of the best places I have ever eaten. It's right on the beach with beautiful grass leading up to the restaurant. They do the best iced chocolate in the world.......Even though the location is million dollar and the food is fantastic the price is still good.
We ate at Zanzibar this morning for brekky and the girls said the eggs benedict were to die for. I had something, I don't remember what. One great feed is just melting into the next and I'm more worried that it's 2100hrs and the wife and Cass are still out shopping with a pocket full of money......O.K I had the Belgium Ham with cheese, or was it Belgium Cheese with Ham, on home made whole grain bread. What ever it was, it was awesome.....I might even have finished off one of the kids pancakes and that was awesome too, and maybe one of their chocolate milkshakes and needless to say that was awesome too. The prices were great.
We had dinner at Rumours in Seminyak. That was the hiccup. Nice restaurant. Beautiful in fact and I think that was the mistake we made. Remember the people wearing the linen pants and wrap around sunglasses a week or so ago? Well they must have all been at Rumours and here we are in our fake Billabong Shirts and dodgy Quiksilver boardshorts. Thank god the kids were well behaved.
I had the Caesar salad of all things but I may or may not have had one or two pieces of the kid's pizza. GREAT pizza! Good Caesar salad and great chocolate milkshakes. For 7 main meals with drinks it was only 430000rph.
What is it with Australians and Europeans smoking in Bali? Would you smoke in a restaurant or at Adventure World in Perth? Just because you're allowed to do it here doesn't mean you're not still inconsiderate and smell like a sewer.......Yes I hate smoking.
That little rant aside.
The girls are heading up to Alila in Ubud for a spa treatment. Steve is hooking them up with a full treatment. He asked me if they want 'The Happy Ending'. I'm not quite sure what that meant but if I was having a massage and milk bath I'd want a happy ending too.....
For our last meal we ate at Bali Deli in Seminyak. What an awesome place that is. Great deli for all those things you miss from home or things you want to try but the restaurant is pretty special too.
The next day as we were going to leave for the airport a nice Australian lady approached me and said, 'Are you that guy from the Bali Travel Forum, Leftover?' I couldn't believe someone picked me. Better yet she said she recognized me because I was carrying my laminated notes......had to have a chuckle. I offered to leave the notes with her. She kindly declined. I think she really wanted them but didn't want to say so.......
This has been a great trip. It's one of the only times I'm glad we've got two kids...it means we can bring back 80 kilo's in the bags and we'll need each and every gram. (Turned out we were 4 kilo's under weight. That was well planned).
On Bali:
It's a great place. The people are still wonderful. I've heard many people say that Bali has changed and it has but after speaking to people here they seem to be happy to change with it. I bet if they had the choice between living in a village and plowing a field with a buffalo or sending their kids to a school and watching MTV Asia, I reckon it'd be 50/50.
Let them make their own choices. Be as happy or disappointed as you want but they don't come here trying to make you move out of your 1970's house in Willagee do they?
I enjoy shopping at Garden City more now than I did in 1982.....
On traveling with friends:
We've been lucky this trip. Cass, Shayne and Thomas have been fun to travel with. I think we were lucky. There was the odd melt down by one child or another but all in all it's been fun. Shayne is a very, very patient man to put up with our two screaming meanies given he's known us for less than 12 months.
I know Karen has enjoyed having someone else to blame for her conniption fits with the credit card. (I don't actually know what a conniption fit is but I heard someone use it somewhere so I wanted to use it too. My apologies if it was tasteless).
What did I miss the most in Bali:
Being able to gargle in the shower and that's about it. I hope those hoses in the bathroom next to the toilet were for cleaning your feet....Kidding......I am so going to get a bidet in my next house. I'm a pretty hairy man and let me tell you bidets are the best thing since 3 ply toilet paper.
On returning to the real world:
I like home. In fact I like home more than Bali but I like Bali none the less. (I don't like that we've been back 4 days and I had to go to Harvey today to cut another 2 tonne of wood because it's still so cold)It's Sunday the 30th September by the way.
Actually I like travelling and I can't wait for the day when my kids are old enough so that we can actually trust them enough to leave them at home alone and travel without them.
And the day that happens we'll probably be eligible for Seniors Discount........