Ok - so here goes. Please forgive me as it has now been a week since i got back so i will try and post as much as i can here.
Flew out on the 27th December on the evening flight. Travelled Business Class so sitting in the Qantas lounge at Perth Airport was fantastic. Checked my email before i left (and sent a couple of quick ones), spoke to my boss about why i was resigning from my job (great way to start a holiday and new year).
The plane was delayed going out by abuot an hour but we still landed on time at 9pm. Noone in the airport so straight through VOA and Immigration took litterally 3 minutes. Paid in AUD dollar with change in AUD and Rupiah. In our suitcases we had: 3 x bottles of West Cape howe Wine plus a bottle of Jacks and Midori. I was already prepared to pay the 'duty' to the customs officer which my aunty had paid 2 days before which was $10 AUD. I had also declared the extra bottles of wine on my immigration/customs card as well plus i had the baby wipes to wipe any chalk off my suitcase.
Anyway, long story short, i didn't even check my suitcase for the white chalk marks (which i would later discover i had marks all over it with the nmber 3), i handed the customs officer my customs card abd he saw my Fiancees Duty Free Bag. He asked to look in that and then asked to look in my hand luggage bag. Said that there was 2 bottles of spirits then he waved us on. At this stage i hadn't noticed the marks on my suitcase until we started walking out the front and the customs guy didn't even look at my declaration card. So i guess I am just one of the lucky ones, however i was prepared to go into the little room and pay my way through it or at last resort, tip the bottles of wine out.
Stayed at the Puri Raja in Legian. As my parents had been there since 22 Dec and my Aunty arrived on Xmas day, Dad had pestered the manager to making sure we got a room up near the front of the hotel close to the pool with the bar. room 115.
I cannot reccomend this hotel enough! The staff were fantastic so friendly and would do anything for you. Rooms adeqaute with TV, in-room electronic safe, good size bathroom with basin, and a shower inside the bath (probably not best if you are a bit awkward in lifting your leg over a bath to step in). there are 4 deluxe rooms which my parents and younger sister shared. Try ask for 101 or 102 is you are staying there as these are a little bigger than the others. Huge bathroom with shower in bath plus and outdoor shower. They never used the bath shower just the outdoor one. It also had a king size bed with enough room for a single next to it.
There are 2 pools. One near reception which is quite deep in a rectangle shape but quiet. The pool at the front has a swim up bar and a shallow kiddy pool attached. The front pool is quite small but all you want to do is either sit at the swim up bar or go for a quick dip. We took a few inflatable chairs and lounges with us so just floated around in these most of the time.
There was hardly anyone around the pool and never had a problem with getting a lounge chair. People were quite polite if you sat on one of their chairs anyway, the same with us if we went back to the room to put more sunscreen on or were swimming in the pool and someone sat on your lounge, there was plently more to move to and seriously, if that's your only problem whilst on holiday then i am happy!
I know alot of people are/were worried about the weather and the rain and yes it was really torrential on Christmas and bosing day but it still rained every day we were there (except our last day which was Sat 5th Dec). To be honest it was great walking around teh streets with an umbrella and it made it so pleasant when it rained. I went shopping on the last day and it was so hot and humid all i wanted to do was sit by the pool, so needless to say with 8 days of cloudy cool weather my credit card and cash got a good workout.
I'll go through what we bought and what we paid in the next part and also about our quad biking and lembongan island tours.