Hi guys
It makes me sad putting this in because its like closing a door on a holiday :( But here goes and apologies if its a bit long!
I wanted to do a JBR to pay the forum back for all the great information we got.
We left on the 8th Jan on Garuda - supposed to leave at 9am in the morning and didn't until 8.30pm that night - no good crying over spilt milk! Returned on the 24th January. We went to Kuta Paradiso to confirm our flights and got to select our seats there, which was good and meant we didn't have to go to the airport extra early.
Weather: Had a lot of cloudy days, very windy for about 9 days (as strong as a WA sea breeze) and some very heavy storms plus lots of lovely sunny days too. This is not the first time we have travelled at this time of year but would probably not go again in January.
Hotel: We stayed at Kumala Pantai in NS Block and once again it was fantastic. The restaurant is a hundred times better than it was - to the extent we even had tea there a couple of nights which we don't normally do. Breakfasts are very good. The pool was great - no bed hogs. It seems bad publicity has worked and if the towels are left on there for more than a couple of hours the pool guy came and took them off! Such a variety of nationalities, Aussies, English, German, Dutch, Italian, French (all were polite & friendly) and Indonesian to name a few. Ben Williams, the first winner of Big Brother was staying there with a heap of his friends (he was in Bali to get married) so that was a bit of excitement! Room and service brilliant. It's amazing by leaving a little something for the cleaners each day, little extras don't become a hassle. We checked out the renovations (which didn't disturb us at all) - the pool looks exactly like the one they have now, except there will only be trees up each end, it is quite close to the actual building both sides. Everybody feels it will not ruin the lovely feeling the hotel has. We shall definitely go back.
Laundry: Took our laundry across the road from the front of the hotel, towards the left, there is a sign and it was ridiculously cheap.
Restaurants: We went to all the restaurants along the front there, and wow are they getting good! Lanai Beachbar and Grill - fantastic killer prawns. Seaside, next door to hotel, saw great band there and also has BBQ dinners on the top floor overlooking the ocean. Tekar Bali, the last restaurant along there, was so so nice. They gave us a free dessert and shooters cos it was our last night!
Went to GadoGado in Seminyak. Expensive by Bali standards but lovely! Great spot and fantastic food! Rumours in Seminyak was nice but a bit noisy for us.
Went to IndoNational a couple of times at their new spot, always good food there.
Quality of food I feel has gone up. A lot of western food to be had if that's your thing. I found it a bit off-putting that so many people smoke in the restaurants, something that they would never do at home. Neither of us got Bali belly, I drank Yakult each day & hubby drank Bintang or Bourbons to solve the problem.
We went to Sanur beach one day for lunch and to check it out cos I have never been there before. We took the advice of a forumite and went to the Beach Café and were not disappointed. Fabulous platters to share, seafood and dessert, lovely!
We travelled up to Amed for a night. A long drive - it took over 3 hours. We stopped in CandiDasa for lunch - that was nothing special. Amed is very quiet, we stayed at Bayu Cottages - the owners are nice and dinner was lovely. Stairs a plenty though! Another hotel there that looked pretty good and was smack bang on the beach was 'Hidden Paradise'. The sea was too rough for us to snorkel which was disappointing. But we still went down and chatted to a couple of the boat owners and their snorkel gear looked pretty good. On the way back to Legian we stopped at the Floating Palace which was pretty neat.
Shopping: I bought a lovely patchwork bed cover from Poppies II. Also I got all the handbags (bought 8 - I have two daughters!) from the last bag shop (ocean end) in Poppies II as recommended by a forumite and it definitely had lots of choice. I got some lovely wind chimes, which I laid out on newspaper and sprayed in our hotel room, so had no little insects when I went through customs! We bought lots of DVD's as usual, and my husband bought a few teeshirts from different spots. One singlet I thought was a classic and we bought it for a friend of ours, was one half dockers and one half eagles! Ideal for those fans that jump the fence when it suits them lol
Carrefore Shopping Centre Sunset Road. The shop at the very top was like Big W and fabulous! Items we bought, a pillow for $2.00 (gave to my favourite waiter, Eric, at the hotel at the end of the holiday), my other half bought some lovely teeshirts for $6 each, and I bought my Oil of Ulay, Total Effects for $8! Normally $30.00 in Australia. Stuff was so cheap, Sensodyne toothpaste $1.50 compared to our $7.99 here. We could have gone mad! It was also very interesting walking around the fruit, veg and meat area.
Bali Discovery Centre - quite expensive and don't allow for quiet look - always asking to buy etc. But had a look in Marks and Spencers and got a few bargains there and tried my first Kristy Crème doughnut, totally to die for!!
We were rapt with the ease at which we went through Perth airport coming home. From the time we left our seats on the plane to being at the check in counter at a hire car company it took 20 mins!!! Bearing in mind we picked up and bought some more duty free and declared items which were inspected. Fantastic effort by the airport people.
Wild Turkey 1 litre bottles at A$23 at Bali Airport. Cheaper than our end.
Yet again we had a lovely time. Did even more walking this time. We took our trainers and my husband took me down all these little alley ways each day, the locals started recognising us! Thanks again for so much information over the last months, I hope somebody finds some information in here. We are now saving madly for our next trip Oct 09!