Shopping
I had a few things I needed to buy for a wedding later in the year and that included a sequinned silver wrap - which I found along Jalan Kunti in a small sarong shop and a pair of silver shoes. We ventured to Centro the night after Nyepi and the traffic was like peak hour around 7.00pm. My husband was on a mission with me, as we trawled through the shoe department together, looking for silver shoes - found a lovely pair of high heeled slip-ons for 160,000 Rp and a back-up pair of purple ones for another 160,000 Rp. Normally, he would avoid the shoe department, but he did me proud by finding any size 40 pairs in the right colour!! Also bought Revlon nail polish for 27,000 Rp per bottle.
Homewares - we were shown a shop/warehouse that is very similar to Geneva called UNAGI. It is located in Kerobokan, past the jail on Jalan Teuku Umar Barat (Marlboro Road) no. 286. If you are on the jail road and the jail is on your right hand side, continue along straight for a few km and Unagi appears on the right hand side.
There are 2 floors of brand new stock, heaps of wooden items, candles, some sandals, placemats and napkin rings etc etc. All fixed price, but no prices shown yet on the stock, so a lady follows you and tells you the price of anything you like the look of. Prices are same as Geneva and it is bright, clean and nicer to walk around than Geneva. Website is unagibali dot com. We bought packets of fake frangipani flowers for 15,000 Rp each, containing 5 flowers. Beaded thongs for 35,000 Rp and beaded napkin rings for 3,000 Rp each. Overall is less stock than you would find at Geneva, but bright and new.
Two doors further along is GOLDEN BUFFALO - at Jalan Teuku Umar Barat no. 9F. It is full of bronze and silver ware/statues. We were on a mission to find some little hooks in the shape of an elephant's head with the trunk as the hook for hand towels. They had just got some new stock in and were filling the shelves - so we grabbed them for 42,500 Rp each. Website is indonesiabronze dot com.
We bought plenty of surf gear in the shops around Bintang supermarket, board shorts, singlets and t-shirts. Great quality and just a matter of wandering the street and window shopping. More expensive than the markets, but probably are all brand names that are famous and I don't know them.
I bought a lovely floor-length olive green dress in the Body and Soul outlet in the area for 185,000 Rp and a bikini in Niconico for about 350,000 Rp.....a bit depressing to find I am a large size, when I am a size 10 back at home! I squeezed into a medium, but it might scare the neighbours if I ventured out in that size! The matching sarong was out of stock, but next trip I shall take my favourite pair and get them made as per previous forum suggestions,
Alia Jewellery almost opposite the Bitang supermarket had some new stock in of groovy silver jewellery. I ended up with a set of ear-rings, bracelet and necklace with a lovely purple stone, hadn't seen this colour last trip and is really bright and lovely. Seems this shop always has 20% off, they tell you that each time you walk into the shop! I think from memory the whole set cost about $AUD40.
Sita Fashions at 373 Jalan Legian, about 100 metres north from the corner of Melasti. We bought some more metal wall animals - tiny 20 cm long geckos for 26,500 Rp each, to match the mummy sized ones we already have at home, also a large dragon fly for 75,000 Rp and a dolphin for 74,500 Rp. Again, they have more stock and a larger range of colours. Looks like this place us used by many shops to supply back in Australia, as we were behind a few people making some huge orders and we just wanted a couple of each!
Alta Moda for fabrics - my friend needed some stretch delustered satin for the wedding and I found the exact shade of avocado green on a picture she had given me, for 36,900 Rp per metre. Although I don't sew any more, I do love this shop for the range and quality of fabric! Hubby got a pair of cream linen trousers made in 3 days for 380,000 Rp and they just needed the hem adjusted, as the final product were too short. So if you have anything made, allow plenty of time for alterations, if needed.
Then we remembered we needed some more mosaic stone tiles to finish our pathway, so a quick detour to Rudy Art on Jalan Sunset and we bought a few more boxes of tiles for about $A15/metre.
I needed some napery and we went to the Haveli factory outlet on Jalan Kunti, where I picked up some gifts of placemats/napkins for friends. Placemats were 15,000 Rp each and napkins were either 5,000 or 10,000 each. Beautiful shiny fabric. They didn't have any napkin rings in stock this time. I wanted some tablecloths, but they were the wrong size for the table. So I settled on a few runners instead.
At Carrefour we bought two deluxe adult blow-up pool lounges for 180,000 Rp each. Fantastic - we made good use of them for the next week! Normally we buy them from home and take them with us, but won't bother again, as they have a good selection at Carrefour. Plus more of the famous Martha Tilla creamery for my 'ageing' skin - cost 28,400 Rp for eye cream, 26,900 Rp for moisturiser and 49,500 Rp for night cream. We had to also have a couple of bbq fish grills, that are a wire basket to pop a fish in it wrapped in either foil or banana leaf and they cost 14,900 Rp each, to fit a small snapper. Can't wait to use them this Easter.
Periplus Book shop on the ground floor of the Carrefour supermarket and I bought a Bali Road Atlas for about 185,000 Rp. It is a bit old, a 2004 edition, but has detailed roads of the whole island and a great reference guide. So no more trawling the net to find street maps any more!
I was planning on using sarongs as tablecloths, but found them all to be 170cm long and my table is 180cm. We wandered in search along Jalan Double Six. So next trip will venture to Denpasar and buy lengths of fabric and have them made, but we had run out of time, so there's always next time.....if anyone knows where to buy over-sized sarongs, please let me know!!
We ventured to Kerobokan for the satay holders I was looking for, )like the ones they serve at Ketupat), made of ceramic and keep the satays hot with coals in them. Geneva didn't have them and nor did a ceramic place in Kerobokan. I was waning with shopping time that day and the villa pool was beckoning in the heat, so gave up the hunt and will source them next trip. We will go via Bedugal markets and source them later in the year.