It's always lovely to be home but I would have liked to stay a little longer - 10 days wasn't enough. My husband and I import out of Bali so we normally travel there each six months.
The first week we spent at the Risata which is s time share resort in South Kuta. We attended a seminar last year so the week cost us USD$50 which was incredible value for such a nice place. I wouldn't do time share - if you invested the money you could visit any of the resorts on the yearly interest - not pay the maintenance fee and not be locked into one resort. That is strictly my opinion anyway. I couldn't think of anything bad to say about the Risata, the pool area was fantastic, studio room was huge (bathroom a little old) but overall - would stay here again. They have a big fridge in the room as well as a microwave, toaster and kettle. Very handy. But, I can get an internet rate for a studio room at the Risata for $40 a night - why bother with time share?
We spend most of our time in Bali finding stock that we want to import and organizing the shipping so not alot of "free" time. We did go back to Lemon Grass for dinner and it was sensational as always. We ate all over Bali and the food was good but we had been to Vietnam the week before and the food there is sensational so it didn't seem quite as good this time round.
My husband flew to Jogjakarta for a full day as we now buy most of our lava stone and green stone there. We have found that the stone is alot more expensive in Bali - because it's mostly not carved there so they truck it from Jogja to Bali and then when you buy it, they truck it back.
I did manage to have a few massages - very good price. Most outside the hotel were RP50,000 for an hour. Carrefour is fantastic and we had two brilliant foot massages at the reflexology place right next to Carrefours entrance. I brought the usual stuff for my kids, dvd's, t-shirts, shorts etc. The prices have gone up a little since our last trip - but so has their fuel so I suppose it's all relative. Exchange rate was Rp8550 which we thought was really good. The American dollar has dropped which makes our purchases a bit cheaper as we buy in USD but the shipping freight has gone up - so you win with one and lose the other.
We did manage to go to Waterbomb park for the day which we always love. It's just such good fun and so relaxing floating around the lazy river.
We are back to Bsli in August with NZ friends (first timers) so we didn't do the Safari Park as we will wait and go with them. I have heard excellent reports on it though so well worth a look.
We moved into the Ramayana for the last 3 nights - we always stay there because we love the central location. We always book a poolside cottage and after the Risata - it was very small and not as well maintained but I LOVE the position of the place. So handy to everything.
Flights were the usual. We flew with Jetstar to Vietnam and they lost one of our bags. It was the one with all our toiletries in as now with the liquid rule, you can't take them in your hand luggage which is always what I used to do. They didn't care one bit that they lost our bag - didn't offer to buy us a toothbrush or anything. It did turn up the following night - late - and I thought when I got home they would have sent an apology - NO......... NOTHING.......
We then flew with Vietnam Airlines to Jakarta where we attended a trade show for two days and then Garuda to Bali. Those flights were both short and uneventful.
Coming home we had booked with Qantas via Perth. No direct flights to Brisbane and we have done the one home via Singapore and via KL and they are all horrendous. We had 86 kilos - with samples etc - they charged us for 16 kilos as we are Qantas Club members (they let us off a bit) but it was over USD$200. As it's mostlly samples there isn't much we can do about it - we've been let off in the past and now have paid so I suppose it evens out. I think it's all up to who you get on the counter.
We had the midnight trip home and by the time we flew into Perth and Quarantine had inspected every thing we had - we declared our samples etc - we were the last ones out of there - so missed the free shuttle bus (not that they cared - there answer was that we could wait another 45 mins, miss our flight and they would rebook us on another flight NO WAY) so we had to find a taxi to take us to the domestic airport at our cost. We got our baggage booked in and then they were calling the flight - another five minutes and we would have missed the connection. I won't ever go that way again because it was way too stressful to clear customes and then try get your luggage etc to the domestic in time.
So I think next time it will be via Singapore for us. Unless Garuda get their act together and start flying out of Brisbane again.
All in all a great time away but Jetstar let us down. We like to think that we use our Australian carriers when we can but they need to lift their game.
Any questions - I would be happy to answer.
Thanks for taking the time to read my JBR.
Cheers
Lyn