This is my second attempt I made the mistake of mentioning a name and after spending a good couple of hours puting fingers to keys it was rejected and its taken a couple of weeks to get the time to have another try.
Hubby(2nd time),Myself(4th time)40 something, sons 13 & 15 (second time) and my cousin(1st time out of Aust)40 something,tagged along.
Well we go through customs at Sydney airport and the cousin has had his shots but only a couple of days before hand, so hes now sweating profusly because of the side effects and his 1st timer nerves are now setting in and now I'm getting nervous as I'm thinking oh great theyre going to be giving us all a good going over, but no, only hickup was my son had sissors in his pencil case and they confiscated some hand cream. I would hope that all that those bottles of shampoo etc get donated to some charity and not wasted.
We flew Garuda with no hickups and the onboard service was great.
Took ages to get through customs, Hey thats when I realise I'm back in Bali time,when you hear how slow that immigration stamp bangs on the big wooden counters and ofcourse the smell and the heat.
The cousin bought a carton of cigsat Sydney and we notice on the declaration card the amount to declare is smaller than what is in a carton, and we decide to just act dumb and not declare, well panic setsin as the cousin misunderstood the custom guy motioning him through and he looks at me in a panic guilt written all over his face, and when I shrug to motion I didnt hear what the customs guy has said, the cousin thought I was shrugging as to say your in this on your own buddy, and then the customs guy waves him through again the cousin is very releived.
Our prearranged driver is there and off we go to the Adhi Dharma Hotel, we decided that 1 week was too short and so we would stay 1 week at the Ramada Bintang (our fave) and 1 week at abudget so after much searching on the forum settled on the Adhi, turned out to be a great hotel but the 2 weeks were totally different.
We were heading to the hotel, down the lanes, having to stop and back back many times as there was little room to pass even a motor bike, and the cousin informed me later he thoughthow did I ever let her talk me into coming here. but then he settled in quiet comfortabley his room was right on the pool he loved it and said this is luxery to me not budget. Our room was alright too, a family room set to the back of the grounds. Breakfast was alright, but you have to ask for the bacon. shh. and we found you really had to watch your change when you ordered a drink from the bar they would take your money but not come back with the change and I'm not talking 1000rp.It did put a bit of a bad taste to the place,I like to be the one to offer the tip.
The Adhi didnt have coffee facilaties and so we set our to Martaharis to buy a jug and coffee cups for our morning coffee, cost $6 for a funny looking jug that looked more like a plastic asian water jug(pink with teddy bears on it) and an element in the bottom, and a lovley twin coffee mug set with a ceramic spoon.
Well the 15 yr old is one of those kids that your shouldnt let out of your site and turned the jug on the second day with not enough water and the thing set on fire lucky we were there as I had it on the sink in the bathroom and we were lucky he called out and didnt put it under the running tap to put the fire out.
We did lots of walking while at the Adhi and found it was positioned in a great central spot. we also did our tours this week, we hired the guy in the lane outside the Adhi but never again he wasnt willing to stop were we wanted, we went to the monkey forest and the volcano and he only wanted to stop at the commission places and set us up to be ambushed by the sellers. I asked him to stop at a restraunt I had researched on the forum in Ubud but when we found it he couldnt get parking out the front so kept going I felt like I was being highjacked. Just a word of warning if your driver ever offers to stop for a picture oppitunity at the village just before you get to the volcano,decline. we were swamped and they know who to target as the cousin said the one with sucker on his forhead,he couldnt shut the door,they were dropping everything in his lap, they were very aggressive, but the prices werent too bad.The driver's
wife did our washing while we were at the Ahdi and on one occassion I lost a top and never got it back and got someone elses top and 2 pairs of extra undies. she did offer me money to cover the top but I refused and said I understand mistakes are made, I couldnt take money from them.
Cous kept asking did he have suckerwritten across his forhead, on day 3 we were in another DVD store(the 15y was obsessed) and the cousin stepped out of site for 5 min to have a ciggy when he was approached by a gentleman that had a great deal for him, Cous thought he bartered well to get him down to 400,000R!and alass the watch only lasted the afternoon when he dived into the pool with it on. we had agood laugh, I think he went through 3. Places we ate were the Zanibar, great restraunt great sunset, the kids loved the guy with the fire sticks on the beach with the drums. need to get there early to get a good seat.
The Alley Cat, Hubby and cous had the monster meal challenge and hubby missed out by 1/3 of a sausage, but the cus got his picture on the board it supprised us as to how many young girls completed the challenge and had their pictures on the board after all its a big peice of steak, chicken breast, 2 fat sausages, 2 eggs,a bowl of onion rings,chips and mashed potato and gravy (heart attacks dream).
The Treehouse, great little restraunt and cheap. more soon.