We (me - wife, husband, son (17) & daughter (13), were all up bright and early (4.00am!) on the morning of the 4th September to head for the airport at Launceston to catch the first flight out to Melbourne which departed at 6.00am.
Caught the 9.55am flight to Bali on Garuda and could not fault the in-flight service on board - our holiday started the minute we boarded. It's never too early for a G&T or two!
Through VOA and Immigration and waiting for our luggage within 10 minutes. We felt like movie stars walking the red carpet as we proceeded out to the hundreds of smiling faces waving signs madly in the air! We spotted the sign being held by our driver quite quickly and were on our way to the Jayakarta in no time at all.
While we are on the subject of our driver, I would like to take the opportunity to recommend him as he was absolutely fantastic - an extremely careful driver, honest, great sense of humour and took us where we wanted to go. His name is Ceppy (pronounced Cheppy) and he can be contacted on +62 81 338 756 789 or email at CheCha111@yahoo.com.
It was our first stay at the Jayakarta and I must say that I was quite impressed with this property and would definitely stay here again - definitely value for money. Had two interconnecting rooms in the 400 block and we were all quite happy here - no complaints whatsoever from me.
Didn't do a great deal of sightseeing this time as have done a lot on past trips. However, we did go the Safari Park and I must admit, having read the rave reviews on this forum, I went with pre-conceived ideas that this place would be great, but we all came away pretty disappointed. I guess being lucky enough to visit other world class zoos we had something to compare it to, and sorry guys, but this place just didn't stack up as far as we're concerned. That's not to say it won't in the future as it's still along way off being completed.
Husband is a keen golfer (hacker) and on previous trips he's played at Handara and Nirwana and this time gave the course at Dreamland a go and it definitely got a big thumbs up from him! He absolutely loved this course.
Can also highly recommend Ibud Tattoist in Jln Padma Utara, next to the Coffee Shop. Husband had a tattoo done on our second last day here and found them to be great - quality tattooing, friendly and extremely hygienic - could not fault them.
We don't do much ‘market' shopping these days but it's worth mentioning a Big Quicksilver Sale on at Kuta Galleria at the moment. Picked up some great bargains here. From memory I think it's on until the 12th October.
Had dinner at some great restaurants and warungs. A little family owned warung worthy of a particular mention is called the Juice Park and is situated on the beach outside the Pelangi Hotel in Seminyak. The perfect place to have drinks, followed by dinner, watching the sunset. We also ventured to a restaurant in Jimbaren Bay for the first time - absolutely superb place to watch the sunset and the seafood was ‘enak sekali'!
Any questions please feel free to ask.
Karina