After many months reading the posts and getting lots of useful information from this forum, the date finally arrived for my first trip to Bali. Going to Bali was myself (obviously), husband Les and 16 year old son Andrew.
We left Melbourne direct to Bali on 21st September flying Garuda. Effortless, plane left on time and arrived on time at 2.00 pm. Went through the VOA fairly quickly and within half an hour we had gone through customs and claimed our baggage. We managed to avoid the porters and went to our waiting transport which was pre-arranged to take us to the Melasti Beach Resort in Legian.
I was a bit apprehensive about staying at the Melasti as there has been mixed opinions about the hotel. All I can say, is that we had a wonderful stay, staff were friendly, rooms were cleaned every day. We have a deluxe suite which had views of the ocean - all in all very happy. Breakfast was included and again, I was very happy - eggs cooked anyway you liked, fresh fruit, toast - what more can you ask for.
There were no signs of BB guns or undesirable behaviour, however, with the risk of offending some readers, maybe some of the guests were "rough around the edges", however this did not effect my stay in anyway. This could be due to the fact that we did not stay in the hotel during the day (too much to do..) so the impact of this element on our holiday was very minimal.
After settling in to the hotel, we decided to go for a walk to Kuta. This took about 2 hours - we probably could have gotten there at a much faster pace, but we took our time taking in the sights, street stalls, smells etc. We reached Poppies and had a lovely dinner in this wonderful garden setting. Feeling a little bit tired and not up to the walk back to the hotel we took a taxi. (Thank you forum, as per your suggestions we used Blue bird)
Monday 22nd September
We were picked at 9.30 to do the Bali Hai Ocean Rafting 3 Island tour. This day was wonderful. The Ocean rafting was exhilarating - going at a speed of 32 knots. We snorkelled at Nusa Penida, the fish were colorful and plentiful and then we cruised through Ceningan Channel. We visited a seaweed farming village, snorkelled at Lembongan and then rested at the Bali Hai Beach Club. It was a full and fun day which I would highly recommend. That night we went to Drops for dinner. This restaurant was fantastic, food was served impeccably, service was wonderful and sooo cheap.
Tuesday 23rd September
We spent a relaxing morning by Legian Beach. Hired some deck chairs and chatted to the locals. I have been learning bahasa Indonesia for 6 months and it was great to use the language. The locals really appreciated me trying to communicate with them, and as the trip progressed so did my confidence in using the language. In fact, I made it a point only to use Indonesian. It was great. At 2.30 pm, our driver picked us up and we visited Mengwi Temple. It was interesting, though not overly spectacular. From there we went to the Monkey Forest. It was OK, don't think I would go back again. The main gripe was there were so many stall sellers and their harassment does detract the experience. Andrew gazed directly into one of the monkey's eyes (not deliberately) and the monkey took great offence from this. Starting bearing his teeth and got quite aggressive, however the monkey quickly recovered from his angst and all was returned to normal. We then went on to Tanah Lot. Along the way I saw farmers tending to their rice paddies, and asked our driver a lot of questions, so our driver pulled up and chatted to the farmers who then gave us a bit of a tour of their rice fields as well as giving as an explanation of how they grow rice etc. It was a fabulous little pit stop. From there we headed to Tanah Lot. It was OK, not overly impressive, but I am glad I saw the temple.
Back to our hotel and ready for dinner. We had dinner at Bianco's. This is a fabulous restaurant which also has a band playing. The band goes from table to table and serenades you while you eat. Food was great, beautifully presented and again very inexpensive.
Wednesday 24th September
We were picked up 8.30 am by our driver. Our first stop was to watch a Barong Dance. It was a wonderful experience, though I needed to read the acts so I knew what was going on. After this we headed towards Ubud and along the way we stopped at a weaving and batik enterprise and watched how Batik is made. We then headed to Celuk - a silver smithing village and stopped at a silversmith's. I purchased a beautiful mother of pearl and silver ring for the grand total of AUD$24.00. The silver shop was within the family's compound (kampung) and we were given a tour of their kampung as well as an explanation of how the family lives. It was fascinating. We continued on to Mas and then arrived at our distination Kintamani. We had lunch overlooking the volcano and Lake Batur. The views were stunning. After lunch we passed through Tellagang rice terraces. I was awestruck by the magical scenery that was before us. Back home we went through Ubud and spent some time at the craft markets, before heading to the Hot Springs Temple. Balinese bath in the waters for spirtual cleansing. The temple is made up of three sections, each very unique. I would highly recommend a visit.
It was a long day, exhausted we went back to our hotel, chilled out with a few quiet drinks.
Thursday 25th September
Today we decided to have a relatively quiet day. Spent most of the day at the beach. Hired chairs, body boards and had a relaxing time. The beach sellers were present but not overly persistent. Each time they would came past I would talk to them in Indo, and before you knew it I had two or three other sellers would be sitting on my deck chair chatting away. I soon learned all about their families and they knew all about me and my family.
Around 3.00 pm we left the beach as our driver was picking us up at 4.00 pm to take us to Uluwatu Temple. This was the most magnificient temple we saw. Again I was awestruck by the beauty of this temple. Our driver gave us a tour and we walked along the cliff face. It was a breathtaking walk. There were monkeys, and they were very cheeky, had to hold on to our belongings as we saw them steal a woman's camera case. After the walk we then went to the stage area, watched the sunset over the ocean and then settled in to watch a Cecak dance. Awesome! The show ended at around 7.00 pm and we headed to Jimbaran Bay for a seafood dinner. We got a table right up the front and could watch the waves coming into shore. We had dinner at Langsam cafe and order the grilled seafood platter. Delicious.
Friday 26th September
Woke up early as we were being picked up at 7.30 am for a downhill bike ride with Bintang Cycling. This was the highlight of our trip. We went to Mt Batur and rode through the backroads and saw villages, villagers going about their daily business. We stopped at a mandarin farm and "helped" the farmers pick fruit. Children came out to give us high fives. We stopped at a kampung and I had a chat with the family, we saw how they lived and went out to the back of the home to see their animals and garden. Back on our bikes stopping at temples. I felt like I was seeing the "real" Bali. Along the way, school finished and there were maybe a hundred or so school children making their way home, each child wanted to give us a high five. It was the best day and something I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Bali.
Saturday 27th September
A lazy day was planned. So far we haven't done much shopping. Each night we would go for a walk and look at the stalls, but nothing much grabbed my attention. So we headed to Discovery Mall for some serious shopping. I wasn't disappointed. Purchased some handbags - Prada, Guess, heaps of DVDs, shoes, clothing. I enjoyed the fixed prices (though you can still barter a little). After the shopping we headed to Mades Warung for lunch which was quite nice. Then back into a taxi to Matahari's. Matahari's was a bit disappointing and we didn't buy anything. From there we decided to take a walk along Kuta Beach. I am so glad we didn't stay there, way to busy, people, vendors, motorbikes using the pathways. We went to Kuta market, much the same as the vendors in Legian. For dinner we headed to Kopi Pot. The surroundings are beautiful, food OK. We sat near the street to watch the passing traffic. Finally we walked back to our hotel. Totally exhausted and time for sleep.
Sunday 28th September
We woke up early as we were being picked up at 8.30 to go white water rafting on the Telaga Waja river. This was a fun day. The river had grade 3 rapids and the duration of the trip was 2 and a half hours. Thankfully we didn't fall in the water. We went under waterfalls and saw the most spectacular scenery. At the end of the trip there was a four meter drop - we all survived. The only downside of the trip was the stairs at the end. We had lunch at their restaurant - food was very ordinary, but the scenery was spectacular; rice terraces and the river. Arrived back at around 3.00 pm. I had booked into the Melasti Spa for a massage and some much needed hair care. It was pure luxury and incredibly cheap. While I was getting some R and R, Les and Andrew went on their own excursion to find an art shop. Andrew saw some wonderful artwork while we were driving a few days ago and had his heart set on a particular painting. They hired a taxi to take them down the streets of Legian towards Seminyak and maybe the gods were kind to them, because they found the shop. Andrew become the proud owner of a rather abstract painting - only problem how do we bring it home!!
We decided to go to Poco Loco for dinner - it was a lively place and the margueritas were good, but I probably wouldn't do there again, next time I visit as the food was just OK and quite expensive for what you can get at other venues.
Back to the hotel, we hired a DVD player and watched one of the DVDs were purchased. Feeling a bit sad as tomorrow is our last day.
Monday 29th September
We woke up early, packed most of our belongings then headed to breakfast. After that we caught a taxi to Waterbom park, arriving there about 10.00am. We found this to be ordinary - we did the waterslides and left around 11.45 am. From there we headed to Aromas for lunch. Then some last minute shopping - we took a taxi to Bali Galleria which is near Sanur - this was OK.
Back to our hotel, finished our packing then off for another massage at the Melasti Spa. For dinner that night we headed to Gosha. We had the most amazing cocktails and seafood platter. It was yummy and very reasonably priced. Back to our hotel to await our driver to take us to the airport. All good things come to an end.
Thank you for taking the time for reading this very long JBR, hope I haven't bored you too much.