Long time stalker, occasionally post, was G_C before but when I was required to renew it I figured hey I'll put my name in instead... anyways :)
I just got married on Oct 11 and before the dust settled and she could change her mind I dragged her onto the 7am flight with Garuda from Perth to Bali for a short stay at "The Villas" Seminyak.
Suffice to say my new bride was somewhat apprehensive about going to Bali. She always has been, she is just somewhat paranoid that bad thingsd will happen and well.. she's a princess and dislikes dirt and smells and a lot of the things that I love about Bali, knowing this I deliberately picked some accomodation that would be real flash and wouldn't disappoint! I told the travel agent what I wanted and he quoted and I paid and it was sorted. I then read reviews on Trip Advisor regarding the villas and didn't hear a bad word so I was glad with the choice.
We arrived in Bali and were picked up by the transfer and I don't know about her, and I know it only my second trip but I immediately felt better as we walked out the front of the airport and jus took a deep breathe. The air is sweet at the airport, its not till later that you get the less than sweet smells ::grins::
I should probably note that this will be quite wordy and probably full of useless ranting so if you wanna save yourself a boring read you can stop now :)
Our package included transfers so we found our transport and had to wait for another couple, turns out to be the pair of people in front of us on the plane, and we all ended up in the bus, they were dropped off at the Bali Gardens Hotel so we got a chance to drive through a bit of Kuta and it let me reorient myself (or so I thought) I took note of things in relation to others so that I wouldn't look completely stupid and lost when we came back out this way later. We then proceeded to drive to our villa's.
I did ask if we could stop at a reliable and reasonable money changer on the way and the guy (the talking guy not the driving guy) said they closed down! We walked past it the next day and it was open and business as usual! I hate being lied to, I feel glad I didn't do any tours with him. The drive took us perhaps 15-20 minutes which let my bride get a good view of touristy bali and then we kinda moved into what felt was a bit rural, a bit slummy, definately dirty and kinda like the bali that the staff live in before they come to our nice clean hotels and relatively clean restaurants etc.
We kept driving and the roads got worse, we started to see cows... and EVERYWHERE we went they had dug out a foot wide ditch and nobody could tell me what they were doing it for (until on the last night, I finally found a taxi driver who knew where things were and spoke excellent english, and could tell me what the ditches were for... telephone lines, apparently). Anyway I make such a point about the scenery and whatnot because my brides face was turning blacker as we drove along, I knew what she was thinking and I had a lil giggle to myself because I find situations such as this extremely amusing, unfortunately for my humour we left the white limestone road and ended up on bitumen again and at the front of The Villa's - Sunset Villas which is the one right near the Bintang Supermarket. The look of murder slowly faded from her eyes and then after checking in and seeing the villas she was all smiles and promised she was only half joking about the ink on the marriage certificate not being dry yet ... women.
So we sat there for maybe 10 minutes, i'd already drank a big bintant bottle and i'm like, lets go explore! Because I was under the impression that my money changer was no more I asked the front desk about a reputable one around and they handed me a brochure which I promptly lost, but remembered the green shield emblem which would assure me that they were not too dodgy and would change my money. They told me of the closest reliable one and off we went. I changed @ 6420 for 1AUD, I did kinda feel sad since last year I was getting 8400, but what can you do eh :) We then walked, neither of us had been to Seminyak before, last trip I kept my predations to Kuta and a tiny bit of Padma street in Legian so I made her pick a direction and we started walking.
Has anyone else noticed how freaking hot it was in Bali this week?
Anyway we eventually decided we had walked far enough (5 mins) and decided to stop at the next restaurant for food and drink. Stopped at Obo I think it was called. Its on the corner opposite a Warung of no useful name, and further down that street is JPs and some other flash looking bar etc.
Anyways, enough of the step by step :) We ate dinner that night at Indo National, and wasn't that impressed, but since I really enjoyed my meal the time before when I was in bali didn't pay much mind to it.
Next day we jumped in a cab went to CarreFour, wasn't sure what I was expecting, but that wasn't it :D We did eat lunch at the teppenyaki station though, that was real nice! Then went to the surf outlet shops on the bypass road, the bride spent up there! After that we went to Matahari showed her around and decided to walk to Poppies II to try find a friend who was staying at the Barong. It was really quite hot for walking so we felt obliged to stop off at the Bagus Pub and have a big bintang and a water, must keep drinking water even if you sinking the beers!
Didn't find the friend but did go to Mandies Boutique which is on the road that leads into the Barong, she looked after me again and I got some clothes as I packed lightly. Ran the gauntlet to the beach though I think it was too hot for the sellers as they all lay there fanning themselves and I didn't get more than 5 offers to plait hair or paint my toenails :)
We ate that night at Yutz! Really nice steak, but the bride and I were burnt and we didn't stay out long, she crashed soon as we got back. This gave me the bright idea to hire a scooter for a day and check out Seminyak a bit more.
Our scooter arrived the next day, we jumped on and went to the MBR for a massage and then went for a scoot around Seminyak. I didn't know what to expect, but I was thinking something more like the Legian or Kuta, and didn't realise the distances were so much further for it. We eventually ended up at the Samaya and Breeze restaurant, since it was lunch time we ate here. Cheap 400k meal later we were on our way. The food was pretty nice and watching the waves crash in did make meal pleasant :)
The bride decided she had enough of the scooter so we headed back and vegged. By this time I started feeling a bit sick myself so we took it real easy, having dinner at the cafe next to bintang supermarket.
The next 3 days I spent in bed with a cold. I am in bali for 6 days and I get a cold for 3, well I still have it but I can at least get up and move around without breathing fire and my head exploding.
We ate dinner at JP's, Indo National again, Yuts again and that was it!
We didn't do anything else :( No more shopping, nothing fun :/
Well, nothing that needs to be put down here anyways.
So I'd be really disappointed about the whole thing, but I am going back for 13 nights in Feb (without the bride...princess.. and with a mate who doesn't mind a bit of dirt or smells...) and then again in April with the bride and 3 other couples, the girls can all go be princesses together and us boys will find a nice bar with cold beer to amuse us in.
If you have any questions about anything you think I can answer then please ask, or email me, I'm not sure if I have a no spam thingie or not.