OK, not quite a 'Just Back Report' but it wasn't from that long ago...
My personal account of our holiday in Bali - 08 October - 16 October 2008 ***Warning - Very long***
Garuada Flights:
Boyfriend and I flew from Perth to Denpasar on the 2.30 pm Garuda Flight on Wednesday 8th October and arrived at approximately 6 pm. There were no delays which was really good, but we found the service to be very slow and the flight attendants were very forgetful, and also not very friendly. The flight back to Perth was much better. I would fly with them again, but if I had a choice I would try someone else.
VOA & Denpasar Airport:
Took about 20 minutes, I was expecting a long wait but we had no problems at all. We paid in $US. Our luggage was there when we got to that section and then we walked outside to the crowd of people holding up name signs and the warmth and humidity in the air, the smells of Bali welcomed us and we found our guy straight away. We waited around for about half an hour until the other couple that they were waiting for arrived and we were off to Puri Raja in Legian. We were given a cool towel and a necklace of frangipani's which smelt beautiful when we got into the car.
Accommodation:
Puri Raja - Legian (stayed here first 2 nights)
A very nice hotel with beautiful gardens. The atmosphere was very laid back and calming. Great way to start the holiday! The pool area was small but we didn't have a problem getting sun lounges at all. Room had very nice décor, a little on the smaller side (compared to our next hotel). Room was located right next to the laundry so it wasn't very private and a little noisy in the mornings. Location was ok, quiet and right on the beach. Men were walking past the restaurant in the mornings selling all kind of newspapers. Bintang was cold at the pool bar and cocktails were nice. The staff were friendly and they had vegemite in the mornings for breakfast. American breakfast is not like I have had before in Bali so that was a bit disappointing. Breakfasts were cooked to order, not a buffet. We didn't have dinner at this hotel. There were two pools, one closer to reception which was hardly used and one next to the restaurant which had a pool bar and was more popular. They had pool noodles and floating devices for everyone to use which was cool. This room had a safe which was good.
Rama Beach Hotel - Tuban (6 nights)
We had booked and paid for a garden villa room and we were upgraded to a family garden villa room - # 106 which was very private, massive and the service was unreal!
The room had a king size 4 poster bed and 2 single 4 poster beds. The outside sitting area was big, bigger than my house at home and had comfy chairs, a nice garden and it was very peaceful. The room had a TV and stereo/DVD player, robes, slippers, and a safe. Towels were fresh morning and night and the bed was made aswell 2 times a day aswell. Butler turn-down service was provided where they gave us chocolates every night. Yummo! The bathroom was so big. You walked in and there was a bath one length of the bathroom, on the other side was a shower with it's own door and a toilet with its own door. The vanity was on the opposite side to when you walked in, hairdryer etc... We had 4 complimentary bottles of water each day.
The pool area was amazing, complete with pool bar and sun lounges with thick cushions on them and also benches with tables to sit at around the pool area. The staff were very friendly and helpful. There were a couple of times when there weren't any sun lounges. One time after being there for about an hour we noticed that some lounges weren't being used so we just took the towels off and used the lounges. No one said anything so they were obviously not being used.
We really loved this hotel and were very impressed with the room and facilities. The price we paid for the hotel was really good for what we got.
Exchange Rate for Aussie Dollar:
First Night 08/10/08: 6350 rp
Second Night 09/10/08: 6695 rp
For the rest of the time the exchange rate was anywhere between 6300 and 6900. We used Kodak money exchangers once I think.. the rest of the time we used the other 'dodgy' looking ones. We didn't get ripped off once.
There were a lot of times that they only had 20000 notes so we just went and found another place. Most of the time we got 50000 notes which was a bit annoying but we got used to it in the end.
Shopping and Prices all in Rupiah:
Small Bintangs:
@ Puri Raja: 22000
@ Mini mart near Holiday Inn: 12500
@ Bounty Hotel: 30250
@ Mini Bar (can't remember where this was): 18000 (Large Bintang was 30000)
@ Bagus Bar: around 12000
@ Carefour - for a carton it worked out to be 9800 for 1 bintang
Bintang Pusat Belanja - Jl Raya Seminyak 17 Kuta-Bali (Supermarket that boyfriend found somewhere (...)
Carton of Marlborough Light: 177600
1.5 lt coke: 1150
1 Lt OJ / Apple Juice: 24300
1.5 Lt Aqua: 5700
2 x Fresh Mangoes: 6945
Floating Flowers (gift): 20000
Map of Bali: 65000
5 x post cards: 9750
Kuta Market Shopping:
Dreadlocks hat: 40000
Pink pair of sunglasses (ones with the stripes over the lens part): 30000
Black pair of sunglasses (ones with the stripes over the lens part) - another shop about 5 minutes later: 20000
2 x oakley sunnies - behind the counter, and a packet of the bubble blowing goo stuff: 50000
Harley Davidson Helmet with glasses (brown): 140000 (this included 3 packets of small incense)
Black 'Reef' patterned mens shorts: 75000
Wooden carved cow: 80000
Table runner (thick in width and bamboo): 100000
Fresh Mango on the street: 3000
2 x Pillow covers (rectangle and with patterns): 80000
DVD's 10000 - buy 10 get 4 free or something. I bought 80 in one go and got 30 free or something like that. Quality of what I have tried to watch so far is not that great.
Mini Mart Shopping:
Pantene Conditioner or Shampoo: 11500
Nivea Moisturiser: 10000
Postcard: 5500
Paramao Root (Small Bottle) - we were sitting at a bar and some dude came and started giving boyfriend a massage with this stuff - it's pretty much like deep heat - Cost: 50000
Bokashi @ chemist: 35500
Power Adaptor: 40000
Walk along the beach: Free
Swim at the beach: Bonus
Boyfriend suggested that I went to the *90%* Quicksilver Sale by myself while he checked into the second hotel... hmmmm not the best thing I did in Bali this trip.
It took me about ½ hour to pick out a few kids clothes for my 2 year old nephew and 3 pairs of shorts for boyfriend. I didn't see anything I liked for myself (size 12). I lined up for 1 hour before I was served, pushed and shoved by the locals, trying to keep my spot in the line.. haha.. was an experience but not one I would do again.
The clothes I bought ended up all being only 50 % off but the quality is quite good for Bali and I didn't want to buy clothes from the markets. All of the kids sizes were size 4 (I was looking for size 3 but they didn't have them anywhere - even at Kuta Kids) and my sister wanted only drawstring shorts as my nephew can't deal with the Velcro (...)
Prices at Quicksilver Sale:
Kids dress shorts: 158000
Kids Drawstring shorts: 3 pairs : 138000, 128000 and 29000
Kids T-shirt x 2: 88000 and 85000
Men's size 36 shorts x 2: 21000 each
Men's size 36 shorts: 205000
Hita Kara Jewels - Legian (Just in front of the Jayakara Hotel)
Very nice jewellery, I bought a necklace with blue coral, shell, sterling silver and pearls (or maybe fake pearls) for 150000 rp.
Melasti Manicure: 31000 (not very good, smudged flowers)
Melasti Pedicure: 31000 (boyfriend wanted skin off feet but only got one foot done)
We went to Ubud for the day and on the way back stopped at a few of the stone carving places and we bought:
2 small elephant statues: 100000
Tealight candle holder (flower pattern) and another stone statue: 170000
We checked prices in Kuta for similar items and it worked out we paid cheaper.
Kuta Kidz - 1 size 4 dress shirt (like hawaain) - 76000 rp.
Eats:
Dinner @ Jimbaren Bay
First Time...
The taxi driver took us straight to one of the restaurants of 'his friends' where we received 15 % discount. This discount ended up being grams off of the total weight of the seafood. Taxi was 50,000 rp from Legian.
Boyfriend was a little stressed out that we had only brought 63500 rp with us (but we also had AUD) but I asked the waiters and they said we could pay with Aussie Dollars. The food was delicious, we had lobster, red snapper, prawns, rice, vegies etc (a seafood feast for two) and the Bintangs were cold. The meal and drinks ended up being $134 AUD (873000 RP) so we paid $200 AUD and got change in rupiah. We didn't eat until about 11 pm either and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant found us a driver/car at about midnight for 60,000 rp.
Dinner @ Jimbaren Bay
Second Time...
This time we made sure that we were there nice and early to see the sunset (we left at about 4.30 pm). We got a driver at the front of our hotel for 100000 rp, which ended up being way too much I think haha.. but oh well he stayed there until we were ready to leave at about 9 pm and drove us back to the hotel. The driver took us straight to 'his friends' restaurant where we would receive 15 % discount. We checked the prices and they were ok but decided to go for a bit of a walk up to the fish market and also to check out the other prices of the restaurants. The fish market was cool, a little bit stinky but something different to check out while your at Jimbaren Bay..
Some of the other restaurants were offering us 40 % discount but we decided to go back to Bali Sea Café and boyfriend sorted out 20 % discount. They didn't disappoint, we had a 1kg lobster, 900 grams of prawns, 800 grams of squid and a fresh snapper that weighed 1 kg we also had 4 sml Bintangs, a pina colada and a bottle of water and it cost us 841000 rp with the tax.
The food at Jimbaren bay in general is delicious and the service really good, we just didn't expect to pay this much for seafood after being in Phuket in January and paying about $70 AUD for more than what we got at Jimbaren Bay for a meal.
Dinner @ Tekor Bali, Legian
Nice restaurant on the beach in Legian. The restaurant was very busy. We had garlic bread to start, aswell as many a Bintangs. I ordered tuna with potatoes, vegies and coriander salsa which was very nice. Boyfriend ordered an anchovy dish and prawn and vegies. He said that the anchovy dish was very strong (...) just a plate of anchovy's mixed with something... Total Cost: approx 80000 rp.
Dinner @ B Couple Bar - Jl Kartika Plaza, Kuta
2 x Seafood baskets, 4 sml Bintangs and 2 x garlic breads cost: 389620 rp. This place was quite busy aswell. They had a band playing and you could get up and sing a song if you liked. Toilets were good here.
Dinner @ Kunyit Bali Restaurant - Authentic Balinese and Indonesian Cruisine
On the Waterbom Park road (sorry can't remember the name), further down past to the Dynasty Hotel
This was another tasty meal that we had. We ordered garlic bread, sate campur and a couple of other meals which were very yummy, beers, lime crush, water and dessert - black rice pudding: Cost was 468681 rp
We had breakfast at Ku De Ta - Seminyak one morning... oh my lordy, this was fantastic. I've been to Ku De Ta once before for cocktails at night, never during the day though. It was very relaxing and the atmosphere is just 'cool' anytime you go I think. Breakfast was Eggs Benedict for both of us with sides of mushrooms, spinach, and baked beans with champagne and OJ and a fresh juice for boyfriend (...) We lazed around for a while and then went for a walk along the beach and back through a hotel further along the beach to a road where we found a taxi and drove back to Kuta.
We had lunch once at the Rainbow Café just on the opposite side of the Bounty Hotel. The food was really nice and the drink service was good but the food took about 1 hour to come out... we ordered a club sandwich and a cheese burger. The owner kept on apologising but we were starving! Haha... I think they must have had shift change or something because they were all eating in the kitchen the whole time that we were waiting. Torture!
Taxi's:
Legian - Jimbaren Bay - 50,000 rp
Generally around 20-30000 if we were travelling from Tuban to Kuta areas. We always tipped though and never asked for change.
Day Trips:
Waterbom Park
2 adults - 9 am until 3 pm
Cost: 217350 rp each = 434700 total or $US 23 each.
This was a really good day! We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We went on most rides, maybe all of them actually. It was so much fun! (we are both in our mid 20's) the best ride was the Boomerang, I'm not sure how many times we actually went on this but it was lots... it reminded me of the Tower of Terror at Dreamworld - just not so terrifying, but still a thrill!
We got a wrist band and put money on it so that we didn't have to deal with that all day. We got a hut which was good to go back to and relax. We left our towels and hats and stuff in the hut when we went on the rides so that wasn't a problem.
Lunch: Lamb BBQ Pizza and Chicken Teriyaki sandwich with a coke and water: 112000 rp
I highly recommend this place for a day trip.
Zoo, Silver Factory, Ubud Markets and Monkey Forrest:
First stop was the UC Silver Factory which was interesting, we went and looked at the locals making all the jewellery and then buffing it all up. Then to the show room where everything was quite exy but they had some very nice stuff if you wanted to spend the money. I ended up getting a pair of small heart earrings for only 120000 rp. It was the cheapest thing I saw.
Second stop was the Zoo which was ok, but hard to not compare to the Zoo in Phuket which was pretty special.
We went crocodile fishing which gave us the giggles. Boyfriend got to hold a bird while I took pics. We fed the sun bears mangoes which they loved. We played with the lion cubs, they were a little feisty and very cute and we also got to hold this crazy little critter that had sticky little feet.. I don't know what it was called but it was very cute. The goats were pretty funny and the little monkeys in the cage were cute but they looked a bit sad, they wouldn't even eat a banana.. maybe they were over fed?
The buffalo's flicked stinky mud at us and the pigmy hippo didn't do much at all.
We went to lunch at Casa Luna in Ubud. If you haven't heard of this place I highly recommend it. When I first went to Bali we went to Indus which is owned by the same people (A Balinese man and his Aussie wife) and it was absolutely amazing. Casa Luna doesn't have the same views but the food is to die for... by far the tastiest and most delicious food we had in Bali. Also the lime tart is to die for! We had nasi Campur (a bit of everything from the kitchen), paella, pork spare ribs, lime tart with ginger icecream and a vanilla slice with passionfruit icecream (which was pretty darn special aswell). Casa Luna is right in the town somewhere, I'm pretty sure all drivers would know where it is. I can't remember the price, but it was definitely worth it. Go there!!!
It was so hot in Ubud that I could only handle half an hour walking around. I bought a couple of nice dresses for about 100000 rp. We then went to the Monkey Forrest and bought a couple of bunches of bananas only to be bombarded with monkeys. It was fun and the little monkey's are so cute. We would have only spent half an hour there.
Boyfriend accidentally trod on a monkey's tail and it went psycho. We decided to leave after that.
Telaga Dewata White Water Rafting
I did this on my first trip to Bali and boyfriend hadn't done it before. I love it, it's something that you would never do in Australia and its so much fun and safe aswell.
We paid 785000 rp, quite expense and I'm not sure how this compares to anywhere else as we just booked the first place. The guide goes through everything before you take off and the river is not out of control, in some places the guide had to get out of the raft to push us as there wasn't enough water. You can put your camera, money and whatever else into a waterproof bag that the guide carries the whole way. It took a couple of hours to go down the river. We stopped at one place where there was a freezing cold waterfall, cold soft drinks and Bintang that you can buy. They ask you before you head off if you want a photo taken so half way there's a dude sitting in the bush somewhere and he takes a pic of you... I think it cost 30000 rp to buy it at the end of the trip. The best part of this was going down a 4 metre drop.. omg what a rush!!! It was unreal! So when you get to the end you have to walk up about 400 steps or something like that, not the best way to end it but they have cold showers up the top and lunch ready for you to eat. All in all, a very good day. Buggered by the end of it though! (...)
In General:
We did soooooooo much walking... I wondered if everyone does the same thing... good exercise but it does take it out of you.
We saw lots of sunsets at Majolly's in Tuban whilst sipping a cold Bintang/maritos. We saw a traditional dance by the ladies here aswell which looked like it had been specially put on by all of the Japanese that rocked up. We went and had a gander anyway...
I went to get photo's processed but it was going to cost double of what it would cost at say Harvey Norman would in Australia... I swear that when I was in Bali in 2004 that we could process films very cheaply. How come it is so expensive in Bali now?
We didn't do any water sports however I got a brochure from Tony at Bagus Bar (where we had plenty of beers - really good atmosphere and cold beer, just down the road from the Bounty Hotel) which had the following prices:
Package A
Around Parasailing
15mt jet ski
15 mt banana boat
Rp. 250,000 per person
Package B
30 mt Glass bottom boat
1 hour snorkelling
1 hour Turtle Island
Rp. 200,000 per person
Package C
Parasailing, jet ski, banana boat, glass bottom boat, snorkelling, Turtle Island
Rp. 400,000 per person
Package D
Around parasailing
15 mt jet ski
15 mt fly fish
Rp. 350,000 per person
Package E
Around parasailing
30 mt jet ski
Rp. 350,000 per person
It also says Free transport to Jimbaran Bay for dinner - Book at the Bagus Bar.
That is it if you're still reading!!!
We had a ball and we will go back again one day when holiday's and money permits.
Thanks, B