Thur 4th - Hired driver for the day through Poppies so paid more than street prices at 550,000 rp but got a great driver and an airconditioned 8 seater van. We headed to Ubud to meet with friends who were staying at Tjamphuan which looked a lovely play to stay and we enjoyed a swim in the freshwater pool.
We had lunch in Ubud at a place called, I think, Bali Tropical Restaurant on Monkey Forest Rd, cost 726,000 for 6.
We did some shopping in Ubud and used the Lippo Bank ATM successfully getting an exchange rate about 7,520 which wasn't bad.
We wanted to go to Tanah Lot for the sunset as have never been there on previous trips. Our driver took us to Taman Ayun on the way and we were very impressed with this temple which doesn't make the top of the tourist list but was lovely, very quiet and only 12,000 rp entry fee for 4.
Tanah Lot was the only place in Bali that we found ‘crowded' with tourists. It cost 10,000 rp each to enter and the commerciality was a poor comparison after Taman Ayun. However it is a very beautiful place at sunset and we managed to enjoy ourselves despite the numerous sellers. Hint: there were many women selling bundles of about 10 -12 postcards for 20,000 rp for the lot which was much cheaper than the 3,000 each that we'd unfortunately already paid in Kuta.
Had dinner at TJ's, very nice food, very quick service, busier than most restaurants in our part of Kuta. Meals and drinks for 4 plus 3 desserts came to 426,000 rp. Banana splits are enormous and well worthwhile.
My son and his girlfriend decided over dinner that they wanted to go to the Elephant Safari Park the next day. We phoned about 10pm and were able to arrange a pickup for 8.30am the next morning which I thought was pretty efficient but is also probably a sad reflection of how few tourists are in Bali at the moment.
Fri 5th - Walked to Kuta early morning market around 7am. Bought ½ coconut for 3,000, 1.5kg of rambutans for 12,000 rp and about 8 little rice cakey things for 7,000 from the Bali bakery shop across from the markets. Not sure what this place is called but I've bought breakfast there before and it's fun. It's almost next to Lucky Strike.
Traffic was a nightmare that morning at the Tour de Bali or some such cycling event was going through Kuta and the police had closed roads around Bemo corner. This gave us a good excuse to hang out at the pool all morning, snacking on banana pancakes when we got hungry and only moving when I started to feel sunburnt even through the heavy shade we'd hunted out.
We walked up to Kori Restaurant for dinner as we remembered it well from a previous trip. The service and atmosphere were great but the food was average this time. Everything tasted very plain to us. Cost came to 726,000 for 4 and we won't rush back.
Shopping that day included the most gorgeous patchwork baby quilt from Requests on Jl Legian near Bemo Corner - 180,000 rp and the only one I saw of that style in the whole week. We also bought a Bali Flower Bag as already knew that the shopping was going to be too big for the cases we'd brought. Cost for large one - 50,000 rp.