Firstly - Abit About Me
37 Years Old, My 4th Trip and My Travel Companion Was My 14 Year Old Daughter Ashleigh - This Being Her First Trip To Bali.
Flight From Brisbane To Denpasar
Departed Brisbane on Pacific Blue flight at 11.20am. Plane was on time and the Virgin crew were excellent. There were issues with the on board prepaid TV system so after a few attempts of screening, then not screening, then screening, before there was an announcement to let everyone know that access would now be at no charge - it was eventually turned off about 20 minutes into our flight when it stopped working completely. I had already paid using my credit card for the both of us and was told that it would not be processed.
Ut-Oh I thought to myself - As I then had a very disgruntled teenager to contend with for the next 6 hours (Never a pretty situation). For someone like myself who is always so well organized - I was abit unprepared for that one!. No books/reading material or playing cards were packed as she was looking forward to a non stop marathon of channel V (Music Video Clips) and was I looking forward to a non stop marathon of 'The History Channel' & 'The Life Style Channel' Oh well, what does a girl do - Order a few Crown Lagers,relax and let allow the effect to drown out the constant 'Are we there yet - how long to go Mum - I am bored - Are we there yet!' (...)
At least I had packed some food in a little zip up esky pack to have onboard (Sushi rolls, fresh cherry's, an avocado, bikkys & cheese, so that filled in 20 minutes!. So much for strict guidelines with fluids and gels in carry on luggage as in the Esky Pack I had a frozen slick pack keeping everything cool that I had forgotten about.
Arrived at Denpasar airport on time at 3.20pm and cleared VOA + customs + baggage claim by 4.10pm. There was a lovely group of 4 Australian woman who were abit of fun in the VOA lines, egging each other on as to whose line would clear quicker. Ours was clearing pretty quickly so I threw into the equation 'I hope this bet involves a cocktail or two for the winners' and one of the lady's said 'YES - what a great idea' - It only came to mind because I was dreaming of one as I was waiting in line thinking to myself 'not long to go now - instead of sweat dribbling down my face, it was a soon to be Margarita!'. Wasn't to much longer before we were on our way to the airport currency exchange counter to change a little pocket money for that much anticipated cocktail (Rate was 7000rp to the AU $1) then it was out the taxi counter (55'000rp) to The Jayakarta Hotel in Legian.
As mentioned in my intro, this was my 14 year old daughters first time. I couldn't wait to see the expression on her face as we started getting closer to Legian. I remember vividly my first time 10 years ago. I was in total awe of the things I saw, the smells I smelt, the misleading ‘no road rules' which I now refer to as 'organized chaos', the amazement of just how much one person could fit and hold on one's head & motorbike. I didn't see any of the taxi trip to our hotel as my eyes were fixated on her, watching her eyes grow bigger and bigger, and her jaw dropping lower and lower while saying 'Mum - oh my gosh - MUM ... look at that - MUM .. there are 2 tiny babies squashed together on that one motorbike between two people - IS THAT LEGAL'. I tell you - it was priceless watching her delight and excitement in what she was seeing. I thought to myself - this trip is going to be very memorable and very special for the both of us to share- and boy oh boy ... it was that and so much more.
Jayakarta Hotel & Residence
We had booked a privately owned apartment via a lovely couple in Melbourne (And before I go giving out details on here, I will have to check with him first that that is ok) Putu their ‘manager' was waiting for us in the reception area of the 'Hotel Bali Suites' located within the Jayakarta complex. Our room was situated in B section above the bali suites check in area and our first impression was 'This is absolutely great and we instantly felt comfortable and at home. Fresh bottled water, icy cold coke & lemonade was waiting for us in the full size refrigerator which was lovely. I told Putu that I was very fond of Bintang LoL - and he said 'next time I put in place of coke' so that won brownie points instantly with me!!!!
The apartment was excellent. Semi self contained with a small oven, toaster, jug, microwave, cooking utensils, plates, glasses, cleaning products - basically everything you need to be self contained! It was perfect as Ashleigh and I enjoyed getting up each morning (at our leisure)slicing up a plate full of fresh fruit and smearing avocado & tomatoe on toast, washing it down with a piping hot coffee each morning, ready to start our day.
After settling into our Apartment, we didn't muck around it was walking shoes on and we headed to Bintang supermarket to get some grocery's. I took over two ‘unlocked' mobile phones so that Ash and I could have contact when we lost each other shopping! I purchased two sim cards and credit from Diamond Selular Centre (directly outside the Bintang supermarket) 2 x Simpati Sims at a cost of 50.000rp which gave us the sim and 5000 credit, and I topped my phone up with an additional 100.000rp to see us through a few calls back home to Australia. Later the phones proved invaluable enabling us to make contact with our drivers when we were ready to be picked up from various locations, or for our drivers to use when locations/shops that were on our 'Programs' were difficult to find.
We stopped in for a bite to eat at Café Seminyak which is located directly outside Bintang Supermarket. Nice little café and the food was good, more importantly the Bintang was very cold (...)
Café Seminyak (Arrival Day)
Ice Milk Chocolate 22.000rp
2 x Bintang 16.000rp
Chicken Lumpia Spring Rolls 22.000rp
Chicken Nasi Goreng 35.000rp
+ Taxes
Dinner was at Warung Asia (Thai Specialty). I had heard this place mentioned many times on BTF and since I adore Thai Food I was very keen to try it out. It lived up to my expectations and I might just add, my expectations were pretty high! It is only a fairly small place, and is very popular, however in saying this we got a table for two straight away.
Warung Asia
Mahi Mahi Fish (To Die For)
Chicken Satay
Nasi Goreng
Bintang + Soft drink
140.000rp
Well it had been a big day for us, leaving Brisbane and arriving in Bali, so 10pm we decided a quick dip in the Jayakarta Pool before bed was in order. Our quick dip quickly turned into a long relaxing dip and we finally got some shut eye around 12.30am!
Day One
I had a few priority things to get done and out of the way on our first full day much to Ashleigh's dismay. Last thing a teenager wants to be doing is 'boring' things with Mum when there was so much to do and so many places to explore.
- Printing Of Our Business Stickers
- Ordering Of Contact Lenses
- Printing Of Family Photo Collage Onto Canvas
We hired a driver for a 4 hour period (180.000rp) to drive us around to the places we needed to go, with a few specialty shops thrown into the mix so that Ashleigh wasn't totally bored out of her brain.
First stop was Indographs to get our stickers printed. I had taken over a copy of our Logo on a USB stick along with the sample wording I required, and they did the rest of the artwork set up. They are very professional and the overall process was easy and stress free - From picking the stock, to the graphic design, to choosing the correct colour. I left them to it, and they asked me to pop back in 3 hours time to proof the artwork. Initially they gave me a time frame of '10 Days' for completion, however when I informed them we were only staying another 7 nights, they accommodated my time frame and delivered directly to the Jayakarta reception one day before we were due to fly out. Can't ask for service any better than that!. The quality was great and I am very very happy with the end result. I do encourage you to proof the artwork carefully as I did find a couple of spelling mistakes which were easily fixed and a few lines added in here and there where they shouldn't of been, but apart from that no other problems.
Indographs
JL Kunti No 99x, Seminyak, Phone 735535
2000 x 1 Colour Glossy Stickers 680.000rp
500 x 2 Colour Glossy Laminated Stickers 465.000rp
With the printing sorted we made our way to Geneva. Can you believe after 3 previous trips I had never been here - I certainly did miss out on lost opportunities! I took on board from other forum members the fact that this place had fixed pricing, and is value for money - and only having 8 days in Bali - Time was an important factor for me as there was allot of things that I wanted to see and do whilst in Bali, so trudging the streets in the hot heat bartering my tush off was not something I wanted to spend a whole heap of time doing this trip, and Geneva Handicraft eliminated allot of that.
Geneva Handicraft
***WARNING*** Don't take credit card into this place, as you may end up maxing it out!!! I must admit I did go nuts in here and got loads of stuff but I am really happy with everything since bringing it home.
Just a Few Of The Things I Purchased:-
Cotton Cushion Covers In A Multitude Of Colours & Designs 18.000rp
Square and Rectangular Tightly Woven Cane Baskets 33.000rp
King Bed Runner 36.000rp
Bintang XL T-Shirt 29.000rp
Large Quality Sarongs 39.000rp
Oval Set Of 3 Woven Food Servers With Pull Down Covers 41.000rp
Set Of 6 Woven Place Mats 37.000rp
Large Oblong Pillows 34.000rp
Oblong Covers To Suit 32.000rp
Contact Lenses - Optik Seis, Kuta Square
'Acuvue Avance Brand' Fortnightly Disposables 180.000rp
As long as you have the metal covering off an old one (or take an unopened contact lense) with you, showing your script and lense diameter, that is all you will need to purchase the correct lense.
Shoot Bali Images
JL Legian Kelod, Kompleks Pertokoan La Waloon, Kuta
53.5cm x 38.5cm Photo Collages Onto Canvas 186.000rp Each
These guys produced some awesome family photo collages onto canvass for me. Again, very professional and excellent quality work and was ready in about an hour.
We finished off the day with a pillion motorbike ride to Blue Ocean for dinner. Ashleigh couldn't stop grinning and thought this was just the 'Bee's Knee's' and grinned from ear to ear as she had never been on a motorbike/scooter before. This little experience sowed a seed for 'much preferred transport' always being the scooter, mostly ridden by the 'Kuta Cowboys' ha ha, so we constantly argued over my taxi preference and her scooter obsession for a further few days before I relented and hired a scooter for the remaining 4 days of our trip!
I must mention the BBQ'd Fish at Blue Oceans was ‘OH MY GOD' delicious, sensational, unreal - I can't find the right words fitting enough to express the deliciousness of it. For 80.000rp it was ‘bone licking' good! Everything but the eye balls and bones were eaten on my plate!
Exhausted we retired to bed - With Ashleigh last words "I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and see what the day brings"
**I Smile Thinking** ..... Bali is slowly seeping into her veins and I can see it in her eyes, this definitely won't be her last visit.
To Be Continued .........
- Shopping
- Restaurants
- Ubud
- Yayasan Bumi Sehat Birthing Clinic
- Terrible Accommodation In Ubud :(
- Orphanage/Children's Home
- Tanah Lot
- Us - The Wannabe Scooter Chicks (Ha Ha)