Part 3, just to recap....I arrived in Bali on Saturday 21st March, Kim, Tuesday 24th afternoon and Chris and Trish later than night.
At SuriWathi the 10 new deluxe rooms are on schedule for July/August opening. There is a sliding gate on the right hand side as you walk down the centre garden path of the hotel and as you walk thru the gate there are 4 on either side, with 2 facing the back of rooms 8/16. (They are located on the block alongside the hotel, behind the new villas. I think one of the villas has been rented out for 12 months and the other villa is having power problems (lack of ?).
Hair cut at Johnny Andrean
I had my hair cut at Discovery shopping mall, Johnny Andrean(?) salon is on the right hand side of the right hand building, Bali Garden Hotel side, at the front. I had my hair shampooed then cut, dried and styled. I walked straight in, no booking and paid 55,000rp.
Unfortunately they didn't have a business card.
Bathers at Climax
Trish and Kim both had bathers copied and made at Climax. They bought the material from the selection available in the shop. Both were happy with their bathers. The location of the shop is off Jl Legian, Jl Melasti end. Its where Patih Jelantik comes into Jl Legian, where it changes direction.
Which side of the road ?
Oh dear, I made two very bad decisions while driving in Legian/Kuta. First one, we were coming from Jl Setiabudi to turn right into Raya Kuta/Jl Imam Bonjol. There are traffic lights (opposite the large Animale outlet) and I was second car back from the red light. I wanted to turn right and recalled, yep, this is a one way street. I drove over to the right hand side of the road, then, eeeeeek, its 2 way and cars are about to drive into this lane. Shhhhhhhh, lucky I was able to back back behind the car on the left side.
Next mistake, I drove into Rum Jungle Road off Jl Legian, its one way in the opposite direction! At the first bend I turned around into a garage. The ‘general' of this area and his off sider barked ferociously and ‘escorted' us back to Jl Legian.
I never felt aggression from the locals. They are good at warning you of their imminent action.
Breeze restaurant at Samaya Resort, Seminyak
Chris, Trish, Sharon, Ruth and I drove down to Seminyak to enjoy another gourmet breakfast, beachfront. The Samaya resort is alongside La Lucchiola. Glorious views, beachfront, gardens, pool, fittings, fixtures, furniture. There are 46 villas.
We each ordered American breakfast. Water poured into our glass as level lowered, basket each of 5, donut, small muffin, bread roll, Danish with custard and croissant. Bacon or sausage or ham with 2 eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and potatoes. Fruit juice or fresh fruit, followed by tea or coffee. Oh phew, what a meal. Service was superb. They boxed up our left over pastries and offered any or all of the jams and honey left on our table. Each new diners get a full new set of 5 jars.
We all skipped lunch.
Melasti Spa for Massage and Ayurvedic and Shiroda
Kim and I wandered down for warm stone massages on Kim's first day. The stones were pleasantly warm and the massage excellent.
Yesterday, Saturday, Sharon and I drove down to Melasti Resort and shared a room for another peaceful ‘zone out' session. The massage with warm oil was sensational, then Sharon had the oil dripper over her forehead (one dripper to share between the 2 of us). The oil was too hot, so it had to be emptied and cooled. Try again. I was leaving my state of euphoria whilst this was happening. The oil was poured thru and gushed over Sharons forehead (3 times) then it was my turn. Sharon showered while my ‘third eye' received its treatment. Last time we went there for same treatment, the oil dripped slowly and peacefully. Paid 185,000 each.
Wont do that again at MBR.
Minding children
Our massage girl friend has a 2 year old and she is minded by her around 10 year old family member, who has finished at school. Parents both work around Legian and family live in a village 3 or so hours away. I expect there would be other adults around their ‘city' accommodation to help if required.
Final dinner at Wayan and Friends.
Delicious meal, good service and drinks and enjoyable company with Sharon and Ruth.
Ruth's Bali ‘boyfriend' came and joined us. What a mutual warmth they share. He is very handsome, well mannered and sweet. He sells plaited bracelets. He came in, when invited and gave us all lovely warm hugs as we left. He does attend school and his parents work close by. I guess he will be helping his family well. Good manners, pleasant smile and no cursing or swearing goes a long way!
Left SuriWathi at 8.30 with Davy and got to the airport quickly. It's my least favourite car trip! We checked our luggage into Jetstar and weighed 15kg over our allowance. I took out a few things and carried more hand luggage, thus no excess to pay. As we waited in the gate area, Tinggading and John arrived on the same aircraft. We waved and blew kisses through the glass. Lucky them to be arriving!
Our flight left on time, took about 5 hours, eventfree for me, as I slept almost all of the way. Although our Jetstar ticket confirmation showed arrival at 7.25am, they hadn't taken into account daylight saving finishing, so was arrived 6.30am-ish.
We collected our bags and exited via customs. We each had a few items to declare, wooden items, palm sugar, sea salt, paintings etc and everything came through fine.
Treasures at Breadtalk
Oh wow, we tried the bread and butter puddings at Breadtalk, twice! Very delicious.
Carrefours also sell scrumptious glaced fruit custard tarts and tirimasu.
I bought loose small sized palm sugar which I found at the back of the vegetable department. I also found prepacked palm sugar at Matahari, Kuta square (bottom shelf, second or third aisle from the fruit section, back part on the left).
Dirty Harrys II & Tom Cruise
Dirty Harry shop in Jl Sahadewa, Legian, almost opposite Breeze restaurant, out front of SuriWathi is great value for up to date necklace, bracelet and ear rings. Reasonably priced, easy to stroll in and match that days outfit. Needless to say, I have bought gazillions over the past few years. They will repair, change clips or re-string. I had a favourite watch face replaced. Bought the watch for about au$3, spent another $2.50 for glass. Harry, Brad and/or Eddie are usually in the shop. They have restrung two necklaces and merged the beads to give me some of each colour when I couldn't choose.
Tom Cruise out front of SuriWathi lane is also very helpful for watches and sunnies. He put new gizzards into a lovely watch for Trevor. It was near new, nice band, easy to read and flash pink gold surrounds. Tom fixed it wonderfully. Great for short trips around the local area.
XL sim card
I think the cost of calls using the 01000 prefix have increased substantially since our last visit to Bali. I think I used to pay about 2000rp per minute to ring Australia but I guestimate 3 or 4 times higher this time, still heaps cheaper than using Aus sim card.
I have finally grasped how to recharge the sim card in Australia between visits, to retain the number. Thanks Ruth and Julie. I bought 3 x 50000rp charge cards. I need to dial *123*then add the number under the section to scratch out on the back of the card, then # send.
Exchange rate
The rate Aud - Rp varied from around 7800 to 8400. Fantastic for Aussies!
$710 for 15 nights accommodation with 10 days hire car. Pretty good if you ask me!
(SuriWathi deluxe room and Tegal Sari Super deluxe room, Suzuki Arena 7 seater)
After thoughts.....
Driving is fine. Same same but different.
Drive slowly and concentrate. Use your mirrors to check check check.
Turn into roundabouts, take the low side, rather than go around.
Turn left at traffic lights when red (or hesitate and wait for someone to do it and follow them).
Take plenty of 1,000rp notes. Everywhere you stop to park, someone will appear, to be paid 2000rp. They are very helpful when you need to back out as they direct you or hold up the traffic.
Fuel is 4500rp per litre. You ask the service station attendant to preset the fuel pump with the amount of petrol you require. Half a tank for us was about 130,000rp.
A GPS would make driving easier but I reckon half the fun. It would have definitely helped us when we were frustratingly lost in Kerobokan area on way back to Legian from Canguu at night. We had the latest Periplus street atlas.
A little bit of kindness can be appreciated tenfold. Win win.
Paying 50,000 not 40,000rp wont break the bank!
One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes four. Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes more. The countdown has started again until we next return to Bali.