Having lost count of the number of trips to Bali, at the airport departure lounge on 20 March, I decided to count the number of visas sitting in my old passport and was surprised to find that this was to be our twelfth trip!
Had our first flight with Jetstar and no problems at all - I had forgotten that we had pre-ordered a meal, so that felt like a bonus. The staff were nice, chairs were much more comfortable than Air Asia and we arrived on time. Can't ask for much more, considering the cheap price of the tickets and it's such a short flight.
We arrived mid afternoon - the timetables of Jetstar are so much better than the old Qantas ones! Instead of the old departure after midnight, a far more civilised time of 3.45pm was fantastic. Only drawback was no FF points awarded as these were the discount economy tickets.
VIP VOA
One of Hadi's assistants looked after us, this was our second time we used the VIP service and I was really happy that we did because there was a huge Korean flight landed before us and they were queued up for miles.....well, it felt like it, as we walked past the teaming hordes and straight to the baggage carousel. Chalk marks covered our cases, but we didn't have any extra alcohol! We had to open one suitcase and assure the customs officer we weren't bringing in anything that we shouldn't - that was the first time we have ever had to open a case.
CANDI DASA - AQUARIA
We wanted to keep our first day for travel, so our driver picked us up with a sign amongst the many smiling faces outside the arrival hall and we headed off to Candi Dasa. We had booked 3 nights at Aquaria Resort, including transfers. Arrived at CD after a few hours, via a Denpasar ATM to grab some cash and a few drinks along the way. The driver gave us a letter from the owners of Aquaria, saying that we were upgraded to the executive suite, so that was a great start to our holiday.
Aquaria is a renovated hotel, with about 10 rooms surrounding the central pool. The restaurant is located at the end of the pool, facing the beach, so you get a lovely view in the evening or morning to the water. It's a small and intimate resort, and we met some lovely people from Australia, Canada, US and France too. Our room was actually where the owners stay, and is on the first floor, overlooking the beach, so more private than all of the other rooms near the pool. We had a great verandah area and enjoyed sitting there reading with a nice breeze from the ocean. The ocean view room was on the ground floor below us and that was the room we had booked, but we ended up with a kitchenette and lounge area too, so a bonus for space. There is one villa also facing the ocean which affords privacy and this is the most expensive room in the resort. We paid less than $A100 per night, including continental breakfast.
There was only one thing that I didn't like at Aquaria and that was the strong water smell when you turned on a tap or flushed the toilet. It was a strong sulphur-like aroma that was unpleasant and this would prevent me from staying there again. The owners have a chemical-free policy, so I gather that is why the smell is in the water. Apart from that, the place is absolutely lovely for location, dinners and peace and quiet.
Breakfast was standard fare of tea/coffee, toast, fruit and juice. But don't judge the restaurant by the breakfast because each night the menu is changed with a 3-course meal with choices for entrée, main and desert. The food is absolutely fantastic - the local chef has trained at Mosaic in Ubud and it shows - the dinner set price is 85,000 Rp per person and I can't recommend it highly enough! Delicious.
Other meals at CD were at Vincents (I had a great mahi-mahi dish and my husband ordered chops that were inedible, so was a bit hit and miss on this occasion). Also dined at Bellisa and had a great night sipping mojitos and eating great local food.
We took a day trip with a local driver, called Wayan Mudra and he was great, for 400,000 Rp we visited Amplapura to see the King's Palace and the under-cover traditional markets - wow, the array of fresh foods and spices was amazing. Had a great walk around these markets for more than an hour. Then onto the Water Palace and Tirta Gangga, where we stopped for a drink at the restaurant. Absolutely loved feeding the huge fish (koi) there - many people were swimming, but we were happy to wander the gardens and enjoy the view. It was getting hot, so we gave Pantai Putih a miss, that was going to be our last stop, but we were getting a bit thirsty, so headed back to Aquaria for a flop in the pool.
We enjoyed early morning walks around CD, it's really very quiet and not many tourists there at all. A lovely place to unwind and relax. We didn't end up having a massage, waited until we got back to the big smoke. Prices were about double prices in Kuta/Legian.
We left CD at about 9.00am in the morning, thinking we would be back in Legian before lunch-time, however ceremonies and a huge traffic grid lock meant it took us 5 hours to get back south. This was 3 days before Nyepi and we had never seen anything like this before, so was quite an unexpected delay. We stopped at Carefour and Bali Deli to stock up on supplies on the way....arrived hot, jaded and sick of sitting in a car for so long, but thankful we managed to get around the road closures to Legian!