Hi Everyone, Had a fantastic 9 days and cant wait to go back. Just my husband and myself this time. First trip back in 5 years. Apart from the new Discovery Shopping Mall, I can't honestly say a lot has changed(street and shopping wise).
Flew Virgin Blue from Brisbane, uneventful flight. Gee the seats on those planes are uncomfortable. Numb bum by the time we arrived in Bali.
Stayed at the Green Garden Hotel in Tuban. After reading so many good reports about this hotel on this forum, and a few negative ones, I can honestly say that I have never stayed in a more comfortable, clean, friendly "what more could you want for your money" hotel. We had room 26 and the whole room, balcony, view was perfect. Breakfast was great and changed everday.
My husband wanted a number plate made for his MG1967, and we could not find any shops locally that would make it out of aluminium, so my husband asked the young man who was serving breakfast if he knew of where we could get them make and he straight away said yes, took our order, had them made by a FRIEND, and 2 days later for 50,000 rp we had 2 great looking number plates to hang on the wall.
Had our complimentry massages down at the Green Garden Resort, they were beautiful. Booked at the Febris and had the Bali Bliss package. Foot scrub, Hot stone massage and hair treatment for 220,000 rp. Was one of the best massages i have ever had. Had all our foot massages at the Bukbali salon behind mataharis, 45.000rp for one hr foot reflexoligy. Was pure bliss everyday for the our tired, old feet.
Did not do a lot this holiday, booked a car and driver and went to the usual places for the day. Tahah lot, Ubud, Sekewati markets. Just drove around and enjoyed the sceniery. Stopped were we wanted to. Cant remember the drivers name but was connected to the green garden hote. All day for 400,000 rp. Great Day
Also did the Balik bike tours with wayan. Had a great day here as well. If i thought sitting on a virgin plane for 6 hrs gave me a numb bum then this was worst. Has been a while since we have rode bikes, but in all honesty must say it was easy riding with most of it down hill. Great scenery, great guides and best of all great lunch back at wayans home. LONG day but worth it.
Caught a taxi to Sanua for the day, got a blue bird on the way over, but could not find one on the way back, so caught the darker blue ones. Man was very nice doing his Micheal Shumaker impersonation, but cheeky guy dropped us of on a side street and said "kuta square 100 mts down there", more like 1km", after getting our bearings we discovered we were next to super nova shopping centre. Never mind just glad to get out of his taxi.
Tried a lot of the resturants and cafes mentioned here on the forum, but our firm favourite for the holiday was Warung 96. Great food and so cheap. One resturant we went to in garlic lane, I think it was called Ours, we waited over 1.5 hr for the food to arrive and there was only 3 other couples in the resturant at the time. Was very nice when it did arrive. (lucky we are on holiday and not in any hurry).LOL
Did not buy much, but did go mad on the Jimmy Choo Handbags. Best buy was from Robert in Tuban. His shop is not directly opp the Green Garden but up half way up between green garden and bubba gumps. He had a great range of bags and if i had seen one somewhere that he did not have he got it in for me. I paid between 120,000 and 130,000 for them. As far as i can tell, they are nearly perfect in there quality, and very good copies. I also bought 2 Chanel bags from a little shop on the lane way down to the Pantia resturant. Next to lillys shop. Her quality was outstanding. Just beautiful bags and wallets. Got a beautiful billabong (not the plastic vinyl looking stuff they are selling on the streets) for 100,000rp. Again the quality of this fake was excellent.
Went to the usual fixed price shops as mentioned on this forum and found also this is the better way to shop. Had a few tussles with shop keeper when trying to batter, but as long as you keep it light hearted and friendly we found that most of them came down to our price or close enought to it not to worry about a few dollars. Gee though some of there starting prices nearly made me faint. LOL
Meet some great people this holiday, saw some amazing sites, and just plain relaxed and got away from it all, the perfect combination for a great holiday in a perfect location.
Thanks to everyone who answered my questions befor we left and to the great information you get of the site. Makes for a great holiday to be that little bit prepared.
Kind regards Diedre and Klaus