So it's been a while since I've posted on this forum, last time I believe I was in Bali, October 2008, I've since had another trip over there and have one coming up in this October. Sorry to see some longtime posters apparently not posting anymore and sorry to hear of Filo's passing. Lots of new forumites/posters though and still the same old questions being asked coupled with a few new ones and some great jbr's....whether grammatically correct or not!
October 2008 we spent 4 weeks on the isle of smiles, 3 weeks at the Ida Hotel, Kuta and 1 week at the Peninsula Beach Resort, (Timeshare), Tanjung Benoa. Unfortunately after my posting 'my here now' report I fell ill to the dreaded food poisoning (Bali belly). 3 days of wasted valuable time spent on the bed at the Ida! Still once over the affects the holiday continued, we got most things done we wanted, shopped for what we needed, and made plans for our block of land, purchased on the trip before in May.
Our recent May trip saw us spend 1 week at the Risata Hotel, (Timeshare), Tuban and 1 week at the Kumpul Kumpul 2 Villas in Legian/Seminyak. Again we got the things done that needed to be done and bought what was needed plus those orders from the kids. We made contact with our builder and started the process of building boundary walls and roads to our block.
This coming trip we hope to see plans drawn of our house, the completed walls and roads and actually say start the build! We will be back at the Ida Hotel for 3 weeks and have 1 week at the Emerald Villas (Timeshare) in Sanur. This will be our last timeshare swap as we have sold our timeshare week.
We book our own flights now and book our accommodation separately. Any questions about our accommodations please ask.
We now hire a scooter; husband has a motorcycle license and purchases an International license. We take our own Australian approved helmets. We make sure we have travel insurance coverage for the bike, hiring under 200cc helps. Husband likes the 200cc Tiger motorbike but there is no room for shopping which means a backpack for me. The Tiger is best for the long distance travel to the block but the scooters better for around the South. We were stopped by the police once on the May trip, pulled off to the side of the road, the poor man's face when he saw all was good was priceless, we had done nothing wrong so was waved away!
Our friend, a transport driver, still invites us around to his house to meet and eat with the family even though we don't use him as much as previous trips, if only we could get them not to cook so much delicious food. It's great to have this friendship, to get his opinions on what we want to do and what we expect.
We take our laptop and connect at whatever restaurant/café we can with Wi-Fi, we also have the mobile phone setup to use as a modem to connect when we are at places without Wi-Fi. Although this is an expensive way to keep in touch. We've also just setup with Skype and can't wait to try that out on our next trip....we talk to our friend in Bali with video cam, it's like being right there with him. Wished we'd taken note of previous posts regarding Skype. We also use Bali sim cards in our mobile phones. I have an i-Phone and it works a treat both as a phone and on the internet when I remember I can use that!
Well that's it for now, just wanted to touch base again, to all those I've met in Bali or Perth, hello again, to all those going soon, have a great time. Any questions please ask.