Hi, JBR 21st to 27th October...
Wed 21st October:
Flew Perth to Bali AA at 4.50am, arrived 8.15am. Only 1 immigration line open, still out and in a taxi by 8.45am. Checked into Puri Santrian at Sanur, was upgraded from a beach wing room to a suite which was great! The room had a seperate lounge room and luggage room as well as a double size balcony with a day bed. The room overlooked the pool with some ocean glimpses through the trees. We were fairly tired today so most of the day was spent lazing around the pool and in the room. Did a bit of shopping in Kuta in the late afternoon. Early dinner that night at an italian restaurant on the beach front (can't recall the name).
Thur 22nd Oct:
Breakfast at Cat & Fiddle. Hired our driver Barney to pick up our friends who were on the 4.50am AA flight (Barney is a great driver with an 8 seater van, he can also manage the purchase and shipment of furniture from Bali, contact me if you want more info). This was our friends 1st time in Bali so we'd thought we better pick them up. We went into Kuta that afternoon then had dinner that night in another restaurant in Sanur (which I also can't recall the name).
Fri 23rd Oct:
Breakfast at Cat & Fiddle again. Barney picked us up at 10am and we drove about 1.5hrs to go quad biking. This was alot better than the quad bike place near Ubud that I've been to in the past. The ride went for about 2 hours through villlages, rice fields, mud and even driving up a flowing creek / river. After the ride we recieved a free t-shirt and had a 3 course lunch which was really good. On the way back to Sanur we stopped at the surf warehouses on Jalan Bypass. That night we had dinner at Poco Loco which is always great food and very generous in size.
Sat 24th Oct:
Breakfast at Trophy Bar. We then had to check out at 12, as we were moving the Kuta Seaview Hotel for the remainder of our stay. When we arrived at Kuta Seaview we were hoping for an upgrade (last time we were there we were upgraded to a delux suite), but no upgrade this time. We were quite happy with our delux garden room as it has been slightly renovated since last time that we stayed in one. Our friends who were going to be staying at Sanur for the remainder of their stay, brought clothes with them to our room so they wouldn't need to travel back there later on to shower etc before dinner, they did so in our room. That night we went to dinner at Macaroni which is always great on a Saturday night. We had our usual waiter there who always throws in a few shooters on the house.
Sunday 25th Oct:
Barney picked us up at 9.30am and we went to the Safari Park which was about a 1 hour drive. That was a great experience, but I probably wouldn't go there again. After the Park we went to Geneva Handicrafts, now this place was huge, we could of spent the whole day there! After filling the trolley with goods, we decided that if we got a second trolley we'd have no room in our suitcases (we brought empty suitcases over), so we skipped the 2nd and 3rd floors to avoid the temptation of buying more. We had brought a change of clothes today so we didn't have to go back to Kuta to get showered and changed for dinner, we did so in our friends room at Puri Santrian. That night we had dinner at The Village restaurant in Sanur. This was a top of the line Italian restaurant in Sanur which I highly recommend, it was also very good value for the quality of the food! After dinner we got a taxi back to Kuta with our bags and bags of purchases, cost was Rp55,000.
Mon 26th Oct:
Our friends came to our hotel in Kuta at about lunch time with changes of clothes again so they wouldn't have to go back to Sanur later on. Most of that day we spent shopping. That night we had dinner at Rosso Vivo (our hotel's restaurant). They're head chef is Italian, so the food's always great.
Tues 27th October:
Most of this day was spent lazying around as we knew we had a long day ahead. We paid for a late checkout until 6pm, which was 1/2 a night's price (US$50). Our friends checked out at 12 in Sanur and brought their bags to our hotel. Did some last minute shopping in the late afternoon. Then checked out at 6pm and left all of our bags in reception. Tonight there was a black out in Tuban-Kuta-Legian, we headed to Indo-National for dinner which was well lit with battery powered fluorescent lights and candles. Dinner was excellent and Bintangs were very cold as usual! Bill was under AU$50 for the 4 of us including drinks which was our cheapest dinner for the week. After dinner we went back to Kuta Seaview for a few cocktails by the pool before heading to the airport at 9.30pm.
Wed 28th October:
Flew back to Perth at 12.30am, arriving at about 4.00am. Out of the airport and home by 5.30am.
Thanks for reading!