Before I start on Temu Seseh, I will answer the queries a couple of you have raised about the sun lounges at CP.
There are only 5, in addition there was a table with 4 chairs and each of the ground floor rooms had doors opening onto an area which had 2 chairs for each room.
On the side of the pool that the ground floor rooms open onto to there would probably be only be 2 to 3 steps from the room to the water of the pool.
As the building wraps around 2 sides of the pool and there is a wall on the 3rd side of the pool that faces the street, there is not a lot of room for lounges and you probably could not have more than about 10 in total before it became too busy.
Whilst the hotel was full when we were there were not many people in the pool at the times we used it which varied from day to day, and some of those who had rooms near the pool tendered to sit on the edge of the pool or the chairs at their rooms.
There are no balconies on the first and second floor rooms.
We didn't eat any meals at CP other than breakfast and didn't look at the menu.
After 2 nights at CP we went to Tamu Seseh which is situated in a small village near Canngu.
The complex consists of 4 villas, some have 1 bedroom, we had a 2 bedroom one and i think there is a 3 bedroom one also, each having their own raised pavilion which houses a long bench in which is a cook top and sink, a dining table and chairs and a lounge suite.
Each villa had their own pool and also a second pavilion which was of a second story height which had the tv, dvd and more lounges.
The bathrooms which were off the bedrooms were completely outside with bath, separate shower, toilet, basins and mirrors.
There was a second shower and toilet at ground level in the raised pavilion so that you didn't have to walk wet through the bedroom to use the bathroom.
This place was total bliss, if you enjoy doing nothing but lying around a pool in a tranquil setting Tamu Seseh is the place for you.
The most amazing transformation occurred at sunset, all of a sudden from a still and quiet evening came the noises of the twilight including bats, crickets, geckos and whilst not noisy we noted a small snake visitor one night.
All the villas look out over the rice fields and from our Villa the closest field that was worked every day was probably only 30 metres away.
TS have their own chef and so long as you give Agung at least two hours notice for dinner, the food was delivered on time to the second and laid out on the dining table in front of you, and it was beautiful.
Breakfast was included in the tariff and it was a matter of calling the kitchen up in the morning and within a very short time we were seated and eating breakfast.
Apparently many of the guests that stay eat in during the day and catch a taxi to Seminyak for their evening meal, Bluebird taxis service the village and if you ask the staff they are only too happy to call one for you.
On our second night we were privileged to hear the sounds of the local villagers performing a theatrical performance and whilst we didn't venture out to watch the sounds of the performance were fantastic.
The Villas have their own pushbikes which any guest can use and we availed ourselves of them during the day for a quick ride through the village and onto the next village, the longest ride we took was probably 1 hour all up.
The village is very close to the beach but it is not safe to swim at, the sand is very black and seemingly untouched save for our footprints on one of our ventures.
The pool in our Villa was deep (probably 7 foot at the deepest ) and of a good size, probably 8 metres by 3 metres wide and was a wet edge type with the water falling over the edge towards the rice fields every time we jumped in.
On one of the days we stayed here we caught a taxi up to Echo beach for lunch, we ate at the Beach House and sat and watched the 50 or so surfers out in the waves which were much bigger than Kuta.
The pace of development here is seemingly staggering when we asked the locals.
The rice fields close to the beach are being filled in and there are many houses being built (mostly owned by Aussies we were told)
Construction is also about to start on the first hotel.
As well as the Beach House there are probably another 4 restaurants at Echo Beach, but not much else.
The local transport mafia ensured our taxi was not available for us to use on the return trip but when asked, the local 'transport' surprisingly quoted for our return trip, the exact fare we paid in the taxi to get there.
The trip on the way home included a stop at the local minimart to stock up on supplies.
You can take whatever supplies you like with you to TS and the fridge is probably a 3/4 size and if you feel like cooking there are facilities to do so, but hey why would you?
Our brief stay at TS was wonderful and certainly something we would do again, in total the complex has 7 bedrooms in the 4 Villas with the option to take the whole complex if you were a big enough group.
Our Villa had a locked gate which accessed the Villa next to us, so I am guessing if you took the whole place it would be easy to effectively join the whole 4 Villa's up.
Our time soon ended at TS and we ventured back to the Casa Padma for the last 3 nights of our brief trip to Bali.
Upon our return I enquired about a late checkout which we got until 6 pm at a cost of 30% of a full days tariff, a late checkout is bliss given the flight times back to the eastern states of Oz.
During the next 3 days we walked, shopped and swam at both the pool and the beach.
Each day at approx 4pm we would walk down to the beach at the end of Jalan Legian and have a few Bintangs whilst the sun went down, comparing our day of spending to the locals day of trying to earn a living.
It is amazing our quickly you can seemingly develop friendships with the locals and by the time you leave you feel like they have been friends for much longer than just the few days you have enjoyed their company.
On our last day we left all our stubby holders (bought from home), sundry bra's, runners, Coles like shopping bags etc with the girls on the beach who seemed to appreciate our small offerings.
Just on shopping bags, I would think that by using the 'Coles' type bags we saved countless plastic bags that would have ended up in our hotel room bin at the end of our stay, a small thing but certainly worthwhile in the fight to reduce rubbish.
Food
During our stay in Legian we ate at the following restaurants:
Mades Warung
Wayan and Friends
Mozzarella
Indo National
Ketuapat (our favourite and we had dinner their twice, romantic and the setting around the pool is divine, if you go remember to book a 'small house' which is a treat)
Seaside
Zanzsabar
Lemon Grass
Bali Beach Hut (lunch)
Ku De Ta (breakfast)
All the food was good save for the first venture to Indo National, my wife had the Chilli crab and has can happen with crab it was full of water and nothing else, we did go back a second time and the food was good.
Incidentally Indo National is closed until the 16th November if anyone is going over this week and looking for a feed there.
My mission was to compare and contrast as many different versions of Nasi Goreng as i could and on the first day of our stay managed to have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Roadwork's
The mess that is Jalan Legian from Jalan Melasti all the way to Seminyak is a danger zone, the foot path is being dug up and repaved on both sides of the road and a lot of the time you have no option but to share the road with the cars and bikes.
One day we walked from Seminyak back to Legian and it was a bit like Russian roulette, it didn't matter how many times you crossed the road in search of foot path, invariably you had to walk on the road or cross to the other side again.
This was even more dangerous at night as the gaping holes in the footpath are not lit and sometime not even taped off, a few too many bintangs and it could be curtains for the rest of the holiday.
On one occasion my wife slipped on the loose gravel but no damage was done apart from her ego.
I would hate to have a small child in a pusher and try to negotiate this mess, if you are in this situation, pay for your mother in law to come with you and look after the kids whilst you do the shopping, it will be easier and cheaper in the long run.
Shopping
We did the usual shopping, mostly for our 3 daughters who were at home disgusted with the fact that we didn't take them on this trip.
One thing i did notice was the improvement in the quality of DVDs from the lot we got last year.
So far except for 1 film every one of them has been excellent quality and even the countless neighbourhood friends that have borrowed some already also have commented on how good the quality is.
We came home with about 180 and the bulk of them bought from 4 Tune 8 in Jalan Legian, usual price.
Health
Now I have been known to be weak in the stomach on previous trips, and this time took Travel Bug which worked a treat, no stomach cramps etc save for a very mild case on our last day.
Nothing bothers my wife who even on a trip to India 20 years ago had no ill effects of eating over there.
Travel bug is a once a day tablet you start taking 5 days before you leave and continue every morning before breakfast whilst you are away, it is refrigerated in the Chemist but as soon as you start taking them it doesn't need refrigerating for a month.
They are made by the same people that make inner health plus, but it is a totally different formula.
Highly recommended and I wouldn't leave home without them.
General Stuff
Late October is a great time to visit Bali, the weather was good, no rain in 8 days and it is seemingly quiet, and most restaurants we ate at only had a handful of people in them.
The quirkiest thing I saw was in a shop in Poppies 2, I had to look twice when i saw a singlet that said NO I don't want a F8479ing Bemo, Massage Jiggyjig etc
I have not seen one of those for 20 years; it is the same old story, hang onto something for long enough and it will come back into fashion.
As it has been 8 years since my last trip the biggest difference i noted was the quality of dog in Bali, gone are the mangy dogs that seemed to be outside of every restaurant in years gone by, to be replaced by all different sorts of breeds on leashes being walked along the beach both morning and night.
The longest day
Our flight back to Mel with Jetstar was due to leave at 11pm on Sat the 31st and we spent 100K to use the Dewa lounge which offered a comfy seat and drinks whilst we waited to board.
The plane got away on time and winged its way to Melbourne ready for a landing at 7.35 am on Sunday the 1st November.
That was until the fog rolled in, we had two attempts at landing and i don't know how close we got to actually touching down (it felt bloody close) but both times we powered straight back up into the fog at a rapid rate of knots.
We had a window seat over the wing and the fog was so bad we couldn't see any part of the wing from our seat.
So we headed off to Sydney for hopefully a quick turnaround.
Now this is where i have to offer some suggestions to the ground crew and Jetstar operations.
We are people, not cargo and it wouldn't help to actually tell us what is going on rather than say nothing.
We landed in Sydney at 9 am and didn't lift off again until after 1 pm arriving in Mel at 2.30 in the afternoon, 7 hours after we were scheduled to.
As we landed people cheered and clapped!
Now I am the first to applaud safety standards and the redirection to Sydney, but please when we were told to get off the plane take all our hand luggage and go through the gell/ aerosol check straight away I just had to laugh.
Do they really think people manufacture gell and aerosol products on the flight home?
Now wait for it, oh by the way anyone that bought duty free in Denpasar before getting on the plane is going to have it confiscated when they get off and go through the aerosol security check!!
There is a lesson to remember right there, never buy duty free on your return until you land in Australia.
As everyone got off the plane and went through the security check point we were then told to go back to the same departure gate we exited and wait to board the plane again.
No one checked our names against a manifest or any list which caused a problem leaving Sydney, there were people on the flight that had connections to Sydney and it appears that instead of flying back to Melbourne and then back to Sydney they left us in Sydney and presumably got their luggage later.
When we all got back on the plane they had no idea who was there and who wasn't and whether to wait for the people who weren't there or not.
A further black mark for Jetstar ops, the pilots had used up there hours and had to be replaced which is perfectly understandable and the correct legal approach.
However the cabin crew who had to go back to Melb anyway offered to work the return trip to Melb to expedite our departure, after having worked from Melb to Bali and then Bali to almost Melb and then Sydney, a day of almost 20 hours.
The only condition they asked for was to be provided with a taxi from Tullamarine to home given the lack of sleep and potential danger when driving , so guessed what Jetstar ops said, NO, and therefore we had to wait for a new cabin crew.
I smiled at the original cabin crew as we finally got off the plane in Melb, as they slept in Star Class.
Thank you for treating us like humans and trying to get us back to where we belong in the shortest possible time.
In summary Bali was everything and more than I expected and we look forward to returning in the near future.