Arrived at Kuta Townhouse around 1ish, after a little of a nightmare for the driver trying to navigate the gang between the two poppies! I'm not 100% sure he'd been down there before either as he is from Sanur.
First impressions for me of the Townhouses......all I could think of what are all the rave reviews about? This was not really what I was expecting. Looking out from the reception desk I felt a little overwhelmed and not all that confident that I'd chosen well. After the spaciousness and relaxed feeling of the Tegal Sari, the Townhouses seemed very modern and closed in. There were a few sunbeds around the pool, but not a lot of people. During our stay we rarely saw many people around the pool.
I had booked a deluxe room with two bathrooms and had sent various emails leading up to our stay, one was requesting an extra bed in our room as none of us ladies really wanted to sleep with each other if we could get away with it. Another was for a late check-out. Andrew the manager replied to my emails with wait and see when we arrive re the late check out and no problems about the extra bed in the room....he never mentioned a cost.
When at check-in we queried the extra bed, we were then informed of extra cost of 150,000rp per night, and when I queried the late check-out they said that the deluxe room was booked but we could have a studio apartment for half price (266,000rp) till 7pm. We said that was fine, but declined the extra bed. We felt that made the price of the apartments out of our budget. In hindsight, if we'd realized that we would not be getting the extra bed we'd have found another hotel that would accommodate us better.
The apartments are ok themselves...maybe could be a little cleaner, the main bathroom was pretty grotty and the lounge could have had a good wipe over, it was very marked with dirt and food in places. The towels very very thin. Maybe we were just unlucky. Was a lovely big fridge stocked full of bintangs, but plenty of room for our soft drinks to drink with our duty free. LW and I drew the lucky straw to sleep in the twin room and I can't complain about my bed. The aircon in the apartments worked well and stayed on whilst we away so was lovely to walk into a very cool room after shopping. Would I stay again at the Townhouses, no probably not and I'd be doubtful any of the other girls would either. Not having staying in Kuta before, I did like the location though.
Walked to Poppies 2 to the Bagus Pub for a cold bintang and some nasi/mee goreng. Needed to change some money, in the past visits we often use the money changer near bemo corner as we've never had any problems with them. We did so again this visit, they have a notice on their window saying they are moving around the corner beginning of the New year. The rate whilst we in Bali was roughly 8650rp.
Other than shopping we didn't really do much of interest....Kuta was just a shopping trip for Christmas presents. I had spent a reasonable amount of time perusing previous JBR's and had gained a lot of information on the costing of handbags, t shirts, shorts, sunnies etc so we all had a rough idea of how much we wanted to pay. For a change I felt that I wasn't really ripped off on any of my purchases and really pleased with some of the handbags.
We ate one night at Lucky Day Restaurant and Pub in Seminyak, most of us had something very similar to Nasi Campur and it was delicious. On my last visit with my husband we also had a meal there, it was a little quiet then but this time the cliental has really picked up and the place was just about packed, only a few tables spare. I could highly recommend meals here.
The following night we ate at Mini Bar and Restaurant in Tuban. Mini Restaurant has been a family favourite for a number of years. We think their chilli crab is the best in Bali and always go back for at least one meal. The crabs are on ice out the front and you get to choose which ones you'd like. CB does not like chilli and had a large BBQ crab. She said it was also very nice.
We had a night at Legends, was very quiet not alot of people so we had to make our own fun and had a great time. Caught a bluebird taxi back to Poppies 2..... the driver was very strange, he talked like he was on drugs, none of us sure if he was taking the p*** or not.
I spent one day in Seminyak, my sister was also visiting Bali with a large group of girls from Singapore, so as I rarely see her we spent one day together browsing in Seminyak. On the way home I decided to be very brave and caught a motorbike back to the Townhouses. Was a blast and lots of fun.....never done it before and talked the other girls into doing it to garlic lane that evening. LW not overly confident, but says it was lots of fun and would recommend doing it at least once.
JB & CB went to Seminyak on our last day for a spot of silver shopping, on the way back a motorbike ran up the back end of them in the taxi. LW & I actually saw the accident as we were walking along the footpath. The motorbike driver went flying but was ok, but I'd imagine he had a nasty headache. There was a large dent in the bumper.
Had our last meal at Un's, the beef rending was a little ordinary, but the margaritas very nice and a very reasonable price also. Love the little extras they give, a mini slushy and a chicken hamburger thing with 3 different sauces at no extra charge. None of us had been to Un's before and it now will be on my list to do on the next visit.
I'm lucky enough to be visiting Bali once again end of January, this time the family and grandparents are joining me, we are staying at the Andari Villas in Seminyak. So will do a report on that on our return.
Paid 100,000 for the Prada Lounge at the airport....worth it we thought. Flight back to Perth was uneventful....I hate doing those late flights. Arrived into Perth about 25min early....whizzed through immigration and customs with no dramas and out in the car within about 40min of landing.