We left Perth for Bali on Sunday morning, flying with Jetstar at 9.30am and arrived 25 mins early, can't complain about them, a good flight back too. Had booked vip voa with Hadi, so glad we did as not many waiting in queue for voa but the immigration lines were crazy, we were out quickly of course but people said they were in queues for an hour and a half, others we talked to arriving on different days waited more than 2 and a half hrs, geeezzzzz !!!! We met Hadi outside and I was surprised that she is female, for some reason I imagined her as a bloke, lol,
Our first week was spent at the Masa Inn in Poppies 1, great little hotel in a great location. Had meals in a few of the restaurants in Poppies 1, Treehouse, Kedins, Secret Garden, and Bamboo Corner more than a few times, not a bad meal in any of them. The black rice pudding at Bamboo Corner is to die for. Other meals at Billy's Bar, good fun as always, and Garlic Lane Cafe was pretty good too. My favourite treat in our first week was high tea at Biku restaurant in Seminyak, yum! It was served on Royal Albert China, a two tiered cake plate with cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches, quiche, cakes, scones and a biscuit. Surrounding this was jam and cream for the scones and a dish of strawberries and cream. You choose what type of tea to drink with it. The food was top class, the scones were the best I have ever tasted, they just melted in your mouth. The cost was about $9, well worth it, even though the taxi ride made it a bit more expensive.
We did the usual at Sam's bar in front of the Inna Kuta Hotel, nice cold bintangs and had nails manicured and painted, also bought a few things from the ladies and took them some bra's.
We went on a Sunset Dinner Cruise with Bali Hai, it cost about 330.000 each and was ok, had a buffet meal followed by a cabaret, then disco or live music up on deck. Not that many people on it and nobody at all dancing afterwards. The drinks were the most expensive of anywhere that we went and cocktails quite ordinary imo.
We did the usual shopping to take back for the family, shorts, t,shirts, dresses etc. At Matahari, ketut,s and Dianne,s fixed price shops, also the beach and various shops, markets and stalls, including Carrefore.
The exchange rate for the first week in Kuta was around 7.700 but for our last 4 days in Sanur it dropped to the lowest at 7.200.
Went up to Lovina to visit Helen Flavel,s Learning Centre and our sponsor child and family. They have now built a multifunction centre, which allows them to complete all the laundry and cooking for the boarders with much more space and comfort than before. Great job they all do. Helen was there and it was nice to finally meet her, she is a lovely warm woman and is certainly very dedicated to the foundation as are all the team, they are all a fabulous bunch of people. We went to market and bought food etc for the family and shoes, ceremony clothing for our sponsor child. It was a lovely visit and is something we always look forward to doing. Usually we stay up there for the night but this time decided to go back to Kuta, we had a good driver who only asked for 350.000 for the day, we gave him 400.000 to be fair.
Sunday we checked out of the Masa and got a driver to call in to Carrefore for bacon and off to Sanur Beach Villas. WE'RE BACK.... I shouted as we got through the entrance. Yessssss, it's like coming home. After greetings etc .we got ready for the Sunday session at the Duck's Nutz, we went with Ron and a few of the other people staying in the Villa's. What a great afternoon we had, the music was good and some people got up and sang and more than a few had a dance. We ordered a platter of cold meats etc. to nibble on, very tasty, ham, salami, pickles, pate, cheese and crusty bread, just the perfect thing to go with icy cold bintangs. We had a look at the hotel rooms too, they look ok and have a pool in the centre of rooms, it's a good location, handy for shopping and the beach, and reasonably priced.
While at Sanur we went to the Beatles Museum to deliver a couple of things that we came across in OZ, a set of Beatles Cassettes and a cd, it was empty when we went in but full when we left. Percy, the chap who owns it came in when we were there and was very appreciative of us taking him additions to his collection and insisted on giving us both a Beatles T.shirt, which was lovely as we didn't expect anything.
We went to the Cat and Fiddle with Maree and Peter on Tuesday night, Irish night, it was good fun with the band playing and the owners joining in, the food was good too, Beef and Guiness Pie, mash and mushy pies for me, yum. On another night we went to the Fortune Cookie, a very nice Chinese Restaurant with Ron and Irma and joined by Maree and peter.
We met some lovely people at the Villa's and had many laughs, there was Karan and Boyd, Trudi and Gary, Maree and Peter, Renae, Jarrad, Brittany and Mich, Anna and Jeff, and Mandy. On our last night we all went out for dinner at the Duck's nutz, with a few others joining in there were 19 of us, originally we had booked for 8, haha, it was a good night and I didn't hear anyone complain about their meals, only hiccup was that 2 people had wanted their steak cooked more well done, but didn't send it back. I had pork chop with mustard sauce and John had Mie Goreng, both were good. A big thank you to Ron, Irma, Komong, Rosie and Kadek at SBV for making out stay once again comfortable and fun, we will of course be back.
All too soon our 11 nights past and once again it was time to go home. We went into the Prada Lounge again, we did have a look at the Dewi but the food was quite sparse and all they had to drink was wine and juices. The Prada had spirits, draught beer, juices, hot drinks and a good selection of hot and cold food including soup, well worth 100.000rp.
We came across 2 scams while there, one was when buying phone credit, I bought 50.000rp worth and the guy wanted 55.000, I had already given him the 50 and John Just handed over another 5 when he heard, but I said whoa...what do you mean ? he said that 45.000 worth costs 50.000, haha, so of course I said this makes no sense at all and argued, so he just shrugged and said ok and handed back the extra 5000. Then at Denpasar airport as the luggage went through scanner they said you have lighters, I said yes, we had 10 novelty lighters. Last year we bought more for family and friends, then in Perth they took some off us as they said we are only allowed 5 each, which we didn't know. Anyway as I was familiar with the ruling I was confident that we were ok. The guy saw what we had and said only can take 1 each, because of Gas etc., so once again I argued that OZ customs say people can have 5 each. After me repeating this 5 times he shrugged and said ok, put 4 in other suitcase. I smiled and said thank you sweetly, he then asked if we had any Australian gifts for him, so I smiled again and said no, we only have gifts from Bali and walked off, haha, good try I suppose but many people not knowing would have just surrendered 8 lighters to him and I guess he would have sold them.
So ,another wonderful Bali trip behind us, and hopefully many more to come. We had rain a few times during the night and only twice while we were out during the day, not too humid and often a little cooling breeze at night. Hope I didn't bore you all too much.
Cheers
Maureen