Bali September 2010-09-29
Travelling - Hubby and I, Sis & friend, Newlyweds and Dad aged 74.
What a first day! With Virgin's computer crashing we were not sure that we were even going to get to Brisbane let alone Bali. We had been in Sydney for a wedding and then were going to fly out on Monday, newlyweds flew Garuda & Sis went jet* on Sunday, so they were ok, we were at the airport at 4am and finally got checked in at 6.30, they managed to send our bags through which was great. Landed in Brisbane, got on the air train, straight through customs, whizzed through duty free, got to gate with 5 minutes to board! Then it took another half hour to change boarding passes, but finally we were away 45 minutes late which wasn't bad considering the chaos that it was!
I worked out how to not pack so much, I brought over a 20kilo suitcase of donations, gave it to the Bali Kids organisation. They had someone come past & pick it up.
Landed in Bali and had booked Murti for VIP, which after the long day we had I was grateful for. It is a great service and I will use it again when coming in on an afternoon flight. Within 40 minutes of landing we were at Sanur Beach Villas having our first Bintang.
That night we headed to The Beach Cafe on Sanur Beach and had a wonderful meal, the tasting plates were delicious, my dad and I ordered Paella, with the rice served in a coconut! The presentation of the meals wowed everyone! Finished off with a yummy Mojito
Day 2 - Raced into Hardies to get some supplies, shampoo, soap, red bulls, nibbles etc.
Then we headed into Kuta. I loved the looks on the newbies faces, they reckoned that they had sore necks as their heads were turning every which way to catch everything. 4 on a bike impossible! Then they saw 5!! Exchanged money outside Martahari , 1 dollar = 8400 rp.
Shopped at Martahari, Bagus watches, Adidas shop, and some stalls along the way to Poppies for lunch. Our little oasis' in the hustle of Kuta, love Poppies. I had a fantastic Nasi Goreng here, the lamb curry was yummy, and the garlic prawns divine!
We headed back to SBV for a swim and then got picked up for our dinner at Jimbaran Bay. Yes I succumbed to going here and I'm glad we did. Our driver took us to Blue Ocean Seafood's. Great staff & service, we had a table right at the front of the beach and watched a magnificent sunset. Took some awesome photos too!
We pigged out on jumbo prawns, lobsters, calamari & mussels, served with garlic spinach and rice.
It was around $300 for the 7 of us but we felt it was worth it!
Afterwards we stopped at the Cat & Fiddle in Sanur which was a blast!
Day 3 - We had our tailor meet us this morning and everybody placed an order. We then headed into Waterbom Park. Felt like we were home, Aussies everywhere!! The boys went on the Climax slide and stated that it was awesome!! We didn't end up staying long as the park was packed and the lines for the slides were half hour at least. Ate lunch and left!! It is very different when you have kids travelling with you, but we were not in the mood to queue for the slides.
Headed to Jenny's fixed price shop and stocked up and then walked through Discovery for a while, before heading back to Sanur. That night we ate at Piccadilly, the hot meals were great but we girls ordered a salad which was not so good. We then headed over to the Ducks Nutz for drinks, and to listen to Benny perform. That was a great night. Margaritas' only 55,000rp which meant a headache the next day though!!
Day 4 - More shopping!! Started to walk from SBV heading towards Hardies, stopped off at Neesa laundry to get some washing done. Love how it only costs around $6 for a bag full and they smell so nice!! We got as far as the Hyatt before we decided it was too hot and jumped into a Bemmo to take us, 5000rp per person. Stopped off at a couple of shops that we always call into. Then headed towards the beach and went to Tootsies for lunch. Food was ok.
Went into the Tootsies shop behind the restaurant and shopped up, the fixed prices are sooooo cheap here. My sis bought a Batik throw in a patchwork style for 200,000rp. Very nice.
Sunnies 35k, long sleeved Bintang t's 35k, dresses 35k.
All good until you walk outside and the other beach sellers attack you, they can get quite nasty!
I think that they would stop me from going back to Tootsies again they make it an unpleasant experience.
The girls then got picked up by our driver and taken to this place which is basically a garage filled with bags & wallets, heaven!! We went off!! We were then going to Geneva but the traffic was bad and stopped at Biarritz instead. Much cleaner and easier to choose items. Managed to fill up a trolley in no time!
That night we met more friends at the Mercure beach bar for cocktails and then headed over to Kesumas for dinner. Ron had taken the boys to the Fish markets at Jimbaran early in the morning and they picked up 4 lobsters weighing 6 kilo for 1 million rp!! The Kesumas crew cooked them up for us and we added whole snapper, king prawns and gado gado to our feast, it was yummy!! All in all for 7 people, we had spent $33 a head and had a wonderful seafood meal!
Day 5 - We decided on a lazy day around Sanur today. I got my nails done at De'Anti, French nails pedicure and manicure for 150,000 rp. Nice girls and clean rooms. We headed to the ducks nutz for lunch today, the boys stayed and watched the footy final & we girls headed back to the SBV pool to relax. We were so relaxed we decided to eat in and had Chinese delivered from Fortune Cookie. We ordered so much we couldn't eat it all, and only $10 per head, ended up sharing it with everyone at SBV. Even our fortunes were true!! Another fun night by the pool, a few drinks and lots of laughs. We all loved the fact we could do this here at SBV, in a big hotel you are limited. We all had a ball and enjoyed meeting new people from all around the world.
Day 6 - The newlyweds last day. We headed over to Seminyak Square in the morning, and the markets were on. Some really nice stuff, clothing and jewellery. Some gorgeous baby clothes too!
We then walked up JL Oberoi and down to Bali Deli. Stopped in at lots of stores on the way, saw lots that are mentioned on the forum often. Went into Joy jewellery, but it was so expensive!
We found Divine Diva factory outlet, the girls loved it here, lots of cool tops and dresses.
Had a look in Havelli homewares, lovely store I will have to return.
Lunch at Bali Deli was great, we all ordered from the sandwich range, and then got some takeaway cakes which were yummy also. That night we ate at Cafe Jepun in Sanur, the staff & food were fantastic and the prices so cheap! Sadly the newlyweds Bali Holiday was over, they now headed over to Hawaii!!
Day 7 - the rest of the group all left today, Sis left at lunchtime so we let Dad choose today's itinerary and headed into Kuta. He wanted to go to Martahari and then lunch at Poppies!! He ordered the fried snapper and stated it was delicious! We then headed back to Hardies in Sanur for his last minute shop. He & hubby returned to SBV, I stayed and had reflexology done on my hands & feet. OMG! It was wonderful, for 33,000 rupiah, I had an hour of massage on my tootsies & fingers, fantastic. This was at BJs?, the massage place on your left as you walk into Hardies.
We had dinner at The Village, a volcano and normal pizza. Yum Yum. The volcano pizza is amazing!
Hubby & I escorted Dad to the airport; as he was flying on his own he was a bit concerned. We were stopped at the entry & told if we were not flying then we could not go in. After some talk, it was decided that if the guard helped us we would 'help' him at the end! So in we went, took Dad to check in, then up to customs and of course that was as far as we could go. Thank you so much to the 2 lovely ladies who took dad under their wing and offered to help him through. The even sat in the row behind him on the plane. I know Dad was very relieved to know that he had someone he could ask if he needed help. We were stopped at the exit by a different guard who could not speak English well; I was getting a bit worried as he wasn't going to let us out. The 1st guard appeared in the doorway and let us out thankfully, hubby slipped him a 50 and he was happy. Unbelievable!! That is the first time I have come across that in Bali. Opens your eyes a bit.
And now hubby and I have a week on our own, a relaxing time is planned. We have hired bikes and go for a ride in the mornings. Will update JBR next week when we return! Thanks for reading!