Background
This was my 7th trip to Bali. I travelled with my parents (a fit and 50's mother and frail and 70 father). We spent 10 days there all up, and as always we are sorry to be back home.
Flights
We flew Pacific Blue as usual, the only airline with direct flights out of Adelaide. The flight over was one of the worst experiences of my life, but though no fault of the airline - we had 3 truly revolting beasts of children in the row behind us, with parents who couldn't or wouldn't do anything to control them. The whole trip was spent with screaming, jumping on seats, kicking the back of our seats, grabbing our headrests and grabbing a handful of hair at the same time... our only saving grace was that we heard the parents telling another passenger that they were staying in Seminyak. If they were staying at our hotel, I just might have got straight on a flight back home.
The flight home was fine. I never enjoy a night flight, can't sleep and arrive home grumpy - but then I'd be grumpy to be leaving Bali anyway!
Accommodation
We stayed at the Febri's for the first time this trip. We had 2 interconnecting standard rooms, and paid US$52 per night per room.
There were good and bad points at Febri's. Our first impression wasn't great - we had requested an early check in and ground floor rooms. We couldn't do the early check in (and in fact it still wasn't done at 2pm, so we had to sit in the lobby for half an hour or so after we'd come back from lunch at Discovery). The rooms we were allotted were not only not on the ground floor, they were on the top floor, up 2 very steep flights of stairs. It doesn't bother me, but this was very difficult for my father to manage, particularly when it was wet and slippery.
The rooms themselves were pretty good - on the small side, but you expect that for 'standard' rooms, and that's why we booked the interconnecting. The air conditioners worked well, there were no plumbing problems, and there were empty bar fridges in each room (other than complimentary water), so we could stock up on our own supplies. There wasn't much space to store stuff though, no drawers beside the beds, no shelves in the wardrobes, so we kind of ended up with our stuff strewn everywhere by the end of the trip. The bathrooms were fine, and were quite large. The only problem was the shower curtain, which didn't go around the end of the bath. Every time someone turned the shower on, it sprayed all over the toilet cistern and toilet paper, which were at the end of the bath. Hilarious when someone else goes and uses the toilet after I've had a shower, not at all funny when it happens to me.
The pools were both good, the main pool is quite big, but we mostly used the small pool, which was close to our room and usually uninhabited when we wanted to use it about 5pm or so (once it was in the shade). The small pool was closed in our last couple of days, because it had gone green - pool filter malfunction I guess. One negative for the hotel is the size of their pool towels, a stupid thing to complain about I guess, but they're tiny. The towel was always soaked through well before the rest of me was dry!
The buffet breakfast was good. The varieties didn't change much from day to day, but that doesn't bother me, I eat the same thing everyday anyway. Everyday options included 2 cereals, brown and white bread/toast, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, hash browns, French toast, rice, baked beans, noodles, vegetables, chicken sausages and probably quite a bit that I've forgotten. The egg station also made fresh omelettes, fried eggs and waffles.
We had a couple of other meals at the hotel, and they were all fine, if not super exciting. I'm pretty sure it's the same menu as the Green Garden. The food is really slow to come out, but there were no problems with the freshness or quality though.
Shopping
I'm a shopaholic from way back, so Bali is a true paradise to me in so many ways. We shopped at many of our usual haunts, and made lots of good purchases as always:
DVDs - in the Jimmy Disc Centre on Padma St, just around the corner from Garlic Lane. We always get good quality discs from there.
Clothes & handbags - I probably picked up a couple of bits elsewhere, but the majority of my clothing came from Ketut's in Garlic Lane. I love her shop (and the fixed prices), we spent quite a lot of time rummaging in the 'warehouse' behind the closed roller door to find all the good stuff (...)
Homewares - we got some nice cushion covers, place mats and table runners at a little stall on Legian St, which is also fixed price. We've shopped there before and find them really nice to deal with. Our trip to Geneva was very fruitful this trip, we bought heaps of metal outdoor decorations, Christmas decorations, bowls, trays - you name it.
Carrefour - we didn't find so much at Carrefour this trip, they used to have these great earphones that I use with my iPod, but they're not stocking them anymore. We bought a few bits and pieces (mainly food), but nothing too exciting.
Markets - we shopped in various market stalls as well along the way - South Kuta, Poppies 2, Legian St, Garlic Lane, Melasti St. We bought a few items, but not very much. I find the traders starting the bargaining at ridiculous prices really testing on my patience, I think I've had enough of the bargaining side of things these days, I much prefer the fixed price places. Seriously, 150,000 for a Pandora bead? Give me a break!
Matahari & Kuta Square - my mum bought some baby stuff for her granddaughter at Matahari, and I bought some nice Nike's at Athlete's Foot. Most of the sports and surf stores were overly expensive, but Athlete's Foot had some great specials on - my mum got some New Balance sneakers for about $30.
Eating
We did lots of eating, as is our way in Bali. Our favourite place was Jesen's in Sangosari St. They have a massively long menu, so there was always something new to try. The prices were great (generally Rp40,000 - Rp60,000 for main meals), and we never had a bad meal there. I loved their mixed satay, so I went back for a few of those. Their staff are also wonderful, so friendly and easy to talk to. The street hawkers were a tad annoying though, they didn't really like to take no for an answer.
My other favourite in Bali is BreadTalk in Discovery. Their blueberry bread is devine. We also love A&W at Discovery. I've never eaten there, but their chocolate milkshakes (with vanilla softserve on top) are excellent.
We also ate at Febri's, which I mentioned above, Uncle Norms on Melasti St (which was a bit disappointing this trip... much more expensive, no cool towel on arrival, and so-so food), Kuta Townhouses (very nice... also love the staff there), Benno's in Sanur (love the location on the beach)... I can't think where else we ate. I had some coffees (no, many coffees) at Haagen Dazs in Kuta Square. My dad loves the ice cream there, and he'd want to at 48,000Rp for 2 scoops, but the cappuccinos were brilliant. Best Rp22,000 I spent.
Massages
There were many, many massages had this trip. We had a complimentary 2 hour treatment with our booking at Febri's - a one hour foot massage and a one hour body massage. They were excellent massages, and the massage rooms are top class. I would have gone back for more if it wasn't so expensive - Rp176,000 for a body massage was a bit steep for me.
Luckily, a few shops down the road from Febri's, I came across Mango Spa. My first massage there was excellent, so I didn't see any reason to go anywhere else. This is a sort of mid range spa I suppose, I've had some not-so-great experiences in the super cheap places in the past, so middle of the road suits me. One of the ladies at Mango was particularly good, so I went to see her (Ina) as often as I could. I had a few Balinese massages (Rp80,000), a couple of foot massages (Rp70,000), a manicure (Rp70,000), a pedicure (Rp80,000), and a facial (Rp100,000). Apart from using whitening scrub on me in the manicure and pedicure (seriously, I am the whitest person this side of Antarctica, why on earth would you try to make me whiter??) every treatment I had there was top notch. Having said that, my mum had a manicure there which wasn't so good. The manicure itself was fine, but the flowers on her nails were incredibly ugly. She was so disappointed with it we ended up walking up to Kuta Square and getting it redone about an hour later.
I think that's about it for this trip. It seemed busier than that while we were there! Heading out to different shops all the time can do that to you though. We didn't take any big day trips this time, other than one day over in Sanur (which definitely seems to be coming to life a lot more now too - lots of Dutch and German people over there). I love it in Sanur, I can hire a bike and ride along the beach and through the streets without fear of being squished in the traffic. We used to spend about half our stay in Sanur in years gone past, but we find it too much of a pain to pack everything up and move to a new hotel these days.'
Thanks for reading my very lengthy drivel :)