Short trip March 6-13th. Flew Jetst*r 5.35pm left on time arrived 40mins early, paid VOA, onto immagrassi with a 5 min wait. One day these guys will smile & welcome us into their country, their so straight, angry faced IMO. Driver waiting as he was at the airport from an earlier drop off. Great start to our holiday. Pouring with rain on arrival but sunny most days,
Zen Villas Sanur, 3 nights Serenity Villa F. Beautiful pool villa with everything you need provided & much more.
The staff were all very nice, met Aussie managers, great quite location once you find out the quickest route through to the main street in Sanur. See separate review on here & TA.
Monday - Checked out area, had massages, pedicure/manicure. Lunch at Café Batu Jimbar, lovely food. Had a look in a room at Peeneda Hotel for friends stay in November. Storm rolled in at sunset set so sat on balcony watching lightening & rain.
Tues - off to Ubud on rented scooter from Villas. Great ride taking in the sites stopping whenever it suited us. Massage, shopping in markets, lunch at Casa Luna. Dinner at Bonsai Café back in Sanur.
Wed - early morning walk watching kids go off to school & locals going about their morning chores. Visited the Turtle Conservation Centre on Serangan Island. Credit to these people trying there best to save & educate people about the turtles in local waters. This island (although accessed by road) is a little look at local life of a fishing village, very dirty, rubbish every where. There is actually an aquarium then a bit further down the road is the turtle conservation area. The guys here were very informative & I had some photos taken holding adult & baby turtles. Unfortunately there were no turtles ready to be released while I was there but that would have topped off my visit. Do not expect an Australian type of conservation/marine park. This is a basic environment with basic resources all for only a donation & a chat.
Moved over to Kusnadi Hotel Legian - 4 nights Deluxe room 201. Very nice, budget (470,000 Rp p/n including breakfast & tax) traditional Balinese hotel. The hotel is set in beautiful gardens, friendly staff & a nice pool with basic breakfast. An American breakfast & cappuccino coffee can be ordered for extra. There are a large number of rooms here although you wouldn't know it by just looking around the pool area.
See separate review on here & TA.
Rest of the week spent shopping, eating, massages, visiting old friends, a trip to Denpasar & a few Bintangs.
Ate at La Monde, Swell, Tree House, Yutz, Bush Ranger, Wali Warung, Wayan & Friends, Ours & a night out at Billy's to name a few. Had some local tucker from the ladies carrying the baskets on their heads. You have got to try this, rice with a variety of little plastic bags with veg's, crispy pork, sauces, beans etc, mixed up on the brown paper & eaten with the hands.
Bali was quieter then July, Sept, Oct but I liked it this way. The main roads were still busy with cars crawling at times but the scooters were freely moving.
Was informed by family in Aussie of the Tsunami alert following the earthquake in Japan. We had actually had a small earthquake off Bali during the night before waking some guest & staff. Shortly after the bars & hotels had the TV on the Japan situation talking about the tsunami alert but this was soon down graded & all went about as normal. I went to see the beach the next day with some areas closed to swimming the waves were big & messy. I have never seen Kuta/Legian/Seminyak beach so empty! As the weather had changed we had wind, rain & a very cloudy day.
Used the hotel driver as transfer to airport for the 10.10pm flight back to Sydney (25 mins drive). Flight on time slept most of the flight back out through customs quickly.
Another great, but short trip to Bali courtesy of Jetst*r's 2 for 1 deal booked last year.
Cheers