Went to Bali for the first time with my partner for 7 nights.
It was raining when we got there and we had a small wait on the tarmac for the bus to ferry us to the terminal, but apart from that paying our VOA and going through customs would have taken us no more than ten minutes, thanks also to the fact that our plane was around half full.
Onwards to the Risata where we stayed for the 7 nights.
We found this hotel to be very clean and the gardens and grounds were beautiful, our room was certainly clean and adequate with a ground floor balcony looking out to the gardens.
The staff were very friendly and obliging.
It was my girlfriends birthday and we were very chuffed to come back to our room one night to find a birthday card and a birthday cake in the fridge compliments of the hotel staff.
Bubba-Gumps was certainly a fun eating experience and we found ourselves gravitating towards the Stadium Sports Bar now and then for some simple relatively cheap meals which were always really enjoyable. Romantic candle light seafood dinner on the beach at Damos Cafe at Kedonganan beach was the highlight, such a beautiful setting and great seafood and we were treated like royalty and gf was treated to free birthday cocktails by the owner.
The Blue Planet restaurant in Kuta did not leave a great impression on us, food was very average and gf's meal came out 25 mins after my own meal and nobody there could have cared less, but alas it didnt dampen our mood :-) .
We did the QuadBike riding with SeeBali Adventures and had an absolute blast, great value for money..damn good muddy fun!
Waterbom park was awesome, nothing quite like a lungfull of water at the end of the SMASHDOWN! ;)
Lots of great shopping at Discovery and markets alike, I will admit to being a little intimidated at the idea of bartering and tended to stick to the fixed price places for the first few days before trying my hand at haggling, was fine once I knew what things were worth and all part of the Bali experience. How many Bintang singlets is to many? lol
Low points of our holiday were very few, but I was disappointed that we were hassled by a couple of those people with clipboards doing those surveys while we were quietly reflecting right in front of the Bali Memorial one night.
The other low point (but funny in retrospect) was my girlfriend discovering firsthand that some parts of the sidewalk drains have missing or broken manhole covers.. thankgod we took an extensive first aid kit.
The flight back to Perth was painless, took less then half an hour from the time we got off the plane to clear customs etc and get outside.
Well I hope I didn't bore you all with my 1st timer JBR.
Thanks for reading.
I'll be back!