We had a great week in Bali from March 18th - March 25th. So good in fact that we're planning to go back next year - yeeha! We had a very lazy week - swim in the morning, breakfast, shopping then lunch, a massage, maybe a nanna nap and then dinner.
Weather
We got a bit of rain during the nights occasionally, but there was only one short shower during the day for the whole week. There were some nice, almost cool breezes about on both Kuta and Ubud, but still hot and humid as always.
Accommodation
We stayed at the Bali Padma - we've stayed there 3 times before and it's still just as enjoyable. The gardens are fabulous, and the breakfast is annoyingly good -it's really easy to make a complete pig of yourself. The room was great - I asked for and got a quiet one, with both a bath and separate shower. It's not a small intimate experience but the staff are friendly and it certainly does resort style very well. It's a good location too, next to the beach with lots of shops and restaurants just up the street.
I'll put a detailed review up on Trip Advisor (can I say that here?!).
Eating
We didn't find a good Australian-style pizza - the few we tried before giving up were pretty light on toppings, more European.
Mozarellas - there are two Mozarellas, both with the same menu - one on Jalan Padma where we had lunch and dinner and one across from the beach on Jalan Pantai Legian where we had lunch on our last day (this one would be great for a sunset dinner). I found the food really good (I had ravioli with blue cheese sauce, duck breast with orange sauce, chicken quesadillas, crème caramel and chocolate mousse - no, not at the same meal). The meals were well presented, and the service was mostly good. They also have a great range of mixed fruit drinks, one of Bali's great pleasures for me. Apart from irritatingly loud music and one slightly grumpy waitress, I think this was one of the best.
Kori's - still great atmosphere but I found their menu was pretty heavy on meat and the quality was not consistent - some dishes were really subtle with lots of flavour, others were pretty basic although still nice. Presentation however was great. They do have one drink with sherbet in it that is very good.
Aromas - sadly Aroma's vegetarian restaurant is no more - it's been pulled down and is just an empty lot now.
There's lots of restaurants in all price ranges along Jalan Pantai Legian that runs along the beach north of the Padma - we had one meal at the O-ce-n Hotel at Legian/Seminyak and that wasn't too bad but pretty pricey. The next night we paid half the amount at another place just next to it (sorry didn't note down its name) and the food was really good.
Hitana Restaurant at the Niksoma hotel is on that strip too - good food, good location and excellent service.
We ate lunch at a few of the many little warungs around which serve Indo dishes like gado-gado. Not sure about their hygiene but the food was tasty and very cheap.
Mannekepis on Jalan Legian/Raya Seminyak) - this has really good French (Belgium actually) style food. They also have jazz some nights of the week. We went there on an Elvis night and it was really good, very vibey.
Shopping
I walked almost the length of Jalan Legian from down in Kuta almost up to Seminyak (which it confusingly becomes Jalan Raya Seminyak) and I can report that in general, the price, quality and individuality rises as you go from Kuta up past Legian and towards Seminyak - the ‘middle of the road' starts when Jalan Legian crosses Jalan Melasti. That's not to say that Kuta doesn't have some nice shops, it's just there's more of the older style market stall shops where you can bargain for Bintang singlets and cheap watches. Travelling north, it tends more towards fixed price, airconditioned shops selling linen clothes and up-market house accessories. Of course there's lots more to buy than what I've mentioned but it gives you an idea.
Being a bit of a linen/cotton clothing fan, I tended towards the north and found some beautiful things, although with high prices for Bali - $80-$100 for a shirt, for example. Having said that, they are really well designed and made, and to buy them in Sydney, if you could find them, would definitely cost twice or three times the price, so I did lash out on a few occasions. There's also lots of leather bags ranging in price up to about $250 - again great design and craftsmanship. Definitely have to expand the budget next time.
I also got some nice floaty silk dresses - not sure if it's real silk but it's not sticky or too clingy like synthetic usually is so maybe it is. They cost RP400,000 ($44) but that was from an airconditioned shop - I saw more around in more markety shops that might have been cheaper.
We got a few paintings from a place on Jalan Sahadewa (Garlic Lane). It was near the Padma end, on the western side, just a little alley that expands out into a family compound. It's run by Made Reggae and his wife, and we got a large coconut tree painting and medium forest scene for RP600,000 ($65). I think this was a bit much but he didn't want to bargain much and I liked them enough to spend it.
Speaking of which, I noticed less bargaining this time -the cheaper shops still dropped their prices but even then some people would drop their price once and then stay at that.
Also some shoes are not made of leather but a very realistic synthetic. They feel nice and soft but you can see the underneath material in the seams and when you wear them, sweaty feet - erk!
We went to Matahari in Kuta but I didn't really like what they had. They didn't have a wide range of the green ceramics and they were expensive - I got what I wanted from a shop around the corner for half the price.
Last time we went to Bali, I bought some beautiful gold jewellery at Jonathon Gallery - sadly they have closed so I went on a search for similar items. Guided by forumites, I went to Denpasar to the gold street there (Hasanudin). They only had ‘status' jewellery - lurid yellow 22KT, highly decorated with colourful stones, not at all what I like. We also tried around Celuk, well, one place our driver took us to, but the small amount of gold they had was tacky and badly made, again not what I was after. I gave up and stocked up on silver instead.
Silver, as always, is really well priced. I like slightly ornate, old-fashioned kind of stuff and I got quite a few nice things at Silverberry - they've got two shops, both on Jalan Legian, one between Jalan Padma and Double Six and one a bit further north from Double Six.
Laundry
We took a small load to a laundry on Jalan Padma - go left out of the hotel driveway and it's the first one you see (on the southern side). It's down the back of a little arcade of shops and you have to run the gauntlet of sellers to get there but I thought it was worth it - it cost RP50,500 ($5-$6) for a medium batch of mixed washing, including some items that had to be washed separately. We put it in one morning and picked it up the next, nice and clean and smelling good. Some items shrank (not their fault I know, clothes dryers aren't kind to knit fabrics), so be careful what you put in.
Cooking class
We went to the Honeymoon Guesthouse cooking class in Ubud. It was the Tuesday class which includes a visit to the Ubud markets (early start at 8.00am, took us less than an hour to get there from Legian). I really enjoyed the markets, although it's pretty dirty with unrefrigerated meat, so if you're not too fussed on that kind of thing, give it a miss. We got to buy spices really cheaply ($5 for about 45 vanilla beans!), and got some block peanut sauce you can mix with hot water to give you a taste of Bali when you get back home. They're cheaper during the tour because you're with a Balinese person, Oleg in our case). No problems getting these back into Australia even in unsealed bags - Customs just xrayed my bag and didn't even want to see them.
The cooking class itself was good - it involved a lot more watching than cooking really but it was delicious food and it was good to talk to other travellers. We've done a class last time we were in Bali and were pleased to see they had the same hibiscus tea, really nice. Janet took the class although she swept in late and exited early, leaving her Balinese staff to take up the slack. She's very interesting and theatrical but gave the impression of not really being a warm person. Still, credit to her - she's set up some successful businesses in Ubud as well as raising four kids.
Massages and beauty treatments
There's any amount of little shops offering massages and pedicures and manicures.
We went to Kenko on Jalan Padma (up the Jalan Legian end). They do a good foot massage and a pummel-style back massage. It's mostly guys doing the massages but they're clothes-on massages so your dignity is safe, and you get less gossip. What's really good is the ginger tea you get afterwards, bitey and sweet at the same time. I asked one of the guys what was in it and he looked at me like I was nuts - he went into the back room and came back to show me a lump of palm sugar and a knob of ginger. Doesn't get simpler than that.
I highly recommend Ambiente on Jalan Sahadewa (Garlic Lane) at the Jalan Padma end. Possibly the best facial I've had and that's compared to the pricey ones in Sydney. It's not one of the little shopfronts, it's more like a ‘real' spa and has really nice products. Unlike any other facial I've had, my skin felt good for ages. RP130,000 ($15) for an hour and they do lots of other pampering treatments.
Necessary information
For those who are interested in that kind of thing, I encountered one squat toilet in my travels, which was in one of the little warungs we ate at.
Airport lounges
We went to the Prada Lounge - RP130,000 ($15) for Jetstar passengers. Pretty awful food - very elderly samosas, sausage curry, highly coloured cakes and wilted salad. Probably best to eat at the restaurant before going to the lounge (it looked OK but we didn't eat there). The lounge did get crowded as the flight times approached and the comfy lounges got taken up pretty quickly. There's a smoking aquarium and a massage area. It's a little hard to find - just keep heading towards the easterly departure gates and you should find it. We weren't told when our flight was loading so it's best to keep an eye on the time.
Flights
We flew with Jetstar and both flights were on time. Going over we had one of the noisiest flights I've ever had (day flight) - people were basically having a party, lots of talking back and forth over seats and people up and down around the cabin. Luckily I had my earplugs and didn't want to watch the movie on the overhead screens. The flight coming back was, as always, an overnight flight and somewhat quieter.
I had purchased an extra seat coming back to have a bit more room on the overnight flight - the Webjet Help Desk allocated it and our two other seats to us before we left. I had to explain that a couple of times to the check-in person at Denpasar but in the end it was fine. Unfortunately I still didn't sleep so we might try Star Class next time.
Service was OK, although they got us up a few hours early to serve breakfast on the way back and managed to skip a couple of rows. There were no foot rests (vital I think on a long haul flight) and the blankets were an extra charge - I'm glad I took an extra scarf as it was really cold. But the seats reclined (I had heard they didn't) and the hot food (when they had it) was surprisingly good (gotta pay for it).
I booked through Webjet and they charged a $50 booking fee for nothing - I could have got the same airfare on the Jetstar website without the fee. Lesson learned.