In Reply to: A quick trip.. posted by ibujan on Saturday, 3. September 2011 at 20:12 Bali Time:
We have been to Bali many times over 22 years, and I have never before posted a report after any of our trips. However, this time we did a few different things, and they were all things I picked up from reading other people's JBR's, so I thought I would add my thoughts.
The first great tip we got was to do with our Air Asia booking. Our flight was rescheduled, to leave a few hours later than our original booking. I had read on the forum that they would change our flights if we were not happy with the rescheduling, so I phoned them (using a quick method of getting through, another Forum tip)and yes, they changed our flights, so we ended up with an extra day and a half with no extra cost.(Apart from an extra nights accomodation).
The extra night we spent in Sanur, hired bikes and spent a few hours riding through the back streets, and along the beach path, stopping every now and then for refreshments!
Once we got to Legian the following day, my husband decided to hire a bike and see where he could go. I thought it would be a nightmare riding bikes on the streets there, but I went with him the following day, and we rode along the beach road to Seminyak. I had read great things about the Biku Tea House, so after asking a few people for directions we ended up there. It was an easy ride, and the traffic was not bad at all. We couldn't fit in the High Tea (which looked amazing), but did manage scones, jam and cream, with a milkshake - delicious.
We love to eat at smaller, more local type restaurants/warungs, but find that they are getting fewer each time we visit. Our favourite is Warung Murah, in Jalan 66, and we were lucky enough to get the only vacant table when we went there for lunch, and dinner. I had read about Cafe Jadi on the Forum, so we went there one night for dinner, and really enjoyed it. Apart from the food, which was very good, the setting is lovely - a few tables in the garden of the owners house (I feel so bad, I have forgotten her name, but she was a nice lady who had a chat with us about her restaurant, as we were leaving).
The day before we were due to leave for Bali, I read on the Forum about "C-Bali", so on the spur of the moment, I made a booking, and we are so glad I did. It is a tour that involves canoeing on Lake Batur, a little bit of cycling, a walk through a local village, interaction with some local people, and a delicious lunch to finish. A lot of the tour is quite unstructured ,and depends on what is happening in the village on the day. We were lucky to be there when there was a big ceremony on, and everyone was dressed up, and going to the ceremony. As we were walking through the village, we were invited to sit and have some food at the house of one of the Grandmas - even though we could see she was busy, she wouldn't take no for an answer, and we enjoyed a plate of rice and fish - it was so good! It would take me ages to explain about the tour, but they have a great web-site, and we learnt so much about the Balinese way of life, traditions, etc that we had no idea about previously, even after so many times in Bali.
The only other person on the C-Bali tour was a lady who has taken 6 months off work to go and help out at B.A.R.C, in Ubud. They are there to rescue and rehabilitate street dogs in Bali, and after a quick look at their website today, it looks like they need lots of volunteers to do lots of different things.
My husband had a surf lesson with Quicksilver Surf School, and really enjoyed it (although he didn't quite master standing up, and had very sore knees the next day) - walking along the beach from Legian down to Discovery Shopping Centre, there are so many places doing surf lessons. I'm sure they all do much the same thing, I just found it easy to book it on-line before we left.
Another "first" for me was going to the Discovery Shopping centre, and Centro. I had never been before, as I imagined it would be full of shops similar to home. Then I read (yes, I do a lot of reading the Forum) about how the staff of Centro dance and sing every morning before they open their shop at 10am, so off we went to have a look. I just loved it - in fact I went back another day - what a great way to start the day (even though some of the staff looked very bored). And I actually quite enjoyed wandering around the shops - something a bit different to the market stalls.
One of the reasons we went to Bali this time was to do a bit of organising for our daughters wedding at the Bali Mandira in January. Rya, the wedding planner there, is very helpful, and nothing is too much trouble - so far so good!
This had ended up to be much longer than I was planning, but we really did enjoy a few different things this time mostly thanks to the Forum, that I just felt I had to share!!