Just spent 8 wonderful nights on the island of smiles. Flew from Geraldton WA via Pt Hedland with Skywest, which was much easier than driving to Perth etc. We stayed at the Legian Beach Hotel in the Garden Bungalows again. Love this place as it has a true Bali feel with the lovely gardens and it's so quiet and peaceful. The huge buffet breakfasts at the hotel are to die for. We tried a few different restaurants and all but two were top quality. One of our favourites was the Blue Ocean in Seminyak. It may not be everyone's cup of tea as there were a couple of well behaved dogs and a lovely cat that visited the restaurant while we were there. It didn't bother us at all as they weren't bothering anyone but their owners. The restaurant has a very ‘Fremantle' feel and there were a couple of expats (I think) playing board games while they ate their meal. Nice view, right opposite the ocean. Next door to the Niksoma on the beach road, is Mozzarella by the Sea. We tried this restaurant thanks to the JBR's we read and we weren't disappointed! All in all it was our favourite restaurant. We went there twice including our last night (Saturday night) when they had a Beatles tribute band playing. They were fantastic! All dressed up in the Beatles garb and if you closed your eyes you would have thought it was the real thing. We also had a meal at the Flying Fish at the O-CE-N hotel and the service could not be faulted. It cost around $120 AUD for four of us with cocktails, beers and we all had seafood plus desert. They have a seafood buffet night on Tuesdays for 185,000rp++ including the most yummy fresh oysters. Another great find was Bianco on Jl Padma at the western end of the road. The decor is fantastic and the food was fabulous. Wanted to go back again and try their seafood or satay meals for two at around 350,000rp but ran out of time - hopefully next trip. We went to Gosha on our first night but the prices had gone up quiet substantially. As always the food was really good with both of us choosing our whole snapper but by far the most expensive place we ate at and this was shown by the lack of customers in the restaurant. When we went last November the place was packed.
There is a new restaurant called Ours on Garlic lane with great food and happy friendly staff. I had the grilled prawns with salad and chips - fabulous at around 75,000rp. They also have happy hour and a large Bintang is 24,000rp. Lee, from the now closed Bali Aussie, works there and she remembered my partner from 18 years ago. OMG!
Another good find is the restaurant at Ocean 27 located outside Discovery centre overlooking the ocean. We both had tuna steaks and they will cook them to your liking. Highly recommended.
I had difficulty finding shoes to fit as I am in a 41 but we found a shoe shop in Jl. Padma that sells larger ladies sizes up to 43 and there prices are around 17,000rp. We bought shag tobacco (Violin brand) from Bintang Supermarket for around $1.00AUD for a 40gm pack. Much cheaper than duty free and not a bad smoke.
Went to Ubud for a day of shopping. Our driver charged 350,000rp and we left at 9:00am and returned around 5:30pm. He was a great driver and couldn't do enough for us. We stopped at a couple of silver shops on the way and I bought a lovely heavy silver bracelet for about $130AUD, which is less than half than I could have purchased it here at home. Also went to the markets there and bought some dresses, shirts (cotton) and the older styled bali shorts. We bought 9 items there and it cost 400,00rp. The stall owner was happy and we were happy = win win. We also bought three glass lanterns for 400,000rp after little bartering.
On the way to Matahari's we found a great little gift shop called U3. It's on Jl. Pantai, ocean end, and sells lots of painted wood items etc. Fixed price and very reasonable.
Aqua Line is a great little gift shop north of Bintang Supermarket on Jl. Abimanya in Seminyak. We bought several nik nak gifts in this shop. Fixed price and a fabulous selection including beautiful items you don't see at the regular shops. Well worth a visit.
We also went on the sunset cruise with Bali Hai for $45AD and what a great night it was. I would recommend this to anyone as the buffet was good and the entertainment matched. Cocktails ranged from 45,000rp to 85,000rp and a small bintang was 30,000rp and you paid for the drinks as you ordered. The staff were fantastic and really got into the party atmosphere of the night.
I haven't had a massage before in Bali but thanks to recommendations on the BTF we went to PIP's. Fabulous Swedish massage and ear candling. The whole treatment took 1.45hrs and I felt like a zombie when I got off the table. The ear candle waxing was 80,000rp for 45 minutes and the one hour Swedish massage was 85,000rp. We also had the foot, neck and shoulder massage on a different day for 60,000rp. This spa is very professional and the staff pride themselves on what they do. They are on Jl. Melasti opposite the markets near Garlic Lane. I recommended this place to our friends who we travelled with, and they went there a couple of times, loved it and recommended it to their friends. Seemed every time we went there there was someone we knew.
We purchased our duty free alcohol at the Dempasar air port which is much cheaper than you can buy it duty free in Australia. The prices are in US dollars but given the Aussie dollar, it's comparable. And there is no problem buying your duty free in AUD. A litre of Smirnoff vodka was $16.00 AD, a litre of Gentlemans Jack was $35.00AD and a litre of Blue Saphire Gin was $22.00 AD. I stocked up because I knew the Bali blues would hit me when I got home!
I've never had ‘bali belly'on my five trips, but just to be safe I took ‘Travel Bug' which can be bought at your local chemist in Australia. You take it 5 days prior to leaving and one a day while you are away. Don't know if it made any difference, but it's a bit of insurance.
We both shed a few tears on leaving the island of paradise. Oh well hope to be back soon!
Thanks to everyone on the BTF, all your tips and suggestions were greatly appreciated.