Armed, fully loaded with all the usual precautionary's, you know the ones Gasrolyte, Hydrolyte, Gastrostop, Travalan, Bushmans, Hand sanitizer and the list goes on ....... What is it about this place the draws you back?
Flew AirAsia out of Perth on the 4:50 love this early one as you get that whole day as a bonus, flight very efficient, they've got it down pat, felt like I was hopping a bus, arrived 15 min. early, not another flight in sight.
Instructed Wambolib to the imigrassi queue whilst I scurried off to pay the VOA. Wambolib was waiting at the front of the queue said I sounded like a freight train as I power walked towards her in my eagerness with the wheels of my carryon clacking across the arrival hall tiles, Out of the terminal in minutes and straight to the taxi counter.
Now this is where the dangerous bit comes in, over the past few trips I discovered that the Balinese have their own native tongue which is very different to the Bahasa Indonesian. In actual fact they have different levels of language depending on what caste they are from and who you talk to. So since then I have researched the net and attempted to learn a little Basa Balinese, I hope I wasn't going to offend anyone or embarrass myself.
"Sapunapi Gatrane" (How are you?) I bellow to guys around the taxi counter, "Becik Becik" (Fine/Good ) comes back the reply with smiles all round. I also got the attention of the half a dozen waiting cabbies. Lakar Kija (where are you going) questions one of the cabbies as we pass them, I think he wanted to test how much I knew, I used a little Balinese colloquiums in my reply Melali (just walking around) and Indeng-Indeng ( go here go there, I think it's akin to 'going round in circles' but translates to round and round) had them all in fits of laughter...... the book said that I would get that sort of reaction, this is going to be a good trip.
Off in the taxi to the Kumala Panti, with me trying as much as I learnt of my Basa Balinese with the usual questions on the taxi driver, what is your name, where are you from , family ect,,,which Wambolib say's got very repetitive when I was using Bahasa Indonesia in my past trips.
Arrived at the KP, first time here, we booked this with Bali Discovery Tours over 12 months ago and we got the room at the old KP prices which were further discounted by Bali Discovery Tours. When I book through online agents, I always try and get email confirmation from the hotel confirming my booking (don't like any nasty surprises), booking and room S-16 confirmed by email with Desi.
Up to reception and the staff tell me that there appears to be issue with the booking and told me to wait for the manager even after showing them the email from Desi. Desi appears from the back office and tells me that they have not been paid by BDT but will honour the booking and they will take it up the agents, she tells me to book next time direct with the hotel, I would have but got these for $69 USD a night from BDT, pheew that was a panic moment. Room wasn't going to be ready until 1pm so we left our bags and hit the streets.
Walking up Jalan 66 heading to Bintang supermarket to get some supplies when Wambolib turns to me and suggested we go to Sanur as she wanted to check out some shops that she was recommended, we have been here a nano second, what is with women and shopping? I had ulterior motives to go to Sanur as I wanted try Babi Guling at Warung Sanur JL.Bypass, across the road from Macca's which has been recommended on this forum and other various sites, so we hop a cab and off we went.
Wambolib trolled the stores that she wanted to checkout and we headed for lunch. First impressions of the warung weren't that good, so we decided to order only one serving of the Babi Guling Campur. Well let me tell you after experiencing Ibu Oka twice on previous trips this was a total let down, I got a few shreds of fatty port, some cracking which was average and also fatty, several bits of what appeared to be offal, I tasted the liver, must have been deep fried until it looked like wood, sure tasted like it, a sate stick which was ok, rice with some lawar and a bowl of soup which was quite bland. It only cost me 25k so not an expensive lesson.
Walk down to the beach and along the path for a while before we decided to head back.
Back to Legian to the Bingtang supermarket to pickup some supplies, Wambolib likes to buy her 'Olay Total Effects' here as there always seems to be a cashback on offer which for some strange reason you have to purchase it at the full price and then they give you the money back for the cashback ..... only in Bali, anyway they work out to about $8 to 9 dollars each needless to say she bought 8. All stocked up and back to KP.
Checked-in and were shown to our room, nice and clean a little dated but overall very happy, the room seem to lift in appearance the next day once the cacky brown bedspread was removed by housekeeping, the white bed sheets made a huge improvement to the room and whats with the Komodo dragons on the wall???? Surely not for romance!!
Into our Cozy's and down to the pool with our affectionately known sippy cups(stainless steel thermos style drinking flask with flip top lid , great for keeping the our mixers cold, we bought these last year at Mataharis). Spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.
Wambolib and I have have four nights before our friends arrive and we like to try as much Balinese/Indo Resturants before they arrive so tonight we decided to go to Warung Taulan in Seminyak on recommendation of formite Tjokorda Gede. The taxi driver didn't know where it was, I didn't have the street name but I had my trusty notes with me with the directions, I now know it's on Jalan Mertasari, travel north on Jalan Raya Kerobokan and you turn right at the next set of lights after the Lio Square intersection.
What a magical place this is. The restaurant is set on a slope overlooking rice fields it has two large pavilions that step down from each other, followed by another lower open terraced area that overlooks a large U shaped pond that has Bali Style Bales over the pond, this place is huge, would have loved to sit out in the bales but this old Orangutan would struggle to get up after sitting crossed legged so we choose to sit out on the terrace. Get there before sunset to get an appreciation of the place.
For those of you that like traditional Balinese food with all the spices and pastes then this is the place. I had difficulty choosing as there was so much I wanted to try in the end we went for the dishes on the first page of the menu which were their signature dishes, although we had to get the waiter to recommend which of those ones were most special as there was no English translation, the rest of the menu had English translations. We had Ikan Nila Menyatnyat (a large plate size fresh water fish covered in spices and aromatics) 45k, Udang Sambel Nyun (Large prawns in a Sambal paste mix) 41k and Urab Sayur (greens cooked with shredded coconut and spices) 15K . It was all absolutely delicious, the fish was moist, the prawns were succulent, the flavours of the herbs, spices and aromatics just exploding in your mouth with every bite.
That's all for now, sorry for being long winded will have to summarise a bit better.