Left Melbourne on January 11th 11.00 am flight with Garuda, first time in 15 odd trips that I have used Garuda as I always had heard bad things about the state of the planes. I had picked up these fares back in March for 2010 for $800.00 return and booked them for Mrs. F and Miss 21 and Miss 19 and I could take my own golf clubs free of charge. Would I use Garuda again, yes they are now my number 1 preference the service was great and nothing was too much trouble for the airhostesses , there also seemed to be more legroom on their planes than Virgin and Jet*. Flight over was good until about 1 hour out from Denpasar when we hit some turbulence which I thought wasn't too bad but there were about 15 people looking a bit green around the gills including Miss 19 and when the first roar was heard sliding into the bag it seemed to set off a chain reaction which Miss 21 thought was hilarious and could not stop laughing until we got to Denpasar even with Miss 19 filling 3 bags next to her. Cleared customs in about 25 minutes and were on our way to Villa 1 at Robins place virtually opposite the Jayakarta Hotel. It is a nice 4 bedroom villa which we shared with my brother and his wife and 2 daughters. The villa staff were so pleased to see us again, because they know Santa has arrived for them and they do not have to pay for their lunches anymore. I sort of make it a habit of buying them lunch or leaving them lunch money before we go out. I had also packed 18 pairs of jeans in my suitcase which the ladies in my house were no longer using and gave to the staff, and they were rapt.
About 7 days in got some sort of 24 hour bug it was coming out both ends which seemed to give everyone in our villa a great laugh the next morning when Mrs. F had told them all in the morning. It started at 1.00am when I sharted ( cross between passing wind and crapping) and got a bit of crap on the sheets and then about 2 hours later it was on couldn't work out whether to crap my pants or spew in the toilet because it was all happening at once. Even the villa staff had a good laugh and started to call me Mr. Poo Poo for the rest of the day. But as they say he who laughs last laughs best as 2 days later my brother got it and from there another 3 in the villa also got the bug. It seems like there was a lot of it going around. About 20 people whom we knew who were staying at different hotels also came down with it and we were not eating at the same establishments so it was not Bali belly.
I took Mrs. over to Sanur to show her where myself and Miss 19 stayed in August /September as Mrs. had lost her job and started a new one last year and could not come. Gave Ron a call at Mangrove Sanctuary Villas and off we went and were made more than welcome. Mrs. F was impressed with Ron's personality and got a good laugh. If ever you wanted a bloke with a good personality and sense of humour this is the place. Had a few cold ones and then took Mrs.F to Kesumas on the beach and she absolutely love the prawn dish she had ordered.
I also went and looked at Sindu Guest House not long being refurbished and was very impressed with this place, another very reasonable place to stay for the price. Got a business card from the owner Dave and it has a website www.sinduguesthouse.com
Places we ate:
Gosha both in Melasti St and the new one up in Seminyak. Always good food
Miss 21 was always around at Champs in Rum Jungle road watching cricket so we would catch up with her for lunch. No complaints here
Yutz in rum jungle road
Potato Head, took 3 days to get in to this place so busy, beautiful setting at night. Aussie prices but over rated for me.
Nirvana ,Seminyak nice setting and good food.
Gateway to India seminyak we love our curry 70,000 all you can eat on a Sunday.
Chinese in Kuta cannot remember the name but around the corner on the right hand side past Discovery mall.
Café Moka Seminyak, loved the ham, cheese and onion rolls here and the coffee.
Cannot remember the rest but we didn't have any bad meals, I tend to eat at the same establishments once I find good food.
We all went to Nusa Dua one day and did water sports, even got Mrs. F to get in the flying fish with me and we all did the banana boat ride great fun, but disappointed as the 4 young girls wanted to do Para sailing but they said something about the wind.
We had 5 games of golf with the Raffles group at New Kuta Golfclub
Traffic was chaos to the Airport ,from Villa in Legian to the airport took 1 hour 15 min
Went to the Prada lounge and still had to Barter with the bloke at the door, gave us 20% off because there was eight of us, food okay and plenty to drink.
Plane was an hour late leaving, so didn't arrive until about 9.30 am in Melbourne. Only about 25 minutes to clear customs at this end as well which was good. I woke up Monday with the Flu and could not get out of bed, took nearly 3 weeks to shake it off.