Trip was me, my sister and my best buddy. May 8 to 21 from Melbourne.
FLIGHTS - Garuda from Melb. Very good over, nothing to complain about had quite a few ales and food was great. Coming home though, I got air sick. Never happened before in my life. Spewed for two hours. Bit of turbo early, but didn't upset me, dunno what happened there, i've never been sick on a plane before, odd!! All fine now!
HOTEL - Bali Garden Beach Resort. Always a great place to stay. Lounged on the beachfront away from the main pool the whole trip. Was spoiled just slightly by the regulation aussie bogans and the euro loung hogs. Not sure why some people have to be so damn loud. I really don't need to be involved in their convos. (that's why we didn't go near the main pool) Only other niggle was no free wi-fi at hotel. Not a huge deal, but there's free wi-fi everywhere, odd it wasn't free at the hotel. When I spoke to the sales girl she did say it is coming apparently!!
SHOPPING - I didn't do a hell of a lot this time. Bought a few gecko's and turtle thingys to put on my colorbond fence. Some nice tea light thingys. A few tops and some polaroid sunnies. All things around the same price as always. Bought some nice silver from Bali Sari Silver in Celuk. Always go there, and it's much nicer than any of the others I've been to. Bought a beach bag and make up bag which were made up with Bali street signs on them. (hard to explain). The make up bag had pocari sweat cans on it. They were really cute. A shop in Seminyak and one in Kuta Square.
TOURS - We did a few of these. All really really good. Went to Ubud after our Celuk spending spree. Ate at Cinta restaurant in Monkey Forrest Rd, was great. We then went and caught the sunet at Tanah Lot. In all my trips to Bali, that was the first time I'd been there. lol Went on another tour to Blue Point, Uluwatu and looked at Padang Padang beach. Didn't go down as it was just too freaken hard! We came back and had dinner at Jimbaran. Then the 3rd tour was on a long boat from just outside the Kartika Plaza hotel. Went to dreamland, Padang Padang, the Uluwatu surf beach. We came back and stopped and had a swim at padang padang beach. Was beautiful in the water, but man, are there a lot of rocks there. They were annoying! I must say, it was so much easier getting off a boat on the beach than going up and down those stairs. We came back past the Rock Bar and closer to Jimbaran. That was the best thing we did in Bali, it was beautiful. Had a boat full of bintang and water and we were fine!!
FOOD - ate at some ripper places, had one bad meal the whole time we were there, that was at Febris for a lunch. Yuck, will never go back there. UN'S was it's usual good self. LA LUCIOLA twice for brekki, beautiful. LE PLAGE in Melasti st was really nice and came out in these 3 coconut shells joined together. It's just new there and it was really good and very reasonable price. INDO NATIONAL, there's new owners, you felt more comfortable there without them coming up and doing the fake interest in where you're from etc. I really liked it this time. Food was lovely too. SEGARA ASIAN which is at the front of Centro was lovely. I had the peking duck, it was as good as you get back here at the Flower Drum. Yummo!!! That was our most expensive meal for the trip. 1.8mil rp for 3. GARIS GARIS in Tuban was nice, nothing to write home about, but would go back. NERO BAR in Legian is always nice, go there every trip. Love it. IFIORE in Tuban was nice pasta, quite exy though. At the SUN ISLAND hotel there's a restaurant called PARVO (why you'd call it that I have no idea, lol). It was also really nice, I had the pork Belly there, very well cooked and tasty. Quite exy there too but nice food. BALI RANI HOTEL, this really surprised us. Menu is huge, has huge range of food and reaaalllly nice. I had the peking duck there too. Nice price range too. KAFE BATAN WARU, had a few meals there as next to the hotel and free wi-fi. Mie goreng is brilliant there. Really well priced too. GOSHAS was great again too, in Melasti st. Seafood really nice and a good price there also.
TAILOR - my friend got 3 shirts copied, all absolutely brilliant. She also got some racing colours made again, they were also brilliant. The tailor is Artono Tailor across road from Dianne Shop and in a bit. Behind some tour box thingys.
OTHER STUFF - my sister and buddy got their motorbike license over there. Quite funny to be honest. Tourist police took them to get it. They just sat on a simulator (they didn't turn it on) and that was it. 400 thousand rupiah and a license was theirs. I then took them to the road by our hotel on the beach and taught them how to ride. lol. Then we went out a few times on the bikes, it was so much easier than cabs and walking. Got to stop at little shops in streets we wouldn't normally see. We got quite a few really cheap bargains in some streets you don't normally stop in. Loved it. It's quite easy riding in the hussle and bustle of Kuta, Legian, Tuban and Seminyak as the traffic is slow, you just go with it. The girls did a fantastic job, no near misses, no falling off, nothing. They went great. They're now going to get their license back here in Oz. I highly recommend Kadek, who we hired the bikes off. Look him up under Tours of Bali. He brings bikes and helmets to you and picks them up. Great service.
Found a dead dog on the beach one morning. That was pretty sad. I also saw one with a sore eye. I rang BAWA, but in the time I was there, I didn't see them come to find it and put something on it's eye. It was quite bad, that's why I thought I should ring. Otherwise the poor pooch would end up losing it's eye if it got infected. So I don't think they actually came down looking for it. I get so distressed seeing the animals. I donate to BAWA in the hope they can come and do things like that. I guess they can't get around to everything. On all our tours, our driver was constantly being told "DONT HIT THE DOG". It was terrifying sitting in the front seat. haha.
Our driver, Eddy is fantastic if anyone around Tuban is looking for someone? He belongs to the beach sellers outside Bali Garden Hotel. He's a licensed tour operator and the like, so it's OK. No drama if polisi pull you up, like they did us. Then wanted our photo's for their "document". We did sh*t our pants though, thought we were all gonna be arrested. lol
Did a nice massage at Melasti in Tuban. They weren't there last year but back again now with the reno's going on. Had a Ayurvedic massage with Shirodara (that's the hot oil over your head - lovely) and then an hour creame hair bath. It was so nice. About 3 hours worth for 357 thousand rp. Seriously, you can't even walk into a spa joint in Melbourne for that. Highly recommend it to you all.
Used a Bali sim card most of the trip, though I didn't get a data pack with it. They cost a bit for very little usage. I just used wi-fi where I could. I put my oz sim back in. Kept 3G and Celular data off and just used wi-fi also. Was pretty easy to be honest. I didn't make any calls to home so should be right with bills etc.
If I can think of anything else, I will post it.
Cheers for now
Lisa