Had a much needed holiday with a fabulous 2 weeks in Bali. Departed Sydney @5:20pm on 20 May flying Jetstar direct to Denpasar. Flight seemed to go quickly and had an unusually rough landing. It was like the pilot tried aiming to land the plane at a point 10 foot under the runway (boom boom, bang bang ! rattle rattle). Arrived at about 9:45pm and through to and into a taxi in about 35 mins. Had enough rups from last trip so we didn't need to stop and change any money. Turned right at exit from airport and a short walk to the taxi counter to line up and purchase our taxi voucher. Followed the driver to where he was parked, loaded bags into taxi and headed straight to Balisani in Legian as a cheapie for the first night. Booked through Agoda and room had already been paid for before departing Australia. Room and Hotel old and tired, however, room and bedding were clean, aircon new and working well. Not too bad for $40 per night, room & breakfast basic with a great and much used centrally located crystal clear pool with swim up bar. Staff were friendly, helpful, olite and wearing their big bright smiles :) Had a quick look at everything in the room, as you do, selected and claimed who's bed is whose (twin share) dropped off bags all done in about 26 seconds.
As we were as thirsty as ten camels in the desert, we hit the streets in search of some cold ale in a bottle. We didn't have to go too far as about 15 metres to the left we found "Spiders Bar". Couldn't quite work out entering through the wooden gate, which closed and seem to lock you in, like a type of cattle holding yard type of an arrangement, ahh its Bali sin can can. All the funny signs you see in Bali, Spider's Bar motto gave me a good larf - "walk in" - "crawl out" also had free pool table and sports channel screen upstairs. They had two different sports channels playing on the TV screens downstairs and we enjoyed a number of cold beers and a few small dishes of salty roasted peanuts, waiting for the F1 to start at 12:00pm as advised by our host. Yes its on, 12:00pm start he told us, of course it didn't come on duh it was some other race and the F1 was on the following week. Unglued ourselves from our stools at the bar and headed home around 1:30am. The pool looked irresistible and was beckoning us to come and have a swim the only thing stopping us was no energy or desire to unpack and change into bathing attire. So lucky we didn't as the pool closing time was 10:00pm, glad that we managed to resist this strong and alcohol induced temptation. Instead the lure of a couple of lazy duty free nightcaps saw us content and ready to bed down for the night. Had a good night's sleep, an awkward and short shower in the morning. It was a hand held one which was fixed to the wall at about thigh high. Even glader that we wern't going to be using this shower again lol. Proceeded to leisurely consumed the "proudly" displayed basic breakfast (buffet style) eggs cooked to order, tomato slices, sliced fresh onion, fried rice, toast to order, tea & coffee, seated overlooking the tempting pool, yes it was calling out to us again, come and take a swim, oh so very tempting. No time for a swim as we wanted to have a wee look around and check out the beach. After breakfast we went exploring the streets heading towards the beach and returned around 12:00pm to check out.
DAY 2 - Caught a taxi to the White Rose in Legian, unpacked, had lunch at Warung 96, went shopping for supplies and hit the pool for a leisurely swim and relaxation for a few hours. Beer o'clock came round way too fast and for some unexplained reason, we seemed to be thirsty again. Cracked a couple of quiet ones in our room on the third floor, (I blame the stairs, climbing them to the third floor worked up even more of a thirst), before heading out and walking to the beach via poppies II, in our quest to find our friendly barman from last year's trip "froggy" with the esky, plastic chairs, two trees, surfboards and Ozzie flag. We walked up and down the beach looking searching and as much as we tried "froggy" was nowhere to be found. He wasn't in his usual spot and nobody had ever heard of him before, how bizarre ! never mind, we did try, anyhoo there are hundreds of bars and we were sure to find another place to buy a cold drink or two, get hassled to buy unwanted goods and spin a yarn or two, all the while gazing out to infinity over looking the surf and ocean beyond. Wasn't long and I tripped on an unexpected piece of metal surrounded by cement sticking out of the sand on the beach (grrr Im not rrrrrr HONDA) and stubbed by my toe ouch ! That'll teach me to rubberneck instead of watching where I am walking lol. I have an excuse, I was still looking for "froggy", in case he had moved.
The local barman rushed over and two blokes having a quiet beer asked me if I was alright. Grimacing and lying through my teeth I said yes I'm ok, I'm ok no problem I'm fine, all the while hoping the pain would subside quickly. The two concerned and amused onlookers invited "Junior" and I to join them for a cold drink. The local barman out of nowhere brought me some ice for my injured toe, ahh we're in bali and we had stumbled (excuse the pun) into our new bar and settled in to quench our mighty thirst. We met "Bossman" and "Bull" two of the nicest gentlemen you could ever meet or possibly fall (trip/stumble) for lolol. Had a few beers, many laughs, hints on the happening places, good places to eat and chewed the fat on a number of topics. Bossman invited us to join them for dinner the next night to celebrate his birthday. Got directions to the restaurant and we parted our ways for the evening. Spent 2,000 rups for the privilege of using the beach restroom.
On recommendation from Bossman, we went to the rooftop bar of Legian 101 just in time for sunset drinks. WOW ! WOW ! what an amazing place, virtually had it to ourselves, made our way to an arabian style looking Bale and relaxed on the soft luxurious cushions whilst waiting for our drinks and checking out the pool. Ahh we had arrived in Bali, relaxing on soft cushions on top of the world in our luxury Bale, watching the bright red sunset in the far distance, does it get any better than this I ask myself ?