Left Perth on Garuda morning flight. Had easy path through immigration etc and were outside being greeted by our friend Malik's smiling face at 11.30am. We were only going to the White Rose Hotel near the memorial but the trip from Yani's corner to the hotel took over an hour, due to a funeral procession which held traffic up. Never mind we were in Bali so who really cared!!!
We had booked a pool villa at the White Rose and wow we were in heaven for the next 10 days. It was fabulous having our own little pool and the luxury surroundings were delightful. I told the staff that I wanted to stay forever and they said I could as long as I paid money every day.
We did the usual shopping trips to Tiara Dewata, Ramayana, Discovery, Matahari and the markets in Kuta and Legian. We did venture out near Sukawati and bought a great bedspread for 260,000rp from a shop on the side of the road. We visited the Orchid Garden in Sanur but it was a bit run down and very hot.
Every visit we go to Tabanan to our friend's village where we have a great afternoon playing with the kids. Somehow the number of kids seems to get bigger every time we go there as I think a few school friends visit as well to check out the funny Aussies that bring presents. We love the big happy smiles on their faces. One of the highlights is our trips to Tabanan city markets where the bargains are so much cheaper than Kuta area. The traders recognise our faces now and always chat to us. One of them nicknamed my hubby "Mr Pelit" (Mr stingy) as a joke and always calls out to him and I am known as "Mrs Millions" due to a mistake in pricing. It is a fun time and much bargaining is done with a pen and paper which can be hilarious at times.
This time we went on the sunset cruise with Bounty tours. The weather was perfect for standing outside looking at the gorgeous scenery and the sunset. Very relaxing. The entertainment and buffet tea was really good too.
We found most of the taxi drivers didn't want to use their meters this trip (including Bluebird) and they preferred to negotiate a price. We were understanding of this as the traffic was slow a lot of the time. It suited us to just offer 20,000rp for a short trip and 50,000rp for a longish one and it kept everyone happy.
The hotel reception staff were very helpful as I needed to buy some bunches of flowers and some Hindu offerings to place on the memorial. We lost 2 special Balinese friends who worked at the Sari Club and wanted to pay our respects to them. The staff ordered the flowers to be delivered to the hotel for us and gave us some offerings from their own which I thought was great.
The morning of the 10th Anniversary we went to the memorial before brekkie thinking that most of the media would be at the official ceremony but we were still besieged by tv cameras etc. We did an interview with one reporter and I was amazed at the amount of cameras and sound thingys we had shoved in our faces by the others. Felt like Brad and Angeline for a moment!!!
Later that day when we got back to Yani's corner at about 3pm we found that all the roads within a 2km radius of the memorial were closed due to a ceremony being held later that evening. We had to walk back to the hotel amongst all the police with machine guns about a metre apart. It was a bit unnerving but also made us feel a lot safer staying where we were so close to the memorial. We were going to go to Seminyak for dinner that night but finished up eating at the hotel as we didn't fancy walking all that way to get a taxi.
We had a lot of treatments at Pips in Melasti St. Their prices are so reasonable eg deluxe facial $25AU at Pips, $99AU in Kalgoorlie!!! We had body scrubs, facials, pedicures, massages - absolute heaven on earth. Wouldn't be dead for quids lol.
EATING OUT
UN'S, Poppies Lane 1 - always an old favourite. Staff are great, margaritas are fabulous and food is always good, especially the ravioli.
MOZZARELLA AT MAGINI, Melasti St - fabulous location on the balcony overlooking Melasti markets. Staff are great, food delicious and prices cheap. Well worth a visit.
POPPIES, Poppies Lane 1 - A must for us each visit. I always seem to gravitate to the garlic prawns and lobster thermidor and hubby has homemade tomato soup and pork spare ribs. Deightful garden settting too.
LESTARI, Drupadi St, Seminyak - Lestari has moved from Umalas stables to this new location (where Sorisso used to be). Peter used to run UN's so the menu is similar but lovely food and service.
HITANI, Niksoma Hotel - Beautiful setting overlooking the beach. Absolutely top notch service and food was mouthwatering.
BAMBOO, opposite Discovery - Lovely setting and nice food also inexpensive. Any West Aussie who remembers visiting Black Tom's restaurant or the Oyster Bars owned by Warren Mead will recognise his signature Black Tom's mashed potato.
NIRVANA, Laksmana St, Seminyak - Run by our friend Nyoman, and doing really well with restaurant packed every night. Good food and great service. There is entertainment at night with a magician, fire dancer and Balinese dancers.
LANAI, Double 6 - Great place to watch the world go by if you can get a table upstairs. Food is nice and not expensive especially at lunch time.
MOO MOO'S, Melasti St - Good for lunch time visit. Inexpensive and good food.
INDO NATIONAL, Padma St - Pleasant at lunch time to cool off with some good food and cold drink.
BAGUS PUB, Poppies Lane 2 - icy cold beer and tasty jaffles and perhaps the best Mie Goreng in Bali. Great place to watch the world go by.
BLUE SKYS, Legian St - always good for a laugh with Nikki, Alice and Zee. Food is good, cheap and drinks are cold.
RAMAYANA PIZZA HUT, Denpasar - we always visit the Pizza Hut for lunch when we are shopping in Denpasar. Cool, clean and tasty food and different assortment of refreshing drinks.
As this was our 24th trip to Bali we didn't do a lot of tours but mainly just relaxed and enjoyed being back in the land of smiles again.