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First Timers' & Honeymooners' Trip Report

by

Josh & Dina

July 2001

Ahhhhhh...where to begin?

 

Flew EVA from LA to Taipei to Bali. Evergreen deluxe class. Miles above (no pun intended) any American airline experience we've ever had. 

 

First & foremost I'd like to say that if you are a FIRST TIMER to Bali I would definitely limit your trip to 10 days or less. Bali/Lombok are wonderful, magical places w/ endless amazing people (Si Badak & Cracker to name a couple) & places (Gili Trawangan & Nanggu & Kuta Lombok). But again, as a first timer, the language barrier coupled w/ plain & simple homesickness got a bit overwhelming by day 10 of our 14 day trip. If it we not for my prior year of carefully studying this forum as well as Lonely Planet's Bali/Lombok guide it would've been a very difficult trip indeed. The abundance of information as well as the fantastic contacts we made from this forum were to say the least PRICELESS! USE IT WISELY! 

 

We started our honeymoon in Sanur at a quaint place called the Bali Mille. $15 US/night. It was perfect for recovering from jet lag & getting acclimatized to Bali. Other than doing just that I would not waste another minute in Sanur when we return to Bali. AVOID AT ALL COSTS A BAR ON SANUR BEACH CALLED "MANGO'S BAR & GRILL"!!!! Abundant thieves & rotten food!!! YIKES

 

On the morning of our 3rd day, we promptly ordered plane tix through our hotel from Bali to Lombok. An excellent deal $25 US/per person one way considering it only takes 30 mins whereas the Bounty/Maruba "speed ferries" take 2.5 hrs & cost $33 US!! Grabbed a blue taxi from Mataram airport to the Obeori to begin our honeymoon. The Oberoi truly is heaven on earth. Way, WAY too expensive considering all the other options available but we wanted to spoil ourselves a bit & we most certainly did. Upon waking up after our first night there we ventured up the road a bit (on bicycle 1/4 mile) & found a magical, new, empty hotel that was offering rooms for $75/night but were willing to go down to $65. Cant' remember the name but it's the only one right next to the Oberoi. We will definitely stay there next year. Had lunch there & then packed up & headed for Gili Trawangan. 50,000 rupiah 1/2 hr. boat ride & there we were! 

 

What a pleasant surprise this island was! No cars. No paved roads. Just folks from all over the world out there to relax, & soak up the island. If you're into any kind of a party scene, this is the island you want to be on! After midnight there's always a party to be found somewhere on the island. We stayed at the Hotel Villa Ombak. Fabulous bungalows for $50/night. A/C, tv, pool, 24 hr. room service & food to die for! Never any "Bali Belly" but steady "looseness" throughout the trip due to our stomach's adjusting to being 1/2 way around the world. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the scorpion that was in our bed? Room service promptly came & killed it & left us w/ a can of insecticide. Needless to say we changed rooms in the am & encountered no other threatening bug life. We did however meet some wonderful people there that we will remain in contact with for our next journey. I did the free scuba lesson at the pool there & immediately paid to go out on my first scuba diving experience ($50). FREAKING UNREAL! I'm a scuba junkie for life! The next day I paid for a second dive $35 & got it recorded on video. Unfortunately upon arriving back in the states & inserting the video only to find it was "faulty". I emailed Villa Ombak Diving Academy to see if they will send me another copy. I'll keep you all posted. But to actually swim w/ turtles & amazing colored fish........utterly fantastic & worth the entire journey! After a few days (& naked nights on the moonlit beach) on Trawangan we hired a friend to take us back over to Lombok to cool down from the partying madness (maybe it was just us) of Trawangan.

 

We ended up in South Lobok on Kuta beach at a place called the Matahari Inn. Everything just keeps getting better & better & better! A few blocks off the beach & much easier going this lovely little hotel offered us a "honeymoon" suite for $40/night. It was so nice. Friendly & helpful staff. $5 massages. Excellent food. We rented a moped from them for $4/day & sort of did our own little tour de south Lombok on it. Amazing seaview terraces & cliffs. Dramatic & powerful coves w/ killer surf. A bit further on down the road we passed a young boy (4 or 5)who upon seeing us just about shat his pants & went tearing off into the woods. I think we were the first caucasian people he had ever seen. It was wild! The next day we rode over to Lembar harbor & hired a boat to take us to Gili Nanggu. We found paradise! Totally wonderful little island but we were glad we didn't stay over there. A day trip was perfect. 

 

This was about our 8th or 9th day & my wife had come down w/ a mild bug that just wore her out. Nothing too horrible just did her in for a day or so. We agreed that we wanted a change of pace anyway so we decided to head back over to Bali for the last few days of our trip. All flights were booked so we ended up taking the Maruba from Lembar harbor. 

 

Met Craig & Craig on the ride. two wild & crazy aussie surfer dudes that were willing to turn us on to Double Six bar once back in Kuta/Legian. Shared a cab w/ them looking for a place in Legian & found a total sodhole & within 10 mins, checked right back out. We caught a cab over to our old stand-by hotel (Bali Mille) which had one room open for us. AAAAHHHHHHH. There is a god! Spent the next 2 nights there getting more & more anxious to come home. Obviously we passed on the Double Six bar offer w/ the fellas. We were at our limit. 

 

At the point of utter & total breakdown I made a chance look at my last forum posting from an internet cafe nearby. To my sheer joy, there was a name & number of an hotel in Legian our dear friend Si Badak was staying in. With an open heart & mind he kindly invited us to come stay our last night over there which we did. God what a savior! $3 massage for the wife & I to rub away the homesick blues & then off to Sammie & Suzi's!!! I will not disclose to anyone what a pleasant & wonderful surprise this "Sammie & Susie's bar" was or why it was so. You will just have to see for yourself! But all our best to the whole gang there... Sammie, Susie, Peter & Mary, Craig his wife & their 5 BEAUTIFUL children......"hey Billy....go kill something!" (inside joke)! All our love & thanks from the bottom of our hearts! 

 

On a final note......Bali is NOT FOR THE TIMID or narrow minded! You must be willing & open & be able to stay that way throughout your trip there! NO EXCEPTIONS! If you let Bali get you down it can easily keep you there. Without the research & contacts we'd made on this forum & elsewhere throughout our trip god knows it could've been much, MUCH different. 

 

Thank you all once again & don't be strangers! 

 

D & J 

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