Terry's "Just Back" Report

April 2001

Weather

Terrific at this time of the year. About 30/35C each day and virtually no rain.

Money Changers

Some still up to the old tricks of slight of hand. Only change money at a reputable institution such as a bank. We usually changed money at PT. CENTRAL KUTA agencies and had no problems at all with them. The 'Authorised' money changers are still suspect and we had a couple who tried us out. Make sure that one person ignores the small talk with the money changers, with the other NEVER taking eyes off their hands. 

The rate varied quite considerably amongst different places and some still charge commission. We got nothing less than 5000rps to Oz$ and when we left on 10 April got 5350rps.

Eating Out

Still great value. TJ's and Poppies in Poppies Lane 1 were both terrific and dined superbly for about $20 Oz which included a few big beers between two of us. The sensation of the trip was Koki's on the Sanur bypass road, where the menu is international quisine, quality of food at the highest possible level and undisputedly the best ever in Bali. Booking is recommended.

Orchid Garden in Jalan Melasti is also great with the benefit of free transport in Kuta and Legian.

Bali's best breakfast is at Bali Too in Jalan Melasti, in Legian, 12500rps for a buffet of 9 courses, eat as much as you want with no limit. 

Bali Aget (formerly Bali Blessing) in Jalan Bakungsari in Kuta is also very good, 9750rps for 6 course breakfast. Ask for Ketut, who loves Ozzies.

Excursions

Went for a trip on Bali Hai's Luxury Catamaran Aristocat to Lembongan Island. Fantastic, mainly because there were only 12 people on our day compared to 48 previous day. Actually sailed back to Benoa under wind power and plowed through the swell. Sensational! The crew were terrific and couldn't do enough to make the trip enjoyable. Book the ticket in Oz and save heaps. The cost is in US$ if booked in Bali, about $79US, compared to $99A if booked in Oz.

Hotel

Stayed at the Natour Kuta Beach Hotel again in a bungalow and as usual were treated as royalty. Location, location, location. A little bit tired in parts, but a great place to stay.

Taxis

We only used light blue taxis and always asked for the meter to be turned on. No problems whatsoever. If the cost was 6000rps we gave atip of 4000rps. Usually rounded up to the next $A. Big tippers, eh.

Market Shopping

Kuta Art Market, stall 23, Oki is the proprietor, our regular tee-shirt supplier again gave us great service and prices. Dont loose perspective of what they ask for. At 5000rps for the $A who cares about bartering hard to get the absolute best price. Barter for sure, get your best possible price, and then give a realistic tip which the boss doesn't get. If we spent 150,000rps in a market, the tip was about 20,000/25000 rps. Really, $4/$5A!!

Enough for now. Go to Bali and have a great time, spend some money and get to know the locals. Balinese are the nicest people in the world, and dont really consider themselves as Indonesians. They are different and we are more than happy to acknowledge that.

Bon Voyage.

I am happy to answer any questions through email if requested. 

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A few additional comments about our recent return from trip 9.

Time share and Royal Holidays are still very active. They have obviously had to expand there operations though to try and shore up their floundering activities!!

The latest ploy is to have staff in restaurants and people like the kids in and out front of Matahari and other stores to ask you to complete a survey form about your Bali experience. You even have a chance of winning a FREE weeks holiday at one of their establishments. Whacko, I said.

Hey guess what. We won two seperate holidays, on for each of the two surveys we filled out. We were told in the phone calls how lucky we were, and they couldn't understand how we had never WON a free holiday before. Sure we had WON on previous trips, we had just ignored their approaches before.

So we went along to one of our super you beaut presentations to receive our free gift, but guess what? The Royal Holidays people got a bit fidgetty when they realised we had been to Bali quite a few times before. 

So I popped the question after about 15 minutes as to what they were selling? Oh nothing, came the reply! Until the clown we were being entertained by slipped up and mentioned a membership fee. Woh and behold! They weren't selling anything at all, just the opportunity to buy an exclusive membership to a holiday club. Surprise, surprise.

I reminded our host that when questioned earlier about the expected sales pitch he assured us that was not what it was about. I very politely excused ourselves from the cauldron and suggested we had been lied to again. We made a hasty exit and had to fend off phone call after phone call for the balance of our trip. Guess we were a bit silly in the first place for going along but wanted to actually experience the sham first hand.

We met friends on our last hight who did a similar thing and were hijacked at Nusa Dua for a complete day with their two boys for time share opportunity.

Shame that they use and misuse the Balinese kids who dont really understand what they have been asked to do. Cant blame them, but if you dont want the hassle, politely decline the offer of winning a holiday.

Be a little careful though with the Europeans who appear from nowhere off the back of a motor bike offering the same opportunity. When approached by a largist Englishman in the last days of our trip for this great opportunity, I suggested he p... off, whereby I was threatened with some rather unpalatable physical treatment if I was to be so unfriendly to him again. He didn't scare me all that much, having spent some time in a War Zone some years ago, but I didn't know what unseen support he had.

A nasty looking person to say the least!!

Last but not least, the only other real disappointment was the persistent in your face activity by the hawkers in Jalan Legian particularly towards the Legian end of the street. Not such a problem Kuta way, but though the watch carrying case is no longer pushed into your face, most now have their own shop, where they constantly 'invite you ' to come and view their wares.

If you want great prices on copy watches go and visit Silvia at the watch wholesalers at 70 Jalan Diponegera in Denpasar. We have been going to her for years and we always get a much better price than on the street or beach. Barter hard and then settle at about 30000rps per watch, we do better than that being old customers but hey its only $6A after all. Buy early in you stay and if the watches play up go back and see her and she will replace them, no worries.

She will provide free cold water in sealed units and a taxi will cost about 15000/20000 rps from Kuta, less if from Legian, Sanur, or Seminyak. 

Enough for a short supplementary report methinks. Will gladly respond to any requests, email or otherwise, for info about anything to do with Bali that I can help anyone with. We just love the place, particularly the local people. Remember the rule - barter hard, tip generously to the Balinese employees individually, not to the principals of the businesses unless owned locally.

Cheers again.