Just Back Report

by

Tinggading

November 2001

Our trip started on a freezing cold morning in Ocean Grove, Victoria at 3.30 am. We had to leave home at this time because of the 1½ hour drive to the Melbourne Airport in Tullamarine.

We were flying to Bali on Garuda via Adelaide and departed from Melbourne Airport at 8.00 am.

Previously I had contacted Garuda 4 weeks before departure to request exit seats - which we were given. The service to Bali by Garuda Staff was absolutely fantastic and our trip over to Bali was hassle free.

IMMIGRATION

I had read many reports on the Forum regarding Immigration and what the allowances were regarding duty free alcohol. I decided to try my luck and take more than the legal limit and accept the consequences (an AUD $20 bribe fine) if I got caught. I had $20.00 aside in a wallet for this purpose.

I had bought a 4-litre cask of water from which I removed the water bladder and replaced it with a very nice Chardonnay, then I resealed the cask. I packed this in my suitcase along with a 1.5 litre bottle of Baccardi Rum, ½ bottle Tia Maria and ½ bottle of Baileys. A total of 7 litres of alcohol.

Please note I am not recommending this procedure.

We arrived at 1.30 pm in Bali, got our luggage, made our way to customs and guess what!!!!!!!

My husband had a navy blue canvas bag, which I noticed had been marked with a white cross at each end of the bag. If you have been following the Forum for a while you will know what his means. The crosses mean our luggage was to be searched.

BUGGER.

My heart was thumping and my brain box was pushed into overload. I didn't tell my darling husband what the white crosses meant as he would have needed a quick visit to the toilet.

I always carry my pillow with me on planes, as the tiny little things they give you, just don't cut it for me as far as comfort goes. I had a brain wave and laid the pillow end to end and draped it across the bag in question and we made our way to the customs man.

As we approached him, he smiled at us, (a first in Bali at customs) and I gave him one of my cutest grins back and off we went, straight through and past the gorgeous customs man.

I almost ran our luggage through the airport arrival lounge. When we were outside I told my sweet gorgeous John what the crosses were for. He was not impressed with me at all. But I didn't care. I was lucky this time and would enjoy the fruits of my crime. We made our way to the taksi window on the right hand side as you exit the airport arrivals section.

The cost of our taxi to take us to the Jayakarta Hotel Legian was Rp 22,500.

JAYAKARTA HOTEL

(6 Days)

I had read many varied reports on the Forum about the Jayakarta Hotel. We have stayed at this hotel many times before and had always enjoyed our time there.

My travel Agent sent me an email in July to inform me that the hotel was going through a complete update and that only one section had been finished. This section was block 5. All these rooms have numbers starting with five hundred. e.g. 515,517,509 and 507. These are some of the rooms on the ground floor. I think these are the best of them as they face the gardens and not the apartments.

All the rooms throughout block 5, ending in even numbers face the hotel apartments and have no garden views, also the even numbered rooms on the ground floor have an air conditioning unit directly outside the rooms. (Could be noisy)

This block is furthermost away from the pool but we didn't mind this as, it is also the first block you come to when you come in the gate after a late night out.

On receiving the email from our Travel Agent regarding the updates at the hotel, we sent off an email to the Jayakarta Hotel addressing it jhrbali@indo.net.id In the subject matter we put ‘Attention Waras’ and we asked for an updated room for our 6 days stay in October. We also requested rooms in block 500 for the two other couples who were also staying with us. Within two days we had a reply and were informed that that our request would be put on file. We contacted the hotel again 1 week before our due arrival. (Keep your emails and replies as evidence of your correspondence.) They again answered my email and informed me our request was noted and we would be accommodated in this updated section.

The Jayakarta Hotel rooms in block 500 in my opinion were more than adequate. The rooms have been repainted new drapes and bedspreads have been installed, and the air/conditioners have been repaired, so they work all the time instead of periodically. The furniture has all been replaced with new items. The bathrooms have been regrouted and although the tiles are the same. The overall effect is quite a facelift. Remember this hotel is only a 3 star rating hotel so don't expect Buckingham Palace. The facilities are still fantastic - 3 pools, a large spa pool, a free shuttle service 5 times a day to Kuta and many wonderful restaurants just outside the front gate. The Kodak moneychangers are also there along with a few supermarket type shops to buy your Bintangs. Our stay here was wonderful and we had a great time in the company of family and good friends.

The only damper on this stay was I was taken really sick with Bali Belly, on our last day at the hotel. We had arranged to take our friends to the airport, and I was going to drop off some dog food to Helen at the Forum Bar. My being ill threw a spanner in the works, and other arrangements had to be made. (Sorry Helen). My very wonderful husband did the honours and met Helen for me and enjoyed a couple of hours with her (and also the gorgeous hard working dynamos Bob & Anne from Melbourne.)

RESTAURANTS we visited during our 6-day stay (Some)

Jimbaran Bay Seafood Restaurant (Sharkey’s).

Our visitors from Singapore had wanted to visit Jimbaran Bay as they had heard via their friends that it was a great place to go. We have been there many times before and could never see what the attraction was. Sure, the place is pretty after dark with the candle lit tables, and the musicians playing music to the people on the beaches, but we have always left there disappointed (feeling that the food never measured up as far as price and quality goes.) This time was no exception. We decided to visit Sharkey’s on a recommendation from the forum. We found the food overcooked and overpriced. This is our opinion only, as our friends thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience. Different horses for different courses I suppose.

The Living Room Restaurant

This restaurant is really gorgeous to be in. There are 2 sections. One is under cover on a raised platform pavilion area. It is beautifully decorated with flowing draperies and a multitude of candles in very tall candelabras. The outside section of the restaurant is in a huge garden area, which also has the many lovely candelabras. The tables are glass and heavy iron. The seats match the tables.

In all a wonderful looking setting for a restaurant. Unfortunately they must have been having a bad night when we visited. It took nearly 30 minutes before we were approached to see if we wanted a drink. When we selected our beers of choice (Bintang) we were told they had run out and the only beer available was Carlsberg or San Miguel. We ordered one of these, and it took a further 15minutes to arrive.

Things were not looking good as far as getting food in our starving stomachs. At this rate we would be having breakfast instead of dinner. Eventually though, the food menu arrived. We noted that we didn't feel that there was a great selection on the menu given the fact that this restaurant was reputed to be one of the best around.
In summation we loved the setting for this restaurant but we were disappointed with the menu and the service which we thought was next to none. Would we go again, yes, just to see if we have misjudged the place, as they may have been having a bad night. The prices seemed ok, as far we were concerned, not too over the top.

THAI RESTAURANT (Across the road from The Dynasty).

We spent two wonderful hours enjoying Happy Hour at the Dynasty Hotel. ( RP 45,000 Happy Hour Prices ) for 1 litre of creamy and other delicious cocktails. After feeling very happy we decided to eat close to this hotel as we couldn't walk far anyway..heh heh..
We decided to try the Thai Restaurant directly across the road. This is also an upmarket type looking restaurant. The food was absolutely fantastic. After spending 1 month last year in Thailand we were hoping it would be a trip back to memory lane. (Food wise) It was just that. The food was wonderful and their Thai Green Curry was superb. A great time was had by all and a really pleasant surprise also was the bill (similar in price to, say a place like Kopi Pot in Legian.)

TOURS

We had hired Wayan Nama via the Forum for Rp220, 000/day. Without boring everyone with how wonderful he was, we were more than happy with his prompt, efficient and professional service.

We decided to take our overseas visitors to visit Ubud Monkey Forrest and to go to see Sukawati Market.

The Monkey Forest

The entry fee was Rp3,000 /adult. I believe this is one of the cheapest, most wonderful forms of entertainment to be found anywhere in Bali. I have always loved visiting this place. The surrounding Forrest and paths are teeming with many, many gorgeous monkeys and a lot of tiny little cute monkey babies.

I have never taken food into these places as I have seen many people confronted and attacked for trying to feed the monkeys. The bottom line I feel is, these monkeys are wild animals and not cute little pets as we all would like to think.

But each to their own. We loved our time here once again as, so did our friends.

Sukawati Market

What a place, fantastically cheap .I have been to many markets throughout Bali and Lombok, but I feel this one beats most of them price wise. Everything and more you have seen in Legian, Denpasar and Ubud are here.

I have heard the vendors from some of the above places shop here to obtain their stock. Allow yourself a few hours to check it out. Be careful when you go upstairs, make sure to check where the exits are, as I literally got lost for 20 minutes trying to find my through the maze of aisles to the exit.

AMED

CORAL VIEW HOTEL (3DAYS)

As I let you know earlier we had hired a very good driver, for our tours and we also had him take us up to Amed, and pick us up after our 3 day stay. His charge for this was more, than his daily rate of 220.000rp the fee was 250.000rp. I don't know why? It took the same amount of time 7 to 8 hours for his up and return trip and he would have used the same amount of petrol. We were a bit puzzled by this. (Not that we minded).

We took the scenic route to Amed and the countryside along the way was beautiful with many terraced rice fields. The trip took between 3.5 hrs to 4.00 hrs. We were booked into the Coral View Hotel (Lipah Bay) in a deluxe air/cond Bungalow. We obtained this for $30.00 US. 285.000rp This included B/Fast. I negotiated this price over the Internet via email, before I left. I contacted them and told a fib and said that my friend had recently stayed there and was charged this $30 amount. (I wondered later, if we would have got it cheaper if I had given a different price in the email.) The normal Internet price was $55US. I might add here, that we wouldn't have been able to get this price just walking in from the street, as the hotel was full while we were there. The hotel was lovely.

The Bungalows all have large verandahs, which we fully utilized, drinking my hard-earned alcohol .It has a mall pool that is surrounded by rocks to make it appear like a rock pool. The overall effect is quite lovely. The rooms are large and are more than adequately equipped for your stay. They are all surrounded by very lovely gardens. We had also arranged via an email to have a refrigerator in our room. (This was free of charge)

The hotel itself is situated on the beach where in any direction for several kilometres you can snorkel and experience the joy of seeing the most beautiful multi colored tropical fish. Snorkeling gear can be hired from your hotel or off the beach vendors for 20.000rp per day. The sand in this area is black, like the beaches of Lovina.

One of the greatest pleasures about this hotel, was each morning at breakfast time around 8.00am, 100’s of fisherman arrive back to the beaches from their morning fishing trip. (Gorgeous view of all the boats on the bay.)

We were able to watch them sorting and negotiating their catch for the day. This was all happening about 6ft from us. (No, you couldn't smell the fish heh heh.)

I must say here, that there is nothing to do here for the techno lovers and the ragers It is a very very quiet place. Suitable for resting, snorkeling, meditating on the meaning of life and smuggling heh heh.

Originally we were to visit Lombok as we usually do, but with the political situation as it is, we decided to go to Amed instead. In our opinion Amed is the sister area to Lombok. It is similar in temperature, dry and hot, and its surrounding countryside has villages where farming, growing corn and crops are done.

This area is very similar to the Sasak villages in Lombok. Also the snorkeling in Amed in our opinion is just as good as the Gili Islands.
We investigated many hotels along this stretch of bay, as we will be going back.

The hotels we looked at were Hidden Paradise, Pondok Vienna, Wawa-Wewe, and Dancing Dragon cottages .I have walk up prices and etc if any one wants them. Feel free to email me if you want more details

SNORKELING TOUR

I had read on this forum, that you could go on a trip by boat to snorkel off a shipwreck in the area.

When we first got to our hotel in Amed we were approached on the beach by one of the boat owners, to see if we wanted to go snorkeling off this particular shipwreck. We hired him for 100,000rp and we went.

I loved it.

The water was teeming with a fantastic variety of tropical fish. We stayed for about 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
There are not a lot of restaurants in this area but we felt that the above listed hotels were more than adequate for our needs, and they were all really reasonable in price.

The cheapest place to eat and had the best food was The Pondok Vienna Hotel. (It’s about 300metres, maybe more, but not much) to the right of the Coral View Hotel).

We stayed in Lipah Bay for 3 Nights and we were picked up by Wayan on time and taken back to Legian for our next stay at the Sri Ratu.

SRI RATU HOTEL( 4DAYS)

We were originally booked into the Anggrek 3 Bedroom Bungalows. We are hoping to go back to Bali Xmas 12 months with our son and his family and we wanted to check out and get the feel of these bungalows for him.

Whilst we were staying at the Jayakarta hotel we took a stroll down to the Sri Ratu. We asked and were given a tour of the bungalows including the Anggrek.

Kimba has recently posted a just back on the Sri Ratu bungalows and I concur with her sentiments completely about the bungalows. She has described and put into words exactly what we felt. They were clean and adequate, and great for a family but we preferred the hotel.

THE HOTEL AT SRI RATU.

What a great little place this is. After looking at the bungalows we asked and were given a look through the hotel rooms. We immediately requested a change from the bungalow to a hotel room.

We were given room number 210. At 200,000rp a night with b/fast we consider this was a bargain basement price for this room. Another plus for us was as we were staying 4 nights our first stay and then coming back for a further 3 nights we still qualified for the 10% discount making our room 180,000rp per night, and with free transfers thrown in how could we lose.

The room was quite large with a Queen size bed, dressing table and stool, and a wardrobe. A cabinet with a TV was also in the room, but this wasn't used at all, as all the programs are in Indonesian.  I must say here also, that the air/cond was new and fantastic. The bathroom has a bath, shower and toilet. It’s a lovely bright room and was spotlessly clean.

We also arranged to have a fridge in our room for a further 10,000rp a night. Room 210 is upstairs.

A point worth making here about this hotel is, even when the rooms are not occupied, the staff go in daily to sweep and dust the entire area throughout. All the windows in the same rooms are opened out to air them to have them nice and fresh for any newcomers. We were extremely impressed with the cleanliness of the Sri Ratu.

My personal preferences for rooms in the hotel are all the upstairs rooms. They are the rooms with the 200 numbers.

Just outside the rooms is a lovely little covered eating area that has 4 tables and 16 nice wooden chairs. Breakfast is served here, or if you prefer you can have it in your room or downstairs in another little eating area similar to the one upstairs.

There are several other rooms situated around a pool downstairs.

The pool is only small but it more than does the job of cooling you off. If you are a person who likes to lay around a pool and sunbake or just enjoy the passing parade, this pool area is not for you. Very little sun gets to the paved area near the pool, but this can be a plus also. I spent several hours laying around on the reclining lounges, reading in this area. The hotel has a really nice little area upstairs where you can get the sun rays if you want it .The beach is only a 5 to 10 minute walk away.

IF YOU PREFER BIG POOLS

We approached a few hotels nearby (Mandira, Melasti, and the Jayakarta.) and asked their feelings on people staying outside the hotel, using their pool. The answer was, they didn't mind as long as you paid a fee of between 10,000rp & 20,000rp per day. A towel is also included in this price. I believe this to be a fair fee to pay.

In summation we loved the hotel and will be telling our friends what a great little place it is. We will be staying there again for our next Holiday. We found the staff friendly and courteous and nothing was a bother for them to do to ensure that we enjoyed our stay there.

If anyone wants more details on the hotel or it's rooms once again feel free to email me.

[For more information, we have a web page for Sri Ratu at our annexe. Webmaster.]

We also met some great people from the forum staying at this hotel. We spent a few chatty hours with Bob and Anne from Melb, Anne's lovely daughter Vicky and their granddaughter Jodie. What a nice family.

Bob does such a wonderful job at the Forum Bar, ensuring that everyone is made to feel welcome and at home.

TALKING OF THE FORUM BAR

Prior to going to Bali several of us had arranged to meet for drinks and Dinner at the bar on the 22nd Oct. The day came with me getting tizzied up for my grand entrance I wanted everyone to think I was gorgeous as I told everyone I was heh heh.

We all met and made ourselves known and tried to find a dry place to be. After a while I noticed this spunky lady with a frangipani in her hair. It was Barbie from America. What a dag she is. It was lovely to meet her, as previously on the forum she had doubts about coming to Bali due to the situation in America. How's your tummy Barbie? (She was bitten by a monkey).

After many drinks we all walked in the rain to a little restaurant that was near the Jayakarta Hotel. We spent a few hours enjoying each other’s company and educating our American friends Gordon, Debbie, and Barbie on the Australian lingo and way of life. . A lovely night was had by all and hopefully, we will get to repeat it one day soon.

Kimba and Alex were mentioned often during the evening as everyone felt they had come to know them a little during all our chats online. Never mind maybe next time. Congratulations also from John & I Kimba & Alex, on your recent engagement.

We left the Sri Ratu after our 4 day stay.

We had hired a driver from the streets for 70.000rp to take us to Ubud where our next hotel the Tegal Sari was.

TEGAL SARI HOTEL(3DAYS)

This hotel is a budget hotel where the accommodation varies from Standard to Duplex Rooms .We were booked into Deluxe Room no 10 (It used to be room 7).

The advertising on the net said this room was off by itself and had a 180-degree view of the rice fields. Our first impression of this hotel was, ‘what have we got ourselves into here?’

We arrived at a sign in the street that said Tegal Sari Hotel. There is no car access to this hotel. You get to the reception area by walking down a narrow path that leads from the main street (Hanoman St) .The pathway has rice fields on one side and buildings on the other.

I stayed with the luggage and John went to get help from the reception staff. No worries here, they came and got me and hoisted the luggage onto their shoulders and off we went to the reception. (I wish they had hoisted me, they were real spunks, heh heh).

We checked in and we shown to our upstairs room. The room was 200.000rp + 10%. B/fast was included. We had also arranged for a fridge here. (No charge)

It was just ok, as far as rooms go The room has a king-size cane bed, cane dressing table and wardrobe, a large cane coffee table and 2 huge cane lounge chairs .The bathroom is awful. It's clean but looks grotty due to the fact that the bath toilet and basin were very old. The hot water supply is suspect to say the least. Sometimes when you turn the taps on you would have to wait 5 minutes for the water to come out (. I’m not exaggerating here) Other times the water runs ok but it's cold. We could have changed rooms if we had wanted to but as the view was so fantastic and the room was clean, we decided to stay put and put up with a little inconvenience.

The view from the windows and the balcony were magnificent.

We were lucky enough to be in Ubud when the rice crops were being cut. Our room here, overlooked the fields where the workers were cutting and sorting the rice .We spent many hours sitting on our balcony (not verandah) drinking wine and enjoying the view. We came to love this hotel.

All the rooms except one overlooked the rice fields.

The hotel has a really lovely small pool that is surrounded by rice fields also...

We checked out all the accommodation at Tegal Sari.

We believe the best rooms to get are the Super Deluxe rooms no 8, 11, & 12. These are lovely and we will be going into the upstairs no 12 room next time.

The Duplex Bungalow no 14 was also fantastic.

We found of all the hotels we stayed in over the years in Bali, that the staff at the Tegal Sari were the best we have ever come across. They were lovely people with a happy helping attitude that gave you the feeling that they just wanted you to have a lovely time in their hotel.

Don't bother taking beer or soft drinks to this hotel, as the prices here are the same as on the street and you don't have to cart them to your room. (I think Roo-Ted stated this also, in a Just Back Report recently).

This great little hotel also serves free tea and coffee twice a day on your verandah or balcony, whichever one you have.

HONEYMOON GUESTHOUSE

We had booked into this hotel after looking at their fantastic web site. Also there has been many wonderful comments from people who have stayed there. I had been really looking forward to our stay. It was going to be our big treat to ourselves .The accommodation was not cheap for a boutique hotel so I was expecting something really special.

The hotel belongs to an Australian girl who owns the Casa Luna restaurant and Indus. She also runs a cooking school from the hotel grounds. We had booked the best accommodation in the place at a cost of 390,000rp-+10%. It was the Deluxe A.

We were transported free of charge by the Tegal Sari Hotel car to the Honeymoon Guesthouse.

The approach to this hotel is along the main street of Ubud. Fortunately the driver knew where to go, as there are no signs up anywhere indicating where the guesthouse was .The driver made a left hand turn off the main street of Ubud into what appears to be a narrow-laned road. This road is unmade and heavily covered with rocks and potholes. After a short distance we pulled up and I wondered what was going on.

A little plaque on the fence told us we were at the Honeymoon Guesthouse.

Our initial feeling was disappointment. I don't know what we were expecting to find but this wasn't anything like what we imagined it would be like. We walked down a narrow path looking for someone to show us to the reception area. After a walk of about 50metres we came to a small open sided pavilion that held a desk and a chair. This apparently was the reception.

After checking in we were shown to our room the Deluxe A.

Now this was something else again.

The room was an upstairs accommodation of a 2-storey bungalow. The entry to our accommodation was onto a huge outdoor verandah that held a beautiful glass & wooden table and 3 gorgeous carved wooden chairs. A long divan was also on this verandah which was decorated with brightly colored cushions. The door to our room was heavily carved and was decorated with some goldleaf. The verandah also overlooked the pool.

The room inside was quite palatial, very roomy, with a King-size 4 Poster bed., coffee table, work desk, fridge and a view from the window of the pool below.

The bathroom was incredible.

It was decorated in the very expensive lookalike marble. The bath, toilet and wash basin were also in the same material. The bath was triangular and would hold 2 people easily. The shower had one of the pulsating type showerheads that would bring relief to tired muscles if needed.

Now everyone has heard of, scotch on the rocks, well, this room had shower on the rocks .The shower floor was covered with hundreds of small rocks. Now I don't know why, but I suppose it's supposed to take you back to nature. Well, take it from me, it didn't take me. The idea just doesn't work. Our bloody feet were sore standing on these stupid slippery rocks. We thought, well, maybe you shower with your shoes on .We tried this also but with soap in our eyes and an uneven surface, we gave it away as a bad joke and ended up having a bath instead.

The hotel pool was small and really lovely. It has a shallow section for children and a deeper section for the adults. The pool area also has a pavilion with divans and cushions to sit on. The paved area around the pool has several reclining lounges to lay on.

Would we go there again? No.

The hotel grounds are non-existent and the owner’s home is about 30 feet from the hotel accommodation area. You are also sharing the pool with the owner and her family. You feel like you are camped in their front yard (which you are) and using their facilities. That's how we felt anyway. The hotel is also going through a large extension process. This was next to the room that we stayed in and also next to the pool area, so the scenery around the place is very ordinary to say the least. There is nothing here at this hotel, except a large block of land with some beautiful bungalows. The hotel has in my opinion, has no character whatsoever.

If I were given the choice again between spending time at the Honeymoon Guesthouse and the much cheaper less opulent Tegal Sari, I would most definitely take the Tegal Sari everyday of the week.

After our 3 days stay we checked out of the Honeymoon Guesthouse and made our way to the front gate where the car from the Tegal Sari was waiting to take us back to their hotel for a further 3 day stay.

RESTAURANTS IN UBUD, THE BALI BIRD PARK & OTHER THINGS

We spent 8 days up in Ubud and ate at many wonderful restaurants.

CASA LUNA RESTAURANT

This was one of my favourites. Their bakery, I believe is the best in Bali. The service though, in this restaurant is very ordinary. They don't seem to care if they serve you or not. The food is wonderful. Their pepper steak and pumpkin soup are my favourites. Try their Paris match cakes, if you can get them. (They are extremely popular.)

INDUS RESTAURANT (their sister restaurant)

This was also a lovely place that we had lunch at one afternoon. It has really great views of the surrounding countryside. This is a really nice restaurant It's lot more upmarket than the Casa Luna. The food was ok as well .The prices were not too bad neither...

CAFÉ WAYAN

Is a really pretty place to have Dinner. It's in a very romantic setting, with gorgeous candle lit tables and mini pavilion dotted throughout the lovely gardens. The food is great as well. This is also a terrific bakery as well as a restaurant.

LOTUS CAFÉ

Is a lovely place to have coffee and dessert or just a cold beer. This restaurant has a huge Lotus Pool that is surrounded by the tables at the restaurant. I feel it is overrated as far as the menu goes- too pricey and very ordinary cuisine.

MIRO'S

Our favourite place to eat in Ubud was here. It's in the main street of Ubud, just down from Casa Luna. The food is fantastic and the restaurant is a similar layout to Café Wayan with lovely private candlelit isolated eating areas and fish ponds. Really romantic.

The prices are very very cheap. We really loved this place.

We are a couple that like to explore the areas we visit so we spent a lot of time walking around the streets and nearby townships of Ubud.

My very favourite walk is going through the monkey forest in the early morning (no charge before 9am, as no-one is there heh heh ) and following the paths that take you past the various little villages along the way. Here you are able to see the people carving and making the various handcrafts that Bali is famous for .The big bonus with this walk is seeing the beautiful monkeys in their natural habitat.

BALI BIRD PARK

We also visited The Bali Bird Park while we were in Ubud. We hired a driver from the street to take us to the Bird Park and to wait for us, and then take us back to our hotel. We negotiated a price of 60.000rp. We told him we would probably be about 4 hours. I don't think there is any transportation at the Bird Park to get you back to your hotel, so you are better to hire a driver to take you there or go on an escorted tour.

There is also a Reptile Park next door to the Bali Bird Park.

The entry charge to the Bird Park, per 2 adults, was $29.00 Aus . This could be a great way to spend a few hours if you are into that sort of thing. It is a lovely place to visit with hundreds of very beautifully coloured birds to see, in beautiful surroundings.

There is also a terrific big restaurant there if you want to get something to eat or drink.

If you are a person that's not into birds like me, give it a miss. I was bored silly after about 30min and wanted to leave.

I think we were there about 1hour. The driver would have been rapt. I'm glad we got him to wait for us, as we were originally going to get him to come back and get us in 4 hours.

UBUD MUSEUM

This museum is in the main street of Ubud, you can't miss it .The entry fee was 10,000rp. I thought I was going to a museum, you know, the place where you see animals stuffed and other things. The sign says Ubud Museum. Stupid me it was an artist’s museum. Lots of wonderful paintings and woodcarvings though, to look at, but after 15min I was bored again. My Darling husband really enjoys the cultured things in life (that’s why he loves me). All I want to do is find the next thing that may excite me.

We do compromise occasionally.

UBUD MARKET

We went for our walk very early one morning (8am heh heh) to get some last minute shopping (The girls out there will understand) We ended up at the market, once again. It's in the main street. We shopped there for about an hour.

This is a great market to buy many things that you can't get in Legian.

The fruit you buy here is wonderfully cheap. Try the beautiful passionfruit and jackfruit. The passionfruit are as big as oranges. We paid 5000rp for about 12 huge passionfruit.

When you see something you want, just point to it, and the stall owners will show you how much to pay. Barter if you want to, but I didn't bother bartering in the fruit section. I did barter heavily though everywhere else around the market, and picked up some wonderful things (more about that later). John was getting sick of shopping (as all men do) and wanted to go. I had brought everything I needed so we decided to leave. As we made our way out, I wasn't looking where I was going, and tripped over an object in front of me. I was embarrassed with my clumsiness, and was wondering why everyone was laughing. I was just about to lose my cool, when I looked down and discovered this bloodied live rat in a cage .I was horrified, the stall owners were still laughing. The nearest owner to me said mouse. I said that's no mouse that’s a bloody big rat. He said ‘ No, mouse’ .If that was a mouse I would hate to see the size of the rats. I also wondered what they were going to do with thing later.

The mind boggles.

After spending a further (three days) at the Tegal Sari, we were taken by the Tegal Sari Hotel’s car (Price80, 000rp) back to Legian to stay for another ( 3 nights )at the Jayakarta Hotel.

Without boring you with more details, we once again produced our email confirming that we were to be given updated accommodation in block 500. This was done with no hassles involved and we enjoyed our stay there just as much as we did when we first arrived on the 12th Oct.

MORE RESTAURANTS IN LEGIAN

POPPIES

This has always been one of my very favourite restaurants. A really pretty little place to eat in and the food is always lovely. Many people over the years have criticized Poppies for being overpriced and overrated I still love eating there after 16 years of doing so .The service is always prompt and professional and the food has never let us down. Yes, it is a bit dearer than a lot but I still enjoy my times there.

WAYAN & FRIENDS (Padma St)

We had many meals here and loved them all with no exceptions. They have the most wonderful steaks and schnitzels (They're not huge though) These are all served with chip potatoes and salad. All for the price 33,000 to35, 000rp. This restaurant serves the best Calamari I have ever eaten. (I live on the coast, where the seafood is wonderful) but this restaurant, leaves them for dead. This is a great value, good food restaurant. We ate here more than anywhere else during our time in Legian.

WARUNG YOGA (Padma Utara St)

This place is brilliant for Indonesian food. Try the Nasi Campur.

The restaurant is always full at dinnertime. It is a very very cheap and great place to eat. Main courses are 8,000 to 10,000rp and real crushed fruit juices are only 3000rp. This is a warung type restaurant, so don't go expecting a 5star restaurant, or even 3 star for that matter. It's spotlessly clean, but basic. If you want cheap cheap great tasting, fantastic food go to this place. We ate here many times also, and loved it.

Our final( 3 nights) were spent at the Sri Ratu in room 210.

EXCESS LUGGAGE

After shopping until I dropped, we knew our luggage was going to be well over the 20kg allowance. We asked the staff at the Sri Ratu Hotel if they had some scales to weigh our luggage to see exactly how much it did weigh. John nearly had a heart attack. It was nearly 15kgs over, and that wasn't counting what we had in hand luggage (another 9ks at least. )

I had brought this wonderful, beautiful Queen size bed canopy (like a four poster bed concoction) mosquito net, (I couldn't resist it) Then I decided I needed, a King-size bedspread and pillow covers to match, then I needed small cushions, bed roll, large cushion and tie backs to go with it all (girls, you know how it goes) Anyway bottom line is excess luggage.

Me being the cunning, shrewd, shifty, imaginative person that I am knew there had to be a way around all this. After much thought ,I decided to turf out the pillow in the pillow case and fill it with the bed canopy. The canopy and things weighed about 3to 4 kgs.. We thought that this wouldn't look out of the norm, as far a cabin luggage goes, being a pillow. We had squashed everything in, and off we went.

Have you ever tried walking around an airport with a 4kg pillow and trying to look normal? Lol.

Anyway it worked we weren't queried on our case luggage which was still 15kgs over, and the person who takes the boarding passes completely ignored everyone’s cabin luggage and nothing was said about my pillow, (doesn’t everyone take a 4kg pillow on a plane?)
On closing this report I would like to add that anything I have said in here is the truth as we saw it and I have tried to be as objective as I could.

If there is a moral to this story, it is, always take a pillow with you to Bali, you never know when and how you could use it (heh heh).

We finally departed Bali on the 8th November on an 11pm Garuda flight to Melbourne.