Bali 2012

June 8th

The airport was full as we arrived as usual, and after going through customs, we caught a taxi still inside the airport, for 150,000 IR. Starting price was 300,000. We forgot that even though it was only about 15km away from the airport it still took 45 mins because of the traffic.
 

The Puri Santrian Resort looked small from the front gate, but we didn’t realise until the next day how big the place actually was, with 3 pools and several restraunts. All the rooms were very discrete and we had a lovely balcony overlooking one of the pools.

We got used to saying the usual “no thanks” every 5 mins as we were accosted with a million taxi drivers, and enjoyed the lovely meals everywhere. We had a couple of Bali squirrels running around on the balcony and jumping from tree to balcony, looking for scraps of food.

 The pool in front of the building we were staying was beautiful and had a spa and a cave running off it. I’m sure we made a fool out of ourselves a few times by howling in the cave and by taking the shortcut over the spa wall instead of going around like normal people do.

After the Santrian we caught a taxi for 200,000 IR to Candidasa (Taxi from Hardies shopping centre, rather than out of the front of the resort – they wanted 400,000 IR)

Again the resort (Nirwana Resort and Spa) was down a rocky lane way, and the front of it looked small but the resort was stunning and larger than we thought.

We ventured out that afternoon and realised it was a cut lunch and waterbag trip to get to the main drag. That was a good thing as we were eating far too much good food for the amount of exercise we were doing. The next day was spent laying around the pool because both Phil and I could feel our muscles aching after all the walking in the tropical heat.

The following day, we had lunch at a place on the main drag and organised a free pick up for dinner again. The waiter also organised a driver for the following day to take us to Ubud. He boasted about his Arak Attack cocktails, so we decided to try one, and I have to admit that it wasn’t bad.
 

Ubud was about 1.5 Hrs away and The Arma
Resort was part of a Museum complex.
I think we have managed to get the highest room on the highest hill in Ubud with about 300 steps (ok slight exaggeration) to get to reception and breakfast, however the view was stunning! The room has a dungeon bathroom out the back door and down yet more stairs but it’s cool.






 However it is not cool to have to run up and down out the back if you want to rinse your hands or wipe something you have spilt or brush your hair because your toiletries are down there. I had to make sure that I was awake when I needed to go to the loo otherwise I could have broken my neck. We also had a huge marble balcony, with a huge day bed and a table and chairs all to ourselves complete with romantic candle.

After the first day, we were well and truly over all the steps, but Ubud was as charming as ever. The monkey forest was overflowing with cheeky monkeys and people had to shoo them away, off the scooters and out of their shops. We found the best coffee shop called Copi Bali House which served the best coffee and we were addicted to the Vienna coffee. The meals were awesome as usual but the best was at a place called Three Monkey’s Inn.

  After Ubud, we caught a taxi to Nusa Dua to a resort called Jimbaren Cliffs Private Hotel and Spa. Now this place was luxury plus!! Our own private pool on the edge of a cliff with a Bale on one side to relax in.
We were going to explore but the room was too nice to leave. You could have room service at no extra cost and the room staff turn down your bed and put your slippers out – no joke!
 We felt like royalty, but we dragged our royal butts up to the rooftop restraunt because we didn’t want to be a bother eating in our room.

 However the next day we noticed that no-one ate at the restraunt, and all had room service, so we thought we would do so also! I contracted a mild dose of Bali Belly and felt off for 24hrs but at least it was in paradise on the day bed next to the pool. We met the owner Peter, and his Balinese wife and daughter, and he told us of a few more places to visit next time we go to Bali again.

We left Jimbaran and headed for busy Kuta for our last night’s stay at Wina Holiday Resort. It was nice, but not in the league of the other resorts and it was also a lot noisier at night. We had another couple of lovely meals in Kuta and managed to buy perfumes and gifts in record time.
 

We had an extended stay in the resort so we could shower at night after one last swim in the pool and then spent quite a few hours at the airport before we left at the horrible time of 1.10am to head back to cold Adelaide.