We, being me ,Les and Gemma left home the day before our flight out as we live 5 hours from sydney and stayed at the formula1 in St Peters,Sydney.This is where Les grew up,so we took a snapshot of him outside the terrace house he grew up in.
We flew Pacific Blue as we got such a cheap flight, but ,it's a bit like going to Bali on a bus, not very comfortable and Les's back was screaming by the end of the flight,other than that uneventful and boring as you have to pay for entertainment but we arrived half an hour early.
We had booked the contraversial VIP service with worldsafarisbali and probably didn't need it, as being early ,we seemed to be between flights and it didnt seem as awful as last time. Getting off the plane on the tarmac and bussed to the terminal is a novelty, but it beats how it was 23 yrs ago when you had to walk across to what was a tin shed surrounded by machine gun weilding polisi.
We were to look for a person with a sign with our name on it once we got to the terminal, no sign, but we looked confused so they found us anyway. We were out in about 10 minutes into the sea of smiling dark faces and name cards. Again we had to find a card with our name on it and pay for the vip service........and..... I saw a card with our name and off we went....with the hotel driver. I completely forgot about the VIP people until a knock on the hotel door about 8pm that night........sooooo embarrassed and gave them the extra rp they asked for to cover petrol.

We stayed the whole 2 weeks at LumbungSari in Legian. Its a small quiet hotel, one of the older ones, it needs the rooms refurbished but we didn't care. Our requirememts were comfy bed, clean, airconditioned with a pool and to house all 3 of us on a budget as Miss Gemma was on a tighter budget than even we were . We did have intermittent hot water during the day and the foods not the best but the staff are lovely and I enjoyed it here just as much as the brand new All Seasons .It's very "Bali" in architecture and friendliness compared to the modern hotels where you could be pretty much anywhere in the world.
The first night we went to Goodies for dinner, its my favourite place for pizza. It was exactly the same as last year, frienly and great pizza. We decided to walk along the beach road home, and thus began the quest for vegemite for Gemma as we stepped into all the little supermarkets.
Every other step we took brought us another hawker, by the time Les got back to hotel he had half a dozen light up toys and a wallet that bursts into flames.
The quest for vegemite was like finding the holy grail.

We ate a lot of the time at the warung kartini, in three brothers lane,it doesn't look much decor wise, but the food is freshly cooked,yummy and cheaper than chip sandwiches at home!

We had a nice chicken curry at Je-Jes jsut at Padma Utara end of the lane, love their banana pancakes and a take away milkshake in a plastic bag is a hoot.good value for money and nice staff. wish they would bring back the music,to get the place busy again.


WE did the Rick Stein thing and went to IBUOKA.. well I can say I've done it.I found it too spicy to taste the pork really, but leaving our shoes in a pile with all the others and sitting on the floor was a novelty. Thing is after eating here, a few hours later hubby got sick, really really sick,vomiting, temp,runs etc. we both ate here,luck of the draw? its the only place out of the ordinary that we ate at,only one with out a "proper" kitchen and food out in the open up until that time.And you have to sit on the floor so you're using your hands on the floor, we do use the hand sanitiser....but... luckily we had some of those new specific for travellers belly antibiotics with us and he recovered in about 2 days.

We went out to the Beach Shack at Canguu, its lovely out there,pretty rice paddy scenery on the way.
We had arranged to meet a girl I went to school with from way back in 3rd class ,when she was the new kid. Her husband and 2 of her children were with her as well. It was absolutely amazing to catch up with her after all these years and it must be something about us Heathcote girls that we can just pick up where we left off and none of us seem to worry about who's got what. It's great.
We ate the tables just above the beach, shame we had cloud cover as the sunset would have been gorgeous.It was still pretty the little bit we had. The food was ok, nothing spectacular, but it was a great night until it rained.
Going back to Legian we had need to use their transport which is a set rate, it was 100,000rp back to legian.........funnily enough a faster trip back than getting there which cost us 85,000 after we got lost twice lol
.

We went to Pizza hut of all places but its so different to australia. we all really enjoyed the meal here and went back for takeaway lol pastas are scrummy, pizzas are very different esp the choice of crusts...i had one with chicken sticks,tasted better than it sounds. They also make nice mocktails and fruit smoothies.


why oh why do we not have JCO donuts in australia instead of donut king???? so light so fluffy, like fairy floss with icing lol i won't tell you how many i bought :O

In our room somehow the the bathroom door had locked from the inside we told the staff and they scratched their heads as you have to actually turn the lock to lock it,theres nothing loose that can just fall into place. So lots of balinese chatter and the boss sends 1 guy to have a look. Theres no gap where the door joins the wall so their first thought of knife or credit card didnt work. Are you sure theres no one in there?,they ask. nope.. all 3 of us here.
Another guy comes along. There is a brilliant idea to do the equivalent of the coathanger in the car door trick. The door itself is on the front right of the bathroom as you walk in....so walk in face left and about 13 feet away is the wall with the cement brick window up high. Theres two up on the ladder with a long pole which they poke through the window and wave about trying to open the lock. The door is 13 feet and to the right of the window away and a target of about 10cm. We're hearing chatter, cheers and dissapointed sighs...............2 hours later, they decide to take the frame off the door,which left a gap for them to slide the lock open, remove the lock and put on a new one which took about 15 minutes!
Enough entertainment ,we headed off to Mataharis........Caught a taxi to Mataharis.....who knew there were two? so we caught another Taxi to Mataharis...

Lots of shopping to be had here, DVD's clothes etc......helps if you don't leave the shopping in the tax and wave it goodbye! I lost 13 DVD's leaving the bag in the taxi.luckily they're only $1.20 each.

We went out to tahna lot, ubud, the safari park this trip, we saw these things last time, but it was great to show Gemma.

I hope Gemma had a great time, she said she did,even though it was with us oldies , she did get one night out at Apache for her 21st, came home tipsy on the obligatory motorbike taxi .

we had too much shopping and had to get my friend to post some things back for us.
flight back wa uneventful,boring, though they did give gemma whatever she wanted to eat for free as it was her birthday. long wait at the station for our train and finally home....long 24hr trip.





Things I noticed this trip :you can a get a cab down to the bottom of jn 66 to legian beach for those restraunts BUT try to get one back!!!! There are several there waiting all the time and they refuse to put the meter on and want anything from 50-100k to get you back to legian. We just walked till we found a blubird or jumped straight into one where someone else was getting out or just hoof it.

it rains when its not the rainy season lol

there is no vegemite in bali.......trust me, we looked!!!



Now saving for the next 2 yrs to get back again