THE GOOD;
1. The people- still as beautiful and friendly as ever. I think their driving sums up their attitude to life; not one instance of road rage experienced in the whole trip. Would love to see the same tolerance shown here in Oz.
2. The standard of food in general; from cheap warungs to Warisan we gave it a good nudge and were well impressed.
3. The Bali Deli for instance. Took some of my favourite Japanese salad dressing home, as it was cheaper there.
4. Ku de Ta; Perth restaurant owners should be made to come here and see how a good eatery operates. One note of caution here though, don't come even 10 mins late as they will, and did give our booking to someone else! To be fair however a large antipasto plate was dispatched to us as we waited for another table.
5. The Gateway to India; broke my own personal record again and ate here 5 times in 8 days. If you can make it past the entrees, you are doing well. Everybody in our groups' favourite. Ps in the Seminyak branch it is noticeably hotter closer to the tandoori oven by the front entrance!!
6. Lamaks in Ubud; good food, amazing décor, especially the toilets.
7. Tegal Sari Ubud; as good as they say- nuf said on this forum already, decent local food at the hotel café too.
8. The best mille –feuille (vanilla slice) ever at café Moka Canggu.
9. Canggu itself- a really good alternative to the main strip-no hawkers no trrrrrrrrrrrrrrransport, just friendly hellos and smiles. 24,000rp by taxi tho' we had our own driver.
10.Air Paradise- my favourite airline to Bali by far-would hate a longer trip on those seats though!
THE NOT SO GOOD
1. If you stay out in the rice fields or away from the hotel areas, be prepared for the morning/nightly plastic rubbish burning ceremony- the plastic bottle issue seems to be getting worse, but no solution in sight. Our group all had strange coughs as a result of the toxic smoke from our neighbours' place(s).
2. Prostitution seems to be becoming more prevalent. Even in Ubud there appeared to be many elder men with girls from the beach areas? I'd hate to see this activity becoming 'acceptable' in our favourite island.
3. The CD copies are mostly naff-don't bother. Even the people in the shop couldn't load them on my lap-top.
4. Don't listen to people who tell you you don't need air-con in Ubud. In April anyway it would be hard sleeping without it! The occasional re-gas wouldn't go astray either!
5. Casa Luna cooking school-too many bloody people by far.
6. Indo –National- great service (again Perth waiters should come here and see how easy it is to manage split bills) good vibes, but pretty average food even for the price (group consensus)
7. Perth landings- is this the roughest place to land in the world?