First night:
The Patra Jasa Resort courtesy van picked us up from the airport. The Patra is in Tuban, the last hotel on the beach strip. Occupancy was high with mostly Asian guests. First service impression was bad during check-in as we were told the hotel has full occupancy and our room was not ready (at 7pm??). We were told to wait out in the lounge. After making a lot of noise and complaints, the room immediately was ready within 10 mins! Nice room with hard teak flooring. The ground was massive and we kept getting lost trying to find our way back to our room. Dinner was at Bamboo Corner in Poppies 1. Initially had a bit of trouble locating the restaurant. Turned out to be good choice (recommended by BTF). Cheap and good food. Kuta started to close after 10.30pm. Very quiet on the streets. Czech was playing Italy on the big screen in Hard Rock but nobody was watching.
Day 1:
B'fast in hotel and walked down to Kuta Centre. The ladies picked up a few sandals, bags and knick-knacks. Kuta beach was quiet. Maybe it was still early. A lot of beach peddlars trying to sell massage, hair braiding and tattoo painting. Pitiful to see so many of them so desperate for the little business going around. After a nasi goreng lunch in Poppies 1, took a taxi to Suku's in Seminyak. Went for a 1 ½ Balinese massage (110k). Felt good and refreshed after this. Checked out the menu at Lola next door but decided to walk down Jln Laksamana to check out the other restaurants there. We settled for Mykonos. We ordered sahanaki marinos (25k), bifteki makri (28k), beef fillet (53k). The pita bread was fresh and soft. The feta cheese was rich and creamy. Total bill for 2 including coffee and Bintang came to 142k. I'd rate it 8/10 for service, food and value. We wanted to check out a few places on Jln Dhyana Pura but the whole street was deserted. Hardly any customers in the restaurants and a few were closed. They were all crying for business.
Day 2:
We had prebooked a van and guide to take us out of Kuta for a day trip. The guide promptly met us at 10am in the lobby. When we told the guide where we wanted to go (and not where he think we should go) he wasn't very happy at all. In fact he remained very quiet for the rest of the 8 hrs and hardly tells us anything. That was the first downside of the trip. I guess he felt that he had lose out on commissions from the places he planned to take us to. On the way to Ubud, we stopped at Batubulan for the stone carvings and a woodcarving shop. Ubud seems busy in contrast to Kuta. I enjoyed the cool Bohemian atmosphere there. We lunched at Ibu Rai and had fresh fruit juices and Balinese coffee watching the world go by. Nice and relaxing place. We decided that our next trip to Bali, we will stay in Ubud. It was too late to continue up to Kintamani so we headed down to Uluwatu. We were warned at the entrance of the notorious monkeys there. Yet one of us from our group nearly lost his glasses to these creepers. They just appeared from nowhere and snatched away the glasses in the split of a second. Luckily, one of the locals managed to get back the glasses after paying him some tips. Wander if this was a set up?
We had checked out from Patra and checked into Bali Hilton in Nusa Dua. We took the hotel taxi and asked the driver to take us to Jimbaran for a cheap and good seafood dinner. He took us to the Jimbaran Bay Café. The driver enthusiastically volunteered to wait for us and take us back after dinner. BIG mistake!! We ended up paying more than double for a simple seafood dinner. The place was 2-star, food 3-star and prices 6-star. Biggest rip-off we had this trip. When we complained after to the driver, he said that was the normal seafood price in Jimbaran Bay. My mistake as I did not research enough in BTF on tourist traps in Jimbaran seafood places.
Day 3:
It was a leisurely day today. Called up Green Garden Spa for appointment and a van came and picked us up from our hotel. We took the 3 hr Royal package consisting of steam room, Balinese massage, body scrub, facial and flower bath. All for 264k. It was near sunset when we finished so we had dinner at the top level of the spa café. It had a good view of the beach and sunset. It was a good relaxing day today.
Day 4:
Had a leisurely morning in the hotel and checked out and flew out after lunch.
We had a good relaxing holiday despite the downside with the drivers and the Jimbaran seafood rip off. The majority of the locals are so sweet and gentle. The tourist economy is so slack and many of the businesses are hurting just to survive. So please go to Bali!!! I also learnt that the massage and spa workers do not earn any salary and they are only paid commission from as little as 10% of what the customer pays to the boss. On top of this, they have to pay 10k Rph per day for rental if they are from out of town. So please tip them generously if you appreciate their services. With so much competition and so few customers these days, they are lucky if they can get a customer a day. Support Bali!!!