Arriving at the airport
- There are plenty of money changers at the airport, but their rates are inferior to the ones in town. If you really need to change, there's one smaller boot which gives better rates for large notes. There are also ATM machines, but they give you a maximum of 400.000 Rp which is less then 40 US$ nowadays, so you might loose too much money on commission.
- The taxi to Kuta or Legian is 15.000 Rp (7/98). If you stay in a more expensive hotel, call them, they will probably send a free shuttle.
Ubud - Kuta Again plenty of tourist transportation from Ubud over Sanur to Kuta for 3 US$.
Changing money Be extremely careful while changing money at the moneychangers in Kuta. Those who have the best rates will very often try to rip you off, I had several reports about this!!
- The usual trick is to count the money first, and one way or another they manage to slip some of the money under the table, so always count again before putting the money in your purse.
- Another trick is to simply count wrong, f.i. if you need to get 1.200.000 Rp for your 100 US$, they will count 1.020.000 Rp.
- Another trick is to switch notes and give you 1.000 Rp notes instead of 10.000 Rp.
Hotels Puri Nusantara Cottages
Transit Hotel This is a very basic hotel near to the airport. So I only recommend it if you want to have a plane very early. Rooms are OK, prices range between 13 and 30 US$ (5/97). This includes a free airport shuttle. We first had a cheaper room, but we had to change after we got some noisy Indonesian neighbours.
Bali Dynasty Resort
For our last night we wanted to have a splurge in this 5-star hotel. They give 50% discount in low season, but it still turns out to be expensive with 76 US$ without breakfast (5/97). You will also be among Australians who have never even heard of temples on Bali!
Bounty hotel
We didn't stay there ourselves, but its cheaper then the previous. They also give substantial reductions and have the same public. They are more centrally located. I read a posting on LP of someone who got his wallet stolen after he had forgotten it at the front desk.
Losmen Arthawan
Situated at Poppies Lane II, centrally located close to the bemostation but still quiet. They charge 15.000 Rp for a double with bathroom and breakfast. The hotel is clean.
Other options
If you want to stay in a 5-star hotel for 3-star prices, go to Bali right now (7/99). Planet Holiday has good deals, f.i. the famous Bali Cliff resort for 389 US$ pp for 12 days, or if you prefer shorter stays a double room including breakfast now costs 79 US$ per night (7/99).
Restaurants - We went to Poppies in Poppies Lane I which is still world famous and quite good.
- A restaurant which was recommended was Bumbu Bali, although it's further away from Kuta at Tanjung Benoa. The place is very nice with 4 seating areas in pavillions, and 1 in open air. You have a view on the kitchen. They serve superb Balinese food (try their roasted duck). Prices range from 10.000 Rp for appetisers to 100.000 Rp for the roasted duck or the Rice table.
- For those who are interested, I got a report saying the Milk Shakes at Mc Donalds were not as good as those in Mc Donalds Ljubljana (Slovenia).
What to do?
- Unless you want to party and shop around, there's not much to do in Kuta. In fact, we found it a very annoying and tiring place. Street vendors try to sell you the same stuff every 20 metres, people offer you awfully expensive transport every 30 seconds. As I told you before, do your shopping in Ubud.
- Be extremely careful with bying software in Kuta (or elsewhere in Asia). Needless to say most of them are illegal copies, but they often lack the ID key on the back which enables you to install it on your PC, so you'll loose all your money.
- You can have a walk on the beach, the waves are nice but you feel that they can be very dangerous too.
- You can do a rafting trip in central Bali. Check out whether it's fun to do this trip in the middle of dry season. There are several agents offering a 1 day rafting trip:
- Sobek expeditions: they charge about 65 US$, but you can get small reductions of 10 to 20 US$.
- Bali Adventure rafting: 56 US$, and they had Jean Claude Van Damme rafting with them (according to their publicity).
- Bali Adventure rafting, also 65 US$ (official price).
- You can also go snorkeling or diving at Nusa Penida. A diving trip for a day will cost you 75 US$ including everything, a snorkeling trip is 20 US$. There's a lot of fish. Mimpi Dive Center is recommended.
Getting out of Bali Denpasar is a big airport. There are frequent flights to Sulawesi and Java.
Recent info says it's quite difficult to fly eastwards nowadays (8/98). Only Merpati is still flying there (Sempati has gone bankrupt and Bouraq have cancelled their flights). Flights are very frequently cancelled, someone said they had to wait for 1 week before getting on a flight. The advantage is that flights are very cheap, here are some examples:
- Denpasar-Labuan Bajo 640.000 Rp (price 9/98).
- Denpasar-Mataram 234.500 Rp (7/99). There's a new company called Air Mark giving discounts on this price. you can contact them through Sjaful Rabindra, Sales and marketing manager, AIR MARK, Jl. Legian Kaja N, 486, Kuta 80361, Bali, Tel 62-(0) 361-757008.
To the Komodo dragons If you want to do a luxury cruise to Komodo, you could check Spice Island Cruises. They have a 3-day cruise leaving Bali on Friday and a 4 -day tour leaving Bali on Monday. The lowest fare for a 3-day cruise is 495 US$ a head, but they have "stand-by" fares of 347 US$. Still very expensive, but it must be great I suppose. |
