Grand Istana Rama Hotel Kuta

... rooms with different activities - some have dance floors, some pool tables, some karaoke, and some even have small swimming pools! We concluded pretty early on that there are two things to do in Kuta: go to the beach (ie surf) and party (or do a tour but they all cost at least $50 and were not in the budget).<br><br>Thursday through Saturday were spent shopping, laying on the beach, taking dips in the ocean (and wishing we knew how to surf), and eating at many more Indonesian ...

... br> 1. Try not to arrive late at night. The hotels and bungalows know your in a predicament and try to extort money from you.<br> 2. Get a taxi ticket from the airport from the official ticket booth. This is outside of the main arrival terminal. Go through the exit doors and turn right, you&#8217;ll see it some 30 metres down and on the right. Ignore the taxi drivers at all costs.<br> 3. Be prepared to bargain for everything including the price of your accommodation ...

... everywhere...a small box of fruit...flowers...and today I saw tempura in the box. There are people here from all over the world but I notice that there are a lot of interracial couples vacationing in Bali. I guess it caught my eye because I'm in an interracial relationship. Seems to be a Sign-o-the- Times. I think I've been offered "transport!" and "taxi!" over a 100 times on the street since I arrived in Ubud. This was ...

We had secured a flight back to Bali from Ende on Jan 2nd, there are only 3 a week so we didnt want to miss it! This meant hanging around by the raod side from early morning hoping to get a bus as it passed through Moni. We were successful but Chris had to stand in the open doorway clinging on for dear life the whole journey whilst I sat crushed on the step with a brace of live chickens pecking at my fingers. Back in Bali we headed north to Bedugal by ...

... pulled up outside a sign which claimed we had arrived at the monkey sanctuary in Ubud! Yay for the limited road network meaning that all roads really do lead to everywhere! We had great fun exploring the sanctuary and the monkeys were interesting and dangerous to a very fulfilling level, particularly the soaking wet one which kept trying to jump onto Helena, heehee! We then walked up a hill covered with craft shops and antique shops... talk about heaven! It was like ...

... went to a very basic warung for a bite to eat. There was a display cabinet thing in the window, filled with numerous bowls, each containing a different foodstuff. We were each presented with a bowl of rice and were offered spoonfuls of the bowls. Clearly, this could be hygienically dubious - who knows how long the bowls had been sitting in the display? - but it was pretty tasty and our stomachs didn't seem to rebel. We spent the afternoon at the hotel ...

... the traffic! how do i explain... the rules of the road here can be summed up in one word - chaotic. thats not to say that traffic is not organized, the locals know exactly what they are doing. but to visitors, its rather difficult cuz the roads are narrow, people park and double park everywhere, endless motorbikes zoom around at really high speeds and you're just expected to weave around all the obstacles. so here i was, riding along my ...