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Days 9-10 ( Longish ) Thursday 7th June 2001 As shar^kie was heading out for some filming in Sanur early in the afternoon, we spent the morning around the hotel catching up on washing, reports, having a swim and just relaxing. We left Scott in Camp splash when shar^kie headed off for filming and Koala accompanied him with her digital camera for some more photos. shar^kie was due at the Radisson Hotel (not suites) at 4pm, so he was dropped off there and Koala stayed in the car and picked up some McDonald's in the new store in Sanur as a treat for Scott and headed back to the Suites. For those with kids, McDonalds finally have Happy Meals in Bali but they come with a burger/nuggets,drink and toy but no chips as they do in Australia. You have to order these seperately. For the non burger lovers, McDonalds also have McSpaghetti which isn't bad. The sauce is quite tangy. We got on the internet to email and post our reports and chat to our teenagers back home. Our dog seems to be missing us as he howls to go out, howls to come in and then howls early morning-something we have never heard when we are home but the girls tell us he did that last time we went to Bali too. Later that evening we went back to Koki's for dinner. Scott and Koala shared the Beef Kebabs which was prime Australian fillet steak on a skewer with tomato and zuccini accompanied with corn on the cob and chips. The beef was so thick and tender though scott found it a little peppery but it was a great meal for the price 39,500++. Shar^kie who loves his steak, had a 400gram sirloin steak with pepper sauce,mashed potato and salad (62,000+) The steak was thick and huge and you would easily pay $20+ for a steak like that in Australia. It came with three little bowls, thousand island dressing for the salad (you had a choice of three dressings), peppered sauce for the steak, and regular brown gravy for the mashed potato. He declared it to be cooked perfectly (med rare) and to be so tender. Koala had creme caramel and Scott had a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. Beautiful meal and with drinks for three, the bill was about $29Australian, dearer than the other night but we both had beautiful serves of Australian meat and way less than what you would pay at home for the same thing. ( In case you missed it in one of our older posts - Koki is at - JL By pass Nigurah Rai No 9 X Blanjong Sanur tel (0361) 287 503 )
Day 10 The weather is a bit drizzly and Andrew and Jan in Legian, ring at 8 am to tell us its pouring in Legian or should it be Lake Legian they joke. Scott is booked in for "parents escape" which means he stays at Camp Splash throughout the lunch hour,is fed lunch and looked after for 45,000rp. Normally parents have to pick their children up during 12-1.30pm for lunch but if the "parent's escape" is organised,then they have the whole day from 9am-5pm free. Scott is excited at the prospect. We head off in a taxi from Sunny Sanur to "Lake" Legian stopping on the way at the Green Garden Hotel in Tuban for a look around. The General Manager Paulus Wibowo tells us that they are 3/4 way through building a new Hotel opposite the Holiday Inn in Tuban, with less rooms but more facilities on a larger property. We promise to check it out later in the week. Arriving at Andrew and Jan's hotel ( Legian Paradiso ) we find that Andrew hasn't been well for the past 2 days. Still too early for lunch we decide to hit an internet cafe to catch up on the forum and decided to try the Lazale Internet cafe. Having no luck surfing the net as the computer we booked did not get out of the cafe let alone onto the internet, although Andrew and Jan's did very slowly, we called it quits and the owner offered us a 50% discount on the standard minimum fee of 8,000Rp but we declined the discount and paid 0. Still a little early for lunch we walked up to Taman Gardens for a drink. Here we see the drop off point for goods for Gloria's Crisis Care Clinic. People can drop anything off here to help. Drinks,a chat and then we headed off to lunch at Bali@cyber cafe where we had no problem with the internet connection or with lunch. After lunch we grab a taxi and we were off to Villa Wilsana on an invitation from Paul oneof the lucky forumites with property in Bali. However we did not have their address but knew it was close to La Lucciola's Restaurant in Seminyak and we decided we could find it from there. This is where the day becomes interesting and fun.The taxi drops us off and we go and ask directions. No-one seems to know and one person vaguely points in a direction so we head off that way up the road. We get to see The Living Room Restaurant and it looks great and as we go along,we continue to ask directions. This time people say they know where the villa is but they all are pointing in different directions. shar^kie says he will find an internet cafe and see if the address is on the Wilsana webpage so he wanders off a little ahead of us. We walked a fair distance and quite enjoyed it looking at interesting sights as we go. However, we lose sight of shar^kie after stopping to talk to a Canadian lady and her little three month old monkey. Further and further we walk and instead of asking for directions to Wilsana or an internet cafe, we start asking people if they have seen a guy with purple t shirt and black shorts!! Everyone shakes their heads,and we were conjuring up the next forum post with the heading "shar^kie lost in Seminyak" or "Seminyak Witch Project". After we walk for ages, we suddenly wonder if indeed we may have walked past him whilst he was in a shop/hotel asking directions and we turn round and start heading back the way we originally came. Taxis beep up us on occasion and a van pulls over and asks us if we want a lift.We tell him no but ask him if he has seen anyone answering shar^kie's description and he says no. He tries to get us to hire his van and again we decline and we start to walk off. A shout from the guy in the van and we turn to see shar^kie coming down the hill behind us. It seems he had walked another 100 metres further than us and found an internet cafe but to his disappointment he says there was no address. The driver says he know the villa and asks for 20,000rp for him to take us there. At this stage we didn't care about price but the driver suddenly seemed very vague with directions and the name of the villa and we wonder if he really knows. So we say 20,000rp if you find it,10,000rp if you don't!! He agrees and we all hop in the van and drive back down the road a little. Close to the The Living Room restaurant, he turns down a small track and turns into a property. It is indeed Villa Wilsana and we realise the guy knew all along where it was and could have easily directed us there without driving us! However, we were grateful just to be there and gladly paid him the 20,000rp. Villa Wisana is a delight and we were warmly greeted by Nyoman who had been sent details of our visit but by this time it was after 3pm and I guess he figured we were not going to show up. We had a look through the villa and it is great! two bedrooms downstairs,one upstairs and another in a seperate building with it's own plunge pool! The bathrooms were great with a wide open effect . The bedrooms looked cool and inviting with big windows looking out on the garden. We sat out by the pool with cold Bintangs and chatted to Nyoman . All of us decided that Villa Wilsana was perfect for a quiet, relaxing retreat and we could easily envisage how peaceful it could be for a holiday. The villa is quite well booked at the moment and this day is the only day it's vacant for us to have a look. We then had a quick dip in the pool and sadly realised time was against us and we needed to head back to civilisation. Nyoman kindly took us back to our Hotels. We collected Scott from Camp Splash and he wasn't keen to leave as he had been having so much fun. We had organised to meet Andrew and Jan for dinner at Poppies at 8pm and spent a little time downloading photos from the digital camera to the laptop hard drive. We have 800 photos now!! Lots of memories to take back for sure. At 7.30 we head off to Poppies in Kuta with a driver from out of the front of the hotel. He drops us off and then says he will wait for us. We tell him not to bother as we have no idea when we will be finished but he says he has no further work and doesn't mind waiting. We tell him to take work if he gets it and if he is there when we are finished, then we will get a lift back with him. He agrees and we walk the small distance to Poppies. We are glad that Jan had booked as the place is packed! Not long after Jan and Andrew arrive. shar^kie ordered his favourite Golden Chicken Maryland with Jan and Koala following suit. Andrew ordered the seafood kebabs. The ladies went for entree- Garlic Bread and Avocado Prawn..yummy. The milkshakes are incredibly delicious here and Scott ordered a chocolate milkshake with his cheeseburger,whilst Koala bit the bullet and tried ice coffee. She has been stung many a time in Hong Kong and Bali with really awful iced coffees- once one came as black coffee with ice floating in it and it was bitter as anything. However, this was sweet creamy and a huge dob of ice cream floating in it. Best in Bali !! We all chatted,Scott played army men and we all enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere. It is a little more expensive than many restaurants in Bali but way cheaper than anything in Australia in comparison. We have heard of meals not being as good as they used to be, but honestly we couldn't complain about any part of the meal at all. Considering the full house, serving times were quite adequete. Our bill was about $29 Australian for the three of us and that included the milkshake,iced coffee,three bintangs and a sprite! Andrew and Jan's bill was just as reasonable.
We parted company with Andrew and Jan about 10.30pm and our driver was still waiting where we left him.
No time at all,we were back to the Hotel and the driver happy with his tip. Scott was soon asleep and Koala not far behind him. Another long,full and enjoyable day in Bali.
Cheers from shar^kie koala & Scott
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