Laurieco's Bali & Singapore Trip Report

Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 10:38 AM
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Laurieco's Bali & Singapore Trip Report

This trip report will differ somewhat from past reports and won’t have much detail, mainly because we didn’t do much sightseeing. We were quite happy to sit around at the pool and look at the ocean and eat and drink. We’ve never taken what I call a “slug” vacation before, mainly because we always assumed we would be bored out of our minds. It turns out that we were quite content to do very little. Of course we didn’t need to travel to Bali to do it, we could have gone to the Caribbean, someplace we’ve never thought about going. We will now!

A few words about Singapore Airlines: All in all, a good airline but I would hesitate to fly them again in coach because they won’t allow you to reserve a seat in advance, only to give a preference. This was not a problem leaving JFK for a change but was a big problem when we left Singapore to come home, even though we were at the airport almost 4 hours before the flight and almost no one had checked in for the flight. Suffice it to say that after much discussion with a manager there, we were able to get decent seats. They originally wanted too put us in the middle seats in a middle row. I didn’t need to be at the airport 4 hours early for that. That said, Singapore Airlines will always be a last resort for me.

I didn’t plan this trip, my travel agent did, which is a departure for me. I usually do everything myself but once in a while, I use an agent that I’ve had since 2000. She emails me trips all the time and sometimes they are too good to pass up. This was one of them.

Our first six nights were at the Sofitel in Seminyak. The Sofitel is a very nice hotel on a beautiful stretch of beach and about a 5-10 minute walk into town. We upgraded to a deluxe room but I didn’t see a regular room so I can’t say what the difference is. The room was large, nicely furnished, with a window seat/daybed and a balcony with a partial ocean view. It would have been a full ocean view but there were trees partially obstructing the view.

Seminyak is a nice little town with some very good restaurants. Across the street from the hotel is Gado Gado, a wonderful restaurant serving not quite Asian food but food with an Asian flair. It’s right on the beach and is quite a lovely restaurant. They also make the best mojitos I’ve ever had. We went there a few times for drinks at sunset. The restaurant is expensive by Bali standards (about $50 for dinner for two, with drinks and sushi appetizer) but inexpensive by New York standards.

Other good restaurants in Seminyak are, Veranda (very inexpensive), Made’s Warung II (ate lunch there twice) a great place in a nice outdoor courtyard with very good food and cheap, La Lucciola, a very reasonable and beautiful Italian restaurant on the ocean and my favorite meal on this trip (less than $40 for dinner for two, including beers), Warung 96 which is CHEAP and has very good pizza, The Living Room, serving Western food in a pretty garden setting. There were a couple of others whose names escape me but are in my Bali guidebooks. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find them at the moment.

We had a half day sightseeing trip included, with about 30 people, including my travel agent, Brenda. They all came to Bali a day after we got there. Eric and I added a night onto the Seminyak part of the trip and also a night onto the Ubud portion. One of the reasons I wanted to do this trip was to finally meet Brenda in person. I’ve spoken to her on the phone and have been emailing her for 6 years and she seemed like so much fun. She is, I’m happy to say, just how I imagined she would be. Even though there were about 30 people who came on this trip to Bali, we were really on our own for all but one day.

The sightseeing trip was a walk through a rice paddy and then a walk around a typical Balinese village, culminating in a cooking lesson and very nice lunch.

I did no shopping in Seminyak, other than a kite and a blouse (a schemata really) that I bought from some lady on the beach to get rid of her. It didn’t work and I should have known better. It’s not a bad blouse but I certainly didn’t need it and I gave it to my cousin. We did look in shops but everything seemed to look better in the windows than when I got inside for a closer inspection. Also, since I’ve been to Bali before and bought stuff last time, it wasn’t new to me and didn’t thrill me.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 10:49 AM
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I meant to put in that I'm taking a break before starting on Ubud, where we did a bit more and won't be as boring!
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 11:30 AM
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Didn't know about that Singapore Airlines seating policy - bizarre

Looking forward to the "interesting" part...
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 12:37 PM
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I forgot to mention a great place to pick up snacks, wine or just about anything else -- the Bali Deli. It’s down a side street off JL Seminyak, not far from Made’s. They had the Jacob’s Creek sparkling wine we like and it was only about $15.00. We pay $10 for it here in NY and paid $25 for it in Bangkok. It’s a decent alternative to champagne when you don’t feel like paying a fortune for the real stuff. Since we drink bubbly on a regular basis, we would go broke in a hurry if we always had French champagne, so we usually have the Jacob’s Creek and have real champagne every few weeks.

All in all, Seminyak was very relaxing with mornings at the pool, walks into town for lunch, a bit of window shopping, back at the pool for an hour or two, happy hour at the hotel from 3-5 with half price drinks, then sunset drinks either at Gado Gado or on our balcony, and dinner out. The kind of vacation I never thought I would take!

After 6 nights at the Sofitel, we went to Ubud. Our transfers were courtesy of the Royal Pita Maha, who supplied minivans to take us all to Ubud. It took about 2 hours to get there.

The Royal Pita Maha is gorgeous. It’s set up like a Balinese village and overlooks lush foliage and the Ayung River. The villas are very private, huge and have large pools, not plunge pools. I took lots of pictures that I hope to have up sometime this century. The villas have a private courtyard entrance behind a high wall. When you walk inside, the main room has what has to be the biggest bed I’ve ever seen, it looked bigger than a standard king. There are several tables and chairs, and daybed, a desk and wall to wall windows looking out to the river and private pool. On one side is the bathroom, which has a long bench for luggage, closet with safe, huge sunken bathtub in the middle, shower stall and double sink (and of course a toilet). On the other end is the living room with a corner sofa, table and chairs, TV and DVD player, and mini bar. From both the living room and the bathroom are doors to the outside with steps leading down to the pool area. The pool was oval shaped and there were two lounges and a table. A perfect place to have champagne ;-) The view was spectacular as the pool was set on a cliff overlooking the valley and river. The rest of the hotel is just as nice, lovely public areas and very serene. The staff is very accommodating without being annoying. Many of you know that I stayed at the Amanjiwo in Java, which is double the price of the rack rate of the Royal Pita Maha. The Royal Pita Maha is just as nice and I preferred the service there as well. The RPM is a bargain, especially if you get it for about half price as we did. It’s a little out of town so you need to take a car for the 10 minute ride. The hotel has a free shuttle that goes every hour starting at about 8am. I didn’t want to leave this place and I’m sure I’ll be back there in the future. We spent four nights there and it was heaven.

In Ubud, I had planned on buying lots of jewelry. Last time I was there, they had beautiful sterling silver jewelry with opals, pearls, turquoise etc. On that trip, I bought some but gave the nicest piece to my mother. I planned on getting something special for myself this time and Eric owes me a birthday present so I thought I would find something in Ubud. While I did buy some jewelry this time, it wasn’t as nice and the prices seemed to have gone up quite a bit in three years. I did buy a few pendants for myself and my sister and a bracelet for my mom to match the pendant I gave her from the last time. Once again, my mother is getting the best piece.

We did a lot of walking around town and looking in shops. As usual we ate very well for the most part. The first night, we wanted to eat at Mozaic but couldn’t get a reservation. The hotel was able to get is in for the following night (Mozaic told them they could “squeeze us in” at 8:45pm). The first night, on the hotel’s recommendation, we ate at Indus, which had good reviews on this forum. The restaurant was very nice but I wasn’t crazy about my meal. I had the Balinese paella which didn’t do it for me. It didn’t help that at the next table was a VERY LOUD woman who never shut her giant trap! When she and her two friends finally left, I wanted to stand up and applaud but Eric wouldn’t let me. I’m really glad she wasn’t American. We always get such a bad rap as being loud and obnoxious but lately, I find Americans are no longer like that and, at least in Asia, are among the better behaved tourists. The RPM drove us to the restaurant and picked us up gratis. Just have the restaurant call the hotel when you are ready to leave.

For lunch the next day we ate at Café Wayan, on Monkey Forest Road, in a beautiful outdoor setting. We tended to have very leisurely meals, having several beers and just watching everyone and everything.

I'll post more later. Just wanted to start on Ubud because I know Cruisinred wanted to know about the Royal Pita Maha.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 12:47 PM
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Laurie-

Thanks for the report. RPM sounds lovely. I'm with you about the champagne..... too bad there is not a special champs smiley...there are ones for and but not for champagne!

Looking forward to hearing if your dinner at Mozaic lived up to all the hype.

Cruisinred
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 01:16 PM
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Laurie - I'm sorry to hear about your Sing. Airlines experience - we absolutely loved them flying Newark-SIN last March.. oddly enough, we had no problems reserving seats when making our reservations. In fact, we reserved all of our flights (Thai Air included) through Sing. Airlines and we were able to choose seats in advance on all flights... I wonder if they changed their rules???

Anyway, I'm enjoying your report - looking forward to more!
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 01:27 PM
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khtodd, this has always been Singapore Airline's policy for as long as I can remember. We've flown them several ties in past years but never had trouble getting seats we wanted, even though we couldn't reserve in advance. We always got to the airport very early and only at JFK were we ever told the seats we wanted weren't available. I would then go into my routine about how I get motion sick when flying and then we're always given the seats we want.(I'll take comfort over dignity). We never had the problem in Asia though, until this time. I don't know who they are saving them for.

I know that S'pore has some different planes flying from Newark where all seats have much more leg room but are also about $800 more. Perhaps you took one of those flights? Or, were you in business class? It's only coach that you can't reserve in advance. also, no frequent flyer miles are given. The more I think about it, the more they annoy me.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 01:34 PM
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I'm enjoying your report, Laurie. The RPM sounds lovely... maybe it's time to think about another trip to Bali.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 02:28 PM
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Laurie, I wonder if your tickets were bought from a consolidator or were a certain fare class that does not allow seat choice in advance. I do know that some tickets in certain fare classes do not allow seat assignment until check in at the airport.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 02:52 PM
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http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_U...class_seat.jsp

It seems you can choose a seat on Singapore Airlines just like any other airline. In all cases, on all airlines, a seat selection is a request and only a request. They can change your seat at any time for any reason. You probably couldn't select specific seats before check in for the reasons I states above. That might be one question you might want to ask your travel agent from now on, as most airlines have the same policy for deeply discounted or consolidated tickets. You also don't get miles or you get reduced miles for many discount fares on many airlines, so check that too, as I remember you were disappointed about that issue recently too.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:00 PM
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Kim, my agent did book the flight, as she has on all Singapore flights that I've taken. I've called SQ to get seats in the past and I've always been told they are a request only. I've never been told that by any other airline, ever. And I've flown on very discounted tickets and I've always been able to reserve in advance (and they called it a reservation, not a request) and I've always been given the seats I've reserved, except in rare cases where a different plane was used at the last minute. SQ is the only airline I've ever encountered with this problem and for that reason, they will always be my last choice.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:13 PM
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Seats are request only on every airline. In most cases you get the seats you request, but if you request the bulkhead in economy, you can be moved out of those seats easily by a family who uses a basinet. Your seat requests can also be changed if there is a change in equipment, as the configuration will not be the saem. Exit row seats are usually only assigned at the airport or if you are a frequent flyer plan elite member, but you can ask for them.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:25 PM
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I'm not going to argue the fine points of this. Call it a reservation or a request, I don't care. Suffice it to say that on every other major airline I've ever flown, I've never encountered this problem. I've encountered it every time I've flown SQ however.

Back to the trip report:

That night we arrived at Mozaic (ride again courtesy of the hotel) at 8:40 and were told our table wasn’t ready yet. I was really anticipating this meal as it was very difficult to get a reservation here and the restaurant had really been hyped. We were seated in the bar and given drink menus and each ordered a beer, the only reasonable thing they had, reasonable being a relative term. We were then given the regular menu so we could decide what we wanted for dinner. Well, there really wasn’t much of a choice, it was a tasting menu only with a few choices in each category. I think it was five courses of what were “tastes” of food but I may be off on the number of courses. Then there was the price. I can’t remember how many rupiahs but I figured it out and it was going to be well over $100 for the two of us, BEFORE drinks. Close to $150 if we wanted a couple of beers, not even wine mind you. I looked at Eric and said that I thought the prices were obscene for Bali, where you can get a great meal with drinks for $30 for two, even less in many cases. I don’t even spend that much money in restaurants in NY. We decided that we didn’t feel like sticking around and told them that we wouldn’t be staying for dinner after all. They said no problem, as if this happens on a regular basis and said they would call us a taxi. While waiting for the taxi, I went to use the ladies room, and here’s the good part, I passed through one of the dining pavilions, which had about 14 tables and guess what? All except one were empty!! There were a total of two people at this place and our table wasn’t ready!!!!! And, they could squeeze us in at 8:45. Who are they kidding????? At that point I realized this place was all hype. I spoke to someone a few days later that ate there and they said the portions were tiny and it was not worth that kind of money. I was disappointed since I was looking forward to eating there but at that point, I felt like a sucker. I had read that Mozaic was more expensive than other places but heard it would cost about $50-60 for two. We ended up going to Lemak, on Monkey Forest Road. We had eaten lunch there a couple of times three years ago and enjoyed it very much.

Other restaurants we ate at for dinner were Casa Luna (so so, nothing special), and Ary’s Warung, which I would highly recommend. The best dinner we had in Ubud. Unlike it’s name, it’s actually quite upscale but very reasonably priced. It’s on JL Ubud, close to the palace.

For lunch, besides Café Wayan, we ate at Bebek Bengil on JL Hanoman (by the way, the one on Monkey Forest Rd is no longer open) and of course I had the duck. We ate there three years ago and loved it. We ate lunch twice at Ibu Rai, on Monkey Forest Rd, which is an open air place that is very causal but nice, and starting at noon until midnight, they have happy hour, with 24 ounce bottles of Bintang for 150,000 (about $1.60). As you can guess, we had VERY leisurely lunches there! Oh, and the food was good too.

We hired a driver to take us to Pura Besakih, Bali’s most sacred temple. It’s actually a complex of about 30 or so temples and is called the “Mother Temple.” On the way there, we had the driver take us to several terraced rice fields. When we got to the temple, we were pressured (and I mean really hard sell) to hire a guide but we didn’t want to. It wasn’t the cost, it was very inexpensive, we just like to walk around on our own sometimes and not be bothered with anyone explaining things. I have enough guidebooks to tell me about it and we’re not always interested in learning every detail in depth. I just like to soak up the atmosphere of a place without feeling like I’m back in school. It took about an hour and a half to two hours to get there with the stops and is worth the trip. There was some sort of a ceremony going on there while we were there but none of the big flower arrangements were present. It seemed to be more of a solemn ceremony. We’ve seen some of the festive ceremonies in the past so it was okay that this one was different.

On the way back, we asked to stop in Mas to see how the woodcutting is done. It was interesting for about 10 minutes. I originally wanted to go to Celuk for silver and gold but changed my mind. I just didn’t have my shopping mojo, which seems to have disappeared over the past couple of trips. Maybe it will come back when we go back to Japan (I LOVED shopping there).

That's it for now. Will continue another day.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:40 PM
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Laurie, Ary's was also our favorite restaurant in Ubud. Not many from this forum have been there. We sat upstairs and enjoyed our meal while observing the goings on below on the main street. We skipped Besakih because the hawkers were known to be so intense (Our driver, Putu also discouraged us from going there). Mas was worth the short stop but you would have enjoyed Celuk. Jeane bought several pieces there.

Looking forward to seeing you at the GTG on Saturday.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:52 PM
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I love your story about Mozaic - it truly was all hype!
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 03:56 PM
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Laurie:

Sounds like a laid back trip....everyone needs one now and then so we can call it a vacation, lol.

If we get to meet you in Japan Linda and I will get your shopping mojo turned on. Ours always seems to be on overdrive.

Thanks for the report!

Aloha!
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 04:08 PM
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laurie, Your Mosaic story is right on the mark. With so many positive things to offer in Bali, I hate it when restaurants (or shops or resorts) pretend to be something else.

I always enjoyed my meals at Mosaic, especially long lunch in the garden. My spouse on the other hand finds it intolerably pretentious to the point of offence. He says if I want to be treated coldly for the sake of food I'll go to Paris. In Bali we expect hospitality.

Another restaurant that I like a lot in Ubud now is Terazzo.

I fly SQ all the time and even in business I find their willingness to accommodate your seat preference inconsistent and at time highly frustrating. They always seem to be trying to assert their authority, i.e., we're in charge here not you. The non-stop Singapore-NY is soooo convenient, though, I just keep lining up for more abuse.
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 04:11 PM
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We actually ate at Mozaic last year. It was not the worst meal we had but the most dissapointing. Food quality was good, but very classic french at incredible prices for Bali or Europe for that matter. With one of the least expensive bottles of wine on the menu it was over $200 for two.
My biggest dissapointment is they made no effort to use the incredible spice and flavors available in Bali. No creativity or innovation at all. Save your money and go to Ary's..
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Old Oct 2nd, 2006, 07:05 PM
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great report laurie....look forward to seeing you both on saturday....
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Old Oct 3rd, 2006, 03:10 AM
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Laurie, Thanks for the report and looking forward to meeting you on Saturday.
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