Sorry that this took so long to write (our trip was late June-early July), but I want to thank everyone for their input during the planning stage and report a few highlights of our trip. We were two couples traveling (two sisters and their husbands) but everyone left most of the planning to me. We were flying on AA FF miles. They routed us DCA-DFW-NRT-DPS. The DFW-NRT flight left at about 10am, so we decided to fly to DFW the night before and spend the night at an airport hotel rather than leave early in the morning from DC. That was the first good decision of the trip, because all the DCA-DFW flights that morning were delayed and we probably would have missed the DFW-NRT flight. So we met my sister and brother in law in the JAL Lounge in NRT as planned. We arrived in DPS after 10pm, which was the reason that I booked the Oberoi in Seminyak, to be close to the airport after arriving in Bali after so much travel time.

The Oberoi was a very good choice, despite some negative comments I had heard. We were upgraded to oceanfront villas (through AMEX PLT), the rooms were spacious, one back patio, one in front overlooking the ocean. We had excellent service, food was OK, and we recovered nicely from jet lag. We had one full day to rest up on the beach, had lunch at Ku De Ta (almost empty), walked around the area a bit. The second morning we packed up for our flight to Java, stayed at Amanjiwo for 3 nights.

Amanjiwo was simply the most fabulous hotel we have ever stayed at. We were upgraded to a suite overlooking Borobudor. Everything was just perfect - - I don’t think we can really add much to the reports that have come before us. We ate every one of our meals there, visiting Borobudor twice, spent some time driving around the nearby villages, did a trek up the Menorah hills, and relaxed at the pool. I’ve learned after the last few vacations that we really need to build in a fair amount of down time, slowing down, even if it means missing some things I’d like to see or do (like the Dieng Plateau, which I had my heart set on, but I hope to go back).

We flew back to Bali and were picked up at the airport and taken to the villa that became our home for the next week, Villa Montana about 35 minutes outside Ubud. It was fabulous. We needed a place with two master bedrooms (some things never change, like two sisters being competitive about who gets what). The place was so gorgeous that we could have stayed the entire week without leaving. But Wayan Sueta, our guide/driver, picked us up the next morning, the day of the Galungun festival. What a treat that we were there during that time. We will never forget the wonderful decorations in every village, along the roads, seeing everyone dressed up for “parades” going to the temples. During the week, Wayan took us around the island to visit lakes, villages, shopping in Ubud, whatever we asked and then some. We highly recommend him - -really an outstanding guide. The staff at the villa was wonderful - - several nights we ordered out from restaurant in Ubud and the villa manager drove his motorbike into town to pick up the order. We ate out other nights, the highlight being Mozaic. We bought a few pieces of local art, some silver, bamboo windchimes, woven fabrics, batik (some from Java also), but ended up buying less than expected…..too little time for power shopping. Our last day, we had lunch at FS Sayan, really beautiful. It was a lovely spot but compared to the price of the villa ($300 per night for the villa), we spent less that a quarter of what it would have cost for 2 basic rooms at the FS.

I’m really happy to provide more details on anything….it was a fantastic trip and we all hope to return to Bali AND Java. Just one very cute detail, something that has not happened to us in previous trips to SE Asia. When we visited Borobudor, all of the local Indonesians (especially but not only teenagers), wanted to take pictures of us. My brother in law claimed it was because he looks like Danny Devito, but our guide said that it is still uncommon for westerners to be visiting there!

You get a little of the track in Indonesia, and suddenly you're the main attraction. I had the same experience on my (mostly business) trip there a couple weeks ago. I was touring a Jamu factory outside Semarang, and there was another big group of provincial government employees on another tour. When we met up at lunch (in the company's park/zoo) a bunch of these guys wanted to have their picture taken with me. Same thing happened at Lake Bratan in Bali a couple days later.

Of course, you were there during the Indonesian school holidays, so there were a lot of kids from all over Indonesia in Yogya (it seems to be the Indonesian Fort Lauderdale).

I'm curious about the silver you bought in Bali. I purchased some there a few years ago, but soon found that the quality wasn't very good. A 'silver' chain kept turning my wrist green, so I chucked it and bought one in Thailand.

Not only were we there during the holiday season but our first visit to Borobudur was on a Sunday, so there were lots of kids.
The only silver shopping we did was at Praper, pretty upscale. I bought 4 bracelets, one for each of my daughter/daughters-in-law and a pendant and silver chain for myself. Not inexpensive.....I think the quality is very good and it was really a western style shopping experience in a spacious store with very upscale displays. When we looked at silver in Ubud, it seemed expensive and couldn't really tell if it was good quality.
As I said, I didn't do as much shopping as I had expected...I was surprised at the prices in Ubud...much higher than I expected

DC, I'm so glad to hear that everything was up to your expectations in Bali AND Java.

I've probably been to Borobudur 50 times and estimate that my husband, son and I must appear in thousands of photo albums all over Indonesia. For myself, I now "just say no." Otherwise I find myself doing more smiling for the camera than looking at carvings. My son, however, is both more photogenic and accomodating, always obliges. He recently visited Borobudur with three of his college mates who were equally charmed by the hordes of school girls in their jilbabs (headcoverings) who treated them like movie stars.

DC---great report...

can you tell us some more about the villa....about the staff...the driver...was it just like your own weekend house with a staff??

thanks

bob

Thanks for posting FromDC - we're Americans living in Indonesia and are in the early stages of planning a trip to Bali, so I appreciate your report all the more.

On one trip through the Jakarta airport recently, I was chatted up by a group of Indonesian nursing students practicing their English. They then took a gazillion photos, no doubt capturing me in an absolute tragic state. I'd just arrived in Jakarta after three days of traveling and multiple airline mishaps. I sure hope those photos never surface.

Not sure what surprised me more, their wanting to photograph me, or their asking if I practiced birth control!

That's just hysterical, I'd love to know what motivated that question! It was surprising to us about the picture taking, as it hasn't happened anywhere else. But everyone seemed very good natured about it and we didn't pick up any negative vibes at all.

Bob, writing this from foggy CapeCod right now, the villa was really amazing. There were 8 or 9 staff members, we didn't see all of them: 2 housekeeper/cooks, a driver (who we only used a few times because we had hired Wayan), a pool keeper/landscaper, probably 2 security guys and the manager/butler. There were three buildings on the property: the main bldg where the master BR and two other BRs, living room, kitchen and pantry, outdoor dining pavillion pool were. An "owners suite" in a second building with a bedroom suite a bit larger than the master suite in the main building, and a third building where the staff stayed (didn't live there but it was their headquarters, although I think a few of them stayed overnight). The staff didn't really hang around, but would come by every once in a while to see if we needed anything if we were there during the day. The villa was really amazing with the most fantastic views and for someone as fussy as I am about accomodations, even I was thrilled with it. Breakfast was "included" and was made for us to order every morning, we all got up at different times, so there was usually someone cooking for a while in the mornings. First thing, always a large fruit platter and then whatever else we wanted, eggs, cereal, yogurt, etc. The rest of the food, either we bought at the market or if we asked the butler to buy some things they would add 20% to the cost to cover expenses. Small charge for doing laundry. We gave a deposit up front and then settled at the end of the stay based on all the things we bought (several dinners delivered to the house).I can email you some pictures if you like.
While we were there, we learned that the villa had just been sold. The staff said that the new owner would be enlarging the pool (we thought it was just fine) and keeping (most of?) the staff.

Thanks for your great report.
You mentioned that KuDeTa seemed a bit empty. Did other places (Ubud, Amanjiwo) seem to have few tourists around?
Interesting comment regarding the $$$ prices in Ubud.

We saw very few western tourists in Java. Amanjiwo, which has approx 34 rooms, had only 4 - 7 rooms taken while we were there. In Ubud, Mozaic was full at our dinner, Indus was pretty full for lunch (first level, La Lucciola was full for dinner the night we left Bali. The FS Sayan was empty for lunch when we were there, as was Prapen when we shopped for silver. We went mostly to small villages and did alot of driving to take in beautiful scenary, so it was hard to tell how busy it really was. When we did talk to people, they said tourism is only 25-40% of where it was a few years ago. The shops in Ubud were not terribly crowded, usually we were the only ones in the stores, but not always.

KuDeTa isn't really a lunch place. It's more of a night club. Some people rave about the food there, so it probably is a good place to have lunch if you want a bit of peace and quiet.

We went there because it was right around the corner from the Oberoi and we had heard about it as a fun place to go. The food was OK,nothing special, it was a relaxing lunch.

dc---i would love to see the pics...you have my e address i believe...

did you tip the staff??

bob