Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Just back from Thailand/Bali

Things we enjoyed in Bali were: relaxing at the Bali Spirit, outdoor massages at the hotel, shopping in Ubub (eventhough it almost too hot), monkey forest, the Fire Dance performance then dinner at Bebek down the street, using the hotel tour guide to visit the volcano and lake, the rice fields, and 2 temples (one is really enough). If you take that tour, you might want to consider not having lunch at his favorite place, which is a large restuarant with a great view of the volcano, but it is also where all the busses stop. If you haven't done elephant trekking, then that would be a must. I think that tour was in the opposite direction than the volcano one, so if your time is limited, like ours was, then you will have to chose. We had already done that in Thailand, which we loved. The hotel had some very long tours to chose from but it meant being gone the entire day and I wasn't sure if there were private or were with others, so we put together our own. My avocado salad at the Lotus Pond in Ubud was one of my best meals. We had dinner there also, thinking we were going to see another dance performance but because of a temple ceromony, it had been cancelled. Therefore, we never saw a traditional Balanese performance, which was a disappointment. We thought we would be able to see one in Sanur but were told we would have to go back to Ubud which was an hour away. Guess we'll have to return......
You might want to see about upgrading at the Bali Spirt. We booked the lowest via the internet and were going to check out the upgrades, but forgot. It all depends how picky you are. My only complaint would be the bad lighting and lack of counter space in the bathrooms.My sister had a completely different set up with her bathrooms, so there is variety. The rooms are plenty large, clean, and extremely quiet, but, then it was only 50% full when we were there. The setting is beautiful, especially during breakfast watching women laundry in a bubbling river in the midst of the Bali jungle.
Back to the Celedon....my monk fish was not like lobster, at all. It was a circle of fried fish pieces that were full of soft bones. My husband says I am being too hard on the restaurant. He said his dinner was good, but can't remember what he had. It's just that this rest. has received so much press and I just didn't think it lived up to the hype. It could be I simply ordered the wrong thing and was disappointed we weren't able to see the surrounding lotus ponds. We also ate at the Four Seasons (because of the noise factor with large tables of businessmen, we moved to another quieter rest in the hotel). Again, this was very pricey according to Thai standards. I guess if I had to do it over again, I would do more homework researching local resturants.