Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report RHKKMKs---Just to be copy cats

Just to be copy cats, we head out on Monday for Asia too.

We have United FF tickets on Swiss from Boston, connecting in Zurich to Singapore Air (an A-380) to Singapore, connecting to another Singapore flight to Denespar, Bali.

We are two 70 year olds, fairly well travelled, who adore SE Asia, especially Thailand. After Bali we will head to Thailand for our 18th visit. Sadly, all flights are in economy seating.

We will be met in Bali by Putu (more on him later), about 9:30 AM on the 17th. We will swing thru Nusa Dua (kathie’s favorite bali place) to pick up Peter (HawaiianTraveller) and Linda at the Hyatt. We will be taken to one of the Indonesian restaurants along the beach in Sanur for a yummy lunch, followed by some shopping for the ladies in Sanur.

From Sanur we will head inland to Ubud where we will stay for 5 nights at our favorite Bali hotel, Alam Shanti. We have the Gangga room and Peter has the Yamuna room ($185 ++ per night). These rooms share and have exclusive use of what used to be the hotel’s only pool, which is right next to our building. The price includes a delicious breakfast cooked especially for you and delivered to your patio, terrace or balcony at whatever time you want it. The main hotel rooms are located in a number of two story buildings scattered around the large quiet property in the lush tropical gardens. The rooms are huge, a series of rooms really, and richly decorated with hand carved and painted beams, panels and decorations. The rooms are air conditioned unlike those in some of its sister properties. Most of the bathrooms are open air, but well shielded for privacy. I should mention that because of its lush surroundings and location abutting rice paddies that flying and creeping bugs are not uncommon—BUT they do not present a problem.

Just for your interest I will explain how this trip came about… We have been to Bali several times, so during a stop in Shanghai with P&L 3 years ago Peter made the following statement: ‘You have never been to Japan before and we have never been to Bali before; and seeing that we are having so much fun together, I propose the following: I will plan a Japan trip for next year for the 4 of us and you can plan a trip to Bali for the 4 of us the year after.’ IT’S A DEAL, no thinking necessary.
As it turned out we were joined by Craig and Jeane for part of the Japan trip and will again be joined by them for part of the Bali trip. They will be in the next building to us at AS. If they are good we will let them swim in our pool.
Both trips end up with time in Thailand for the 4 of us too, but Craig must return home.

We are anxious for the trip to begin and anxious to try Swiss. Several restaurant reservations have been made for the Ubud area and a couple for the Seminyak area where we will stay after our return from Lombok, where we will stay at Qunci villas in a two bedroom, two bath villa with a private pool—located in the new section of QV.

We anticipate a couple of GTGs in bali and at least one in Bangkok—a birthday party in fact. The following Fodorites will be in bkk when we are: RHKs, HawaiianTravellers, Lcuy, Hanuman, Kerosakes (sp), Pat Cote.

We are packed, our limo is ordered, the paper and mail have been stopped, the home reno man has almost finished his work, the gardens are good for 6 weeks, so let the leaves fall.