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.

I neglected to add something about our months of travel.... High season in bali is july and august, so September should still be very nice...

October can be iffy in Thailand, but we expect only light rain and no flooding... Hanuman has assured me of decent weather.

Love the Alam Shanti I as well stayed in that same room last Nov.By the suggestions from the group.

Enjoy!

Bob, I know the Hyatt has been totally re-done, so I look forward to your report on that property as well as others.

Have a wonderful time - all of you!

Have a fabulous trip! And am already eagerly awaiting details!

Hi Bob & Karen, I got into Bangkok yesterday! The weather is nice. Overcast, so not too hot. I am doing absolutely nothing except sleeping and swimming. I head out early tomorrow.

Hope to see you here in October, depending on Hun Sen. Bad enough he's ruining Cambodia, now he' controlling my travels!

Have a wonderful time in Bali. With your crowd, I know it will be fun!

PS- I feel like getting seafood tonight. Any recommendations?

china town??

sushi at the hyatt

a big buffet

Kathie, I think bali hyatt will not be finished for another year?? I will look... I will tell them "Kathie from seattle" wants to know..

Bon Voyage Bob and see you soon!

Have a wonderful time, Bob. We too had a great time in Bali, including several days with Putu thanks to your recommendation. Haven't seen Shanti, but I'm sure it can be so far off from Jiwa, where we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

See you soon!

Have a great time. Weather in Bali was lovely last week.

10 more sleeps for me and the cook.
First stop Sanur.
Hope the Bintang's nice and cold!

Have fun, Bob and Karen. We'll miss you this year. We're headed to different parts of SEA this year.

Have a wonderful and safe trip! Enjoy!!

Have a wonderful trip.

Sounds like a good time for one and all! Safe travels.

Have great fun!

Wishing you a great trip

Bon voyage to you and the hts.

I am sure we will have fun. Every minute is detailed in our itinerary from Bob. I swim in the morning then eat. We tour and eat. Then we go out and eat dinner. Haha couldn't be easier. See u in ubud! :)

Aloha!

Have a great time!!! Looking forward to hearing more! Bali is high on our list. We are sorry to miss the BKK GTGs. We are looking forward to our Christmas visit there!

on our way shortly

Have fun. Wishing I could stow away in your suitcase. Have fun.

HT, that certainly sounds like a Bob itinerary!

Bon Voyage Bob (and your lovely wife) -- and congrats for flying "our" Singapore Airlines! At present, your SQ345 (Zurich - Singapore) flight is indeed via one of SIA's serene A380s. And, upon Changi arrival, your SIA connecting flight to Denpasar (SQ940) should be on a B777, with warm Bali greetings awaiting from the beloved Putu.

Savour your Asian holiday, Bob and Karen; very happy for you. Signing off from a sweet Seoul morning, soon to fly home to SIN and a rather loud (and cherished) Formula One weekend. Should your plans change and you end up in SIN this weekend, well, do remember your cheque book -- and ear plugs.

robert


... Singapore Girl, You're a Great Way to Fly ...

We made it to Bali and are ensconced in the Grand Hyatt in Nusa dua. Got upgraded to an ocean view room while we await the arrival of the Kimball's. This place is fabulous! Kathie I now know why you love this place and the rooms are HUGE. Gonna do a morning beach walk as we await mr balis arrival. More later

Aloha!

Nice going HT! Now if you and the Mrs were upgraded and the Kimballs didn't get one then I foresee some "rough" weather ahead.

Robert..We loved you sing flt to Singapore. IT is probably one of the best flights we have ever taken. Can't say enough about the comfort of the plane, good food and the very courteous staff. We had two very tight connections and our luggage made both.

Glad to be back here in Ubud at Alam Shanti.. MY how Sanur and Ubud have grown in 3 years. Hotels are springing up every where. There seem to be a lot more smaller touristy shops than the better quality one I use to know. We will see when I can finally get a chance to shop. Putu is great as usual for all of you who know him. His two sons( 7months and 3). Are the joy of his life.

greetings from alam shanti in ubud, bali. it is a beautiful warm, perfect really, Thursday morning.

our flights: the swiss air flt was one of our least favorite flts ever... seats are tight as carol had warned us---started off 15 min. late and arrived 15 min late... A-330 in a 2 seat row.. food was quite decent however... Quick transfer in Zurich, Term E to a Singapore A-380 which was slightly more than half full for the 12+ hour flt... we both had an empty seat next to us (aisle/aisle). Good food, good entertainment, good sleep... another quick turn around in SIN to a 777, 2.5 hour flt to Bali. arrived exactly on time.. WOW, what an improved airport....

PUTU was there waiting for us... btw, ATM's are now located in the lobby and I was able to w/d 3,000,000 rp--$300. about 11,800 rp=$1...

We loaded into his suv and were off to nusa dua to pickup peter and linda who had arrived at mid-night and spent the night at the grand hyatt.

KATHIE---- bali hyatt is still in "ruins"... many bldgs torn down, weeds everywhere.. no re-opening any time soon.

We headed to sanur beach for lunch at Toot Sie, an outdoor Indonesian cafe right on the beach. DELICIOUS and only $15 for the 5 of us... Nasi Goering and variations of it... soda.. ice cream/mango and sticky rice.

After lunch the girls visited 4 or 5 shops and came away empty-handed...

Putu drove us to Ubud which took over an hour, passing thru the stone and wood carving villages.... trafiic has increased significantly.

We arrived at Alam Shanti about 3... were offered a delicious cold fruit drink and moved into our rooms---Gangga and Yamunna.. Quick change and we hit our private adajacent pool-- a perk of renting these two rooms.

Boy did that blue water feel nice!

I had made a 6PM res for dinner at Siam Sally in Ubud. AS's van took us there at 5:45. Honestly I was a bit disappointed with the food this time, but we were also tired. 2 for one drinks till 7PM. One bright dish was a special that night of a duck sausage, which was very tasty. we had some satay, phad thai, chili chicken stir fry, delicious chicken laab salad, cashew chicken, followed by ice creams. lots of drinks.. about $90 for 4.

AS's van picked us up about 8:45 and we were in bed by 9:15. The beds in these 2 rooms are huge kings, quite hard--hey, it's asia.. Both of these rooms have 2 beds, one king, one double---our staging area.

We slept well and were up about 7 this AM... Karen and Linda swam briefly.

We will have breakfast delivered about 9 to our huge porch about 9. I never tire of the view out over the rice paddies with their ample wild life and occasional workers.

Putu is coming for us about 10:30 and we will have a simple day in and around ubud.

A GREAT START!

Any bug issues in your room? What about monkey visits?

How wonderful to go to Bali again…and say "hi" to Putu, whom we also toured with based on your recommendations. We too have never been to Japan so are looking forward to adding Kyoto to our Singapore to India cruise trip next spring.

Following along, and enjoying your report.

Bob I told you Swiss is cramped.......... Glad that the SIN A380 was much better.
Sounds like you are off to a good start. Keep the report coming.
Carol

How was immigration Bob? Took us 10 minutes to pay the VOA but 1 hour in the other queue to get our passports stamped, although wait to you depart the airport has improved significantly .
Assume though all your luggage made it, even with those tight connections?
My flight back from Sin to CDG was also half full, my PE cabin had 11 people in it.. ( 6 on the way out)

Any plans to go to Sardine in Seminyak? Lovely restuarant within a great setting....

Sigh, wishing I was still in SE Asia......

don't think sardine is on our list but we will see..

immigration: walks are now very long but i half cheat and have a wheelchair... no line, no waiting for people with a visa... and we were last off the plane..

the ladies saw 30-40 monkeys being chased away this AM about 7:30 by a guard.. none on our balcony... but we did have overnight guests--- some bat shat in 2 places on the balcony... fair number of small ants around but no problem... no mosquitos at all..

off to the pool for an hour or two. cake and tea will be brought to us at 4..

dinner tonight at Dolce Arancia, a new ubud restaurant...

more on that later and a review of our day with Putu today.

Craig will be here later tonight..

Also following, and loving this! Thanks for taking the time to give the live reports!

Paule

I'm taking notes, tvm. 6 more sleeps.

Sounds so wonderful! I so wish we were there with you all! I am now really craving some good Asian food. Fortunately, we're in NYC this weekend, so can go find some. Looking forward to your next report!

our first stop was at the kite making shop outside ubud. unlike other visits there were only 4 people painting and constructing kites... today much of it is done in homes.
the painting is still elaborate and detailed. Linda bought a small version in bright yellow for about $12.

From there we travelled to putu's family compound outside ubud. he explained for peter and linda the family and religious life of a balinese family. 30 people live here on and off. we met a few of them. we got to see various crops and many animals.

After our visit there we moved closer to downtown ubud and had a nice lunch at dewi cafe, overlooking one of the most popular rice terrace areas in this part of bali... delicious lunch.

an atm stop was next and then we returned to AS... paid putu for 2 1/2 days= 1,000,000rp= ~$90.

we ordered afternoon tea and cake to be served by the pool at 4. changed into swim suits and hit the pool for 2 hours.

At 6:15 we headed into town to Dolce Arancia. This may prove to be our best Bali meal. very authentic italian fare... i had shrimp and chic pea soup, followed by pochini ravoli with a touch of heat in a wine reduction sauce---FABULOUS--~$9. some had different preparations of veal..
Desserts were to die for--mine a trible selection of mini desserts--$7.50

Hotel car came for us and we waddled back to our rooms. we must have looked like the brown ducks i see parading around in the rice paddy behind our building..

we've left a note for craig when he arrives, inviting them for a morning swim and breakfast on our porch afterwards.

Putu will come for us about 10:30 to take us to a factory tour at jeweler John Hardy, followed by lunch with their staff.