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Two weeks on the paradise island of Bali.

06 May 2012 • Travel time: with 17 September 2011 on 02 October 2011
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Review of the holiday on the island of Bali (Indonesia).

Nusa Dua resort area, Grand Bali Nusa Dua hotel, late September - early October 2011

I'll try to remember now the highlights of the trip to Bali. There were four of us (two married couples) in late September - early October 2011.

Flight. We flew with Hong Kong Airlines from Moscow via Hong Kong on an Airbus A-320. The plane and airline are excellent. There is a built-in TV in the back of each chair. There are many films (including in Russian), music, games, a map with a flight path and a luminous dot on it indicates in real time the place where the aircraft is currently located. The flight didn't bother me at all. We sat in Hong Kong for almost 8 hours. There are no visas to enter the city, so you can climb around Hong Kong and spend time between flights, which we did. It is only desirable to dig up information in advance on the Internet, where and what you can see in such a short period of time.


We were not ready for this, and therefore only had time to go to the center by Aeroexpress. View of Hong Kong from the train window.

Arrival. We flew to Denpasar, the capital of Bali. Time - the difference with Moscow + 4/5 hours. When we were (September 2011) it was +5. The airport itself is located about 30 kilometers from Denpasar. At the airport upon arrival, even before customs, there are many trays with advertising booklets. They are free. There are both in Russian and with maps of the island. I recommend to collect all Russian-speaking. The booklet “Around Bali. Issue No. 8". We took all excursions from there. The prices are reasonable and real (indicated in the booklet itself) and the choice is normal. I recommend that you immediately refuse the offers of tours by a guide from a tour operator, although he will give a lot of arguments that he is more reliable, safer and much more. The guide's prices are 2-2.5 times higher, and the level of service is much lower (we personally verified).

There will be a lot of intrusive local Balinese before going through customs at baggage claim. They will grab your suitcase without asking you, take it to the customs desk, and beg for a tip. Well, it's not scary. I don't think $2 will break you. Although, if you don't want to, send them right away (No, thanks). Although they will still pretend that they do not understand you and stupidly take away your luggage in order to take it to the customs desk. This is their job. : -)

Booze in Bali is expensive. Well, for example, a liter bottle of ordinary Stolichnaya vodka costs about 1200-1300 rubles for ours. And so on. We stocked up at Sheremetyevo and in Hong Kong in Dtyutik. I must say right away that in Hong Kong it is better not to take booze out of your luggage. It is not a problem to take it out of the customs zone, but then, when registering for a flight to Bali itself, it is already extremely difficult to carry it back. Somewhere there you need to fill out some papers, etc.


We immediately asked our guide to connect us to a local SIM card. It is better to choose Simpati. The connection turned out to be so cheap (about 6 rubles, if I’m not mistaken, per minute for calls to cell phones in Russia), that they didn’t manage to talk out the money put on the SIM card before the end of the trip. Communication is quite good.

Currency. The Indonesian rupiah is used in Bali. This is about 9000 rupees for $1. At the airport, the exchange rate is lower. When we were there, the rate at the airport was 8300. Well, there you can change 100 bucks for pocket money. And then change along the way. There are no problems with this, as it seemed to me. Empirically established that the rate falls by Friday, so it is better to change from Monday to Thursday. This is due to the fact that their banks do not work on weekends. And so we changed right on the streets in exchangers. Yes, here's more.

When we went to Kuta to the water park, they indicate one exchange rate there, and when exchanging, they take some kind of commission and they don’t give you the amount that you expect to receive. We immediately sent such freaks in Russian and took our money. So you need to ask if there is a commission. In Nusa Dua (a resort area in the southeast of Bali, where we lived), there was no such garbage. It is better to take bills there with you for 100, well, or for $ 50, not lower. Smaller ones are exchanged at a reduced rate. Well, you can take another $ 1 for a tip. In general, it is better to take Evrika there. The bucks have some series there (now I don’t remember which ones) they don’t accept for exchange. Although we have never had any problems with this. And be sure to count the banknotes in the exchanger, as they say, without leaving the cash register. They can include a fool, pretending that they miscalculated. Although, again, I know this only theoretically (from reviews).

In Nusa Dua, in all the exchangers, the exchangers themselves counted the banknotes in front of our eyes, and we never encountered deception.


Hotel. At first, our vacation was planned at the Novotel Nusa Dua hotel, so I mostly collected reviews about it. This is a large hotel, even a complex with a huge territory (there is even a golf course). And they have a decent beach. During low tides, the water does not go far. But at the last moment we were assigned to Grand Bali Nusa Dua. It's across the street from the Novotel. Smaller size. But there we lived in a villa. This is a separate area at the hotel with a house, a gazebo and its own oval-shaped pool (see pictures). The house has a large bed, toilet, shower, jacuzzi-type bathroom, wardrobe (it also has a safe), TV, refrigerator, microwave, kettle. Tea, coffee, sugar, water were brought every day. The hotel staff cleaned the house and cleaned the pool every day, as we went for a walk. We left them a $1 tip. The hotel only took breakfast.

during the day we shied away somewhere (excursions or the beach), and in the evening we went to cafes for dinner. The food at the hotel is quite good. Buffet. Meat dishes in assortment (sausage, ham, chicken, fish, meatballs, etc. ), scrambled eggs in any form, vegetables, fruits, drinks, pastries. Everything is high quality and fresh. Only for breakfast (and he, if memory serves, was from 7 to 10 in the morning) is better to come early. Well, that is, do not delay until 10. Otherwise, they will eat everything tasty. : -) I got hooked on coffee there (I almost never drink it at home). All the same, real Indonesian coffee is not the ge that we sell under the guise of coffee.

Food. We dined mostly at Mai-Mai. Of all the cafes, the most normal food is there. In terms of money, a dinner for four with beer came out in total somewhere in 40-60 Baku. Beer in Bali - Bintang - is an ordinary beer, like ours, only it costs about 70-80 rubles per bottle for our money. Expensive of course. And the nice thing is that the bottles there are not 0.5 liters, like ours, but 0.6.

In Mai-Mai, local moonshine is also poured without restrictions (free-invest). It is somewhat similar to juice (at first we even argued whether there were degrees there). Well, if there is a fortress in it, then 5-7 degrees, no more. Quite a pleasant drink. And yes, it does lift your spirits. : -) And they took mostly salads, steaks, and potatoes for garnish. I also liked the chicken soup. Tea there, juices. So about. It is also desirable to be interested in all cafes, whether prices with a commission are indicated on the menu or not. There is a 20% commission. So if you do not know this, in the end, the score for this percentage may be higher. And there is also such a feature: after dinner, a taxi to the hotel is free. Type included in the bill. You tell the waiter that you need a taxi to the hotel and they invite you as the car comes up (wait 5-10 minutes, no longer). It is true to go to the hotel no more than a kilometer. We walked more often. We walked around the trading shops, of which there were in abundance.


shopping. You need to bargain everywhere and about everything.

Well, maybe in Bali Collection (this is a shopping center in Nusa Dua) ​ ​ in some stores there is no bargaining. And so everywhere. In our company, I was a full-time trader (well, also a translator, because out of the four of us, only I owned elementary English : -) ). When you ask the price ( What price? ) and they voice it to you, you divide it by three and start bargaining. Well, to bring down the price in half is 100%. And even when I negotiated just such a discount, I felt that I had paid too much. And as a rule, the discount was always more. For example, a silver pendant, which was originally offered for 380 thousand rupees, I bought for 140. And this is in some reputable store, where, as I thought, there was no bargaining at all. But just out of habit, he offered his price. When they immediately agreed, I realized that I offered them too much and slowed down more. Well, I bought two wooden sculptures for 550 thousand rupees in total for both, although initially they asked for 650 for only one of them.

For me, in general, bargaining was no longer a means of saving finances, but something like entertainment, a psychological duel. Yet childhood in Asia passed for a reason. : -) For wood carving, it is better to go to the village of Ubud masters. There seems to be a large selection and the quality of products is normal. The locals there sort of specialize in woodcarving. In general, a lot of interesting things. I would take out a container of carved items from there. When choosing, you need to make sure that the product is light (from dried wood). Products made from fresh wood are said to dry out and crack during the year. I do not know - I did not take such. I have other nonsense happened. Upon arrival home, I noticed that small holes began to appear in the tree. Small worms (or whoever else is there) began to eat it from the inside. But after I took the product out into the cold for about five hours, this process stopped and was no longer activated (half a year has already passed).

The Bali sun does not forgive a careless attitude. And when combined with ocean salt water, it's a binary weapon of mass destruction. I myself got burned on this (literally and figuratively). Bali is located almost on the equator (slightly south). And the average annual temperature there is +28 Celsius. In fact, the heat from solar radiation as such is not felt. Therefore, I, who grew up in Central Asia and was sure that with the sun on YOU, neglected the advice of our guide to be sure to use a protective cream. As a result, just an hour in the open sun on the beach and ...a week of ruined vacation. For the first two days, he lay with a temperature below 40 and a wild chill, and then there was just a wild pain that did not go away throughout the day (which even at night had to be suppressed with horse doses of painkillers) and burns on his legs to ulcers (scars from ulcers still remain, although six months have passed).


Moreover, on the shore it is useless to hide from ultraviolet radiation even under a canopy. Doesn't help, checked.

Language. The tourism industry is the bread of the Balinese. And so they adapt to the contingent. Those who are better prepared to communicate with tourists will earn more. Before the trip, I downloaded their phrasebook, but it was not useful at all (I never even got it). English is like native. And recently, the Balinese and Russian have been actively mastering (ours are now on every corner and everywhere you can hear their native speech). In cafes, waiters even know what it is - on the road (on the pass : -)). And songs in Russian (from Chaif ​ ​ to Antonov) are certainly in the repertoire of musicians in every cafe.

The excursions themselves went as follows. At the agreed time (at 8-9 am) a car (a 6-seater Toyota minivan with air conditioning) drove to the hotel for us.

Well, the driver (not very talkative due to not very good knowledge of Russian, but the benevolent Balinese Oka - emphasis on “O”) drove us to the places that we had chosen for the day. He accompanied us everywhere, advised us where, what and how best, waited where and for how long. In the evening he brought us back to the hotel. Of course, you can also plan your own trips. A car with a driver and gasoline for the whole day can be found for $30-40. But I don't see the point in that. The excursions themselves are detailed in the booklets. We have been to the following:

1) Day cruise to Lembongan Island on Bali Hai II catamaran. Transfer from the hotel to the place of departure, a ferry cruise (about an hour) to the island, during which a lunch (buffet) with varied and tasty food, live music plays on one of the decks and, just like everywhere else, the musicians have Russian songs. Arrival at the site 300-500 meters from Lembongan Island.


Further pastime of your choice for the whole day: a walk for 15 minutes on a semi-submarine (the bottom is transparent), swimming in the ocean, various water slides, jumps, snorkeling (swimming with a mask, flippers and snorkel and contemplating different fish) - the inventory is right here, well and for a fee you can go diving. I liked snorkeling. The fish are different, like in an aquarium, only big ones. During the day, those who wish can swim on a boat to the lagoon on the island to the beach for 2-3 hours. There is banana riding, snorkeling, and the beach itself. I liked this tour very much.

2) Water park in Kuta. Lots of interesting water attractions. I especially liked the attraction called Climax. There you stand on a platform in a pipe at the height of about a 7-story building, you are covered with a transparent plastic casing, a countdown sounds and ...the floor below you falls through, and you almost fall vertically into the pipe.

At the ground, the pipe makes a dead loop and finish: you fly out like a champagne cork. In general, there are rides for all tastes. There are also less extreme ones. There is an open-air water park, so you can just lie on the sunbeds and sunbathe.

3) Rafting on a mountain river and elephant safari. Elephant safaris can be taken for an hour or half an hour. We took half an hour and this for the eyes. They ride you on an elephant through the jungle. They (elephants) in some places go down and up such steeps that when you sit on this elephant, you imagine with horror what will happen if it slips. Cool. Well, rafting is rafting on a rubber boat along the river for about 9 km. The track is not difficult. You can even take children. But the views of nature are just fantastic. Yes, and somewhere in the middle of the route stop at the waterfall. You can take plenty of pictures (a waterproof bag, where you can put the camera, is with the guide - the senior boat).

At the end of the rafting, a local photographer takes pictures of the landing on his camera from the shore and then you can buy a disc. They are forbidden, but we agreed that he would send us all the photos to a flash drive. Well, at the finish line, lunch is a buffet. After physical activity in the fresh air, the appetite is simply brutal (I came up for a supplement three times). And yes, the food is very tasty. In general, also one of the best excursions.


4) Bali Safari & Marine Park. First, a bus ride through the jungle, where all sorts of animals roam free around the bus. Then they bring animals to the park, with many of which (boas, macaws, iguanas, orangutans, etc. ) you can take a picture. Lunch there (buffet). There is also a mini aqua park where you can simply swim in the pools, refresh yourself and sunbathe.

5) Kintamani tour.

A sightseeing tour to the Kintamani volcano with a stop at the elephant cave (there is a sacred spring there, where the water, as the guide said, is desalinated in some way unknown to science) and a coffee plantation. Most of the tour took place on a trip, during which the guide talked about Bali: the history of the development of the island, religion and other information about the island.

6) Park of birds and reptiles. Well the name speaks for itself. There, by the way, for the first time in my life I saw a white peacock (before I didn’t even suspect the existence of such). Worth a visit. A ticket to both parks is sold alone. If memory serves, $25.

7) Bedugul tour. Drive to Taman Ayun temple, Git-Git waterfall, temple on the shore of Lake Bratan and lunch at a restaurant overlooking the rice terraces.

8) Ulu Watu Temple. There is a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean and the local Kecak dance is shown (I was not hooked, some kind of local psychedelic). BUT! ! ! There the monkeys are FUCKED!

They wander everywhere without muzzles and steal from honest tourists everything that is not nailed down. They even manage to take off their flip-flops while walking. My wife’s glasses were taken off her head TWICE (now this is a rarity with gnawed temples), although we were warned that everything that is removed (glasses, chains, earrings, etc. ) should be removed in advance or monkeys will do it. And it is useless to think that you will have time to react. In general, it's called MONKEY BUSINESS there. It is their (monkeys) local accustomed to such behavior. As soon as the monkey steals something, one of the locals immediately appears and exchanges the stolen thing from the monkey for a snack (banana or something). And then this local offers you to redeem the stolen item. So they earn.


After this temple, we were taken to the village of Jimbaran, where there was a seafood dinner right on the ocean. It didn't really grab me either. It's just not my food. Well, the atmosphere itself is very exotic.

Do you need it? It is better, in my opinion, to enjoy the knowledge of new places on earth and draw positive with a big shovel. Have a good rest! I hope my review is helpful.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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