Приятный отдых на Бали Pleasant stay in Bali

Vacation time came, and I began to look for a country where to go. Turkey and Egypt were decisively swept aside, since they had already been there several times and didn’t really like it (with the exception of the Red Sea, of course, but that’s a completely different story) We also had the last 2 years in Thailand, so I wanted something new. The choice was between Cuba and Bali (in terms of money, about the same, in terms of flight time too), but due to the likely rains in Cuba and the almost complete absence of any sights on the land of the great commander, we stopped in Bali. The hotel was chosen in Nusa Dua, Novotel. What they later did not regret ....but first things first. Departure from Domodedovo was delayed by about 40 minutes, because, according to the commander of the ship, there were too many iron birds on the airfield and we were waiting for our turn to take off.
They took off very gently, just as they landed afterwards, the Boeing 777 is not old, the distances between the seats are decent, it is much more comfortable to sit than in the 747, where passengers are pushed like sheep into a stall, and where there is nowhere to stretch your legs due to closely standing seats. It can be said that there is no feeding, but this is not news for Transaero. The crew is friendly, the flight attendants are quite helpful, so there are no complaints about the service (they even handed out blankets and pillows, which is usually not enough for everyone in Transaero). We arrived in Denpasar at 10 o'clock local time, as the pilots managed to catch up with 30 minutes during the flight. Visa on arrival 25 Baku on the snout, then a quick border, getting suitcases and going outside to the delight of the Balinese guides from various tour companies who meet you.
I didn’t really worry about exchanging money and changed 200 dollars at the airport, although the exchange rate there is not very good, but then when calculating it turned out that you lose only 20 thousand rupees from a hundred dollars (this is the cost of a bottle of beer in a supermarket)

The guide met us, took us to the minivan and took us to the hotel (20-25 minutes from the airport, as they have constant traffic jams there). The guide spoke a little Russian, a little English, so there were no problems with mutual understanding. He helped with accommodation at the hotel, although I sent him home, because he himself could explain himself to the staff and simply did not want to detain a person in vain. But he stood his ground and was honestly present until I received the key to the room (well done, for this a separate plus for the meeting party).
The room was a bit of a disappointment. No, the room is large, everything is as promised in Moscow and as seen in the photographs....
a huge bathroom, with a bathtub and a separate shower cabin, in which there are already 2 showers, wall-mounted and mobile ...there is a huge bed in the room, probably 2.5 meters wide ....but there is no promised bed for a child, there is only a small sofa on which only a pygmy can accommodate (and my eagle is 11 years old, and he is not offended by his height, and he is not used to sleeping in the lotus position), which is why the head of the family, that is, me, was sent to the reception in order to resolve the conflict. The lady at the counter listened to my complaints, raised my documents, and said that I had not paid for an extra bed (although in all other countries where I was it was provided free of charge). Their hotel estimated the cost of an extra bed at $45 per night, which was not at all acceptable, and I called the guide, who left 10 minutes ago, to resolve the conflict.
I must say that he quickly returned, rubbed shoulders with the girls at the reception, then even called his superiors, explained the situation ......but everything was in vain, the voucher did not indicate "paid extra bed", and no one could do anything , no hotel, no local tour operator. In a word, it was a jamb of the Moscow tour operator, who did not warn me when booking the ticket. Maybe it was for the better, as it turned out later, but nevertheless, the sediment remained. In short, I began to solve the problem on my own. 45 bucks a day for an extra bed, well, I didn’t like it at all, and I began to look for other options. The girl, rummaging through the computer, announced that there is another option. For an additional charge of 30 bucks a day, I can exchange my room for a larger one.

I also had to bargain with them about the 21% commission that they take from each payment at the hotel (this is a service fee and some kind of tax there), in the end I convinced them that the payment would be in cash, but they did not charge me an additional 21%. On this they added. But the problem was that there were no available rooms of this category, and that one of them would be free only tomorrow. Well, after thinking a little, I had to agree, although I assumed that this was only a divorce and an excuse for me to leave them behind. I had to spend the night the three of us on the same bed, although I can’t say that it was crowded. The next day, at the agreed time, I trudged to the reception, so that, as I expected, I would hear another excuse from the Balinese. Nothing like that. The girl at the reception said that she was aware of all my problems, and led me to show the room. God, when I saw him, I was stunned. Huge room, with two rooms and a kitchen.
The living room is combined with the dining room, a table for 6 people, two sofas, a TV, a DVD player ....in the second room there is a double bed, another TV, a table with a mirror and a wardrobe. In the kitchen there is a refrigerator with a freezer, and of a normal size, 180 cm, a stove with 2 burners and a sink. A bunch of cabinets with dishes and glasses ....And another balcony of 15 square meters, there is another couch of impressive size and a table with 2 chairs. In a word, I immediately said “I take it”, paid as agreed and we moved in. The family was happy. By the way, if I ordered this room in Moscow, I think that the increase in the cost would not be the same as I paid on the spot, but much more. So if someone is traveling with a child, wind your mustache. In any case, ask your tour operator for the difference in price for these rooms, and on the spot it came out to me for 10 nights less than 9.000 rubles.
Now about the island itself. The ocean and the beach at the hotel is certainly beyond praise.
To the ocean, either a couple of minutes on a free shuttle that runs every 15-20 minutes, or on foot along the golf course (specially timed when walking at a leisurely pace for 10 minutes). By the way, the neighboring hotel Ayodi, which was behind a fence from ours, has its own access to the beach directly from the hotel ...but! ! ! If you choose this hotel and you are settled somewhere near the reception, then you will spank to the beach for the same 10 minutes, only on the territory of the hotel.

On the beach, towels and sunbeds from the hotel, all of course free of charge. The hotel has its own beach, and in my opinion the best on the coast. The ebbs and flows are certainly noticeable, but you can swim at low tide, not like on other beaches. There is only one sand to the buoys, apparently the corals have been cleaned out, and swimming is just a feast for the eyes, especially for children. When the tide is high, there is a rather strong current along the coast. Cool. If you lie on an inflatable mattress, then in 5 minutes it will blow you 100 meters away.
You can snorkel, but there’s not much to see there .....so, small fish ...corals ....although my wife saw a moray eel when she swam with a mask away from the shore into the corals. In the ocean, 300-400 meters from the shore, there is apparently a large reef, and all the waves break there, and a strong wave does not reach the shore. And behind the reef, on some days, we saw waves of 4 meters. I don’t know how people swim on other beaches where there is no such reef, and the waves reach the shore, probably everyone only rides on surfers.
In the morning it was hard to get up for breakfast for the first time, all the same, the difference of 4 hours is felt. And in the evening, on the contrary, they could not fall asleep in any way. Then they seemed to get used to it, but upon arrival in Moscow, the opposite is true. In the evening it cuts down already at 9 o'clock, and in the morning you get up at 5 in the morning and walk like a stump. But after a few days everything was back to normal.
Breakfast is typical for Southeast Asia. Compared to Turkey, probably a little poor, but in principle we were satisfied.
Omelettes, sausages, bacon, boiled beans, rice, potatoes, chicken, Chinese dumplings of several types (by the way, quite tasty), pastries of 3-4 types, all kinds of vegetables and fruits, in short, everything is standard. Juices of 4 types. Not natural, as it seemed to me, but very high quality. Every day they changed. But the fruits somehow let us down. Only bananas and papaya were delicious, and everything else ......pineapples are only white, almost not sweet, there were no yellow ones ....watermelons are so-so, melons are generally like soap ....maybe not the season, I don’t know. .. By the way, their omelettes are simply freaky, they are somehow airy and very tasty ....in no country have they prepared such omelettes before.

Now about where you can eat and where you can go. To the left of the exit from the hotel, a 5-minute walk is the village of Bualu (if I do not confuse the name). There are several zucchini, live music is played in almost all of them in the evenings, and the prices are almost the same everywhere. We liked most of all in the cafe, which is kept by the German.
Delicious. It's called Nyomans Beergarden. At least it is honestly written on his menu that all taxes are included in the cost of dishes, and in other cafes they will take another 10-15% of the cost of dishes from you, and at first they will delicately keep silent about this, and after your dinner they will delicately remind you. Food prices are relatively inexpensive. Dinner for three usually cost us $30-35. And with a couple of beers and a cocktail. Although their beer is a little expensive, even by Moscow standards. A bottle of 0.5 in a supermarket costs about 100 rubles with our money, and beer is not of the highest class, but the local "Bintang" (like our Baltic). And in a restaurant, such a bottle is already 150 rubles ....Once they took 2 kilos of huge grilled shrimp (1kg-20 dollars) But in principle, all prices are quite acceptable, and on average, a portion of meat or fish with a side dish costs 200-300 rubles . The cuisine is both European and Asian, which in turn is subdivided into Balinese, Chinese and Indonesian ....in a word, the choice is great.
Now about excursions. The guide was immediately delicately sent by me along with their services and prices for them. I took a taxi myself for the whole day or half a day (depending on how far we had to go) and the driver drove us where we needed and waited where we needed and for how long. The maximum I paid once for the whole day of skiing around the island was $ 35 (we left the hotel at 9 o'clock and returned at 8 o'clock in the evening) This includes a visit to the bird park, the monkey forest, lunch, and a trip to the north of the island to Lake Bratan (there is a very very beautiful temple on the water) If you go, take warm clothes with you, as this place is in the mountains, and we got a little cold there. All visits to parks and attractions are not included in the cost of paying a taxi driver, you pay for it yourself. Moreover, the entrance to the water park and the bird park costs $23 for an adult and $16 for a child.
In addition, we went to several different places to watch the sunset (this is in Jimbaran, near the airport, it’s very beautiful when the plane comes in to land from the sea in the rays of sunset, and lands almost on the sea, since their runway is 400-500 meters enters the ocean. Then to the Tanah Lot temple (also very beautiful, but it takes almost 2 hours to drive one way), and to the Ulawatu Bay in the south of the island. We were also in the water park with my son, there are few slides, but there are cool ones. On one, the most the cool son was not allowed in, because he weighed less than 45 kilograms. He was upset, and I rolled down once. This slide is called Climax, and the name corresponds to the sensations that you experience when sliding down it. It seems that now you will have it, and this applies not only women, but also men...There you get up in a special booth, the capsule closes, the countdown starts, a hatch in the floor opens, through which you fly through the pipe like a shell from a cannon.

For the first second, you don’t understand at all where you are and who you are ....then everything is fine, and you regret that everything ended so quickly.
I changed money only in places where taxi drivers advised. And the course is normal, and the risk of being inflated is minimized. The hotel exchange rate is very low. They took any banknotes for exchange, regardless of the year of issue and series, only in duty free on departure they refused to take one banknote of 2006 of the CF series (I don’t know why, but they said that they don’t take such a series) By the way, it’s better to spend all the rupees before leaving , since the rate in duty free is also unprofitable. Leave only 150 thousand rupees per person to pay the airport tax (or whatever they call it).
It is better to buy souvenirs either on the streets (which is the cheapest and you can bargain), or in Bali Collection, but everything is more expensive there. And in duty free, the prices for souvenirs are simply exorbitant.
The return flight was also delayed by almost an hour, as the plane from Moscow arrived late.
Accordingly, they also arrived in Moscow with a delay of half an hour.
If anyone has questions, please email. I will answer everyone.
Yuri

P. S. I almost forgot. Rested in the period from 01.08 to 12.08 2011.