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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:36 am Post subject: |
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My buddy had his honeymoon there. I could ask if you want.
| Kurtz wrote: |
Dave's, you gotta love it.
To derail this sinking fast thread, anyone hopped over to Lombok? seems a lot more laid back than Bali and only a short ferry ride, plus it has a nice volcano worth climbing. |
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Kurtz
Joined: 05 Jan 2007
Location: ples bilong me
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| Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 4:09 am Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
My buddy had his honeymoon there. I could ask if you want.
| Kurtz wrote: |
Dave's, you gotta love it.
To derail this sinking fast thread, anyone hopped over to Lombok? seems a lot more laid back than Bali and only a short ferry ride, plus it has a nice volcano worth climbing. |
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That would be nice, also the least convoluted and cheapest way to Bali and any accommodation for flashpackers in Lombok would be very helpful. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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He flew directly into Lombok. His memory isn't very good. He thinks they stopped in either Taiwan or Singapore first.
From what I know, flying Air Asia into Kuala Lumpur and then flying to Bali seems to be the cheapest. Then taking the ferry. |
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Patrick Bateman
Joined: 21 Apr 2009
Location: Lost in Translation
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| Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 7:24 am Post subject: Re: Specific questions about Bali |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
For anyone who has been to Bali, I would appreciate sharing your wisdom.
The thing is, there is so much information out there about Bali, but I find so much of it contradictory.
1. I know Kuta. Kuta is sort of like Patong is to Phuket. I noticed in Phuket, the further you got from the beach, the cheaper hotels and restaurants get. Is that the same in Kuta? If so, what are the general price ranges for a hotel on (or very near) the beach to a hotel about 500 m or 1 km away?
2. I have heard the water on Kuta beach is dirty. Others have said it's fairly clean. How is the water quality?
3. What are prices like for meals? Low end to high end? Could 2 people and a child eat reasonably for maybe $10 US? Less?
4. How is transportation? Some people have told me Bali taxi drivers are good and mostly honest, others have said they are running a cartel like they are in Phuket. Unreasonable fares for short distances.
Thanks in advance. |
I just got back Sunday from a 10 day holiday in Bali, so I'll help as best I can.
1. Hotels are literally everywhere and you can find places in every price range. Also, when you are staying can influence the prices dramatically. I stayed in the busiest travel time and got a really great room for $67 (after all taxes and service charges) a night. It was about 1km from Kuta beach, but offered a shuttle bus to/from about 15 times (7/ a day.
2. Honestly I tried to stay away from Kuta beach since it was so crowded and the hawkers are in full force there. Jimbaran Bay is fairly close and is so much nicer and more peaceful. The water and sand there are just beautiful and I'd recommend it for swimming.
3. Is your $10 for all 3 people for all 3 meals a day? If so, I'd definitely say no. Food in Bali can be very cheap, but never that cheap. I travelled with my girlfriend and we probably spent a total of $5-$30 ($2.5-$15 a person) for each meal. We always got non-alcoholic drinks with our meals, and only splurged about 4 times the entire trip (hence the $15 a person max). I'd say if you go to smaller more local like places it's reasonable to find meals for $3 a person. Note: They add about 15% to the total bill. I notice the farther from the Discovery Mall/Main drag you get, the more reasonable the prices.
4. We took a few taxi's and never had any problems. There are 2 kinds of taxi's in Bali I found: reputable and questionable. Reputable taxi's are blue and their name contains "Bali" and "Bird" though the exact name escapes me now. They run a meter so it's all legit. Otherwise you have to negotiate. There are a lot of other ways to get around as well, but there is no formal public transportation that I found.
I really enjoyed my time in Bali, but was completely underwhelmed by Kuta. I still consider myself young, but just didn't find the scene a good fit for me. There are some real nice places outside of Kuta, and I recommend you look into them as well. Also, it seems you are adversed to linking websites, but for restaurants I found Tripadvisor to be a godsend. It help us find a number of cheap, quality restaurants.
Let me know if you have any more questions. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 7:50 am Post subject: |
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You have to be careful catching the Blue Birds, as there are a few fake Blue Bird operations that have extremely similar logos but have fast meters or will go the wrong way.
In terms of hotels, you can find a really crappy place for like $6 a night or you can find a very nice, 3-starish type deal for like $25.
I was underwhelmed by Kuta in the respect that I wanted to torch the whole joint. Vang Vieng, Pattaya, and Kuta are at the bottom of my Southeast Asian list. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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| One thing I didn't like about Bali was the native food -- it just sucked. That said, the other foods were okay but overall, I really liked Bali and would have gone many more times but flying there from Korea is a real pain in the wallet. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 4:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| One thing I didn't like about Bali was the native food -- it just sucked. That said, the other foods were okay but overall, I really liked Bali and would have gone many more times but flying there from Korea is a real pain in the wallet. |
I think it's halfway decent if you go to the warungs that cater to locals, it's just boring if you go to places that cater to foreigners. |
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Patrick Bateman
Joined: 21 Apr 2009
Location: Lost in Translation
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| Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| You have to be careful catching the Blue Birds, as there are a few fake Blue Bird operations that have extremely similar logos but have fast meters or will go the wrong way. |
I think this may be changing though. I noticed that the real Blue Birds were really going out of their way to stand out. They had their website prominently displayed, as well as their phone number. I did see a few taxi's that could have been easily mistaken for a BB had the real one's not been marked as such.
| northway wrote: |
| I think it's halfway decent if you go to the warungs that cater to locals, it's just boring if you go to places that cater to foreigners. |
Definitely agree. Balinese food at a restaurant targeting Westerners will most likely be very bland. Since I was only there a short time, I didn't get to really submerge myself, but I noticed if I went to a non-touristy type place and ordered Balinese food it was much different. Also, the server always seemed to double check to make sure I wanted that kind of food. |
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zhanknight
Joined: 24 Mar 2010
Location: Yangsan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:38 am Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
| One thing I didn't like about Bali was the native food -- it just sucked. That said, the other foods were okay but overall, I really liked Bali and would have gone many more times but flying there from Korea is a real pain in the wallet. |
You totally missed out, then. I spent about a month there earlier this year and would kill for some Babi Guleng and about ten other dishes.
To the OP: Fly into Bali and go straight to Ubud. It's a great town, nothing like that Kuta crap. From Ubud you can check out Ganung Agung and a million other awesome places. Find somewhere to see a good Kecak dance. Eat roasted suckling pig. If you have the time, take the shitty boat to Nusa Lembongan off the southeast coast of the island - it's epic beautiful. Think Ko Phi Phi without the hype.
I have some videos on my youtube channel, www.youtube.com/evannrachel - scroll down, they're some of the older ones. |
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Konglishman
Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:30 am Post subject: |
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I stayed in Kuta for a few days. Granted, there are some risque things going on there, but I still would not compare the place to Patong beach.
A friend and I had no trouble finding a decent room with two beds for around $15 per night.
The only annoying thing about the place was how aggressive the hawkers are, but after the first day, I learned to not give them any attention.
As far as the taxi drivers are concerned, I had absolutely no problem. For example, I was out of cash, but after playing a chess game with a taxi driver, he gave me a ride back to my hotel for free. Of course, I may have just been lucky.
With regards to food, I am not sure what Yaya is talking about. I had some Balinese food which I had with a few other taxi drivers. It definitely was not bad at all.
I also took some surfing lessons there. And Kuta beach does seem ideal for that.
Incidentally, there are two volcanoes on Bali, one of which I hiked up on a group tour. It was absolutely fantastic.
My friend took a couple of quick trips to Denpasar and Ubud. According to him, they were both great places to visit. So, the next time that I go back to Bali, I definitely plan to go to those places. |
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