So....read through 20+ pages but did not have the time to read them all. Went through the first page as well but did not get much details......Just need two things from you good people who have went to Bali and had a blast......

1) Where to find good local food at seminyak area? Seafood would be good as well. I might be tempted to go to the Pasar Penadagang ( sp? ) once to try it out but consensus says that Jimbaran have expensive seafood....so...where do you guys go for good local indonesian food around Seminyak; seafood included? I have found a few cafes around but if there's one that shouldn't be missed, do tell...... Am a big fan of ikan bakar, if there's one around or any where within Kuta as well, do share!

2) Spas and massage. Cost is a factor and don't really need anything fancy, just somewhere good and comfy will do.

Am planning to go to the few beach clubs along Seminyak already. Thanks in advance!

Just back and thanks to forumer for Ketut's contact

He is very responsive and easy to deal with, reasonable price also.

We are happy with his driver Katej 'service.

It is superb banyak traffic congestion, the driver very patient and dedicated for his job.

This is my itinerary


what i have done
1st day
12.00 ~1.00 PM pick up from airport, pick sim card (Klook, Axiata XL, RM28, coverage is ok esp 4G)
transfer to hotel checkin and rest a while
Culutural Park (ticket IDR 125k/Person + shuttle 30k)
Uluwatu for kecak sunset dance (ticket through Klook, but have to pay another ticket entrance for temple, saw some tourist can't get the ticket for kecak dance on spot since it was full house)
Jimbaran for dinner (ticket through Klook RM180, meal for 2 person, Radja Restaurant) - Food delivered as described in package and taste not bad, better experience than kena chopped like my first visit

13 Aug 2019:
temple taman ayun
tasik buyan dan tamblingan
wanagiri hidden hills (100k per person to enter)
handara gate (skip cos lack of time and expensive for entrance)
bedugul ulun danu beratan
tanah lot temple

14 Aug 2019
Transfer from Kuta Square to airport, drop by to buy some kek lapis at local shop

This post has been edited by frequency: Aug 15 2019, 11:42 AM

hey, ur itinerary look kinda similar to mine. just wanna ask, are there anything nice to c at tasik buyan dan tamblingan?

Nice scene for the double lake, it is the same way with wanagiri hidden hills.

planing for a solo trip in coming Nov, need to know which areas have nice beach and easy to walk around for food and relax..

Any idea what model of plane flying by malindo to bali.

This post has been edited by Micky78: Aug 26 2019, 09:52 AM

Has anybody been to Bali before? Any recommendations on hotels, villas or tours? Or best areas to stay? Just in Bali now and can’t wait to come back so starting to find the best options. Traveling in February again next year.

Highly recommend our tour driver, Arief (+62817537826). He can also work out your accommodation for you. We just got back from Bali 2 days ago, and engaged Arief for the 3rd time as he is just great! He planned the sightseeing for us, was very flexible and willing to go the extra mile to make our trip comfortable and pleasant. Even when we had problems with our accommodation electricity and water supply very early in the morning, he was there to help. A very reliable and trustworthy person.

This post has been edited by v_thevi: Sep 5 2019, 04:16 PM

guys, im going bali next week. which telco sim to get for data only?

On accommodation, I'd strongly suggest you avoid Villa Dakoda. Very unprofessional staff and management. They charged our credit card for damages we DID NOT cause! This was as a retaliation to our negative review on Booking.com

Our negative review was due to some unfortunate events here:
1. Staff was not contactable in an emergency (water & power supply disruption at 4am, whole villa was pitch dark). We made the calls only after 6.30am, made more than 10 calls but the manager claimed she didn't receive any calls from us. Their higher management responded "it’s also understandable if the staff are not available at this time as they also need to rest."

Luckily Arief (our tour driver) helped, and he lives about an hour away from the villa!

2. Lost AUD500 which was in the upstairs bedroom while the villa cleaners were in the villa; we were in the dining room downstairs at that time. We accept partial blame for being careless. But their manager handled the situation poorly. Manager (Mia) took almost 1 hr to get there, and seemed more like she was trying to cover up the tracks and implying we set the whole thing up, instead of helping us with the situation.


During our e-mail communication with their Management named Jose after check-out, I clarified that we are not blaming them for things which were out of their hands, but suggested that the staff should be contactable and be equipped to handle emergency situations appropriately.


They responded by coming up with stories to falsely accuse us of stealing / damaging their items. They sent us pictures of the damaged items, which look quite bad and would have actually been easily identified by their cleaner while we were still there during check out (torn bed sheets, broken soap dispenser etc.). However, nothing was mentioned to us. 5-6 days after we checked out, suddenly they are telling us about those damages and claiming they did not realise until their items came back from the laundry. Accusing us without basis!
Coincidentally, these damages "appeared" after we left them a negative review in Booking.com










This post has been edited by v_thevi: Sep 14 2019, 12:43 AM

can shared where u make the hotel booking? agoda or hotels?
if the hotel is not honest, i am sure by now their rating is poor.

from my research.... most of them said avoid buying from Airport.

Telkomsel (simPATI)

Telkomsel’s most popular SIM card is called simPATI and although slightly more expensive than SIM cards from other providers, it is currently said to offer the most highest internet speed. Other SIM cards from Telkomsel are called Kartu As and Kartu Halo, and Loop. SsimPati Flash is the name for the prepaid internet packages. A 4 GB quota package starts at 7 USD, a 8 GB package is 12 USD. Telkomsel can provide 4G LTE and 3G connections, But of course not everywhere.

XL Axiata

XL most popular SIM card is called ‘XL Baru’. It provides cheap domestic calls combined with internet access. The prepaid internet package called Kartu Perdana Super Hot Rod 4G is the latest and most popular package and starts at 8 USD for a quota at 4 GB. XL also offers a 8 GB quota for around 16 USD.


https://www.bali.com/sim-cards-internet-roaming-mobile.html

This post has been edited by melt: Sep 17 2019, 11:31 AM

im back from Bali yesterday. cant rmb which sim i bought, it was 100k for 6GB. reasonable i guess and the coverage pretty good.

lol ok... that is pretty reasonable... how the weather over there?

Its Bali affected with the haze?

the weather there is clear and super sunny. i gotten sunburn just from one hour photoshoot at the beach

here's a review for my villa, its called Villa Manis at Uluwatu.

directly next door to the famous uluwatu surf villa and the famous uluwatu mana restaurant and bar(must try, the foods are super awesome and not exp).

the location is quiet and safe due to the 24/7 villa next door, it is a bit far from most places with only a few very small local mini mart that hardly sell anything nearby. it is also 5min walk to the famous suluban beach, a lot of surfers during the day.

you can walk 1km to get to a very happening place which is where all the clubbing places such as Single Fin located. i don't recommend walking at night tho due to the limited street lights and it can be quite scary.

the villa is very clean and the owner response real quick to anything, the owner also own the mango tree cafe(great place for breakfast) which is about 2km away.

one thing about the villa is you will get a lot of friendly neighbors visiting u at night (gecko, frogs lol)

overall good stay if you dont mind a bit far from places.

my driver is Pak Yanto's cousin - Robbie.

he speak pretty good english and a very interactive guy.

very good service and bring us to places that we want to go, unlike some driver will force you to go this souvenir store or dine here n so on.

Thanks for the info glad to hear that the weather is not as terrible as Malaysia currently.

Hi, can recommend good budget hotel at seminyak? Tq

Below is the itinerary from Ketut Galung which was recommmended earlier in the thread. Pricing wise I do find it ok, but I would like suggestions from anyone about the places. It's my first time with two friends.

14/10/2019, price is 350.000 rupiah,
- 8.30 am start - tanjung benoa - nusa dua beach, waterblow - gwk, cultural park - padang padang beach - blue point - uluwatu - jimbaran dinner - back to hotel ,

15/10/2019, price is 650.000 rupiah,
- 3.30 am start - lempiyang temple - tirta gangga, the water palace - kintamani, volcano and lake batur view - tirta empul temple - swing - ubud market and palace - dirty duck dinner - back to hotel ,

16/10/2019, price is 400.000 rupiah,
- 8.30 am start - taman ayun - bedugul, ulundanu temple and lake beratan - strawberry farm - twin lake - tanah lot - spa - back to hotel ,

A few note:
I would like to avoid Jimbaran dinner and instead go to Sanur for a seafood dinner. Saw one which is Warung Amphibia. Good idea?

Should i add Tegalalang Rice terrace to Day 2 since its at Ubud? Seems like a must visit place in Bali

And why does Day 2 need to start at 3:30am? Any ideas?

Please PM the Jimbaran restaurant you went to.

Thanks

Hi there. Booked through Booking.com. A few updates to share:

1. Apparently for some reservations through Booking.com, payment details are handed over directly to the accomodation. I was not aware about this, but they said it is stated in their fine print.
So the villa was basically given an open ticket to misuse my credit card details and proceeded to charge my card (RM300+) for the alleged damages without my authorisation. The excuse they stated in their response was "someone has to cover the following charges". And after a lot of back and forth communication, Booking.com claims they can't do anything.

2. Unfortunately, it is their good rating which made me trust them. Maybe other travellers did not have bad experiences like mine and hence, did not see their true colours. As soon as issues surfaced, their real character came out. In fact, as a further retaliation to my review, they came up with yet another accusation that I threatened their staff and also purposely refused to leave the villa on time. Seriously, their ability to cook up false stories on the go is quite amusing.

Honestly, I learnt an expensive lesson from this incident. If possible don't use credit cards for booking. Credit cards can be easily misused by vendors. I usually trust properties listed under famous OTAs like Booking.com, but this turned out to be a huge mistake.

Another learning, always do a full walkthrough of the accomodation with their staff before checking out. Otherwise, the staff can do whatever they want and blame you for it.

Just came back from a trip in Bali. The weather there was great despite being the start of the raining season. Managed to cramp 4 full days of trip in it.

The driver i used for the 3 full days was Malik (+62 817-9721-604). He's very professional and his english is quite good. So communication was not a problem.

For the fourth day, i went to Nusa Penida via Klook tour... the island itself is very beautiful, but i can't say the same for the management of the tour..