Places to stay, Bali

The Island, Legian

Legian- stay at The Island. Its a little more expensive here at 250,000rp for a dorm bed but the dorms are the nicest I have stayed in with lots of space, there's curtain partitions for extra privacy and the place is spotless. They have a pool, rooftop hangout area, dvd lounge area, and its only like a 5 min walk to the beach. Free breakfast. The staff make the place.

Ubud- try to stay on Monkey Forrest Road. We stayed at Jati3 bungalows which is down a gang across from the Three Monkeys. A double room is 400,000rp or you can get your own wee hut with two double beds for the same price. We were in the latter and we were just relaxing one night when all these moths folded themselves in half and edged their way in under the door. It was so gross. In like 5 mins there was hundreds of them. When we told the staff member he just said, 'its ok, he won't harm you, he just likes the light. Turn off the lamp.' Sitting in the dark wasn't really an option for us so we moved room. It was the second hut down from reception. We didn't have any problems in our new (family) room. Which was nice. You can definitely find a cheaper place on Monkey road butthere is a nice pool here, a spa, free breakfast too. Wifi is hit and miss.

Lovina- the shuttle bus will drop you off on the 'main road' here in Kalibukbuk. We looked at most the hotels here, and although cheap- 150,000 for a twin, they aren't that nice. Instead walk round to the road that's parallel to it and check in at Rini hotel. Its quite a big complex with rooms with fan and cold water to rooms with a/c and hot water. We chose the latter which was 350,000rp but the guy gave us a discount price without us even asking- 270,000rp. So its a little bit more expensive than some of the other hotels in Lovina but its worth it. They have a inhouse masseur who will creep you out but she's harmless. They have a couple of cats and dogs who hang around too. There is a pool, breakfast is free, as standard. No wifi.

Tulamben- the only reason we came here was to dive the US Liberty wreck. You can't even call this place a town, its just a strip of hotels which are mostly all dive schools too. We stayed at the Matahari, and did our diving with them too. The wreck was great, we just walked along the beach and walked into the sea with our gear on. The ship was like 50m offshore. Amazing.

You can get to each of these places by shuttle bus or if there is a few of you it sometimes works out cheaper to charter a car.

We took the public ferry from Padangbai over to Lombok. It cost 50,000rp but will take 4-6hrs depending on the weather. The fast boat takes like 1 hr but can cost up to 350,000rp. It will cost you a further 100,000 per person in a shuttle bus to get to Sengigi. We had a stressful time here because we didn't get there til like 8pm and we hadn't booked anything in advance. The hotels on the main road are mid- high range budget. We stayed 5 mins out of the centre at .... but then the next day moved to the Beach Club. The bungalows are beautiful at 500,000rp but we couldn't afford that luxury and took the fan and cold water room for 150,000rp. When its so hot you don't really need a hot shower. We were in Bali and Lombok in the rainy season though so after getting soaked, having a cold shower isn't the best.

Over to Gili Trawangan. We booked to dive with Dream Divers. They have a office in Senggigi and they provide you with transfer over to Gili T if you do 2 dives with them. We were going to do the one day package but decided to pack our things to check out the island as well. It cost $2.5, about 25,ooorp for their driver to pick us up, take us to their private dock and take us to Gili T which took about 20 mins. Stayed at the Pesona hotel which was directly next door to Dream Divers. Rooms were 400,000 for a/c or 250,000 for fan. We haggled it down to 200,000 but no breakfast, and of course we spent more than 50,000 on breakfast everyday so that didn't work out in our favour. We didn't eat there out of principle. Instead we went to Scallywags for the free wifi and the tasty food. A little more expensive at Scallywags but it was one of the few places where the price includes tax so it probably works out to be the same. There is no freshwater showers on Gili T ! So after a day at the beach or diving you have to come home to a salt water shower! But its the same on the whole island, so what can you do.

We stayed at the Island again on the way back to the airport.

Kangen Kamu Bali !