This was a 10 night trip in January 2003. We booked the trip as a package holiday and stayed in Room 606, in the new wing of deluxe rooms at the Ramayana Hotel, Kuta. The rooms were well appointed and we had a balcony overlooking the garden and lawn areas inside the hotel complex.
The hotel is located conveniently on the corner of Jalan Singo Sari and Jalan Kartika Plaza. The beach is a short 2-minute walk along the edge of the Kuta Art Market. Kuta Square is only a 1 minute walk from the Ramayana, and the Matahari Department Store in Kuta Square has a supermarket towards the back, so it is conveniently located to get your bottled water (we got 10 litre containers and decantered into smaller water bottles) and other supplies.
The hotel has two swimming pools; one near the restaurant where a buffet breakfast is served and the other pool is set back a bit further and has a dividing wall separating shallow and deep water.
A beautiful orchid garden has been established at the hotel, along with pools of colourful fish. The garden staff would fill up a pottery container of fish food each day for people to enjoy feeding the fish. We found all the staff very friendly. There was an elevator as our room was on the 2nd floor. Our Balinese friend told us that it was the first time his daughter, aged 11 years, had ever been in an elevator.
We travelled on day trips with Alex (Nyoman Oka) approximately every 2nd day during our stay, so Ill put some explanations along the way about our travels with photos. Needless to say, both Graeme and I found Bali very different from our first visit there in 1980! Sam, our son, who was 15 at the time thoroughly enjoyed his first taste of a tropical country and was fascinated at the way of life, especially in the rural areas we travelled through.
Alex and his daughter Eka
We enjoyed our stay so much we planned a 3 week trip for March 2004, staying at some of the places we had only visited for an hour or so during this holiday.
Donkars outside the Ramayana Hotel/Rama Bridge Restaurant
Kuta Beach
Food stall at Kuta Beach
In the late afternoon families would bring their children down to Kuta beach to play, and local lads would enjoy a game with a soccer ball.
Along Jalan Singo Sari came a procession of people, it was the first time we had witnessed a traditional parade of people in Bali.
Denpasar is the busy bustling capital of Bali. I was keen to see some traditional market places so Alex took us the the Pasar Badung Market. In 1980 we had visited the market and saw rice stored in baskets, in 2003 rice was stored in sacks. Denpasar was so busy with traffic that Alex had to help me cross the road as I was too nervous to cross by myself.
This is the river right next to the market.
A man with quite a load!
We did a day trip to Padang Bai in East Bali. Along the way we stopped at a Warung near Kusamba called Warung Merta Sari where we had a delicious meal of spicy fish satays, fish soup, boiled rice, peanuts and beans served with iced tea.
This is Padang Bai. We sat at one of the shady shelters on the beach and ate fresh pineapple Alex had got from one of the warungs nearby. There are two lovely beaches over the hills each side of the main harbour that we discovered on our next holiday in Bali when we stayed in Padang Bai for 4 nights at the Hotel Puri Rai.
We stopped at Gianyar to have a look at a weaving factory. Each alternative week they did batik work on fabric or weaving. There were lots of handlooms set up in rows under a roof, it looked like hot tedious work.
At Klungkung there is a huge monument at a roundabout built to commemorate the paputan led by the ruler of the kingdom in 1908.
Also worth visiting is the Taman Gili. It is the only surviving part of the palace in Klungkung. There are two bales with painted ceilings in the kamasan style (wayang style).
Thousands of bats make the cave at this temple their home. It is across the road from the beach and you can see salt production along the beach at Kusamba.
This village is located about 13 kilometres out of Denpasar to the north. You can see dance performances here every morning. We went to an entertaining Barong and Kris dance.
I wondered how the dancers kept their makeup on in the heat!
A little further on there is a stretch of a few kilometres of stone carvings for sale along the roadside.
Just outside of Ubud near Sayan, we stopped to view the beautiful rice terracing. In some areas they can have up to 3 harvests per year.
We then travelled north to Sebatu where there was a spring temple called Pura Gunung Kawi (not to be confused with the royal monuments of the same name near Tirta Empul)
Alex bought some biscuits and we fed the colourful fish.
Some men were working to get the temple ready for a celebration.
We also visited the Neka Art Museum in Campuhan, just a short distance from Central Ubud. It had a very good display of traditional and modern Balinese paintings as well as some photography housed in 6 pavillions. Well worth visiting.
We went on a day trip to Lake Bratan at Bedugal. There was light rain in the mountains. The special temple of Pura Ulan Danu is at the lake; it has eleven meru.
We also had a look at the Bali Handara Kosaido Golf Club as Sam is a keen golfer. He played there on our next trip in 2004.
Another interesting place to stop is the Candikunning Market where a lovely array of fruit is for sale. They also have a few other stalls selling a range of clothing and other items. There is a warung next to the market where we had a nice lunch of Nasi Camphur.
On the way to Tanah Lot we saw farmers ploughing the rice paddies using water buffalo.
Sam was like a movie star at Tanah Lot. Just after this photo of him and Alex was taken, a group of Indonesian students each wanted to pose with Sam for a photo.
On our second to last day of our trip we went on a Bali Hai cruise to Lembongan Island. The boat left from Benoa Harbour and took just over an hour to get there. We stayed on the large pontoon for the water activities, such as snorkelling, banana boat rides, semi-submersable rides, water slide and a nice buffet lunch. Sam had his first scuba dive amongst the coral and fish.
I went on a village tour of the seaweed harvesting. It was a fun day.
This lady was selling snacks in Jalan Legian.
This girl was always sitting in the same spot opposite the Hard Rock Hotel when I would go to the ATM.
This man was happily walking along Jalan Singo Sari playing a tune on his violin type instrument.
A travelling food vendor dispensing meals.
Interesting wood carvings in Legian!
Lunch . Yum!
