Today’s exchange rate:9,750-9,850 at most authorised exchangers, higher at back-of-the-shop exchangers, 10,000 per AUS $ at ATM’s
I was awake at my usual time of 7:30 today and soon got dressed to go meet Mum and Dad for breakfast. We had decided to just have breakfast at the hotel today, which is not included in the standard price at the Griya Santrian. It can be added on, or you just can do what we have done and either pay for it as you go, or just go to the many restaurants and cafes along both the street and the beach. The hotel does offer you a special when you arrive of a $12 buffet breakfast or $6 “sunrise breakfast” which includes juice or fruit, crossiants or toast and eggs anyway you like them which are served with potatoes and tomatoes. It’s pretty good value for money. So today, we had the $6 sunrise breakfast which was definitely sufficient. Our waiter was also very good when mum had to send back her eggs because they had been served on toast; she had forgotten to inform him of her gluten intolerance. He quickly returned with new eggs without toast and mum gave him a tip.
After breakfast, we returned to our rooms to get everything we needed for our shopping day. We returned to the lobby, minus dad, who had smartly opted to not come with us. At 9:45 our driver, Adi, arrived. We had only organised to use his services yesterday via our new shady friend we had made at the cooking class. Thanks, Fatman!! Although Adi’s English was not the best, it was definitely good enough. He was a very safe driver, and a very happy chap. We were very pleased with his services. The driver I had used last year, Made, was unfortunately unavailable for this otherwise we would have used him. We have recently found him to be a bit unreliable as of late- my parents had a confusing incident during their last trip when they had organised to use him via my recommendation, and he sent a friend in his place without informing them. They, who had never met Made before, didn’t know it wasn’t him until half way through their trip, and although it didn’t affect their trip, they would have appreciated being informed of this change. Unfortunately, because of this and a few other things, we may not consider using him again despite his good service when I did use him.
Our first stop was the Discovery Centre. We usually always make a stop here for their cheap shoes. Mum found 2 pairs that she liked, while I bought some clothes for a friends daughter and Sam did the same for a friend’s son, but not before shopping downstairs in Bamboo Blonde. All 3 of us found at least one thing that we liked here. After a quick break for an ice-milo- an all time Bali favourite- we continued onto Matahari at Kuta Square. We first discussed how long we were going to be then headed up stairs to start the shopping. I went straight to my favourite perfume counter to restock on my favourite perfume. When Sam came to join me, they then offered us their “special price” for 2 perfumes. We go two; mine in a gift pack with moisturiser and Sam’s just by itself, for 500,000 RP. Not bad at all. We were headed to the make-up counter when the perfume girls told us to go pay for our perfumes first so we could get vouchers. I don’t know if this was just a seasonal thing or whether they have it going all the time, but you just spend a certain amount of money and then you receive however many 50,000 RP vouchers to use for your next purchase. Sam and I got 3 of them form our perfume purchase, so we then headed to the jewellery section. Al though I didn’t find anything I liked, Sam got a few things and I spotted a fluro going-out bag for home. I’m not one for fluro, but this one just spoke to me. What a female thing to say.
Top from Bamboo Blonde: 299,000 RP
Dress from Bamboo Blonde: 395,000 RP
Top from Bamboo Blonde: 215,000 RP
Dress from Bamboo Blonde: 420,000 RP
My new fluro bag: 199,000 RP before discount
After buying these few things, it was to the make-up counter. I generally just stick to make-up like mascara and lip balms because I find that their foundations and powders just don’t suit my skin tone, but I had a look, with the assistance of a make-up girl, and found a few things that worked for me, as did Sam. Once again, it was back to the cashier to pay and get more vouchers. The girl confused me a lot when she was trying to explain to us to go buy these things first, get the vouchers, then pay for these things. I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell us to do at all. Luckily, Sam did. They do have a good cashier system at these shopping centres, but it sure does take a long time.When we were done with Matahari, there were a few shops down the road we wanted to look at, such as Sook and Bagus Watches. I went into Bagus while Sam and mum continued to Sook. It was so packed in there that I could barely have a proper look at any watches and when a couple of big, sweaty (read: smelly) guys came in, I’d had enough. I went off to meet up with Mum and Sam in Sook, bought a couple of things for a friend, and soon we were making our way back to Adi.
We were previously planning on going to the new Beachwalk shopping centre, but decided to skip it this time. As we drove past, I saw that there were still places that weren’t open, so Mum and I agreed that we’d try to go when we are here again in July.
We were on our way to the Bintang Supermarket. I always use this as a base for shopping because along the road, it is just boutique after boutique after boutique. The shops along here are more expensive than others, but they’ve got some gorgeous things. This was only a one shop stop so I could go to one of my favourite stores; Somewhere. If you have teenage girls or girls around my age, they will love this shop. It’s got some brands such as Insight available in there, and the stock is expensive by Bali standards but it’s pretty reasonably priced by Australia standards. I didn’t see anything that jumped out at me and ended up purchasing only a top for a friend, but Sam found a few nice dresses and bought one for herself.
After our quick shop, we went back to the Bintang Supermarket to meet up with Adi. By this time it was about 2:30 and we hadn’t had lunch. Our next stop was Seminyak Square. Although I have driven past it so many times, I’ve never actually made the time to stop here, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the bundle of markets out the front and a lot of nice stores along the road. But first thing was lunch. Mum had suggested we go to the Junction, which nor I or Sam had ever been to before. What a funky little place. Very simply decorated, but with cool décor such as jars and jars of all different things lining the walls. Even the toilets had an interesting toilet paper wall feature. We sat down and look at the menu, which was quite large and had a mix of salads, sandwiches, focaccias and heavier things like pasta. Mum, not wanting to bother with explaining her gluten intolerance, ordered a rice paper roll, Sam ordered a grilled chicken wrap and I went with ravioli. The service was pretty quick and we were finished in about half an hour. The food was nothing special, but we were satisfied. I headed off to look at the markets out the front, Sam went into a little fixed price shops called Lio next door and Mum wandered up the road.
The Junction from outside
The jars lining the walls
Toilet paper art
Mum's rice paper rolls
Sam's grilled chicken wrap
My ravioli
I quite liked these markets. They weren’t full of the usual market stuff that you get in Sanur, where every stall has practically the same thing. I happily wandered through without being bothered too much by the stall holders, tried and failed to barter for some funky jewellery, found and successfully bartered for a nice dress and then met up with Sam. Together we headed over the road to have a look in a DVD shop. Although I haven’t yet had a chance to test these dvd’s out, I’m expecting them to be pretty reasonable quality. The shop was well organised, air-conned and when you were buying your DVD’s, they actually scanned them and gave you a receipt of all the DVD's you bought. Unlike other DVD shops that do have a return policy, but don’t give you a receipt, you are given one here so if there are problems with a DVD, take it back and you have your proof of purchase. I was quite impressed. The DVD’s were the same price as most places, 10,000 RP per disc, plus the usual buy 10, get 5 free deal. I ended up buying 60 and received 35 free. The DVD shop is called Galaxy and as it turns out, they have got quite a few centres scattered around the place. The particular one we went is on Oberoi street, diagonally opposite from Seminyak Square.
One of the jewellery stands
My market dress: 100,000 RP
It was 4:30 by the time we got back in the car. The streets of Seminyak are just so busy, it was such a relief when we made it back into Sanur. We were ready for a swim when we got back, but once again found our little 3rd pool completely taken over by the people staying opposite us. There were 12 of them lounging around and in the pool, making lots of noise and splashing around. We weren’t very happy as it was not the first time they had done it. So we grabbed our things and headed to the front pool so we could also order a nice cold, refreshing drink. When we got into the pool, it was so warm, it was the furthest thing from refreshing. Not happy. So we got out, where it was actually cooler, had our drinks and then headed to the 2nd pool, which was a much better temperature. Mum had nicknamed this pool “The Goddess Pool” so, because we had it to ourselves, we had a bit of a play around and some silly family fun.
Not happy about the warm pool
The Goddess Pool
Feeling much more refreshed, we headed back to our rooms to get dressed for dinner. It was Mum’s turn to choose and she chose Cemara Beach Café, which is further South and about a 2 minute walk from the Puri Santrian where our taxi driver dropped us off. We had found the North Sanur streets to be quite quiet, but it was quite lively down the Southern end. It was another beautiful setting for dinner under the canopy of trees with lights hanging down, but better yet, we found the breeze! And how beautiful it was, sitting at a table on the sand, with the beautiful breeze cooling us down. We were very happy. We ordered our drinks; Pina Colada for Mum, Tequila Sunrise for Sam, Banana Daiquiri for me and a Bintang for Dad. Drinks came quickly and we got onto ordering our mains. Mum ordered Nasi Goreng, Dad ordered Pork Ribs, Sam had Fettuccine A’la Murreno, which was pretty much carbonara and I ordered Bakmi Goreng. Our meals were nothing special at all, but as I said, it was just so nice sitting there in the beautiful breeze. Our meal cost less than $40 AUS.
Cemara Beach Cafe
Dad's pork ribs
Mum's Nasi Goreng
Sam's pasta
My bakmi goreng
We then cut back through the Puri Santrian and wandered up the street a little way. We passed a painting shop that had beautiful, colourful paintings. We had a look and Sam bought a couple of small paintings for her room. She paid 300,000 RP for 2 and that was without bartering, so she easily could have gotten a better price, but said she didn’t mind because it was for a local artist. This particular art shop is called Agus Art Shop and the address is Jaya Kesuma Art Martket, No. 100 Semawang, Sanur. There was another art shop across the road that sold the same kind of paintings. We walked a little way further before getting a taxi to take us back to our hotel. He, like our first taxi driver, was reluctant to use the meter, which isn’t something we’ve come across in Sanur, only in Seminyak. But it was hot and we were tired, so we agreed to 20,000 RP for the ride back.
The painting shop in Sanur
Some of the beautiful paintings
Sam's paintings
Soon enough, we were back in our air-conditioned rooms and ready for bed. Another long day behind us and ahead of us, with Sam and I booked in to go on a day trip to Lembongan with Bali Hai tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
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