just came back couple of days ago
recommend tailor made suits etc as they are hell cheap
got a leather jacket tailor made for $95 at poppies lane 2.
highly recommend whitewater rafting at Telaga waja river for US$25, don't go to the other cheaper one on Ayung river, it's a whole day thing though.
Made restaurant at Seminyak is excellent
KuDeTa for a drink but pay Perth prices or more.
Rock Bar in Jimbaran another great place for sunset drinks - walk down as the little shuttle takes forever when there is a queue
watch out for restaurant/bar surcharges that can be up to 20% on top of listed price

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There's a hoon in every Typhoon

A scooter is a must. Had great fun riding it around. I only had a Aussie license but was told to keep 50,000 in you pocket for if you get stopped. Did shit myself often when i saw the cops but that was worth the fun I had. Cost me 30,000 a day so that was the going rate.

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"Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to there level and beat you with experience."

Scooters are fantastic, specially when you can drink a "fourty" whilst on the back of one. Billy's is a great place to go for food and great enviroment. Often people will get up and sing with the live band playing some good aussie tracks.

Water bomb park is worth going even if you spend a hungover morning there! There was a new slide opening in may when I was there last which look like nothing I have seen before.

Don't know if clubs are your scene but thongs and singlet are the appropiate attire! Bounty disco ftw!

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WGM

check out pointe at bali collection if your in nusa dua, really nice food but cheap as chips, I spent 10days there in june and im going back june/july next year too. You've got a pm sayers

All depends what you want from the place. I was lucky that my gf's sister is married to a balinese guy so we got the Fcuk out of Dempasar pretty quick, spent 4 days in Negara, about 300kms west on the coast.

Then spent a few days in Tulamben, on the north east coast for snorkeling and gernral chilling.
Dempasar isnt too bad if your keen on all the hustle, but I found it a bit to "aussie". Some nice hotel pools to chill at though up round Legian. Great food and drink everywhere though. :-)

Check out Candi Dasa and Nusa Dua for some of the more pretty areas, Kuta beach, tbh I didnt swim there, beach was pretty average.

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K.E.R.S!!!1

Here is some general advice I posted for someone a while back on another forum....

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I've been to Bali 3 times now and had a good time each time.

Some random advice off the top of my head...

When you get to the airport and you've got your luggage, head outside and turn to your right. There you will find the taxi counter. There are fixed price fairs to most hotels, can't really bargain on these. Be prepared to wait for a while especially if several planes have just landed. It's in your interest to try and get there quickly to at least beat the other people on your flight.

Beware of people in the airport, or people in the airport carpark offering to kindly take your bag for you. They will expect money when you get to the car. If you don't want to pay them, refuse at the start and hang onto your bag. It's not a long walk to the cars.

Definitely bargain with the street vendors for tours as opposed to pre-organizing them via credit card with the tour companies. You will pay much less this way.

It might take you a few days to get the hang of bartering with the locals for things like T-shirts etc. I find it much more civil to do it quietly with them. They appreciate that much more than a loud Aussie bargaining them down so everyone around can hear how much of a cheap deal they are getting.

Note with some of the private drivers you hire, you *might* have to endure being taken to a couple of places you didn't ask to be taken to "just to have a quick look". A lot of them depend on commissions they get for bringing potential customers to places. This isn't so common but does happen (happened to us).

Don't get pissed off with people constantly trying to grab your attention and sell you something. ie, trying to sell you sunnies when you are wearing some already. It's just the way it is there, you have to take it with a pinch of salt. A lot of people come away from Bali counting this as a bad experience, but my advice is to not let it ruin anything. Just ignore it if it's not your thing and concentrate on other things.

Keep safe. Get a serious or even just semi serious head injury and you are pretty much dead. You won't get into a decent hospital.

If you want something a little different or if there's something you wouldn't mind to make whatever you are doing more enjoyable, just ask. The people are more than happy to take care of everything for you and normally will. They depend on tourism so are ultra-keen to keep you happy.

Re Taxi's, yeah definitely stick to Bluebird taxis. Also be careful of the non-legit ones, even alot of them try to match the bluebird logo on their cars.
Alot of the streets are one-way and sometimes it's very busy. Sometimes it makes sense to walk for another few minutes until you get to an intersection so you can jump in a taxi which is already in a flow of traffic that's heading the right direction. Otherwise you will have to sit in the taxi for ages and ages until he can go around the block. Although you might like to sit in the aircon for a while anyway.
You might be forced to get in a non-Bluebird taxi - ie, if you are with lots of people with lots of luggage you might need to get into a larger van. Either agree on a set price before you head off, or make sure they put the meter on and keep an eye on it. Note that if they have the meter on they might purposely take a very long route - keep your eyes open at least anyway. I havn't been ripped in one of those yet but maybe I've been lucky.

You will most likely need to get your Aussie dollars changed into local money several times. Honestly the best thing to do is go into a bank during business hours. There are hundreds of "authorised money changers" around - usually a dude with a chair and a wood desk just sitting around or in a dvd or other shop. Absolutely beware of these. Alot of them charge commission which is quite alot. But most of them will blatantly rip you off. If you absolutely have to use one in an emergency make sure you count the money yourself and DO NOT give the money back to them again - they are masters of hand tricks and will make sure it's light when it gets back to you again.
I even found one which had modified his calculator to automatically put a percentage onto all calculations.
The ones with a less impressive exchange rate are less likely to rip you off. Some of them with high rates are obviously going to rip you off as they would loose money at that rate. Stick to banks if you can, but naturally the rate isn't as good - I think it's worth it.

Beware if anybody quietly offers you weed, they are most likely a cop.

There are NOT really many ladyboys around in Bali. Infact not really much smut at all, you'd have to look for it or specifically go to certain places. It's totally not that kind of place, not like Thailand where everywhere you turn there is some 50yo douche with a 15yo Thai girl or girl/boy or someone coming up to you trying to get you to go to an "eel show". Bali is a much more family orientated place.

LOL @ Tags

If you want to pat the tiger, make sure its the bali safari and marine park as there are a few, the tiger cub being used at the moment is a white tiger, it is quite a large cat and is not drugged the handlers have a hard job getting it to stay still and stop it from snapping at visitors

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Good read

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To each his own

Cheers Admin

Aku mau minum bintang means I want Beer. Terima kasih is thank you and terima kasha banyak is thank you very much. Tidal mahal means too much. Must importantely Aku ke maine cinta means I want to make love

Kuta square is very pricey for buying things and make sure you only offer vendors a quarter of the price they state.

Bali Aussie, Bali Tu, Green Gardens and Big Daddys are all nice restaurants around the Kuta/legian area, Big Daddy does awesome breakfast.

Tanah Lot is a good trip, close to Seminyak there is a buddhist snake temple in the bottom of a cave there, great for awesome pics.

Don't swim at any of the beaches near Kuta unless you like swimming with floaters. The beach at Seminyak is good for swimming and clean

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