When our “State Daddy”, Mark McGowan opened the borders in March to let filthy diseased people into our den of virtue and righteousness, we decided we’re long overdue to leave the country and booked a Bali trip right away. Jetstar was offering dirt cheap fares and we snapped them up feeling very mischievous indeed.

In March we didn’t know what was going to happen after the borders opened. Along with everyone in the world we saw the effects of Covid-19 running rampant in places with unrestricted border controls. Western Australia had been one of the strictest places in the world, that had people running to the supermarket to battle for toilet paper when an outbreak of one case was discovered. We waited until September to book accommodation for the ten night October trip. After much deliberation we decided on four nights in Legian at the Mercure Hotel and five nights at Nusa Dua Beach Hotel.

Still concerned about contracting Covid overseas, I opted for top quality RAC travel insurance with Covid allowances. We didn’t book any tours and didn’t stray far from our hotels and only ate in familiar restaurants. This had the following result. 1 we didn’t contract Covid and; 2 this blog post will be quite short and boring!

I brought my drone overseas for the very first time. But because we didn’t even make it out of the 15km airport “no-drone” zone, it didn’t get to taste international airspace.

So here is what we did:

Occasionally we’d go out on the street and buy some touristy Bali stuff. All jokes aside this was a cautious trip and relaxation was the focus.

Part 1 – Legian

A relatively early afternoon flight got us into Denpasar Airport at around 8pm. We paid for a fast-track service though the airport as we wanted to avoid queuing for hours with other international travelers. A representative met us off the plane and guided us though the vaccination certificate station; visa on arrival station; Immigration; baggage collection and Customs. As it turned out the airport was pretty empty and we wouldn’t have had to queue for very long at all. I’m not sure we’ll use that service again.

We were met by our old mate Made with his usual wide smile. He dropped us at the Mercure Legian and we had enough time to have a Bintang and Nasi Goreng in the hotel’s restaurant. Good to be back in Bali.

The next 4 days:

Part 2 Nusa Dua

We asked Made to pick us up and take us to Nusa Dua Beach Hotel. He said he would, but ended up sending his “cousin”. His cousin had a small car with no seat belts in the back seats. He also took a wrong turn in Nusa Dua and got himself lost (yes he had Google Maps).

Anyway we arrived at the hotel around 1pm and they let us check-in early.

We booked the hotel via Luxury Escapes that had a special deal that included breakfast, lunch and dinner; three hours free-flow drinks (3-6pm); and four massages. This was the first time we had booked one of these “all inclusive” packages and were a little sceptical of it’s value. Lunch and dinner was restricted to two courses in any of their three restaurants. Not all restaurants were open everyday however. The food was good and the portions enough for Jane and I. A few times we could only manage one course each. Drinks were not included outside the 3-6pm free-flow drink window. Having a Bintang with lunch would set you back $8 (AUD).

The hotel itself was quite old, but fairly well maintained. The room was comfortable with a balcony overlooking the nice gardens. The pools were large and there was plenty of deck lounges available. The hotel was situated on Bali’s east coast beach with a walking track connecting all the other hotels on the strip.

Breakfast buffet was fairly basic for a large hotel. One noticeable omission was bacon, as were all pork products. This is common for a Muslim owned hotel.

The afternoon drinking session was very good. A good range of beer, wine, spirits and cocktails were on offer and the staff kept them coming. The spirits were local brands, which were ok with a mixer. At 6 o’clock the bar staff presented the bill which had all the orders itemised with a 100% discount. Jane and I were amazed that out first night’s bill was 2.1 Million IDR (over $200 AUD). Our subsequent nights didn’t quite reach those heights, but averaged around 1.5M IDR. We estimated we would have spent over $800 on booze alone if we had to pay for it.

Certainly the highlight of the trip were the people we met. Special thanks to our new friends Kate and Mary from Sydney and Newcastle who showed us how to work the system. Although looking back they just taught us the drinking part, because they were hopeless when it came to booking lunches and dinners! They also toured us outside the hotel to markets and the Bali Collection shopping areas. Both ladies were lots of fun. We also teamed up with Sarah and John also from Sydney. Hopefully we’ll catch up with Sarah when she travels to Perth on a work junket. We shared lots of drinks and laughs with this group. Would love to holiday with them again.

Relaxation focus – mission achieved!