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I have just returned from Rapture surf camp in Bali on the Bukit peninsula. I was booked in for two weeks and ended staying there the whole month I was traveling. The food was great, accommodation was clean and the staff were extremely friendly. Surf guides took me to different surf breaks everyday. As a lone traveller with little surfing experience I was a little nervous at the prospect of surfing Bali however I found people at the camp outgoing and meeting new people was easy. The surf guides took me to places to suit my ability which really helped me push my surfing to the next level (I even ended up buying my first board!) I would rate my overall experience 10/10 which is why I've taken the time to write a review! I hope to get back to work save some money and return with my new board over the summer.
www.rapturecamps.com
Bali, Padang Padang
Google map: tinyurl.com/yhyn7kn
An intimate boutique hotel, in the rice paddies, yet at walking distance from the centre of Ubud, Bali's cultural capital. Eastern hospitality and Western standards. The best of both worlds!
Jalan Pura Gunung Sari 4, Banjar Ambengan, 80571 Peliatan (Ubud) - Bali
Intl airport: Denpasar
tel:+62 361 976586
www.sabandari.com
Luxury surf camp at budget price. Based in Padang Padang 40 mins drive and a world away from Kuta. This place offers surf guiding, surf lessons, beautiful food accommodation and comfort. I found it so hard to leave.
They collect and drop free from the airport.
www.balisurfingcamp.com/
Kaliandra is the most fabulous place, 21 hectares of forest, paths and hidden statues with four different levels of accommodation. It runs social and environmental programmes and does tours to support its work. The people are charming, the food (Javanese) is great, there's a high ropes course and mountain bikes for hire, there are hiking trails - and you can round it all off with a massage. Or have a more relaxing time learning the gamelan, or batik, or yoga - it's a gem. It's actually about 12 kms from Tretes but pretty easy to get to - one and a half hours from Surabaya, an hour from Malang.
I have been to Bali many times and I always preferred to stay in a hotel because I felt I could relax and enjoy the tranquility of the island.
But the last time I went, I rented a villa and now I can't believe I have never done it before.
We enjoyed the kindness and the great cooking of the staff of the villa and most of all the privacy. We stayed at the Shanti Lodge and immediately loved the property for its great terrace for watching sunsets.
Indonesia's second largest marine park, including four major islands and many atolls. Very high quality diving, bring your own kit though as this is off the beaten track in all senses. Fantastic atmosphere, relaxed environment and well worth the very long journey.
Get the Pelni from Makassar overnight to Bau-Bau, or fly from Makassar - Merpati now fly three times a week to Bau Bau. If going by Pelni, pay a bit extra for a first or second class cabin. The Wakatobi islands are 16-20hrs from Bau Bau by local ferry, which are not particularly hot on safety issues.
One of the largest marine parks in Indonesia, consisting of four major islands along with atolls and reefs. High quality diving, uncommercialised so far and given its location, unlikely to be developed hugely in the future. Bring your own dive gear, or just come out, snorkel, relax and experience rural Indonesian island life. Worth every minute of the very long journey.
Take the Pelni ferry out of Makassar. Go for first or second class - for an extra 50,000Rp or so you get a decent and secure cabin. 12 hrs later you're in Bau-Bau. Local ferries run to the Wakatobi, journey time around 16-20hrs: erratic, unsafe and all the rest. The place barely gets a paragraph in Rough Planet type guides, so check out www.wakatobi.org for a good introduction.
He was friendly, trustworthy, reliable and full of local knowledge - it made my trip a once in a lifetime!
Area in north east Bali with fantastic snorkelling, diving and beaches. Well away from the busy south but has some great small hotels and places to eat.
What a find in the backstreets of Ubud. Belgian owned and very professional. Eat inside in the Wantilan, or where we preferred to sit every night, outside in the garden courtyard. Mainly European food, simple but well prepared and presented. Staff are wonderful, pleasant friendly Balinese. On average we spent 20 pounds for two main courses and one half litre of wine. Always full and need reservation for dinner.
Jln. Bisma 9, Ubud.
(0361) 972.706
www.cafedesartistesbali.com
It's a restaurant that has the best sambal (spicy chili paste to eat with plain grilled fish and rice) in Bali. Not for those who don't like very spicy food, though.
Take the road from Denpasar to Nusa Dua, it's about two miles before Nusa Dua, high above the road on the righthand side.
Beautiful hotel in a converted Dutch bank. The rooms are stylish and the food is great. A really lovely place to chill out in Padang.
Jalan Batang Arau No 33, Padang 25118, West Sumatra
batangarau@yahoo.com
We wandered into the courtyard of the palace as a respite from the market over the road — and ended up staying. Some of the pavilions have been turned into hotel rooms, but like no other hotel room you’ve ever stayed in: huge carved wooden doors, pagoda roofs supported by gilt pillars, painted masks, brocaded chairs. Some of the Sukawati family, who own the palace, were lounging on daybeds in other salons, one surrounded by birds of prey. And you can hear the music from the traditional dances from the comfort of your room. Surreal.
Ubud Palace, Jl Raya Ubud, 036 975057 $65 a night.
The Dirty Duck restaurant is as much a feast for the eyes as for the stomach. Stunningly beautiful open-air restaurant overlooking rice fields.
The duck is done to perfection and the
pumpkin soup is heavenly!
Like most Indonesian towns, Bogor has its juice bars where you can ask for any combination of freshly sliced and blended tropical fruits mixed with ice and a little condensed milk if you wish. I suppose we'd call them smoothies in the UK, but here you see the fruit cut up and blended right in front of you! Try strawberry and a little lime (strawberry dan jeruk nipis) or mango (mangga) or soursop (sirsak). The best one in Bogor is a little shack in a side street just by the big Hero supermarket on the main road as you enter Bogor by road. It's opposite the main mosque.
While you're there, try the boiled noodles with chicken bits (mi sama ayam).
Is it safe to eat? My family lived there for 7 years and never got sick from eating at places like that - just look for the places popular with the locals and you can't go wrong.
By the way - the local buses (angkot) are safe. You just need to know the fare (it's the same for any bus no matter how far you go) and, as ever, don't have your wallet/camera vulnerable. I had only one theft attempt in 200+ rides.
Tulamben Wreck Divers and Paradise Palm Beach are much cheaper than the main ones that come up on the Internet, like Tauch Terminal, Mimbi and Emerald.
Tulamben Wreck Divers, Tulamben, Bali.
Tel : +62 3632 3400
www.tulambenwreckdivers.com
Paradise Palm Beach, Tulamben, Bali.
www.aquamarinediving.com
Tel : +62 3 6173 0107
Makassar has a sizeable ethnic Indonesian-Chinese community, many of them living in Chinatown in the centre, just to the north of the old Dutch fort. On Sundays the fresh, tasty, classic Dim Sum experience is available from 10am until 2pm in the Makassar Theatre restaurant. They have a huge variety of steamed and fried dishes, with specials ordered at the cooking point next to the entrance and the rest from the roaming trollies. The restuarant is spanking clean and comfortable, the staff are attentive and professional and they are used to dealing with foreigners. The food is reasonably priced. Large family groups, all sitting together at one table, are very common, including everybody from the wizened old Grandad to the newly born baby in swaddling clothes. At the peak time, the chatter is almost deafening, seats are hard to find, and the atmosphere is warm and friendly. Everybody dresses up and the kids run around the big room chasing one another. As well as the tasty DimSum dishes, this upstairs restaurant is a very popular suki style restaurant, with boiling pots and a range of small colour-coded dishes to choose from. Downstairs is another Western-style restaurant with spaghetti and burgers and in the same building is the clean, modern cinema complex with two theatres. One of them is an older barn-style auditorium, worth a visit when it is full and a popular movie is showing. So have Dim Sum upstairs, Makassar Dream coffee/ice downstairs, then go and and watch a movie!
The Makassar Theatre complex is in Chinatown in the city centre near the container port. Turn left off Jalan Irian. There is a large parking lot on the complex, taxi drivers are very familiar with it and it is easy to pick up a taxi afterwards on the busy Jalan Irian, just 100m away.
Makassar, and Sulawesi, are great places to visit and the start and end of your holiday should be a cold drink watching the sunset from the terrace of the Kios Semarang. Makassar recently (1999) reclaimed its historic name after twenty-five years of being called Ujung Pandang. It is a large vibrant city (fifth or sixth in size in Indonesia) but with a village feel. It is a busy port city with a centre right next to the sea. It has a seaside promenade right there where it can be most enjoyed by everybody. Makassar is currently undergoing a boom in development and has lots of bars, cafes and night life (outside of Ramahdan). This is not Jakarta or Bali so there are not too many resident foreigners but their haunt is the Kios Semarang. The place is friendly and welcoming, the beer is cold, the food is excellent and the sunsets are famous. It is a bar/restaurant so you are welcome to just sit for hours with a coke, or whatever, and watch the sunset. From a wall seat you can watch the comings and goings of the locals along the promenade. The third floor is the place to go, partly open terrace and partly roofed over, so it is comfortable in the heat of the day and in both the wet (November to February) and dry seasons. Don't be put off by the record store on the ground floor. Go straight up two flights of stairs to the best sunset bar in Indonesia.
On Jalan Pantai Losari in the centre of town about 100m upstream (traffic wise) from the Makassar Golden Hotel. Taxis are plentiful in Makassar and good value. All taxi drivers know where the Kios Semarang is, or Jalan Pantai Losari on the sea front.The Kios Semarang is within walking distance of all the seafront hotels, bars and restaurants.
Fabulous hotel/guest house - relaxed atmosphere, upmarket travellers haunt mixed with regular holiday makers - great pools, rooms, location etc.
Poppies Lane I/27, Kuta Beach
Tel: 62 361 758 507
masainn.com
A hill town with a relaxed vibe surrounded by lush rice paddies... the perfect retreat.
Ubud is around an hour by car from the airport, and about 40 minutes from Sanur. Catch a taxi of bemo, or a shuttle bus from Kuta.
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