SEPTEMBER 2014
Hi Nirmala
We had the best holiday and would definitely go back. The Jayakarta was great. Okay it wasn’t 5 star, and the rooms were very basic, but they were always cleaned every day, bottles of water supplied and anything else we required was brought to our rooms within minutes. I would definitely recommend staying there the staff were great and the breakfast was lovely, they could do with 2 making the eggs as there were always queues. The location was excellent we went to many lovely restaurants along the beach front The Lanai being our favourite as well as Zanibar. Our most favourite thing to do in the evening was to walk to the beach just after 6pm, sit in the bean bags and watch the sunset. We went to the restaurant just along from the resort for dinner a couple of times was good not being hassled as we sat on the porch. They did stuff up one time, when we arrived they had the kids staying in the apartment, luckily a deluxe room in the same block as us was available after 6pm that night. I am so glad they didn’t stay in the apartment area it was so far away, my sister and her husband had a 1 bedroom apartment, it was really nice and clean, just shows you can’t always go by the reviews. They are a long way from the restaurant and pool, they spent a lot of their time with us so wasn’t a problem.
We hired a driver on the Monday who was recommended to us, he was great, I’ve got his card if you wanted to pass on to any other travellers. He speaks great English, isn’t pushy and was great company; he even had lunch with us. He picked us up at 9am and dropped us back at 7pm and said it was up to us how much we want to give him. There were 6 of us, so we gave him NZD50.00 he was very pleased though we felt we should have given him more. We did pay for his lunch which wasn’t expensive.
We enjoyed the Monkey Forest though I would definitely recommend not taking in any food especially bananas which they try and sell you before you walk thru. It’s a forest with wild monkeys who jump all over you, take off any expensive glasses and hold your bag close. It’s till worth the visit. We also went to the Holy Temple, can’t remember the name of it, but its close by and you can walk through the water and put your head under the fountains and make a wish. Was a great day out.
We could have stayed another few days, next time we would go for 10 days and visit another part of the island but still spend a few days in Legian. We did do quite a bit of shopping, even brought back a couple of bean bags.
We loved the food, was so cheap most of our meals for the 4 of us came to NZD60.00, and that included entrees, mains and drinks. We loved the spring rolls. We even found having food at the resort was reasonable, the afternoons we spent lazing around the pool we ordered hamburgers and chips etc. and a few cocktails at happy hour and wasn’t that much more expensive than going down the road and was much more relaxing lying in the lounger.
We all enjoyed our holiday, the kids loved Waterbomb, we adults didn’t go, we also got to Potato Head which was great but definitely need to be there by 4pm as the queues start not long after that as everyone wants to get there to watch the sunset.
I don’t miss the traffic, so glad the kids didn’t want to hire a motorbike, we caught taxis everywhere they are so cheap and only used meter bluebird cabs.
Not sure if I have one highlight of the trip, as we enjoyed every minute of it, but for me it would have been spending time with my family especially having my sister and niece and her baby who live in Perth and our good friends Julie and Ian and boys join us. Having the sun, cheap food, drinks and fun also made it.
Thank you so much for organising our holiday, it was one of the best family holidays we have been on and we will return. I will recommend you to all our friends and family. If and when we book our next Asia holiday I’ll be giving you a call.
Michele, Brian, Tyler and Michaela
