Height of tropical storm activity. Acquire trip insurance.
That’s not until nov. August is dry season in the pacific. I’ve gone to the pacific islands during monsoon season, it’s not quite as bad as one would think. One time two typhoons were raging not too far off the coast of taiwan, just meant it rained more.
Rainy season in Bali generally means rains hard every day in the afternoon for an hour or so
Dry season means rains once a week or so
yep.
I was born on a pacific island, I can deal with dry/wet season 
You’re a Pacific Islander??? Is that what you put down on your law school application instead of Asian? 
doesn’t matter anymore. It’s asian/pacific islander =(
An additional tip:
I did enjoy Mozaic restaurant in Ubud quite a bit. Buy a bottle of r nice Champagne at Changi airport in Singapore (no great deals, but minimal schlepping). They are BYO friendly at Mozaic! $25 corkage.
Been to Bali a number of times but it has been a long time since the last trip. Always love the Ubud area but much of my info is dated.
Over the weekend, I caught up with an old friend from our time in Singapore and learned a mutual acquaintance opened up this place. She has stayed there and loved it.
From your earlier comments, I figured you knew what it meant. I guess I was clarifying for the other readers who might think rainy season is a reason not to go to Bali. It is a nice time to be there.
We’re finishing up our odyssey in Bali in late August. Ubud for 4 nights (8/18-8/22) then 2 night in Sanur (Bali Hyatt w/points). Feedback from friends in late 20s/early 30s echoed the comments here of spending more time in Ubud than resort beach towns.
Stayed at the Ubud Hanging Gardens Hotel a couple of years back. Wonderful hotel and you can get a villa with your own pool. I can recommend that.
http://www.ubudhanginggardens.com
Enjoy your trip ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
PS: they also have a wonderful spa and infinity pool.
Yeah, we’re definitely spending more time in Ubud. Let me know what you’re doing in Ubud. We’re thinking white water rafting, bike tour, then some temple exploring for now.
Right now our plan is 5 nights in Ubud, two nights in a scuba dive camp and three nights in seminyak. In Ubud, a board member has graciously allowed us to stay at a villa which is pretty awesome! We’re still debating which dive site to stay at. And in Seminyak we’re staying at http://www.amanavillas.com/. A little farther away from the beach, but in the epicenter of town.
Been there twice, once in 1996 with my father and once 6 months ago with my wife. We stayed at the Orient Express Jimbaran Puri which was very nice, but the traffic getting north was a pain.
Mosaic and Metis are good choices.
My main advice would be to take a day or two with a guide I used both times - his name is Wardhana and his company is Bali Backroad. Email him at madewardhana53@yahoo.co.id . He will take you to off the beaten path cultural events and show you real Balinese life that you would never find on your own. We attended the cremation ceremony of a High Priest who had just passed away. He’s slow on email but I highly suggest booking 2 days with him to get oriented and familiarized Bali.
Feel free to use my name.
Best,
Josh
cool. thanks Josh
Yo Charlie
How was the trip?
How was the diving?
How were the hotels?
Any really good restaurants?
Trip was good, relaxing. We didn’t really plan more than one thing a day so that was nice. But Bali wasn’t quite the tropical paradise I was imagining. The tourist centers were so heavily geared toward young Australian tastes… which… I found out apparently is the same as people that live in Huntington Beach. Seminyak, Ubud, Denpasar probably have the highest concentration of Quicksilver, Hurley and similar beach wear related clothing stores in the world. I hated that so many people smoked. Anytime we sat down for dinner, someone was smoking right next to us. I’ve been to Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Cambodia (and maybe some other Asian countries) but no place does it have the same density of public smokers in dining facilities. Indoors, outdoors it didn’t matter, people were just lighting up.
- Ubud: Just too spread apart. The one packed area with all the food/shops (monkey forest road area) was so far away from most of the luxury accommodations. Everything was a 10-15 minute drive to do something. On top of that I really didn’t eat anywhere (other than the Gianyar night market) that I was too impressed by. We went Mozaic and it seemed comparable to fine dining in most cities, except I’m sitting outdoors in a rainforest with bugs crawling across my table.
I liked Ibu Oka for the suckling pig, but man, $4 was a lot for basically two thin slices of pork and assorted pork leftovers.
The one thing that REALLY turned me off in Ubud was when we were doing the temple tours. I forget which temple, but they were building extensions to the main parts of the temple. Which seems really weird and fake to me. The way they were painting it, gave it a faded look so that it was as old as other parts of the temple. Then we drove by this HUGE temple structure being built, our driver told us they were building a new temple for tourists to visit. It all just felt really manufactured in Ubud and “fake” cultural.
I think I’d recommend one day of Ubud to people, visit the monkey forest, see the temples and head on back to Seminyak or something. We went white water rafting, which was fun as the rainforest canyons are pretty… but you don’t need to be stationed in Ubud for that. The Spas in Ubud had a more “natural” feel to them, which is what I guess the whole vibe of Ubud is supposed to be. Had a nice spa day.
It just wasn’t the city for me. I really like being out and about and hate even spending one hour sitting in our room doing nothing before dinner.
- Amed: I have no real opinion of the town. Just a small town. Every restaurant was a blend of indo/western food geared toward tourists. I have no clue where locals eat. My dive master and the staff said where they eat was just too far to go to. Oh well.
BUT scuba diving was awesome. We did a night dive of the ship wreck in Tulamben, which was probably one of the coolest things I’ve done. It’s also pretty freaky as some giant fish are just staring at you in the depths of the ship and you don’t realize it till your flashlight sweeps past them. Did some day dives, the water was so clear and we saw a bunch of stuff you just don’t see in CA. Highly recommend that
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Seminyak: I really liked seminyak. Unlike Ubud, they fully embraced the fact that Bali is a tourist destination and everything is packed together. Lots of “hip” eateries that would fit right into Hollywood but lots of really good (and cheap) local food. Barry you were right about the beaches tho, beaches in Bali aren’t that different from SoCal, just the water is about 10 F warmer. Also did some spa treatments here, like the eateries much more like LA, very modern. Mamasan, a relatively new restaurant had a nice cocktail scene and the food was pretty decent, wife didnt’ care for it though. Really liked Warang Aneka Rasa… a hole in the wall with delicious food. You could see their courtyard in the back with propane burners to cook the food. Super cheap. The Nasi Campur was at most $2 for 6 different meat/veggies. Nom.
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everywhere we stayed was great. Stayed at Villa Keliki in Ubud thanks to Poppy and it was pretty spectacular. They might be the only place I’ve seen in South East Asia with central AC in the villa… which is HUGE for bug “issues”. Not a single bite and we didn’t really see any bugs flying around. View was spectacular, pool was nice. Now I know why it was featured in Architectural digest.
Amed was a small dive resort. Nothing fancy so no real comment.
Then in Seminyak we stayed at Amana Villas which was ultra modern. Gorgeous facilities, an infinity pool that drops into a waterfall to your room… pretty much how I’d like my beach house to look like if I ever had one 
That pretty much captures my trip. Here’s some photos https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101846587091494.1073741829.3303818&type=1&l=d2d61340e4
We also spent 2 nights in Singapore. I loved singapore. Easy to get around, tons of food, people were nice, prices of stuff were displayed everywhere. Pretty great. Wish I could have stayed there longer.
Wow, pretty much 180 degrees from my experience. No smokers where I ate, (all in Ubud) no bugs at Mozaic, loved being out in the rice paddies (with ac in the midest bungalow) did not like Seminyak outside the hotel at all, didn’t like the pork at Iban Oka.
I do love Singapore too, we. Agree on that.
Glad you posted; different strokes for different folks.
We’re going to Singapore this fall, and were planning a side trip to Bali or Vietnam. I found this thread using the search feature. I have to say that I was all excited reading this. I was thinking we definitely had to go to Ubud.
But just like the famous Norman Rockwell picture, the one where the family is all excited heading out on a Sunday trip in their car, this thread ended the way the people in the photo looked on their return after a long outing. Badly.
By the time I get to the recap, I was totally turned off to Bali. Anyone care to convince me to change my mind with a current update?
Now I’m going to search Vietnam. I think we can see a lot there in 7 - 8 days.
dh
I was sorry to re-read this thread too, Dan, and see what your experience was Charlie—definitely changed in 5 years.
Sing is great, and not just because one of my best friends lives there with his family. For you, especially, Dan—Changi airport is truly the crème de la crème. Transit system is fantastic, plenty of places to eat, has a whole “resort section” in Sentosa, a wee bit of history. And KL and Putrajaya (if you like your architecture, that is some place, man) are 4 hours drive away. Get in touch with the guys I did for my most recent “Mike on Tour”–Colin and Paul—they were very welcoming! (and no, the current picture isn’t Bali—it’s the river Pance in Cali, Colombia)
I love going to Vietnam, and your money goes far.