Noreen…..no snakes yet!!!!
We all went on our chosen excursions this morning…13 for cookery class and 6 for the museum. The museum people really enjoyed their tour. Our cookery was also really wonderful and entertaining. We went around the local market first, trying some ingredients. We bought a packet of a coconut and spices mixture, someone else bought tiny limes for cooking. So interesting!
We worked hard, chopping, grinding ingredients into paste in large pestle and mortars, frying and so on. The museum crowd arrived towards the end and we all ate together. We did not get the recipe booklets as others have mentioned but can contact the owner on line for help.
I wanted to emphasize the stairs yet again on this tour. Here are photos of the stairs down to our room here at the Four Seasons. There are golf carts to get around this hugely spread out resort but no elevators
This is how wonderful our tour director is….on our boats to the Komodo dragons, she is going to see if she can get massage therapists to come aboard and give anyone who wants one a massage. The boat ride is four to five hours each way
We mentioned that we had tried to book massages at the next Four Seasons weeks ago and they told us there was nothing available. She has managed to get appointments for us after the tour ends.
Nancy, re: the beachfront restaurant near the Four Seasons, this is info I have pasted from our log. We took a buggy from our room to the Sundara restaurant, and we walked from there.
"By then the sun had set and we were peckish, so we took a buggy to Sundara restaurant then walked on to the beach seafood places that were not far along the dark road. We dodged the many motorbikes to reach a row of restaurants all very similar to one another, with fresh fish visible on the street. Sue was dubious until reassured by Tripadvisor ratings. We entered the smoky interior of Mama Donny’s, then emerged onto the beach. We sat at a table just beyond the surf and had an outstandingly fresh meal with wine, appetizers and both red and golden snapper – enormous portions – for a total of $50 USD. The walk back seemed ever so much shorter since we knew where we were going"
It looks from TripAdvisor like it's still around--but if you can't find it, no worries, because there were multiple restaurants there and I'm sure most of them are similar.
British I didn't have any stairs like yours at the Four Seasons and never heard anyone complaining of stairs like that. We had massage therapists on the boat to the Komodo Island from the Plataran, I had a foot massage at the Plataran Beach Resort which I mentioned in one of my writings and as I said not only they are wonderful but probably cost a third of what I paid at the Four Seasons.
If you want an alternative for your massage, when we were at the Four Seasons in Jambaron, we bypassed the very expensive hotel massage, and arranged for our own at a place we found on (where else?) TripAdvisor, called "Bliss." The concierge at the Four Seasons was happy to make an appointment for us, and we took at taxi from the hotel (cost 30,000 Rupia, about $3.50 USD). We had a very nice couples massage for 140,000 Rupia (about $14 USD each). We did a bit of shopping nearby and then caught a taxi back to the hotel.
Gladys, I'm glad to hear you didn't have all those stairs...I was beginning to reconsider the wisdom of this trip on my knee! I have no pride and will request a stairless room
Today we went to Komodo, fulfilling a dream for my husband. As Gladys mentioned, we went on two wooden schooner type vessels, one larger than the other, so there were 9 of us in one and ten, plus the TD and trainee in the other. Their ship broke down on the way back, so they transferred to ours but there was still plenty of room.
The ride took about four and a half hours going and about 6 hours coming back, due to the breakdown. The hours passed quickly because of the beautiful scenery, eating breakfast on the boat and a half hour foot and leg massage if you wanted one, $30 and wonderful.
We walked the trail with our own naturalist who came on the boat with us and four local park rangers. We walked for about 90 minutes down a sandy, rocky, and tree root dotted trail. Closed toe, preferably not sandal type shoes or they will get full of sand as you go onto the beach as well. The weather was very hot. We saw 4 dragons and one baby, maybe a meter long, so about five or six years old. At the end of the walk, we had about ten minutes to shop in a covered area of stalls….wooden carved dragons, fridge magnets, t shirts, hats, jewelry. We were advised to bargain.
There is way too much food on this tour and portions In Indonesia are huge.
Nancy, In Indonesia it is the Rupiah
We have just arrived in the Four Seasons Bali Jimbaran resort
We have a view over the bay and the room is stunning. Mr. B has been presented with his third birthday cake of the tour, just eaten!
Our tour comes to an end tomorrow, but we are staying on two extra days.
Our thoughts on the tour..
We have really enjoyed this tour, it goes towards the top of our favorites
For those who put great importance on the hotels, the ones here, apart from a one nighter, chosen for its convenient to the airport, rival the hotels on the India tours.
Our TD has been kind. efficient and extremely ‘over and above ‘ in everything and extra she has done for our group.
Fitness to do this tour….this tour requires people be excellent at climbing large numbers of stairs and uneven surfaces. For example, this Four Seasons has numerous steep stone stairs just to get to the reception area.
You have to be agile to get in and out of small boats bobbing up and down at a jetty before getting onto your ‘schooner’ to go to the Komodo island. On arrival there, you have to get out of the small boat to climb up steep narrow steps with no rail to the jetty, the same returning. And in the case of our trip, have to transfer from one boat to another on the middle of the sea when it broke down.
I have heard a bit of buzz about disappointment on ‘Komodo day, some thought that a 4 plus hours on a boat to the island was too long, we actually enjoyed the scenery of all the islands we passed, the foot and leg massages on the return, the relaxation down time and the chatting to others. I do tend to agree a little that the 90 minutes or so on the island only covered a fairly short distance because the rangers stopped quite a bit to tell us about the dragons when we might have made more progress. But I do think they were keeping different groups separate from each other every time a dragon was spotted. Our group was not split up into smaller groups. It was very hot on the island
We took far too many clothes. Our suitcases weighted far below the limit as most of our clothing was very light weight. No one dressed up on this tour. I think I was the only one who wore a floaty dress most evenings for dinner at the resorts, I only put on makeup once. One couple just had carry on luggage, I envied them. This was a wise, well traveled group of people who frankly did not care about dress, wish we had known this as groups vary so much and we have encountered very dressed up people in the past.
That’s all for now, got to skinny dip.
British I'm so glad you enjoyed the tour as I did, one of my most memorable trips. The 4 hours to go to Komodo didn't bother any one in my group of 17, the crew were so kind and lovely, we slept, read, talked with each other and just chilled enjoying the beautiful scenery and deep blue water. I wore a dress one time, the rest of the time never changed for dinner.
I hope you enjoy your extra 2 days in Bali, my only regret is the 2 days I missed in Singapore.
British, Thx as always for your sage tips. Can't believe your tour is almost over. Did anyone wear masks, or am I the only one who thinks the pandemic is still with us? And while I miss the laughs, I have to agree w/BKMD; it was a pleasure to read a spellchecked post. And please stop worrying about how others dress; I happen to like skirts and dresses for travel, not only at dinner.
I’m hoping others who are on the rest of the 2022 trips will post too. Great information from Gladys and British! One other question…was Wi-Fi available beyond Singapore?
First to Nancy, I’m in Bali right now on wifi and it’s just past 6am. Believe it or not, Raffles hotel in Singapore, the wifi kept dropping. We even had wifi on the boat ride to Komodo.
I would highly recommend a couple of days early in Singapore to see more, we only did one. Our tour ends today but we are staying on two nights, which in reality is really only one. Most flights leave after midnight, so we are scheduled to leave the hotel at 9-15pm for our flight. We don’t intend on leaving the hotel at all, we want relaxation, especially as it now turns out we will be babysitting grandchildren four days after we return home for almost a week.
Masks….our Qatar flights had a lot of masks wearers. The internal Indonesian flights require masks and so do the airports. We wore masks in the enclosed transport but not outside. These past couple of days, we keep forgetting to wear them on the bus at times. Three others wear masks on all our transport, one a Dr, and at other times too. The Indonesian people have a 95% vaccine rate, makes the US one of 65% pretty abysmal. So anyway, the Indonesian people are classed as having a herd immunity. You are safer with them than anyone else here. Many hotel staff wear masks. No one has appeared ill on the tour.
I have forgotten to add,more tips, I’ll try to do it soon.
There are several regular forum readers on the tour, so I hope they might add their thoughts of the tour. There does appear to be a bit of disappointment being talked about the Komodo day, so it would be good to get opinions from other people.
I’m sorry so many people focus on my iPad spelling mistakes, I do proof read and still it continues to be naughty. Quite honestly, I hope most people can cope with what are almost always good intention to give useful information. And for all you know, I could be a struggling dyslexic, I certainly struggled to learn to read.
BKMD please stop your snide comments about my spelling, you are so hurtful to me on a constant basis about it.
Comments
British - Qatar was wonderful loved the Q Suit, the attention, the clean bathroom at all times.
Noreen- I didn't see any snakes, this was a wonder trip, hope you get to go in 2024.
Noreen…..no snakes yet!!!!
We all went on our chosen excursions this morning…13 for cookery class and 6 for the museum. The museum people really enjoyed their tour. Our cookery was also really wonderful and entertaining. We went around the local market first, trying some ingredients. We bought a packet of a coconut and spices mixture, someone else bought tiny limes for cooking. So interesting!
We worked hard, chopping, grinding ingredients into paste in large pestle and mortars, frying and so on. The museum crowd arrived towards the end and we all ate together. We did not get the recipe booklets as others have mentioned but can contact the owner on line for help.
I wanted to emphasize the stairs yet again on this tour. Here are photos of the stairs down to our room here at the Four Seasons. There are golf carts to get around this hugely spread out resort but no elevators
Here are photos of the top of our room”s roof
This is how wonderful our tour director is….on our boats to the Komodo dragons, she is going to see if she can get massage therapists to come aboard and give anyone who wants one a massage. The boat ride is four to five hours each way
We mentioned that we had tried to book massages at the next Four Seasons weeks ago and they told us there was nothing available. She has managed to get appointments for us after the tour ends.
Nancy, re: the beachfront restaurant near the Four Seasons, this is info I have pasted from our log. We took a buggy from our room to the Sundara restaurant, and we walked from there.
"By then the sun had set and we were peckish, so we took a buggy to Sundara restaurant then walked on to the beach seafood places that were not far along the dark road. We dodged the many motorbikes to reach a row of restaurants all very similar to one another, with fresh fish visible on the street. Sue was dubious until reassured by Tripadvisor ratings. We entered the smoky interior of Mama Donny’s, then emerged onto the beach. We sat at a table just beyond the surf and had an outstandingly fresh meal with wine, appetizers and both red and golden snapper – enormous portions – for a total of $50 USD. The walk back seemed ever so much shorter since we knew where we were going"
It looks from TripAdvisor like it's still around--but if you can't find it, no worries, because there were multiple restaurants there and I'm sure most of them are similar.
British I didn't have any stairs like yours at the Four Seasons and never heard anyone complaining of stairs like that. We had massage therapists on the boat to the Komodo Island from the Plataran, I had a foot massage at the Plataran Beach Resort which I mentioned in one of my writings and as I said not only they are wonderful but probably cost a third of what I paid at the Four Seasons.
Maybe it was just the room location
If you want an alternative for your massage, when we were at the Four Seasons in Jambaron, we bypassed the very expensive hotel massage, and arranged for our own at a place we found on (where else?) TripAdvisor, called "Bliss." The concierge at the Four Seasons was happy to make an appointment for us, and we took at taxi from the hotel (cost 30,000 Rupia, about $3.50 USD). We had a very nice couples massage for 140,000 Rupia (about $14 USD each). We did a bit of shopping nearby and then caught a taxi back to the hotel.
British -
Option A - The hotel desk staffs just looked for the fittest couple in the group and gave them the room with the most stairs or
Option B the Tour Director told them to give the room with all the stairs to the cranky couple that's been giving he/she the most trouble.
I'm sure it wasn't Option B!
Option C - British just likes taking pics of stairs.
(edited for typo. Fingers not awake yet.)
British -- When we were in Singapore years ago -- the monkeys were climbing all over us. I don't see that in your photos. Is that still the case?
Judy05 when I went the tour just before British there were some monkeys climbing on tourists.
Gladys, I'm glad to hear you didn't have all those stairs...I was beginning to reconsider the wisdom of this trip on my knee! I have no pride and will request a stairless room
Nancy - the bus is waiting at the top of this climb:
If they'll wait for me...I can do it
I hope! Where is this, BKMD?
Manitou Incline, near Colorado Springs.
https://manitousprings.org/where-to-play/manitou-incline/
Mercy, BKMD...I thought you were serious and this was indeed on the KIngdoms and Dragons trip! I can breathe again
Today we went to Komodo, fulfilling a dream for my husband. As Gladys mentioned, we went on two wooden schooner type vessels, one larger than the other, so there were 9 of us in one and ten, plus the TD and trainee in the other. Their ship broke down on the way back, so they transferred to ours but there was still plenty of room.
The ride took about four and a half hours going and about 6 hours coming back, due to the breakdown. The hours passed quickly because of the beautiful scenery, eating breakfast on the boat and a half hour foot and leg massage if you wanted one, $30 and wonderful.
We walked the trail with our own naturalist who came on the boat with us and four local park rangers. We walked for about 90 minutes down a sandy, rocky, and tree root dotted trail. Closed toe, preferably not sandal type shoes or they will get full of sand as you go onto the beach as well. The weather was very hot. We saw 4 dragons and one baby, maybe a meter long, so about five or six years old. At the end of the walk, we had about ten minutes to shop in a covered area of stalls….wooden carved dragons, fridge magnets, t shirts, hats, jewelry. We were advised to bargain.
There is way too much food on this tour and portions In Indonesia are huge.
British...dreams fulfilled...how lovely. Enjoy!
What’s the currency, British? Sounds like a fantastic day!
Nancy, In Indonesia it is the Rupiah
We have just arrived in the Four Seasons Bali Jimbaran resort
We have a view over the bay and the room is stunning. Mr. B has been presented with his third birthday cake of the tour, just eaten!
Our tour comes to an end tomorrow, but we are staying on two extra days.
Our thoughts on the tour..
We have really enjoyed this tour, it goes towards the top of our favorites
For those who put great importance on the hotels, the ones here, apart from a one nighter, chosen for its convenient to the airport, rival the hotels on the India tours.
Our TD has been kind. efficient and extremely ‘over and above ‘ in everything and extra she has done for our group.
Fitness to do this tour….this tour requires people be excellent at climbing large numbers of stairs and uneven surfaces. For example, this Four Seasons has numerous steep stone stairs just to get to the reception area.
You have to be agile to get in and out of small boats bobbing up and down at a jetty before getting onto your ‘schooner’ to go to the Komodo island. On arrival there, you have to get out of the small boat to climb up steep narrow steps with no rail to the jetty, the same returning. And in the case of our trip, have to transfer from one boat to another on the middle of the sea when it broke down.
I have heard a bit of buzz about disappointment on ‘Komodo day, some thought that a 4 plus hours on a boat to the island was too long, we actually enjoyed the scenery of all the islands we passed, the foot and leg massages on the return, the relaxation down time and the chatting to others. I do tend to agree a little that the 90 minutes or so on the island only covered a fairly short distance because the rangers stopped quite a bit to tell us about the dragons when we might have made more progress. But I do think they were keeping different groups separate from each other every time a dragon was spotted. Our group was not split up into smaller groups. It was very hot on the island
We took far too many clothes. Our suitcases weighted far below the limit as most of our clothing was very light weight. No one dressed up on this tour. I think I was the only one who wore a floaty dress most evenings for dinner at the resorts, I only put on makeup once. One couple just had carry on luggage, I envied them. This was a wise, well traveled group of people who frankly did not care about dress, wish we had known this as groups vary so much and we have encountered very dressed up people in the past.
That’s all for now, got to skinny dip.
^^ Correct (almost) and courteous paragraph spacing. What's the occasion?
British I'm so glad you enjoyed the tour as I did, one of my most memorable trips. The 4 hours to go to Komodo didn't bother any one in my group of 17, the crew were so kind and lovely, we slept, read, talked with each other and just chilled enjoying the beautiful scenery and deep blue water. I wore a dress one time, the rest of the time never changed for dinner.
I hope you enjoy your extra 2 days in Bali, my only regret is the 2 days I missed in Singapore.
Oh I forgot !! and also aboard the boat we ATE, breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea
British:Do you recommend post tour extension vs pre tour thanks
British, Thx as always for your sage tips. Can't believe your tour is almost over. Did anyone wear masks, or am I the only one who thinks the pandemic is still with us? And while I miss the laughs, I have to agree w/BKMD; it was a pleasure to read a spellchecked post. And please stop worrying about how others dress; I happen to like skirts and dresses for travel, not only at dinner.
If you keep this up you'll lose your title as Tauck's Swimsuit Model!!! 😂😂
I’m hoping others who are on the rest of the 2022 trips will post too. Great information from Gladys and British! One other question…was Wi-Fi available beyond Singapore?
First to Nancy, I’m in Bali right now on wifi and it’s just past 6am. Believe it or not, Raffles hotel in Singapore, the wifi kept dropping. We even had wifi on the boat ride to Komodo.
I would highly recommend a couple of days early in Singapore to see more, we only did one. Our tour ends today but we are staying on two nights, which in reality is really only one. Most flights leave after midnight, so we are scheduled to leave the hotel at 9-15pm for our flight. We don’t intend on leaving the hotel at all, we want relaxation, especially as it now turns out we will be babysitting grandchildren four days after we return home for almost a week.
Masks….our Qatar flights had a lot of masks wearers. The internal Indonesian flights require masks and so do the airports. We wore masks in the enclosed transport but not outside. These past couple of days, we keep forgetting to wear them on the bus at times. Three others wear masks on all our transport, one a Dr, and at other times too. The Indonesian people have a 95% vaccine rate, makes the US one of 65% pretty abysmal. So anyway, the Indonesian people are classed as having a herd immunity. You are safer with them than anyone else here. Many hotel staff wear masks. No one has appeared ill on the tour.
I have forgotten to add,more tips, I’ll try to do it soon.
There are several regular forum readers on the tour, so I hope they might add their thoughts of the tour. There does appear to be a bit of disappointment being talked about the Komodo day, so it would be good to get opinions from other people.
I’m sorry so many people focus on my iPad spelling mistakes, I do proof read and still it continues to be naughty. Quite honestly, I hope most people can cope with what are almost always good intention to give useful information. And for all you know, I could be a struggling dyslexic, I certainly struggled to learn to read.
BKMD please stop your snide comments about my spelling, you are so hurtful to me on a constant basis about it.