Thread: If you had to do it again, what would you bring along?

Freogirl posted:"One last thing - I'm sure you already know - tampons. A year's supply, flat packed in plastic resealable bags, easy to get into the suitcase that way, and not heavy. As I said, it's the little things ".

I agree! That post brought me back to the verry first time i came to bali and had 7 of my relatives all looking for tampons,each going a seperate direction.Only one found a small box. Now I know NOT TO FORGET to bring my own supply.These things you take for granted. And then again mostly my suitcase is empty when I arrive in Bali,you can get everything (besides tAmpons).
The opposite is for the trip back,Ending up with double the amount of suitcases,the funniest item I took was a carvedwood trim for a house,several meters in lenth. Cannot fit in my suitcase. Had them saw it into little pieces all 27 inches in lenth-filled that entire case. Yes I know A bit ridiculous! :lol:

Jimbo
Ring Liz on 01709 549 147. She is a travel councillor who books all our flights and has done for the past 5 years. She gets us fantastic prices on flights. Just tell her Alex Foord gave you her number.
Hope this helps

Alex

Hi Anicca,

Do you know..... all this practical advice about knives and stuff going on and all the esscence of Bali is buried here. What do you need to bring?

Bring the following:

1) A willingness to accept that no matter how long you stay here this will always be Bali and you will have been accepted as it's visitor, then guest and then - if you are really lucky - it's resident.
2) Humbleness and humanity
3) Love and compassion
4) An open mind and an open heart
5) Tolerance and a desire to learn

These essential items will always do.... for a start

PS: Quality knives easy in Bali :-)

since there is a bit of talk on this thread on knives....

doesnt Gourmet Garage in Jimbaran have decent (professional) kitchen quality knives? i thought so.

... and they have decent BBQ's also.

overall, i agree with the generality that most things can be found in Bali.... just keep in mind that you might have to scuttle about to find them. the more esoteric the stuff, the harder you'll have to look (eg spare windsurfing parts, quality fishing eqpt), etc and i hear mixed reports of how good the mail service is, should you decide to mail order from abroad.

Ace Hardware has a complete selection of all the top kitchen knives. There is a special counter for these located just inside the main entrance on the left.

Personally, we don’t bother with these, as the Balinese way is to simply sharpen local knives on a regular basis. Sharpening stones are much cheaper.

Ace have a much better range now than they did in 2005 when I was looking. (this is quite an old post). At that time there really was not much there in the top of the line items. I checked with the manager and discussed what stock might be coming in, and took the contact details so I could follow up later from Lombok.

They have a large display and assortment of JA Henkels knives, which IMHO is a huge waste of money. What’s the point of spending 1.5 million on one knife when that amount can keep you in a host of various local knives for a lifetime? :shock:

In our kitchen, we prefer to spend the money on top of the line refrigerators, ranges and ovens. In our view, that’s what can make a difference on what comes out of the kitchen. A sharp knife is just a sharp knife, regardless of what name is stamped on the blade.

The executive chef from Shangri-La in Surabaya, (who has twice cooked in our kitchen) couldn't agree more.