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I’ve mostly been happy with DHL but just had a terrible experience with JNE. I ordered some books from Bukabuka. They said they shipped them by JNE on 13 December. I still don’t have them. JNE said they were in their Sukawati office. That “office” consists of an beaten up old desk with nothing...

In our small village south of Ubud we really did not hear a sound all day and night and we didn’t see a single person. Usually we see the farmers on either side of us on a daily basis but not on Nyepi. Last year we were in a homestay in Pengosekan and the Balinese partied all day but this year...

Perhaps the availability of brown sugar has changed since you were here. I can find it at Bintang and Delta Dewata in Ubud and Hardy’s in Sanur. I just saw heaps of it today in Bintang.

Unless there are some secrets I don’t know about customs is just as likely to hit you through a courier company such as DHL as they are through the post.

Maccer, keeping us posted would be great. It’s always nice when people stick around and contribute rather than come to the forum, get what they want, and then leave. Your responses have been great and it will be good to hear what you end up doing.

This won’t seem like much but we were given some valuable advice by a Balinese friend when we first started looking for property. Take someone you trust and who speaks fluent Indonesian to visit to head of the village where you are looking. This person will not be your real estate agent. Get a...

Can anyone suggest a place for buying a food processor? I imagine I can find one a Ace but I'd like to get a Cuisinart and I wouldn't expect to find that at Ace. Pantry Magic may have them but I sure would love to find one a little further north than Kuta since we're located near Ubud. My...

Some of the initials in this post are a mystery to me since I'm not a septic system expert and don't have any immediate plans to move in that direction but I have been trying to figure out what these poo experts are talking about because we may need to change our system. We finished building...

I don't live in Sanur. We live almost 30 minutes north of Sanur but I do like it there. Ubud is my favourite town but Sanur would be my second choice. A girlfriend and I spent a nice few hours in Sanur today, first a lazy lunch on the beach, then a fast walk along the beachfront, then grocery...

In our particular case no weapon would have helped. Bob was asleep. I was watching a movie and was surprised from behind. I’m thankful that we didn’t have a rifle in plain view for the attackers to either use against us or take with them. I have just posted an article about the attack which can...

Goldminer, you’ve hit the core of the problem with having any type of weapon. In our situation I was taken by surprise and didn’t even have that split second but even if I did in the future I’m not sure I would be willing to shoot a gun if I knew it might kill. Maybe if there was enough time for...

Pellet gun may not be the right name. It uses little round metal balls. Some of you guys would know the name of this gun (or rifle). Bob isn’t here to ask right now. The guys propped a 20mm thick plywood board up for target practice. Those pellets or whatever they are shot straight through the...

Oka’s is not at all touristy but they do have hot water in the bathrooms. I have an email address but your expectations with email correspondence shouldn’t be too high. Pak Oka speaks some English but he isn’t fluent. Here is their email address: okahomestay at hotmail dot com

There are many, many options for what you want. But we stayed at Oka’s Homestay so I can confidently recommend them. They are located on the same little street as Ketut Lihir (Eat, Pray, Love fame) so they are easy for any driver to find.

Hi Jamie, we couldn’t be happier with our rainwater collection system. It has been in use now for about 8 months and is trouble-free. We use first-flush diverters to rinse off the roof before the water is diverted to the holding tank. When it is pumped out it goes through a charcoal filter and a...

We’re working on the security and I’ll write more when all is done. Right now the electricians are installing more lights (with movement sensors) around the perimeter. Yesterday we went to CV Patriot but didn’t find anything we could use except for pepper spray and bought three of those. Bob has...

I bought my car very slightly used, only 6,000km, in Denpasar. As in Australia there is the “rolling off the showroom floor” syndrome and that huge sticker price was knocked down. My car is a Honda Jazz and it has been faultless for a year. The price of my car was about as negotiable as it would...

We don't have full time help and I would really miss not having a dishwasher. We bought ours at DeHome. I think they are in Denpasar. Getting the detergent used to be a problem for me. I had to go south to Ace Hardware but now it is available at Ubud Deli. I don't know where you are located but...

Yes, perspective. And our perspective has changed. We were badly attacked and robbed in our home in December. The police know the two men who attacked and robbed us but the men have not been arrested. The police say they escaped. One of the policemen said they were afraid to go into the...

I wandered in to the Ubud Deli yesterday for the first time. I’ve been excited about it because it is much closer to our house than the grocery stores. I didn’t plan to buy anything because our refrigerator is full of lawar and sate right now. But there are some great products there that I...