Well, this is my first JBR, having only been a ‘lurker' (as my mother, Hilary, who is a regular forumite calls me constantly)before now. I won't do a day by day report as my daughter Chloe covered that aspect in her JBR. Just a quick thankyou to all of you who replied to her - she is feeling very special at the moment, and it certainly makes it easier to convince her to do her diary when she knows she will be ‘published'!
FLIGHTS
Flew frequent flyer with Australian Airlines from Perth. Was told on 3 separate occasions by staff before traveling that they didn't do seating requests. Arrived at the airport 3 hours early and were 3rd to check in. Asked for seats towards the front (doesn't have to be right at the front, just in the first 20 rows would have been fine) and were given boarding passes for row 46! When I queried why we couldn't have got further towards the front as we had checked in so early, we were told we should have put in a request as they processed all their seating the day before the flight. I had rung the day previously just to try again for a seating request - no luck. Clearly the girl at check in didn't care. Made a big huff about how difficult it was to change us as the flight was almost full, and finally found us seats in row 15. Thanked her politely (that was a challenge!) and set off to wait. Imagine our surprise when we found on boarding that we could see at least 20 empty seats in front of us - and plenty more behind. Probably a half full flight!
Anyway we felt better when we departed 10-15 minutes early. Nothing really special to say about the flight - nothing stood out as really good or really bad. 15mins early into Bali - feeling really good now, and only 15-20mins through VOA/baggage/customs.
ACCOMMODATION
We stayed at the Jayakarta in the 1 bedroom apts. Have never stayed here before, staying previously at the Kumala Pantai and Intan Legian. A lot bigger than we have been used to, and this takes a bit of getting used to! Large crowds at breakfast, lots of 'bagging' deck chairs to beat the rush, and so many staff and guests it did feel a little impersonal after a small hotel.
Lovely gardens - although the apartments are at the other end of the hotel to the pool & restaurants, still only took us 2-3 minutes to walk - and that was with a 3 year old plodding along behind! All staff friendly.
The apartment was great - on the 5th floor. Very clean, comfortable, spacious - everything we needed. Fold out bed in the lounge/kitchenette for the kids. It was very thin as I've read on previous posts, however staff had plenty of extra mattresses, and just added a thicker one on top.
2 TV's so we could still watch in our bedroom after the kids had gone to bed.
Breakfast was good - very large selection - no fresh juice though - it was all processed. A bit disappointing as fresh fruit juice with breakfast is something we look forward to in Bali.
Lots of pool space - with 3 pools plus a small kids pool. Lots of deckchairs and despite all the 'bagging' going on, we still managed to get a couple each time we went to the pool. Negative side to the pools - big lack of shade. No shade on any of the pools from about 9am onwards. About 3pm the shade started to creep across the larger pool, but the other 2 pools were in pretty much full sunlight until 4/5pm. No shade on the kids pools at all - all day until 5pm!! Not good if you have kids and you want to spend a day by the pool. (Maybe we're just too sun conscious?)
We had to confine our kids to swim either before about 9.30 and after 4.00.
FOOD
Ate heaps of course. Favourites were Café the Sand, La Pace (old Bali Qui) in Garlic Lane and the old Bennys - think it's called Café Lanai now? A requirement for a good restaurant for us is that there is a good selection of Indonesian food to choose from. Sadly a lot of the restaurants in that area are introducing more and more non-Indonesian food and decreasing the Indonesian selection on the menu. Anyway, didn't strike anything really awful in the food department - just the 2 minute instant noodles in the Mie Goreng in Tekor Bali! Tekor is good for the kids though - lovely friendly staff - colouring sheets and coloured pencils.
TRIPS
Went to Water Bom Park for the first time - absolutely wonderful. Went at 9 and thought we would just spend 3 hours or so there and leave for lunch. Ended up staying until nearly 3.00 when the kids were just too exhausted to do anymore. Highly recommended!!!!
Also went to the Bird Park - again very enjoyable. Our driver recommended we go early as the birds are very vocal, but tend to quieten down as the day heats up. Had the obligatory photos with various brightly coloured birds on our hands/heads. The kid were enthralled.
SHOPPING
We are not a shopping family - except for our daughter Chloe - so we bought a bit of the usual stuff - sparkly shoes, friendship bracelets, clothes for Thomas (2) and shirts for Dad. Batman costume for Thomas - he has spiderman from Nanna and Pop's previous trip and has put an order in for Superman on their coming trip. Visited Nanna's friend Jimmy at his new shop Dani collection at the end of Rum Jungle Road - very quiet. He had some lovely long blue sparkly dangling thingies that caught Chloe's eye so her bedroom is now substantially brighter. And of course a few more sarongs necklaces and bracelets from the beach sellers
Anyway a great time was had by all - the next trip is a long way off though. Thanks to everyone whose posts helped us out. Much appreciated.