hi all, we're back from a lovely week in bali, thanks for all the wonderful info and help you gave, it made me look forward so much to our trip i woke my whole family up at 5 am to get them to the airport by 7 am!
anyway, some things i found out:
raspberry jam - available in sanur. if you're staying at the sanur paradise plaza, take the shuttle to the Hardy's shopping centre. Just as you enter the centre, look on your left: there's a shop called THe Pantry. Sells Coottee's raspberry jam (60% concentration).
Discovery Shopping Mall - sells almost everything. But not chewing or bubble gum...lol...it's also a shorter route from the ramada to the discovery via the beach.
White water rafting - now being the dry season, it's a comfortable ride for young kids (aged about 3 - 7). End of the year, when the monsoon season starts, the waters get pretty rough.
Bergamot - it worked in bali too!! the one day i forgot to spray everyone with it, we got bitten, and pretty badly too, in my daughter's case.
Bali taxis - flag-down rate is 4000 rupiah. The road in front of discovery shopping mall has a strange rule: it's a 2-way street until about 500m later (toward Jln Legian), where it becomes a 1-way street. If you flag a taxi here, you take a much longer route back (we were at the ramada) which can be pretty scary if it's at night and you're alone.
And take the bluebird taxis: a private 'van' charged us 10 times the rate a bluebird offered.
Eating in bali airport - there's a mcdonald's in the waiting lounge after you clear customs. But you need to wait for 15 minutes for your order to arrive.
Departure tax - you need 100 000 rupiah to be paid at customs in the bali airport.
Hope this is useful, and i really hope you have as great a time as we did!