Just got back from Bali today and thought I'd write while it is all still fresh. I hope it's not too long and is reasonably coherent (I only managed an hour's sleep on the plane last night...)
Getting through customs in Bali on arrival was hell. All the planes seemed to come in at once at around 3pm and everyone converged in pushy, unruly queues to get visas. Once you paid for the visa, there was no indication of where to go next. Many of us ended up going in the wrong direction and having to wait in yet another barely moving tightly-compacted queue. We were there for 1.5 hours splashing water on our three year old and fanning her with our passports. She was quite red in the face and overwhelmed by it all. One woman became quite hysterical and her legs were sort of collapsing, presumably due to claustrophobia. She was helped to the front of the queue by a very kind balinese man (not an airport official). Suddenly we were through and the holiday began.
UBUD
We spent 7 nights in Tegal Sari in Ubud. My daughter and myself shared the wooden room (no. 16) and my mother had the super deluxe room 12. She ended up moving below us in the delux room 17 which she liked even more. The wooden room was fantastic. I felt completely relaxed in there and spent a lot of time simply sitting on the balcony watching the rice paddies change colour over the course of the day. It was also a very nice place to drink my duty free vanilla vodka in the evening.
While we were there the farmers churned up the paddies with a noisy hand pulled motor which turned the paddies into mud. Someone commented how smelly they were after this, but we didn't notice it. I quite liked seeing part of the process of the cycle of rice growing and didn't mind that it wasn't all perfectly green. Tegal Sari was as good as everyone says - friendly professional staff who are unbelievably helpful. One guest wanted this special milky red bean drink that she had enjoyed years ago but couldn't find. The staff of Tegal Sari rang around until they found one for her then brought it to her at the pool. They were also very kind and accomodating to my mother who wanted a room closer to us.
My only reservation was that the TS swimming pool isn't great for children. It has a ledge dividing the shallow end from the deep end. While I was sitting chatting with another forumite (hello Nicky!), my little girl went over the edge and sank down - despite repeated warnings. We all rushed over there and Nicky got there first, jumping in fully dressed and grabbed her (what a hero!). If you stay there, it would be a good idea to bring some sort of floatie life jacket, like another forumite's son had (hello Meredith!).
Restaurants
Naughty Nuri's is a fabulous barbeque place that has a good feeling to it and great food (as well as nice Aust wine by the glass). Also enjoyed Murni's and Indus (staff are very child-friendly) and Cafe Wayan very much. Dirty Duck I thought was a bit over-rated. The crispy duck was good but the actual restaurant was vast and seemed a bit theme parkish for me.
Bali wines
The Hatten Rose tastes like a very cheap and nasty Aust white wine. Down in Lovina they have Indico wine which is locally made. The red was fabulous and on par with a easy drinking, smooth Aust cask red.
Activities
We went to Waterbom but my three year old was completely intimidated by the huge bucket of water that came cascading down on everyone's heads in the child play area every couple of minutes. I think it's more suitable for older children. She did like floating down the lazy river with me though. We also went to Sukawarti market (about 20 minutes from Ubud) and bought heaps of sarongs, wood carvings, children's clothes, etc. My mother did a batik course at 'Threads of Life' which was a very valuable and enriching part of her Bali time. They have a web-site if anyone's interested.
Candikuning
We stopped en route to Lovina at Candikuning in the central mountain area. This is well worth a visit but I don't recommend it as a place to stay. We were booked to stay at Enjung Beji Resort but decided against it. The staff weren't friendly, the family room was expensive ($US100), soul-less and dirty, with ripped bed linen and spider webs under all the furniture. (Lonely planet described it as 'a peaceful, pleasant option' but it just wasn't.) After seeing the room, we made an excuse, negotiated to pay a token amount ($US20), then fled, after taking some great photos of the Hindu/buddhist temple on the beautiful misty lake.
Lovina
Stayed one night at Rambutan Cottages and loved it. The pool is great for young kids and there is a play area in the restaurant and grounds of the hotel. They also have big lovely child-friendly dogs roaming around and the staff are great. The gardens are also quite beautiful and serene. Next time I will definately go back there for longer.
We spent two nights at Kubu Lalang in the thatched huts facing the beach (the huts along the pathway entrance don't have much to look out on and felt a bit bleak to me). The food here is the best that I have had, especially the seafood feast which is just course after course of stunningly delicious plates of food such as pumpkin soup with shrimp, seafood and spinach roulade, garlic prawns and much much more(not your average deep-fried seafood platter). No pool here but we went back to the Rambutan Cottages to swim. The beach felt a bit inexcessible to us because of the very persistent vendors that sit just outside Kubu Lalang waiting for guests to emerge and don't let you go without a fight. We ended up giving some of the women money but not buying a massage, shells, sarongs and so on. We bought very cheap and beautiful pearls in Lovina (about $12 each) from our driver Angkor who is based next door to Rambutan Cottages.
Finally, we went back to the South of Bali with Buda (thanks for the recommendation Di!) who drove us past the volcano and clove growing district. We nearly had a head-on collision with a red truck and stopped at a roadside stall to drink coke while Buda de-stressed. We ended up at Sharkeys at Jimbaran Bay and had a good meal of crab, prawns, calamari and white snapper on the sand. They had a dance on that night with an MC. It was a bit Las Vegas to me compared to the other low-key places we had been but my little girl loved it. We have a photo of her on stage with the dancers after they had finished looking very shiny eyed and chuffed.
Out plane was delayed a bit because of 'a serious administrative error': two of the cabin crew were sick and they subsequently had to reduce the number of passengers to meet the crew/passenger ratio. The delay was caused by trying to find these (lucky or unlucky?) people's bags amongst all the other suitcases.
Home again and not at all pleased to be back.
Thanks for reading.
Jo