Arrived back in brisbane 6:00am 15th feb flying garuda. We were a party of 4, my wife, our mate dave and my little emily (8 months). We started with 5 but my father only stayed 9 nights. We stayed 20. Flying garuda was very quiet. Not as many Flight attendants either and much harder to get a drink when you need it. Still, on the way to bali we managed 3 bintangs each. Enough to wet your appetite. Otherwise no worries Garuda. First 9 nights at the dynasty. We had 2 joining superior rooms. The dynasty was great. The only complaints, The rooms are a little overrated and the minibar and restaurant prices are way too expensive. We didn't mind the long walk to the street to eat out. Others have complained about the location, but we thought it was great. The shopping in the area was fantastic. Turn right when you leave the hotel and take the 2nd street on the right. The storeholders along this street give great prices right off the bat, No bargaining necessary. Tshirts from 17000 to 30000. Hand woven blankets 35000 etc....
My wife is indonesian and has family in bali. It was the first time they had seen the kid, so most of the time daddy was free to hangout with dad and dave. And guess what we did for 9 days. I think we must have visited every bar, restaurant, cafe, or anything that sold bintang from tuban to legian. I miss my bintang already. The cheapest we found was the secret garden in poppies lane 1. 6000 for a small and 9000 for a large all day long 24 hours. They have icecold glasses also and they sell bundy rum for 16000 including coke. I love my bundy. Now, I may have done some drinking, but I didn't excuse my responsibilities altogether. I missed hanging out with emily by about day 5, so I took her for the avo. I tell you what, walk down the street with a little baby and you won't get very far at all. Everybody wants to talk to her and pick her up. It's very wonderful. I've never seen so many smiles and most of them were from emily. She loved it and I loved showing her off. It wasn't the last time daddy and emily hungout in bali.
By day 4 my father was all bintanged out. He spent 2 days sleeping and then back into the bintang before spending the final days in the pool. Next trip I will definetaly spend more time in the pool, and the dynasty pool is as good as any. Dad went home and we went to ubud. Tegal sari that is. The best hotel in ubud. My wife shared a super deluxe room with her mum and 2 sisters. Dave and I had a standard room. Ubud is unreal. Dave and I hired a motorbike each and off we went. Take some small country roads on a bike and you won't be disappointed. Ubud is very beautiful. Day 3 in ubud was actually spent on the telaga waja whitewater rafting. An unreal day out if you've never done it, do it. 250000 each including buffet lunch.
The wife and family left for The risata hotel tuban kuta while dave and I left for lovina for the next 3 nights. I have nothing good to say about the staff of the risata hotel at tuban. It would probably have been a different story had I stayed there (A white man from australia), but it's really dissapointing when balinese treat their fellow indonesians with disrespect. My wife is javanese and there seems to be a real underlying racial problem between balinese and javanese. It's kept very hidden from tourists. The risata hotel itself was very good and my wife speaks highly of the rooms and the pool etc... I won't comment any further on the matter as I didn't meet the staff personally.
Lovina was great, but way too quiet for 2 blokes. We went fishing the first night with eddy. The next 2 days were spent sleeping and eating and basically relaxing. We had a few drinks here and there and met a lot of people. The people are great. The hawkers love fresh blood and are very persistant, but by day 3 they leave you alone. It's all good fun anyway. Back to kuta for the last 4 nights at the Rama beach resort tuban, which is right next door to the risata. The rama beach hotel was excellent. The staff were great. Breakfast was unreal. The pool was awesome. top hotel. though some problems with the rooms. Breakfast time we would sit down and that's all we saw of emily while we ate breakfast. For 4 mornings the female staff kidnapped our baby while we ate. They absolutely adored her. It was great. If you do stay at the rama, whatever you do, don't lock the door from the inside before you close it. it is a double lock and the only way back inside is with the master key. Well in our case the master key didn't work did it. (Room 273) So at around midnight when this happened, groundskeeper willie had to hack the window pane with an old screwdriver and hammer in order to get to the hinges to take the window out. 45 minutes later all was well. We had actually moved from room 266 to 273 after the toilet would block up every time we used it. Apart from these room problems, the Rama beach is A1.
In these last 4 days we spent a lot of time shopping and doing nothing. In fact we did nothing for 3 weeks. Bali is like that. I can't wait to go back. On the 2nd last night dave and I went out for a late drink and came home around 3:30am. We walked passed a small street party where some youths were playing guitar and drinking arak. They invited us over for drinks. How could we say no. They shouted us arak for the next 2 hours before they started spuing in the street. kids hey. anyway, they took us both home on the bike and we never saw them again. I mention it cos it was the only time we didn't have to pay for something, and we had a damn good time with them, even though they did sing all the wrong words to guns n roses patience.
I can't write my JBR with as much excitement as some as this is my 5th trip to bali, but the first with a wife and child. The balinese love kids. If you have hesitated going to bali because you have kids or babies, don't. Get your kids, get your babies, jump on the plane and go to bali. In fact, if you don't have children yet, then make one tonight if not for any other reason but to enjoy your trip to bali that little bit more.