This was a quick trip for us this time (my husband, our nearly 9 year old daughter, 7 year old son and myself),
Departed Sydney on 20th November and went via Brisbane to Denpasar, flying with Garuda Airlines. There were quite a few rowdy over-excited teenagers who were travelling in a group and were in party mode. We just happened to be sitting amoungst all of them...Oh well that's where headphones come in handy. This young group kept the staff very busy ordering their free alcoholic drinks and managed to get quite drunk by the time we arrived in Bali. They were on there way to The Bounty and I'm sure they all would have had very sore heads the following day.
Upon landing the group of teenagers let out cheers, applauding our arrival in Bali and my 7 year old son excitedly joined in 'Woohoo we're in Bali!'.
We gathered our hand luggage as quick as we possibly could to escape the chirpy mob of teenagers. Jumped in the shortest line of V.O.A (which they were all quite short lines anyway). All paid our US $10.00. visas (very quick process), collected our luggage and made our way outside the airport all within about 20 minutes.
Stepping outside to the humidity and familiar smells of Bali that we yearned for. We were immediately greeted by our balinese friends, Redi (Nyomen), his wife Nyomen, his son Dede and daughter Mira. After hugs, kisses and handshakes we all piled into Redi's Kijang and made our way to the Bali Garden Hotel in Tuban.
Arrived at BGH and after being greeted by staff we checked into a Family Garden Room. This was the second time for us at BGH, last time was just my husband and myself who stayed here in June this year, so was the first time we have had the family room. The room is very spacious and it had bunk beds, the bottom bunk bed was more like a double bed, the top bunk was a single and underneath the bottom bunk was a pull-out trundle bed. There is also a queen sized bed and a table with four chairs which we moved outside to our verandah(courtyard).
Anyway the men went out to get some more cold drinks, ice and nibblys and nyomen and I stayed in the hotel room with the kids while I freshened up and changed. The kids entertained themselves by playing pass the parcel with large bags of smarties, when the music stoppped they would pour a large amount of smarties in their mouths and then pass it on. They were all in hysterics laughing. We moved out to the courtyard and had some cold drinks and the kids went for a play in the park and for a wander around the hotel. Later we all headed out for dinner and then finally to bed as it was a big day for us all and we were looking forward to the next day.
Tuesday - We all woke up very early at the crack of dawn and went for an early morning walk before breakfast.
Breakfast was great as usual, the banana pancakes are yummy and the kids enjoyed them. Most mornings hubby and I had a variety of dishes for breakfast which included omlettes with everything, eggs sunny-side up on top of fried rice, noodles, fried pieces of potatoe with onion and herbs, small sausages, fried tomatoes, vegetables, fresh fruits, croissants or pastries, orange juice, tea and coffee.
We spent the morning swimming, my husband had a quick dip then went to meet Redi to go and get business cards made up. The kids and I went to Centro and after a short while ran into hubby and Redi and went upstairs of Centro for a cold drink. Kids wanted to go to Timezone so spent an hour or so there then had lunch in the food court (upstairs also). There are so many different dishes to choose from and sooo cheap (for example) I had nasi goreng, my son had 10 satay sticks and daughter had oriental fried rice for about 40,000 rupiah, including drinks. The average price of a dish is about 17,000 rupiah. The kids also on a couple of occasions enjoyed having a snack from the potatoe french fry lady who made handmade potatoe french fries in a variety of flavours for 7,000 rupiah per serving.
We had an appointment at indograph at 2.00pm to proof-read the business card and complimentary slip layouts, they were great! So gave the 'go ahead' and were told they would be ready on Friday, as they were not very busy. Went back to hotel for another swim and a drink or 2 at the pool bar, some relaxing then out to dinner to Fukataro & Grill (I think thats how it's spelt sorry not sure)it's the fairly new restaurant located across the road from the sports bar place...anyway the meal was yummy. Bought some dvds on the way back to the hotel.
In regards to dvd's we have found that the quality of the dvd's which we purchased from '2 Stars' to be very good and went back for more on a couple of occasions due to the better quality of the picture, (not quite as good deals as what you get from some other dvd shops though), but quite happy with the quality. The only deal they had was buy 10 get 2 for free.
Wednesday was spent relaxing, swimming, walking on the beach and eating. Had dinner at Kafe bantan waru.
Thursday we all had a sleep-in this morning, yes getting in the mode of Bali (a pity we leave on Sunday night...Oh well a short trip is better than no trip I guess).
After breakfast we all got a taxi to denpasar (taxi fare was 40,000 rupiah) and first stop was ramayana, it ended up being the only stop as the daughter wasn't feeling well, so had a refreshing cool green tea smoothie and did a quick shop. Got a couple of nice skirts and tops for my daughter, a nice nokia phone cover for 14,000 rupiah and hubby got a leather phone cover for his new mobile, a few diesel surf shirts for hubby, and the son got a packet of big plastic spiders (which probably gave our room cleaning lady a scare the following morning as he slept with it and forgot to take it out from his sheets when we went for breakfast). Daughter had had enough at Ramayana and ended up being sick in a plastic bag, so we headed back to hotel. After she had a rest she was ok again and back to normal. While she had a rest hubby watched a dvd and I went and got some goodies from breadtalk for us all to indulge. Went for a swim and had a chat with some of the other hotel guests, then out to dinner to the sports bar and the setting out the back was very nice and there was a lovely breeze there. Back to hotel watched some t.v and went to sleep.
Friday - Waterbom park today! Tried the boomerang ride for the first time...What a workout walking up them steps :) The kids loved the boomerang and went on it about 6 times or so. When coming down on the boomerang with my daughter we went airborne for a bit but it was fun. We met a lovely muslim lady who was there with her mother and children, they were in the cabanna next to ours and my daughter and her daughter took a liking to each other. The muslim lady went and got the photographer and asked us to go on all the slides with her and the kids. She instructed the photographer to follow us all around and take pictures of us all as we came out of the slides. She was great fun and enjoyed a good laugh. We all had an enjoyable day.
After waterbomb we took up Redi and Nyomen's offer of having the kids babysat that night, as we knew they would be tired after such a big day out. So we all went to the pizza bar at BGH and watched the sunset, there was a big parade of balinese on the beach dressed in ceremonial attire and my daughter took some nice photos.
Took kids back to the room with our balinese friends and their children who stayed at the hotel, while hubby and I went out to do some late night shopping and have drink stops in-between shopping.
Hubby and I headed to Legian and got out of the taxi directly across the road from indo-national and made our way up the street randomly buying some things from the stalls in this area. We stopped in at posers and had a drink then went to 'cv. Jaya Pillow' and ordered some lovely cushion cases which were 900mm x 900mm. and we were told they would be ready for us the following night at 7pm. Went to a stall a couple of doors up from Jaya pillow and bought a heap of beaded earrings for 5,000 rupiah per pair. We did lots of walking then called into 'Ye old fookin pub' and had a couple of drinks and some brushettas, then more walking and back to the hotel by about 11.30pm had a nightcap then went to bed.
Saturday - Going home tomorrow so have to get in as much shopping as possible today. Quickly popped into Centro to get something I'd spotted earlier in the week and we had coffee at the Black Canyon and there was a big market tent set up at the back steps of Centro with live bands playing as Telkom was having a promotion selling there products, it was very busy with lots of indonesians enjoying the bands and browsing at Telkoms products. Stayed and watched bands for a while then daughter and I went to Legian and hit the markets and shops getting presents and things. Returned back to hotel at about 5pm went for a swim then afterwards got Taxi to pick up cushion slips (they did a great job).
We then went to Indo-national for dinner it was absolutely packed when we arrived, we got the second last table and then a german couple got the last table. We must have landed here at a time when everybody wanted to eat, as the staff were run off their feet for a while, by the time we finished dinner it was half empty. The manager came over to us and apologised for any delays, but we weren't worried as they seemed to manage ok. Then it was back to the hotel for us and have our last sleep in Bali.
Sunday - Had a nice sleep in, swimming, more shopping then back to hotel and had an appointment for my daughter to meet hair braiding ladys in the lobby at 2pm.
We met them and invited them to our room so the hair-brading could be done in the comfort of the air-conditioning while I finished packing, 'Kelly' one of the hair-braiders brought her 6 year old daughter with them and she played with my son and kept him occupied. Also got manicure done by the girls. Hubby cleared out and went to the lobby bar and had a few drinks lol. After us girls had finished our business we joined hubby for a drink and headed back to room for our last duty-free drink and made sure we had packed everything. We called the porter and had our bags transfered to lobby and headed out for dinner.
We had dinner at a little restaurant to the left of the outside of BGH (can't remember the name of it). There was an older man singing with guitar and his songs included cat steven's, simon and garfunkle, and 'country road take me home' my son was dancing and there was a big group of koreans who were very entertained by him and were giving him lollies and laughing and showing him how to do 'the wave' they kept wanting to cuddle him and the women kept asking him for a kiss, but being the boy that he is he refused the kisses. I can't say my son ate dinner that night as he was being fed lollies the whole time.
We went back to BGH and played pool with Ketut at the bar and then said our goodbyes as Redi and Nyomen and the kid's arrived at 9pm so we all piled into the kijang and headed for the airport....Bye Bye Bali.
I hope I didn't bore anyone, as I got a bit carried away and this is my first JBR that I have written.
My main purchases in Bali for myself and gifts for Xmas pressies:
Beaded thongs and with heels.
Louis Vuitton thongs and heels.
Louis Vuitton Purses
Channel Bags.
Gucci Bags.
Jewellery beaded and silver.
Clothing.
Lighters with tools and pocketknives.
Cigarette holders with lighters sets.
Some marble items to add to our collection (even got a marble kangaroo lol)
Some more hanging wind-chime mobiles to put in our gazebo.
Cushion covers from cv. Jaya Pillow
Also stocked up on Sensodine toothpaste & Mach 3 blades for hubby.
The End.