I think i have covered most things to do with shopping hotel etc. I did forget to mention the bags over in bali at the moment are SENSATIONAL! I bought a couple for about 160,000 each, fantastic.
We also did the Elephant Park in Taro. This was something i had wanted to do for the kids, but hadnt in the past as it was a bit pricey and we always seemed to just run out of time. I did find a tourism booth opposite Centro at the Pandang restaurant who did me amazing prices. He also got my friends a cheaper rate to do the mountain biking - the best price they could get was $56US per person (adults and children same) - our guy got them for $39us adults and $22 children.
Anyhoo back to the elephant park - was about and hour and half drive but very pleasant, nice scenery on the way up. We got there and fed the elephants sugar cane which they love (we overheard one woman saying "they are feeding the elephants wood - how cruel!!" hahaha had a giggle over that!.
about 5 minutes after that they were calling my name for our elephant ride, the boss and magpie got "Mr Wong" who is the biggest elephant and the one who took David Beckham for his ride when they were there a couple of weeks ago. They just seemed to power off out of sight quickly and myself and mophead were on Dina. The ride was long - about 45 mins amazing, though the jungle, and in a large water hole, i kept wondering what would happen if our elephant decided to lie down and roll over! i wanted to ask our guide if anybody had been hurt on an elephant before but was afraid of the answer!
Fantastic, was worth every cent - although i worried how the boss would cope as it was a bit bouncy and he has a very bad back - but he said ok but would probably suffer tomorrow.
After the ride it was quickly to the restaurant for the buffet lunch - really good food - bit of everything - kids loved it too. The show started quickly though so it was a case of eat and run.
The elephants did all sorts of tricks, the show only went for about 15 minutes but was really good.
afterwards the kids saw you could buy tshirts with the pictures of us riding the elephants on them so they got one of those each $15 US each which was pretty good, they were good quality.
All in all it was a fantastic day, worth every cent.
Waterbom.............
always great, some new rides, bloody scary, i cringed watching my kids go down the smashdown - no fear! we decided to hire a gazebo which was good for 100,000 we all left our gear there and had lunch and a few bintangs in real comfort. I think Cacko had a funny little incident at the top of one of the rides but will leave that for her to tell LOL. The bracelets are a good idea except for when the boss who had the bracelet was nowhere to be found when we wanted to buy something. My favourite is the lazy river - but then i am a chicken and was bloody scared going down nearly all the rides i went down (all the "easy" ones) the kids gave me heaps - little turds....
We thought we might go to gracie kellys one night, popped my head in on the way back from shopping one night but it was so smokey in there i couldnt breathe (being a non smoker) even the smokers said it was bad. Such a shame, was looking forward to making an ass of myself at the karaoke night - oh well, next time.....
its a small world - about day 5 we were sitting by the pool when a guy walked up to the boss and asked if he was *****. "Well yeah i am" said the boss - well bugger me! one of the bosses mates had told his mate from perth that the boss was going to be in bali "look out for a stocky guy with a goatee" he just asked the first guy he saw (at our hotel) and it turned out to be him.... he didnt know we were in the same hotel or anything was just one big coincidence!!!
Travelan - the boss always gets sick in bali so thought i would get him some travelan - he was taking it for a few days when we realised that somehow the pills had gotten mixed up with some of my pills and he was taking the wrong ones!!!!! He hadnt even looked at the name on the packet!! Oh my god, nearly wet myself at the brekky table. Looks like the boss wont be having any girly problems any time soon!!
LOL,
The travelan seemed to work though (after he started taking the proper tablets!) he didnt get sick once, i think it was well worth it...
The hotel was busy - full i think - so there was plenty of action. We only really had one bigish night where we drank our duty free in the common area near our room. Cacko came and had a few drinks with us as well, she got a bit inebriated and disorderly so security finally came by at 10pm and told her to be quiet. Actually im lying, it was us that was drunk and rowdy, cacko only had one or two drinks and was very well behaved.
The boss was shopping alone one day, he got baled up by a balinese who wanted to know what hotel he was staying at, he didnt want to tell them where (due to all of the harrassment you get if they find out) so he told them he was staying at Bali Hai.... *Snort* laughed my head off at that one, he didnt know it had closed a while back and they were all laughing at him......
The flight home was overbooked they offered everybody $60 US each to stay for another night with garuda paying for accommodation, meals, transport etc but once you pack all your stuff up who wants to lug it all back to another hotel for only one night. I would have but the boss said no :(
Anyways it was a fantastic trip, next time going with a big group we will probably stay longer and have a few days to ourselves at the end just to relax........... I am already thinking about the next trip, will try to do it with frequent flyers.
Sorry for rambling, if anybody has any questions just holler :)
auds xx