Sun 1/6 - Woke up feeling refreshed and off to breakfast. Whilst it was nothing to rave about it was certainly ok. There was an omlette lady who did eggs however and she also made thick banana pancakes. There was a small selection fruit, pastries, toast and juice. There were some hot dishes but they looked pretty unappealing. As I say though, it was adequate. You'd have to be pretty fussy to not find something you could eat.
After this we were off to the pool. They have done a brilliant job here. I've never stayed here before so don't know what it was like before but there are 3 pools and they are really nice. Front one overlooks the beach, you can see right up the coast. There is decking all around. Middle pool is large with a pool bar. Has a ledge running around some of it that you can sit on. Seating area with tables near pool bar. There is also another pool across from there (I never made it to any other than the main one!) where there are built in sun beds, looked really relaxing - if you didn't have a 2 yr old!
Went for a walk towards Dynasty in the arvo, am familiar with this area as have stayed there a couple of times and Bali Hai last year. Had a banana pancake snack at Febri's - I do love their thin crepe pancakes!
We had dinner at kafe Batan Waru which is at the front of BGH. Sunday night is Chilli Crab Night. Really nice meal, we ate there both Sunday nights. Word of warning - don't get there late. The second Sunday we got there maybe 7.30pm I think and we got the last 2 crabs. 1st night was 600k and 2nd night 900k so it is by no means cheap but we did have a big feed of seafood and it was really nice. Good to be right there at the hotel too.
Mon 2/6 - First thing this am I went across and booked a cabana for tomorrow at Waterbom. I'd emailed them before I went and contrary to what I'd read on BTF they said that yes you could book a cabana but only for Mon-Fri. I went to the guest services counter, they showed me a map of the cabana's and then wrote it in their book. No deposit was needed. You just had to be in by 12pm on the day. This was great as it meant I didn't have to get there as soon as it opened.
From here we hired a driver and went to the Billabong outlet. We eventually found it. I should have read my instructions from BTF that I had with me more carefully - they were quite clear! There's no actual big sign saying "BILLABONG OUTLET" but you can't really miss them. It's the one closest to the big roundabout on the opposite side of the road to Galleria. Had alot of stuff 30% off. 14yr old managed to spend 1.900M but as others have said, don't know that I'd bother going back. We got a really good sale at a surf shop in Ubud last year, 50% off, but I think it's luck of the draw.
Dinner tonight was at Bubba Gumps. Went here last year and loved it. One of our best meals in Bali. Wasn't as enthralled with it this time. Maybe lost it's first time gloss? Was still ok but not our best meal. ~700k for 5 of us. Kids did seem to like it though.
Tue 3/6 - Today was Waterbom day. Had an absolute blast! Stayed all day till 5.30pm and bought a 2nd day pass on the way out. Have never been before for some reason but it really is good. Got cabana #25 and this one was great as it is in Kiddieland right near the 'big bucket' play area but I could also see the bottom of the kiddies water slides where the 4yr old was playing and he would pop out every so often. 4yr old went on all the big slides by himself, couldn't keep him off. (one of us was always with him but he went down on his own tube - he had his floaties on). Took the 2yr old on the raft slide with me, he didn't enjoy it so we stuck to the kiddy slide after that.
Ate lunch at the park, they came and took your order at the cabana which was great, didn't have to move an inch! Very reasonably priced and nice food too.
Everyone was a little worn out tonight so we just had dinner at the restaurant near the pool at BGH. They had really nice food here and it was actually really cheap for being inside a hotel. It cost us at least 1/2 of what it did each time we ate outside the hotel. We ate here a few times over our stay and it was always good and surprisingly cheap.
Wed 4/6 - Had asked about babysitting at the hotel yesterday and they said to ask the girls at breakfast which we did and organised one to come tonight at 7.30pm. 30k/hr which is pretty reasonable.
Off we headed to Ma Joly. I wanted to have a look at the menu (had a lovely meal here last year), probably make a booking and also wanted to see the storm damage. Drove past our hotel last year, Bali Hai. Looked a little sad and run down although there did seem to be alot of cleaning up work going on. Hope they do fix it up and get it up and running as we really liked this hotel and would have stayed there this year if it was open.
The damage at the beach front of Ma Joly was amazing. They said a huge wave came in and washed away all the bar and seating in that front area. I've got pictures from last year (same time) and the sea was waayyyy out. Hard to imagine it was now right at the front of the restaurant. It has been shored up by a big rock wall and they are rebuilding the bar and front seating section now. Made a booking for tonight at 8pm.
From here we headed out to Carrefour shopping centre. Now, I'd meant to go by myself and this would have been a much better plan! We left the 14yr old at the hotel but within 10 mins of being in Carrefour the 2 and 4 yr olds AND THE HUBBY were complaining. Despite asking the 4yr old if he needed to go to the toilet on the way in, which he didn't, of course 10mins later he did!! Off they went leaving me with the 2yr old. Came back and then they were all around me carrying on. I gently reminded hubby (in a very restrained manner I thought!) that the massage he had gone and enjoyed on Monday, BY HIMSELF! would be his last if he didn't give me half an hours peace!! He took them off and planted them in front of the large TV playing a kids movie which was great. Note to self - MUST come alone next time! Found a few things to buy around here. It's not as good as it used to be several years ago in Singapore but still ok. Did buy a 2 bottles of Bali Moon liquers for 137k ea. which is about $15Au. They were about $23US at the airport so that was a good deal. Finished up as didn't want to put hubby under tooo much strain!
We had lunch at KFC out the front and the kids ran around in the Funzone for a bit.
Ordered dinner from room service for the kids. Room service here is a bit of a laugh. I'd ordered some the other night and was amazed when it turned up in a cardboard box - fruit salad just thrown in a box. I think it comes from the restaurant out the front and you do have to pay for it when it is delivered. Nothing wrong with the food but I ordered a steak for the 14yrold and spag bog for the two littlies and yes it all came in cardboard boxes. I'd asked them to send up paper plates which they did so this was ok.
Baby sitter arrived promptly at 7.30 and after some instruction re: sleeping off we went. Decided to walk to Ma Joly, hubby not that thrilled but will do him good! I do feel guilty when I walk as I'm depriving a taxi driver of a fare but sometimes it is nice to just walk.
Dinner was once again very nice. Did not order soup and entree this time, just the entree, as last year could not get in dessert and wasn't having that this time. Meals are quite large here and once again I could barely get 1/3 through my main meal of fish but palmed it off to hubby (who didn't actually want it!) as I was determined to have the crepe suzette for dessert and couldn't order it whilst I still had most of my meal on my plate! Next time I'm definitely only ordering soup, entree and dessert! At home I eat like a horse so don't know what was wrong with me. Food was really nice, dessert was to die for. Came to ~750k but was really nice. Our only night out without the kids so we enjoyed it.
On the way back we organised a driver to take us to the sports beach at Nusa Dua tomorrow. 150k - no idea if that is reasonable or not but we were happy with it. It was his first offer and had been in the range of what I'd been thinking and the clincher was that he had seatbelts in the back. Now this is not so much for safety as you might think but to actually restrain the 2 and 4 yr olds. The drive just out to the Billabong outlet without seatbelts with them jumping all over the car was enough to put me off another car trip no matter how short!! We arranged to be picked up at 10am as he suggested this was a good time to get to the beach.
We got back to the hotel at 10.30pm. I walked into our room and saw the kids asleep and went through into the other room. ? no babysitter. Asked the 14yr old where she was. Asleep on the mattress on the floor with the 2yr old snoring- interesting! Now I know she's probably pretty tired being at work early in the morning but would she have woken if one of the kids tried to leave the room - hmmmm. Lucky the 14yr old was there I guess. He would have had trouble getting them to go to sleep so it was worth having her for that at least. Hubby managed to wake her up and we thanked her and gave her the 90k for 3 hours + 30K tip. Never know how much is appropriate so hope that was ok - she was asleep for 2hrs after all!
Everyone off to bed for the night ready for water sports tomorrow.
Will continue JBR this afternoon. Hope you are not too bored!