August 8th through to August 18th, Sanur and Legian.
Travellers;
Hubby, me and daughter (11), Dad (72), Sister and son (10), other sister and daughter (13). Hubby and I have been 5 times previously all the others were first timers!
Our Story;
We left on Saturday 8th August from Brisbane with Pacific Blue. Flight was on time and uneventful. Basic seating bought food and paid for Foxtel on board. Arrived at 2.15 Bali time. Quick off the plane, handed in the yellow swine flu forms with no questions asked and then paid visa. Then came the queue for immigration, it seems we picked the slowest moving one and we did not get to our bags until 3.40pm. But all good, was met outside by Gede from Pondok Ayu. I love when you first walk out those doors and you have all of them yelling and holding signs up, I always have a big grin on my face!
Gede had two cars one for the bags and one for us, an airport porter managed to swindle his way into carrying one of the kid's bags, but we paid him anyway. It was great to see the expressions on everyone's faces as we drove into Sanur; they were horrified when they first saw a family of four on one bike, priceless!
Pondok Ayu is down a small gang, but once you enter the gate you have arrived at an oasis, we were greeted by Made and Putu, and at once felt at ease and on holidays. The place is a gem, rooms spotlessly clean, and all facilities are perfect. We spent our first 5 nights here and enjoyed every bit of our stay. Breakfast served to your liking, transport within Sanur is free, and Gede even drove us into Kuta for a small fee. My family really enjoyed staying here and already we are planning to return.
Whilst in Sanur we ate at Benno's (2 meals), Resto Ming, Café Jepun, Spirit Café (Sunday lunch and a dinner), The Village and Café Batujimbar. All restaurants were great, on our last night in Sanur there was a black out so Bennos had limited cooking facilities but did ok. We had cocktails and dessert in the The Beach Café and this also looked good, we will eat there next time. Chilli Crab at Bennos was fantastic, 80, 000 rupiah! The Village makes a great risotto too!
The kids were kicking a soccer ball one afternoon in the lane outside Pondok Ayu, and within 10 minutes there were 25 little kids wanting to play. It was great to watch them interact and learn each other's names, language was no barrier. Our kids loved making friends, and it made them appreciate their holiday a lot more. The Spirit café is a great place for Sunday lunch, the kids had a swim in the beach while we were there, and we met up briefly with Bloody Ron. An afternoon of too many cocktails and sun, what more could you ask for!
We did a little bit of shopping in Sanur; we always get watches and jewellery from 'Ned Kelly' on the main street. He always looks after us in price and quality. We get clothing from 'Leonie's 'shop she always greets us with a hug and looks after us also.
We really enjoyed Sanur, I was worried that my family would find it too quiet, but they preferred it there to the hustle and bustle of Kuta and Legian.
The staff at Pondok Ayu really made our stay very special; they were great with the kids and us adults also. Each night we would have night caps on our balconies being as quiet as we could. The other couples staying there were lovely also. Made organised her sister n law Adi, to do our nails, she did a magnificent job, only 70,000 rupiah for hands and feet. She also put some braids in the girl's hair complete with beads, they loved them! I had a neck & shoulder massage, which relieved any tension that remained.
While we were at Pondok we had our usual delivery of movies, I was disappointed this time with his service, the quality and also the folders he supplied them in were torn after one day. Will just use shops next time I think.
After 5 days we left Pondok Ayu to spend our remaining time at the Jayakarta in Legian, this is a story in itself and I will continue later.