The Players: Me and hubby, 40 plus son 11, 2 daughters 9 and almost 7. Never been to Bali before, kids never flown anywhere before. Slaves to work and mortgage, this was our first holiday in many years. We had decided beforehand that this was going to be a family trip - concentrating on the kids having a good time.
The leadup: We all came down with the flu ( the whole shebang - 39-40deg temps, chills, hacking cough fun fun fun) a fortnight before our holiday - I was freaking out because cancelling and rebooking would have been a nightmare to organise. Then hubby gets an ear infection the week before, but by the time we boarded everyone was over the flu, and on the tail end of antibiotics with the assurance from our GP that we weren't contagious and feeling alright.
Flight: Virgin Tues night flight - took me ages to fill in the 3 forms they gave us (Entry, Customs and Medical). I'll second someone else's recommendation that if you have a big family, write down everyone's details on one piece of paper - name as on passport, passport number, passport expiry date and flight number so that you can refer to it when filling out paperwork and you don't have to be getting out the passports every 2 seconds. A big Japan Air flight gets in before us so spent nearly an hour and a half in customs. They didn't even read Medical form, even tho I had answered truthfully about our past flu symptoms previously. Go figure. Fortunately I had organised a driver to take us to Seminyak thru email (thanks BTF) and he was there with his big sign and lovely airconditioned van for Rp100 000! Organised with him to take us to Safari Park Friday for the day. We were all wilting by the time we arrived at the hotel at 1.30am
Hotel: Breezes in Seminyak - absolutely lovely. Happy with the standard of rooms, had corner ground floor interconnecting rooms with 2 beds and a trundle in the kids room and a king sized bed for us. They had their own tv and loved all the cable channels don't have them at home. Hubby would ideally have liked a table and chairs or sofa to sit on, but overall can't otherwise fault the rooms too much. Serviced every day and turned down the covers in the evening. Quite a few mozzies around - they would spray the room every night, but we found a can of Baygon handy for stragglers!
Breakfast was awesome, lovely staff, great pool. They try to organise kids activities every day and tell me that they are in the process of constructing a dedicated kids club area. We were out and about too often to do many activities on offer, but other parents we talked to said their kids enjoyed them.
There was a Bintang supermarket right next door with a great money changer. Used her all the time we were there & rate was around Rp8300. Got all our water, coke, beer, Pringles, tissues, iceypoles (cheap Magnums - Yum!) bug spray and assorted needs there.
Day one Wed - spent at the hotel, in the pool, recovering from the night before. Bought supplies next door, took a walk down the street, deflected the timeshare fellas, started to get a feel for the place. Drank in the sunshine - ooooh yeah! Ate at Breezes that night - bbq sate night - expensive at Rp200 000 per person I must say - but the girls ate free. Had Balinese dancers that got us all up dancing, which was fun.
Day 2 Thurs - Jumped on the free Breezes shuttle into Kuta, the drop off point is quite a way out of the centre, and we made the mistake of walking the rest of the way - everyone was pooped by the time we reached the Bali Rani, where I dropped off my old gold to Kreshna jewelers be remodeled. Thanks again BTF! I had sent my SIL in July and my Mum in August here on the recommendation of the forum and they were both happy with their results. I had 2 plain rings made into one lovely filigree ring exactly how the pic I chose looked. I also had 4 Pandora charms made from old gold (2 large and 2 spacers) and they gave me back the spare gold. 2.7million Rp ($320Aus)and very happy with these when I picked them up 5 days later.
Did a bit of window shopping in Kuta, got ripped with fake silver Pandora charms and hubby paid too much for some t-shirts, but hey, in the great scheme of things, what's a few dollars. Bought a Bali sim card and some pre paid and got the fellas at the stall to put it in our phone. Great for SMS back home, and they told us the prefix to add to get cheap Bali rates for phoning home. Checked out Mata Hari, Discovery ( yummy Breadtalk!!)
Had a swim and some room service fries back at the hotel and walked down to the beach. Promised Ellie's group of ladies that we would be back sometime for braiding and ended up at Zanzibar for dinner. OK food, plenty of it.
Day 3 Fri: Driver Made picked us up at 930 for the trip to the safari park. He knew the right counter to go to, and I had made phone reservations the day before, so we bypassed the longer line and got straight in. Kids enjoyed the day, OH and I enjoyed the safari were a little disappointed in things not included in the entry ticket. Found one of the little cafes down near the fun rides for lunch, we had the place to ourselves and we all wolfed down some fries (excellent) and nachos ( not good) , cooldrinks, and bintangs (cold and delicious!!). Everyone enjoyed the water park - a cool end to a nice day out. Had dinner at Benny's Bistro over the road from Breezes, fell in love with nasi campur!! Good pizza for the girls, who are not at all adventurous in food tasting!
Day 4 Sat: My son and I had been on antibiotics back home for chest infections following the flu, but we both had lingering coughs that were not getting better and were keeping us up at night, Additionally, son woke up with streaming red eyes, so it was off to the Medical Centre for us. I had spotted the BIMC coming back in from the Safari Park (turn right at the big roundabout/bypass with the huge statue as you come in from the airport direction) and heard good things about it from the forum. Surprise surprise - borderline bronchitis for both of us, conjunctivitis for son. Stocked up with 5 different kinds of antibiotics/medicine. Very impressed with BIMC, expensive but very thorough, highly recommended if, needed. Back to the hotel for pizza and fries for a quick lunch then down to the beach as promised for hair braiding and nails. Got ripped again on sunnies, watches, sundresses and necklaces - ah well!! Hubby wanted to give everyone who approached us 50000Rp just to leave us alone!! Ellie and her group of girls did a great job on the braiding - my girls have very thick hair and it took ages, but looked awesome. We had at least 3 people stop us over next few days to ask where they got their hair done. Kids and Hubby went back to the hotel, I went for a big walk into Seminyak - OMG the footpath situation is awful at the moment with all the repair work being done! Dinner at Ultimo - quite nice except for the 2 Scandinavian girls who would light up between courses - fair enough if you're among adults, I realize that it's Bali and par for the course and I didn't think to ask for a nonsmoking table but please, my kids were right next to you.
Day 5 Sun: Son and myself starting to feel heaps better, did a little shopping, bought DVDS then lunch at Bush Telegraph ( yum - great nasi campur and pretty good steak sandwiches!) Organised a half day tour with Made to Uluwatu at 2pm. All thoroughly enjoyed this experience. We heeded Made's advice and took off all jewellery etc, and I can see why! We counted 5 people getting sunnies (x2), water bottles, scarf and a purse stolen! Monkeys loved us cos we bought bananas and peanuts from the dear old lady and kept up a steady stream of treats - I think that's the key!! On the drivers suggestion we decided to watch the sun go down at Jimbarin Bay. What a ripoff!! We were deposited at one of the line of beachside restaurants - and ended up with a very expensive meal of 6 bbq'd prawns chosen from the tanks. Cost us Rp385 000 with drinks and the kids went hungry as by the time we'd ordered the prawns were cooking hubby enquired about kids food and apparently none exists!! Now, of course, one put a gun to our heads, but we really walked into this one and the experience left a sour taste in our mouths. Plus the sunset I can see any arvo here at Scarborough and it doesn't disappear halfway down into a bank of clouds! We stopped off on the way back for the kids to get maccas. Live and learn Bali virgins eh!!??!!
Day 6 Mon: Woke at 4am to the sound of pouring rain - dammit - this was our Waterbom day. Also woke to daughter number two with a very sore ear - luckily by the time we finished at the medical centre the rain had stopped, she was dosed up with Nurofen and we had a blast at Waterbom. Didn't bother with a gazebo - we didn't sit still enough to need one - just chucked our towels on a deck chair, loaded the wrist band and off we went! Thoroughly enjoyed this place! Nice food there for lunch too. Stopped in at Discovery, got some strapless sundresses for the girls, some ice-cream, then back to hotel. Hubby and son wandered off to get some t-shirts, then we went to Made's Warung for dinner. Fantastic food!
Day 7 Tues: We caught a taxi into Kuta and did some souvenir shopping downstairs at Matahari. Bought Pandora bracelets for the girls outside Mataharis - have no idea how silver they are but pretty sure we paid too much for them. Picked up my ring and gold Pandora charms at Kreshna - absolutely stoked with them. Stopped off at Silverberry to look at REAL silver, then onto Silver Boat who were having a 50% off sale - whoo hoo! Loaded up with charms for Rp 45 000 each and the girls bought themselves a ring each.
Ate at Benny's Bistro again, then back to hotel for a swim and a drink at the bar. Daughter still complaining about her sore ear, and hubby's eye had now turned red, so another late night (early 3am morning actually with tearful daughter in real pain) visit to the BIMC. We were flying out in 12 hours so really wanted to check she didn't have a middle ear infection. Diagnosis - outer ear infection - swimmers ear - never had it before in her life, but at least she was ok to fly!
Day 8 Weds: Packed, picked up by Made and deposited at airport. Found our way to the Dewi lounge - best money spent! Rp100 000 for hubby and myself, 50 000 for son and daughters free. Food ordinary, but bintang on tap and a really nice place to relax for that hour before boarding. Highly recommended. And home again. Foxtel free on Virgin once we were over Australia. All shell jewellery and wooden carvings declared and made it through customs just fine.
In conclusion - a great place for a family holiday. Will be more prepared for everything next time, and unfortunate that we weren't 100% health-wise, but overall enjoyable. At least we didn't get Bali Belly! I Missed out on the fabled Bali shopping with all that happened in between sight seeing, but truthfully as far as clothes go I didn't have time to scout out any real bargains - most of what I saw for ladies was either Perth prices or stuff I'd only wear in Bali - I'll need to research that one more next time. It wasn't really a shopping trip - we wanted it to be a family holiday and it was almost perfect as far as that goes. Thanks to the BTF - lots of great info from here!