went to bali for a spur of the moment holiday with kids(son 11yrs, daughter 15yrs)& myself...got a triple share room at every hotel we went to....as I had booked the flight late(august)was finding it difficult to get hotels...1st 3 nights stayed at Kusnadi in legian....we loved this hotel...it's smallish, however staff were fantastic, the rooms were clean,large enough for the 3 of us,tv with cable?- many english speaking channels - but no phone in the room...this is probably my only gripe....I had a simpati sim card but the quality of the calls to australia was appalling when I used the code at the front of the aussie phone no, & I know that some of the sms's sent by me and to me were not received - will try mentari next time....from Kusnadi went to Sri Ratu in 3 brother's lane...we should have stayed there 11 nights buut were only there for 3...don't want to bag it buut it was not for me....we had a budget room on ground floor near there breakfast area and it was tiny...we had to walk sideways to get to bathroom between suitcases and the beds...this hotel is nice and cheap, clean, airconditioned,no tv or fridge in the room...the main problem for me was the noise...I am a light sleeper, it's situated half way down a gang between jl Legian & Jl Padma Utara & it appears that motorcylists would use it heaps...but the hotel is on a corner which they toot their horn at (for safety) pretty much all night....then around 7am for brekky people would be chatting loudly about 5 metres from the room...I didn't check out the rest of the hotel & that may be quieter....also the bathroom needs an update...the door to is severely warping/peeling & the chrome of the taps was rusted away...the pool could do with a tile clean...we managed to get a room at hotel Kumala in legian for the remainder of our holiday...the room was huge, aircon, phone & clean...we were upstairs in the older section and had a good time here as well...we found that this hotel had mostly Europeans, however, we had no problems with pool lounges etc....
we had a few adventures...first the earthquake ....we heard the roar first & couldn't work out what was going on- then seconds later the earth moved.. I screaming to the kids get out there's an earthquake, & us along with all the other hotels patrons just gathered around the pool - in various states of undress(it was around 7am)...went to Ubud in search of Vanilla beans....there were a few sellers...I wanted 1kg however they wanted rp400,000($50} and no one would bargain at all, & I decided to pass, mainly because I was not sure if I could get it through...it wasn't packaged.Went into Denpasar once and had a look around matahari's & robinsons...then walked to gold shops...bought 4 charms for nieces for xmas...they are 18carat,approx 1.5grams each & cost approx $A18...also went to Tupperware shop.....we had address but It was a little difficult to find - it's a tiny shop..wanted a large container that they have here but the closest I was shown was about 45cm x 25cm x10cm and it was rp210000(A25)but the lid would'nt close properly so I got a catalogue & took to back to hotel with the intention of going back if I found something I wanted...their range is smaller than our range,, however the items that were the same appeared to be about $10 cheaper than here.Went to Sukawati & really enjoyed it...was shopping heaps but 11yr son was bored and kept wingeing...bought some wooden items for various prices, a small painting for rp40000,some large hairclamps with fragipanis 3 for rp25000....went to Safari Park which cost rp300000 each(just under $40)...we had been last year & in comparison, we found the the shows had been scaled down & I found it disappointing...the kids enjoyed it but agreed a lot has been scaled down & price increase.went to Unagi & Geneva...I thought Geneva had bigger range & the odd rat running across the floor...Ate at heaps of warungs & twice from side of road...all good...ant