I don't really like doing a JBR as it means the holiday is over for another year but here goes:
Myself, Hubby,11 year old Daughter and 8 year old Son (our 9th time and kids 4th trip)
Travelled with Pacific Blue on 4th Jan arrived at Denpasar at 11.15pm and through customs within 20mins, had to wait for luggage and noticed a big chalk number 3 on one of our cases, tried to rub it off but obviously not good enough anyway the bag was searched by customs and we found out the offending item was a three pack of baked beans that we had in our case - after studying it for a while and me explaining what they were all was good, they also opened my shampoo bottle and squeezed some out to check that.
Stayed at Melasti Beach Hotel in a Cottage Suite for the first 10 nights which was really good - had heard some conflicting comments about this hotel but for the price we were quite happy. We then had 11 nights a KTH which we always enjoy.
Places we ate at:
Indonational - food was nice but had quite an embarrassing moment when the chair I was sat on just all of a sudden collapsed underneath me - this just made my Hubby crack up laughing as he had been having a dig at me about putting on 5kg after giving up smoking (I'm now 69kg) so not that heavy.
Un's Restaurant Poppies 1 - Really nice food would definitely recommend, the only problem being they don't do children's meals so it worked out a bit expensive but worth it.
Alleycats - They do a chicken roast on a Sunday night and it was very nice - crunchy roast potatoes, mashed potato, broccoli, cauliflower, corn on the cob, peas and gravy all for 45000rp but you need to book by the Saturday as they only cook the roast for pre-booked customers.
Gong Corner - Very cheap food here - not big servings but enough
Tom Yums - Another very cheap but nice restaurant
Bubba Gumps - Quite expensive for Bali but it was sons birthday and it's worth it for the special birthday song sung for him by the staff
Places visited
Waterbom - we went twice and both times it was very busy with big lines for the slides but a great day out - new ride called the Climax opening in May
Bali Zoo - had a good day here even though it was raining. Kids really enjoyed holding the snake, hawk, bat etc. We had booked in to do the treetop adventure at the zoo but had to cancel due to rain.
Bali Baik Ride - wow what a great day out this was riding through the villages and all the kids running out of their houses and shouting hello and the school children walking home from school hi fiving as you go past and asking 'where are you from' and 'welcome to Bali' I had taken some balloons and lollies to hand out to the kids and they got so excited. Lunch at Wayan's house afterwards prepared by his wife was absolutely lovely. Mostly downhill but a couple of hills that I needed to get off to push my bike up, my Hubby ended up dinkying our Son as he wasn't too confident on the bike on the road, the crew that were with us did a great job of setting up a seat on the back of Hubby's bike and even strapped a pillow on so he wouldn't get a sore bum and attached trainer wheels upside down so he had foot rests - very clever. Plenty of stops for a cold drink of water and a photo opportunity. Strongly recommend this ride but you need to look it up on the internet as the tourist booths don't have information about this particular company.
The kids were amping to go for a swim at Kuta Beach but I wasn't too keen as it's not the cleanest beach and it can get very rough - was worried about rips, so we asked our driver of a nice beach to spend the day at and he suggested Gegar Beach which was really nice with crystal clear water and white sand and not too rough, you could also hire beach chairs and umbrella which cost us 50000rp for 2 for the day. We then went up to Ulluwatu for the Cecek Dance at sunset it was great for the kids to see a traditional Balinese dance, just a word of warning if it is a windy day make sure that you don't sit downwind as when they set the hay on fire and then started kicking it around we got sprayed with the embers.
Went to Ubud for the day mainly to get some 'candle art' eg metal geckos, fish, etc bought about 12 big ones to put on brick wall around our pool for about $100.00au so happy with that. On the way up to Ubud called into Denpasar mainly just to show kids the markets and ended up buying a few items as really cheap (as you do).
Did most of our clothes shopping at Lilly's Shop just off Poppies 1 near Secret Garden as we have used Wayan the last couple of years and we now do fixed price which saves the hassles of bartering - if you want to go to her just tell her Sue sent you and she will do fixed price. She doesn't have a shop sign up but just ask someone and they will point her out. Wayan has two children who are at the shop most days after school and are roughly the same ages as my two so we ended up taking them for a swim in the pool at KTH which they really enjoyed.
We were very lucky with the rain - the little that we had was mainly at night.
Ended up being 20kg overweight in our luggage on the way home but they suggested we take some items out of our 2 smaller cases to make them 7kg and then take them on as hand luggage. Paid 100000rp each kids free to go into Executive Lounge at airport and had a good flight home.
A funny story - my daughters tooth fell out while we were in Bali so she put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy - the tooth fairy came and left 25000rp under her pillow, well she forgot to check it in the morning as we had a early 7.00am start for the bike ride and of course room cleaning came in while we were away - they got a lovely surprise when they changed her sheets and discovered their tip.
Another thing we accidentally got into a non Bluebird taxi one night we were going from Bubba Gumps to beach end of poppies 1 a trip that would probably only be 10000rp well he started driving and said he wanted 20000rp and he wouldn't put his meter on so my husband just casually took one of his business cards and when we arrived at Poppies 1 he gave him 15000rp and said that will be fine won't it while holding the card of course he said yes. Anyway I hope I haven't bored you too much. Any questions please feel free to ask. Only another 11 months until next trip but will keep an eye out for some good specials with this new airline coming on board - maybe do a mid year trip - Geez Bali is so addictive - each time we go we stay for longer than the time before and now one time a year is not enough!!!