Sorry for the Delay in the JBR,Straight back to the hectic work pace.
My Wife,4 1/2 yo Son and almost 3yo Daughter and I went for our first trip to Bali from Perth. As it was first trip we booked through Escape Travel and paid about $4500 for Airfares with Garuda,Airport Transfers,Travel Insurance,8 Nights Accom @ Dynasty in Kids Suite and Breakfast daily.
Garuda was great to fly with all the seats had the built in tv screens with games,movies,music and more. Food was great and kids got plenty to choose from.
Arriving at Bali Airport was a bit daunting since was the first time and we just followed everyone else which was easy enough. We had already got the US$25 each and this made it easier, then from there waited in line prob 10 - 15 min for the visa and then through to baggage collection. As mentioned on here about porters they are straight on to you as soon as you walk through and a firm no thanks they left us alone. After getting our baggage we went through customs which we simply send bags for scanning and then we were done. We followed our way to outside which we couldnt see our transfers for a couple of minutes till a man came and got us.
On the way to the hotel the driver was really trying to do the sales pitch and insisting if we want to go anywhere he will drive us and get discounts to places. We arrived at the dynasty which at first glance was everything we expected which is always a relief. AS we had a kids suite and there is currently only 5 available we had to wait until it was ready for check in which meant waiting 2-3 hours. We left our bags in the lobby and headed out to get our first experience of Bali/Kuta.
As soon as we got to the street we were bombarded with people shouting Transport,driver or motorbike and so on. That was only the beginning with braid your hair,massage,come into my shop all the way down the street. My wife was pretty overwhelmed at this point and was wondering what the hell we had got ourselves into. I went straight to the Kodak store to the left of the dynasty and got my first $100 changed which i did with great caution. By the end of the trip i was confident in using Kodak and would recommend only changing money by them. We the headed to the discovery mall which was nice but as the stress levels were quite high in wasnt the most enjoyable experience. The prices in most of the stores worked out quite expensive and for that reason we didnt buy anything. After the mall we headed along the beach back to the hotel to escape the constant shouting for transport etc. This was a lot calmer until we actually reached the entrance to the dynasty which has a permanent market set up.
This was my first experience of haggling and I think that it went quite well as I had my cheat sheet and also done some research into what i was will to pay. Whilst I was haggling my work was getting approached left right and centre to buy things like the name bracelets,turtle name shells etc. This made the first experience once again stressful for her so we headed back to the hotel to wait in the lobby. After a while our room was ready so we headed in to be extremely happy with the kids suite.