Having trouble putting up my whole post, so am breaking it up and hoping it works!Here goes...
It's only taken me 3 weeks, but better late than never, I suppose.
After a couple of months of planning & a fair addiction to this site, (this really added to the excitement. Well mine anyway), we were finally off to Bali. Although, a certain teenager, who was missing out on ‘very important' computer time, made comment that I didn't need to actually make the trip as apparently, due to said addiction, I already knew everything there is to know about Bali and when is it my turn on the computer! Ignorance is bliss and my addiction continues.
So Hubby, Son (19), Daughter (17.5), my Mum (who is a bit of a Bali veteran) & I headed off on the 5pm Jetstar direct flight. Everything was fairly uneventful, except for the last minute dash back to Duty-free to recover forgotten items. A relaxing holiday is not the time to give up smoking because you put them in the wrong duty-free bag & you won't get them till you get back to Sydney! We chose not to order an in-flight meal, so can't comment on these, but the flight was great for a budget price.
We arrived at Denpasar a touch late, due to some head winds, but were met by Mr Bob and were through immigration fairly quickly. We had to wait a while for our bags to come through. I suppose this would be because we checked in early. Therefore, they would have been last off. Typical. Not to worry though, we were on holidays and were already slipping into ‘Bali time'.
We stayed at Matahari Bungalows in a deluxe room, which was close to the pool & restaurant and being at the back of the hotel, was fairly quiet. We also ventured up the back lane into Mataram St(?) where we found a great place for our Bali sim card, as well as laundries, grocers and all manner of unexpected treasures.
We really liked the hotel, as it was quite central and a good base to acquaint/reacquaint ourselves with the hustle and bustle of Kuta/Legian. It was also only a short walk to the nightclubs, so less stress when the teens wanted to go out. (Is there really such a thing as ‘less stress' when they want to explore the nightlife of a foreign country?) We will stay in Legian on our next trip, as it is a bit quieter and we won't have the kids with us. They are adamant though that they will stay at Matahari on their next trip (self funded next time) as they had an absolute ball there. The 24hr restaurant/bar at the front of the hotel, Heaven, has a pool table upstairs, which got a fair work out. As did the fantastic bar attendants, with many requests for strawberry daiquiris keeping them busy.