Left from Perth with Virgin on the 12.15pm flight on 14th August. My 14th or 15th trip, wife's 4th and our 2yr old boy's 2nd.
All going well and on-time until we are taxing for takeoff when, without any warning signs, our 2 yr old vomits all down my shirt and all over my crotch. Some frantic movement from the hosties and my wife to get our boy into the toilets and cleaned up ensues before takeoff. Nice start !!! Gets worse though when he then does samee all over the wife - so we are both smelling lovely for the remainder of the flight - thank god it is only 3 hours or so. The boys seems to have a slight fever but is in good spirits.
Used VIP visa on arrival service of one of the ones regularly mentioned on here - not very impressed with this one as the guy was helping about 9 people thru all by himself - this made it actually quite slow when he went off to get the stamps and visas. The service i used the previous year was more personal and much quicker because of us being the only ones the agent was assisting. Still seemed to be a little quicker than the other passengers and any quicker time helped with a tired toddler and two parents covered in dried vomit !!!
We have a driver up to Ubud to the Alam Shanti. Bali Baby Hire deliver a cot and steriliser to the hotel right on the appointed time and make life much easier.
The boy seems a little "off" so we order in superb pizzas from Pizza Bagus and all head to bed early. But we are awoken every hour upon the hour by our little man who does not seem happy.
In the morning our little man is pretty listless and grumpy and wont eat or drink a thing so i take him down to the local clinic adjoining the Spirit Hotel where the Dr advises that he has a bit of an ear infection. But unfortunately the fever and him not wanting to eat or drink has left him dehydrated so he recommends a hospital visit. Down to BIMC where his fever has cranked up and they get him straight into a bed and on a saline drip. We spend the night at BIMC and $1,000 later and he is all good. The staff here were great and made a stressful experience a whole lot easier.
So after two nights of no sleep the wife and i are not feeling so good but the boy is like the energizer bunny making up for lost time. That made for a few tiring days over the next day or two.
Enjoyed our next few days in Ubud, massages at Alam Wangi Spa and a few meals at Batan Waru (still my favourite in Ubud for Indonesian dishes) and Laka Leke coz it is so easy with a 2yr old being so close to Alam Shanti.
Bought a couple of paintings for our new house and do little else other than swims in the pool and a visit to the Bird and Reptile Parks.
After 6 nights we head down to Sanur to stay at Rajanatha Villa. The Villa was down a long narrow driveway that may not suit some people but this did not worry us and we loved the pool and having the outdoor kitchen for cooking up stuff for our boy. Had not stayed in the southern end of Sanur before and quite enjoyed it - certainly a bit quieter than the northern section but still has the beach path which i love for early morning walks pushing the pram. Not too many outings from Sanur - one trip to Carrefour for some food and a few trips to Hardys for essentials.
On one trip we stopped at McDonalds for some Bubur Ayam for our boy as my wife (who is Indonesian) makes it for him at home- what a mistake !!! All we heard from him for the rest of the holiday from the moment he woke till he fell asleep was begging for bubur !!! The Villa staff were great and made a daily trip to McD's for us to get 3 of these bubur rice dishes and he ate and ate and ate - big growth spurt we think !!!
Had some nice home delivery meals at the villa from Sale Pepe and Fortune Cookie chinese. Ate out a couple of times at the Stadium bar ( i think it is called) while i was watching the NRL games. The staff here were fabulous and all loved our little boy so they had him up at the bar and in the kitchen the whole time we were here - feeding him sugary treats which we did not realise until the sugar rush kicked in about an hour later when he went mental around the pool back at the villa - it was like he was drunk - hilarious !!!
All in all a good trip although i probably would not take a 2 yr old on holiday again as it was quite tiring as we never really have any time to ourselves. Perhaps a babysitter for a few nights would have been good but we did not have the details of any so we just spent all our time together. Things we learn !!!
The main things about Bali remain the same for us - beautiful, beautiful, gentle people who love to chat and interact and are so welcoming. Having a child certainly reinforces how gentle and caring they are and how much they love to ask questions and tell you about their children and family. They Balinese really do have their priorities in the right places.
Might have a year or two off from our Bali trips now while the boy gets through the terrible two's and gets a bit older and more manageable.
I think the next trip in two years or so will definitely be a villa holiday - we did prefer the larger area and private pool and convenience of having a kitchen and separate lounge area with TV - which is certainly handy when the little one wants to watch the Wiggles and Teletubbies. Although i think a villa that is maybe part of a hotel complex would be good as it would be nice to have the associated facilities that a hotel can provide.