To re-cap: JBR 25/12/10 - 29/12/10 Myself & 7yr old
19/1/11 - 26/1/11 The Family
WEATHER - We got really great weather over Xmas. Arrived to a lovely day, warm but not too hot. It was over 40degrees at home those days - know where I'd rather be!
Apparently it had rained for a week before we got there but we had 2 ½ days of great weather before a full day of rain on the last day, which was our planned dept store shopping day anyway.
The weather in January was a mix. A couple of really hot/humid days, some heavy rain at times, mostly in the evening. Some rain with thunder and lightening which made the hotel staff panic and hurry to get everyone out of the pool. Some of the downpours weren't long but very heavy resulting in lots of flooding. Walked to Bubba Gumps for dinner one night. Pleasant walk there. Started thunderstorming whilst we were then & then we came out ½ an hour later to a totally flooded street overflowing onto the sidewalk. Made it interesting trying to get a taxi - the water was up to the door. Rest of the time the weather was lovely.
RATE - We got 9,000k the first morning and then 8,850k - 8,900k thereafter. Mostly changed our money at the start of Poppies I. ~ 50m up on the left was a moneychanger, up a few steps into a glass-enclosed booth. Never a problem.
MASSAGES - near HRH - found the best to be up Jl. Pantai Kuta from Starbucks 100 - 200mts or so. On the left is Steiner and on the right a few more metres up is Inner Glow. The ambience in both of these was very nice and relaxing. No need to book, was attended to straight away. Another recommended before we went was Dikuta which is a bit further up on the left. We went to go there once and whilst it was cheaper than the others by 20 - 30k I don't think the ambience was anywhere near as nice, only one masseur at the time, couldn't do straight away. Didn't bother going back there after trying the other two.
SMUDGE - contacted Smudge by email before I went and met him both times outside the Baleka Hotel with toddler/baby clothes.
BIG BOYS TOYS - Poppies II, next to Barong Hotel. Husband and son both bought large remote controlled helicopters here. 1M each.
TAXI'S - mostly used Bluebird to get around. As usual, whenever we got in one of the others there was some issue. Didn't want to use the meter, asking for extra money, appearing to want to take the longest possible route.
ADI DHARMA HOTEL - Have booked a family room at this hotel for September so went to have a look at the place! No family rooms free to have a look at but showed us another similar room but smaller. Room looked ok, pretty fresh with no sign of mould or the like. Smallish pool and Balinese style hotel. Basically, it looked ok for a budget hotel but we are going to change. It backed onto a swampy type area that looked like it would be rife with mosquito's. The location is also not great for us with kids who don't like to walk far. It's a little off the main track and about a 10min walk to P2 coming out at Barong driveway. Not a bad choice tho if you don't mind this.
RESTAURANTS:
BALI BEACH SHACK - Garlic Lane - Went here Xmas night for the buffet. Nice food. Ate quickly and left as we'd been up since 5am and 7yr old was very tired.
MOZZARELLA - Padma St - great as usual. Super fast service and nice food.
YUTZ'S - Rum Jungle Rd - good food and ambience, busy.
TOMMY'S - Rum Jungle Rd - mainly for B/F's which are great here. They also do great snacks/drinks. Very cheap and good. Went back with hubby in Jan to drop off some vegemite I said I'd take to Desi - they remember us from previous visits and are always great with the kids.
TREEHOUSE - Poppies I - nice food, very cheap
LA - WALON - Poppies I - nice food, cheap
TJ'S - Poppies I - Poppies I - Mexican food. Good food, not super cheap but ok
DELICIOUS ONION - cnr Jl Dyanapura and Drupadi in Seminyak, next to Harmony Hotel. A favourite of ours from previous visits. If you like pork crackle/ribs the pork special is not to be missed and the brownies for dessert are to die for. Their other food is great too and pretty cheap. The turn-off to the road is across from the Breezes Hotel - this is where I direct taxi's to and then it is up here 100m or so on the right.
KFC - Kuta - not very Balinese I know but always good after a massage!
UN'S - Poppies I down near Legian St/Bemo corner end - nice food, prompt service, lovely service. Free small cocktail on arrival and small entrée.
BUBBA GUMP'S - main drag Jl Kartika Plaza next to Waterbom - been here a few times. VERY American, VERY expensive but still a nice atmosphere. I was after a steak and had a very nice one here but it was $30AU. Good kids meals with colouring crayons supplied.
PEARL - Jl Double Six - husband and I went out leaving the kids at hotel. This is a French restaurant we've been to a couple of times. Beautiful food and setting. (we actually went to go to Ma Joly as it was closer to HRH but on arrival they were booked out - a function I think. It does pay to ring ahead it would have saved us a lot of mucking around!) Shared the tasting plate to start - lovely. Whilst I'm not little I still need a much bigger stomach to eat here. After the main I was struggling to fit in the dessert but there's no way I was not having it. Sushi! Made with sticky rice and fruit and a sauce of some sort - yummo! Other girls there had come just for the dessert (like I did in December!) and they had the dessert tasting plate each. This looked so good too but there's no way I could have got it in.
FLAPJACKS - out front of HRH to the right - pancakes/crepes - nice but DO NOT make the mistake of ordering two because you can't decide which to have like I did - they are huge and it's embarrassing when you have to leave most of it uneaten.
STARZ DINER - at Hard Rock - we had a free dinner included in our booking so went here the first night as we were all very tired. It was a buffet and was nice enough. Most nights the place was empty. Wouldn't they be better ½ ‘ing the price and actually getting people to eat there?
We don't stay a lot in this area and there were many more I'd written down to try in Poppies I & II but they'll have to wait for another visit. Lots of cheap eateries down these lanes. There's no need to spend big money at places like Bubba's.
In December the 7yr old and I did a couple of trips. The first day we went to the Bird Park as he said this is where he'd like to go. I was last there in 2007. Was a good day out and also includes entry into the Reptile Park across the way which he really liked.
The next day we went to Waterbom Park. Man, those steps are hard work. He was now tall enough to go on all the big speed slides and I was able to wait down the bottom while he went up and down about 30 times. He tried to get me on the speed slide but you'd have to knock me unconscious first! The only ride he couldn't go on to his disappointment was the new one ‘Climax'. You have to weigh over 45kg or you get stuck ½ way.
For our week in January we did absolutely nothing and it was brilliant. The benefit of staying somewhere like the Hard Rock is there is so much to do there for the kids with the slides and kids activities. We ducked out for a couple of hours at a time while they were doing kids club activities to have massages or have lunch but doing nothing else for a change was great. We've done a lot of the other stuff and whilst I'm sure there is more we could find to do it was great to do nothing at all really.
We did get down a few laneways that I didn't know existed. There's so much there that even after 15 or so trips we've still only scratched the surface! We wanted to go back to Big Boys Toys one night so walked down the road from alongside TJ's from Poppies I to II. Got very interesting as the road was flooded and we had to try and make our way thru. Discovered Kuta Townhouses along here - so that's where it is!
Have also never been down Jl Benesari before or anywhere around that area. Most of our trips have been over the last 5 years since our youngest was born so we've always had small children which doesn't usually make it ideal for walking around exploring. We did a couple of days in May by ourselves and hired a scooter and would love to get to do this again to explore all these sorts of places - oh to have grandparents who want to have the children for a week or so - dream on!!
Thanks for reading if you got all this way : )