Posted by ML on Thursday, 8. October 1998 at 13:20 Bali Time:
In Reply to: Off in 10 days, tip for baby, Please! posted by Yvonne on Tuesday, 6. October 1998 at 07:43 Bali Time:
We also just stayed at Bali Gardenia with 2 toddlers - 3 and 1 1/2 years old. The place is great! There's kitchen facilities so you can boil water, sterilize bottles and cook some light meals for the toddler if you wish. For example my kids are fond of boiled eggs so this was part of a meal/snack.
Suggest you bring all your nappies and milk powder. My kids are used to their own powder. You can get nappies and milk powder but only at a few special supermarkets catering for westerners which are some ways from the hotel. It's not worth the effort.
There's a baby pool there where even my little one can stand up in. Bring a floater and some water toys/bath toys and he would have fun. We also made friends with other little kids there. There's some shade in the baby pool...however, protective swimswear, sunscreen and a hat are all necessities.
Breakfast is a decent buffet where the baby can have egg, toast, fruit whatever. However my experience with travelling with kids is that they don't seem to eat much so we are always worried. Yet they will eat when they are hungry. You can buy bottled water (6 litre) at the hotel. We even use it for brushing teeth. Both of our kids had no problems with their tummies.
Mosquitoes weren't too big a problem there. However, repellent from dusk on is a must. All of us dress in long pants at night anyways from past experiences.
Taxis easy to get from the front of the hotel. Just insist they use the meter. We had no problems there. We had problems getting a reasonably priced car and driver. Hotel charge around 400,000rp. Yet the forum was quoting 150,000rp or less. We didn't give in to the high cost at the hotel and managed to find one on the streets in Kuta/Legian area when we went for dinner one evening. Suggest you start your search early as we actually missed a day of touring it took us longer than expected.
It actually wasn't as hot as some tropical places we've been to. The kids didn't seem to have problems with heat rash. That's because we spent so much time in the pool.
If you have any further queries, e-mail me or ask on this forum. Hope you have a fantastic time. Kids just love being on holidays!