Just Back Report January
Excuse the lateness of this report as I haven't wanted to face the reality of our holiday being over & we also came straight back to school, kids activities & work.
Background
We are a family of 4 (2A & 2C) with over 40 trips to Bali between us, with us where 2 families of 5 who where on their 1st trip. We also caught up with an other couple & their daughter who we had met on our last trip.
We chose Besakih Resort at Sanur as we had previously stayed there & been very happy with the location, rooms & the staff, although the rooms are quite simple they are always kept clean with hot water & air-conditioning enough to meet our needs. They do have a limited No of interconnecting rooms & although both the other families had requested them only 1 was successful. This was in part due to the absolute incompetence of our travel agent & the fact the large tour group of Dutch retirees had nominated a block of rooms that took in some of the rare available interconnecting. I am happy to say that my pleasure with Besakih was unchanged it is in my opinion one of the best locations in Sanur with incredibly friendly staff, nice pools & great beach vendors offering reasonably priced activities if required. We would certainly return to this hotel & would recommend it to anyone after a reasonably appointed hotel in a good location.
As you can imagine with such a big group (6 A & 8 C) organising this group was like herding cats (near impossible) even a simple walk down the beach for lunch turned into a major activity & for this reason alone I would be reluctant to go with such a big group again. We did venture out on a couple of occasions & either had to go in separate transport or in the case of our day trip to Ubud hired an air conditioned coach to transport us around.
Eating out
As part of our package we had breakfast included at the hotel, this was certainly a good start to the day with a limited but quite good offering, our children are not fussy eaters but all the young ones in our group found something to their liking out of what was on offer.
Most days we would walk up the beach for meals with Warung Kami Sama , Bonsai, Bennos & Mangoes being the main places we ate at & I would recommend all of them..Of special mention is the seafood at Bonsai which is good value & well cooked (unlike some of the food we have experienced at Jimbaran Bay) , the pizzas at Mangoes & Bonsai as well as the Rendang at Bennos (ask for extra spicy). Warung Kami Sama is 100 metres up the beach from Besakih & served a nice range at reasonable prices. We did have a few nights out while all the kids stayed back at the hotel, on these nights we ventured into the new Village restaurant just to the left of Besakih as you go onto the street, this is a very nice place to go out to, expensive by Bali standards with a dinner for 8 costing $200. We also ventured into Tandjung Sari, on our previous stays at Besakih we have walked past without bothering to have a look, whilst once again expensive in comparison to a lot of the other restaurants the food was very nice & the staff well trained. All in all I'm happy to sit on the beach to eat, especially with all the restoration work has been done & the kids can run around without upsetting other diners. On this trip I would be unable to name a restaurant that I ate at that was not good food at a reasonable price.
Activities White Water Rafting
On our last trip we went white water rafting on the ??? river with Sobek & I was determined to go again. We booked through Toureast & got what appeared to be a reasonable deal (compared to the quoted costs) of ? for adults & ? for children. Sobek are certainly a professional organisation with well trained guides & well maintained equipment with activities like this I'm happy to pay a bit extra as long as I feel a bit more secure. The cost for this activity included pick up & drop off at your hotel & lunch as well as the rafting. As there had been plenty of rain the couple of days prior the water level on the river was a bit higher & cut out a lot of the little rocks you could get snagged on it did however make the gap between the bridges & the river a bit smaller & a couple of times getting my large frame into the bottom of the raft quick enough was a challenge. I shared a raft with my 10-year-old son who once again had a ball , relaxed during the entire trip despite a close call where I just managed to grab him before he hit the water. This trip is 2 - 2 ½ hours & does require a certain amount of fitness, my son only managed to paddle for the 1st half & my old footballers knees & back did not appreciate the close quarters but I would certainly go again. At the end of this trip there is a quite steep climb out with some spectacular scenery of the river with quite a reasonable buffet lunch waiting.
Activities Waterbom Park
For the young & the young at heart this place is a must, on the 1st day at Waterbom we spent a total of 7 hours there mostly going down the rides, the oldies amongst us certainly were feeling the pace of all those stairs by the end of the day. Once again this is a good example of well-trained staff, concerned about safety with good facilities and food at reasonable prices. At the end of the day we purchased 2nd day tickets at a much reduced cost (a deal that seems to be always running). On this 2nd visit we didn't spend the same amount of time but did manage to do the same amount of damage - warning to the more mature amongst us, two adults going down some of these slides together can get up a good speed & if you come apart from your raft it can hurt....a lot, as I found out. Sometimes it pays to look at the DOB on your drivers licence before you go on some of these rides.
Tours
Because of the No of times our family has been we don't normally do tours but to show the 1st timers a small part of Bali we organised an air conditioned coach through Tour East, we did try on the street but no one seemed to be able to cope with 14 people. For this trip we organised to stop at Celuk, Mas, Goa Goja, .Ubud Monkey Forest, lunch at Murnis Warung & to finish the day a visit to Blancos art museum. For my part the trips to Celuk & Mas don't hold much interest as the goods are incredibly overpriced & the show of artistic skill limited. At the word carving in Mas a big deal was made at the 90% reduction in prices but they still remained ridiculous & in $US with no major bargaining entered into. Some of the pieces where quite exquisite but to pay a premium of 500 - 700 % over what we had seen in Sanur was to me a bit over the top.
I'm also not a big fan of the Monkey forest & stayed outside during this visit but as long as don't get too close or upset them they are ok & all the younger members of our group had a ball.
Lunch at Murnis was great with a fabulous view of the river below accompanied by some extraordinary food, not the cheapest in Ubud but one of the originals who have maintained their offering (we 1st ate at Murnis whilst staying at Tjamphuan in 1986).
The completion of touring day was to the fabulous museum of Antonio Blanco just over the bridge from Murnis, this Spanish artist certainly has lots to show & it's good to see his children keeping his memory alive & allowing the public in to see his works. Parents please be aware some of the works in this museum leave nothing to the imagination (much to the amusement of my 12 & 10 year old).
Activities off the beach in Sanur
On the beach right outside of Besakih are a great bunch of people willing to help in way possible ( & make some money along the way). As always we dealt with Yogi & Kenni & sailing, jet skis, banana boat rides and snorkelling. All these are great fun & if you've got kids with you a must.
Shopping
Staying at Sanur our 1st stop was up to Tootsies in the Sindhu Beach markets to get an idea of what the prices where, we always go back to Tootsies & Jennies as they pioneered to fixed price shopping experience in Sanur & deserve some reward for their initiative, we do however shop at other shops in this market carefully selecting those that don't annoy the crap out of you as you walk the stretch of footpath between the hotel & the market, I also will refuse to patronise those who stand waiting & pestering while you are having a meal (these are of course my rules & those more tolerant can decide on their selection of vendors). A couple of times in the Sindhu markets we were the only non Balinese walking around & it really saddened me to imagine how these stall owners must be suffering due to the down turn in tourism (or oversupply of shops).
We also ventured down to the supermarket about 10 minutes walk south of Besakih & some of the stalls down there, the main purchase of note was Gameboy advance 150+ games on one game at 250,000 RP. My son is still going strong on this one so it would seem to be a good buy. My only other shopping of note was the new shopping centre opposite Waterbom, best purchases out of there was a GB Advance Sims game for 250,000 & a visit to the Authentic Bintang shop for some real merchandise, tshirts @ 85,000 for good quality & great designs.
Conclusion
This was my 15th visit to Bali & I loved every minute of it, it was good to play the host to some 1st timers & show them some of the special things I love about Bali. I must say however that the total cost to get a family of four there when you can't be flexible with your dates is starting to get quite expensive. Is it my imagination or since Qantas stopped flying there has there been less specials on offer? If I can't use some of my Frequent Flyer points to get there next time we might be staying in Aus for the next holiday. With such a large group the organisation was a pain & maybe next time I'll be more directive rather than trying to consult about everything.