WARNING IF YOU DONT LIKE BAD SPELLING OR GRAMMAR DON'T READ ON.
We got back last Sunday, and already are talking about planning the next trip. This was my 5th ,trip first was back in 1979 ,my wife's 4th and the kids 2nd.We had a good flight AP (on time)from Adelaide and arrived in Denpasar, no probs with visa US dollars and straight through.
Arrived to a warm welcome and drinks at the Hotel Padma. We had an hour wait for our adjoining rooms to be ready. We had ground floor superior rooms, which was good because my son and I took our own surfboards. I would recommend the Padma, it's a very nice hotel, get breakfast included...best breakfast I have ever had. We only ate breakfast at the Padma.
After unpacking, hit the pool and a couple of Binnies
, son grabbed his board and was straight out in the surf. His mission was to surf every day in Bali. We were in Bali 3 years ago and the kids enjoyed eating at Dolphins, so that's where we would be having our first meal. We didn't think it was as nice as it was last time, so that was the only time we ate there. We tried many different places to eat and didn't have a bad meal anywhere. Our favorite restaurants this time was Drops (magnificent food) on Jalan Padma .We also enjoyed Poco Loco, Padma Club (great seafood), Uncle Norms, Bubba Gump and Legian Snacks.
Up early the first day about 6 o'clock and had a walk along the beach, nice time of the day and no sellers on the beach. Back to the pool for a swim and then wake the kids up for breakfast, so much to choose from with so little time (breakfast is from 6:30 till 10).The plan was to have a big breakfast and just a small snack for lunch, well that lasted for about a day. I found it hard to order just a jaffle for lunch for 5000 rps when I could order prawns, fish and chips for only 20,000.I put on a few kilos over the 15 days.
After breakfast it was off to Makro to stock up on Bintang, water, soft drink
and nibbles. Wife also brought a few things to take home, (shampoo, toothbrushes ECT really cheap).
Then back to the hotel so that the girls could get their hair braided, they paid 100,000 rps each and were very happy with the job they did.
DAY 3
We
spent at Dreamland, really nice beach with a good surf break. The girls spent the day swimming and lazing on the sun lounges, while my son and I surfed Dreamland and Balangan.
DAY 4
It was off to Waterbom Park. We had a quick look around the Discovery Mall before we went into Waterbom Park. While we were there we were given a 20% discount card for Waterbom Park so that was a bonus. Had an absolute ball, sore the next day from climbing stairs and bouncing my way down the water slides. We had pizza for lunch which was nice but took for ever to come. You can purchase a second day pass for about $5.00 Aus, which my wife and daughters did.
The next couple of days we spent around the pool, surfing out the front of the Padma and shopping around legian.
My son and I met Rocky at West Side Surf (Jalan Padma and used him as a surf guide. He is a great bloke with heaps of surfing experience; He can save you heaps of time and money by taking you straight to the places that are working. You can contact rocky on 756070 - 081338 790992 or email him on
rockybalisurf@yahoo.com.He took us to Kramas, Canggu and Padang - Padang, had really good surfs at all especially Kramas.
We had my birthday and my daughter's birthday in Bali, went out to Poco Loco for mine and had a great time at Bubba Gump for my daughters, most of the staff there can out and sang happy birthday to her. Both the meals were really good.
One of the best things we did this trip was a days cycling trip from Kintamani to Ubud. You get picked up from your hotel about 7:30 in the morning, taken up to Lake Butur by bus. Have breakfast over looking the volcanoes and the lake. Then they suit you up to the right size bike and then you roll for about 35 miles , mostly down hill, through farming villages, rice paddy terraces and some of the most beautiful scenery down to ubud where you have a buffet lunch about 3 oclock.We booked it through the agency the at the hotel, they wanted $300 dollars Au to start with and we managed to get it down to $229.Great day out , my youngest daughter is 11 yrs and she managed quite well , she had the smallest bike they had , so I wouldn't recommend doing it if you were much younger.
We also booked a trip with Island Explorer Cruises over to Lembongan Island for a day.
We were told to book this late the night before you want to go on it. You have more chance at getting a lot cheaper price, than if you book it a few days in advance. They wanted $330 Au for 3 adults (over 12 is classed as a adult ) after about 5 phone calls back and forth between the travel agent and the Island Explorer we got it for $229.Got picked up at the hotel at 7:30 ,taken over to Benoa Harbor to board the Fun Ship. Takes about 2 hours to get to Lembongan, where you can go snorkeling, banana boat rides, kayaking and ride in the glass bottom boat. You can also use the pool at the Coconuts Beach resort, where you have a buffet style lunch. Island Explorer have 4 boats that all go over and meet at the same place so you have to share the one banana boat with all for boats so the kids might only get 1 or 2 shots if they are lucky. Make sure you are in the first group that goes for lunch as they seemed to run out of some things later on.
Well that will do for now. Hope It's not too borinG
i have added a link to some of my holiday snaps.