First of all, sorry Jamie hasn't continued his JBR yet. In some ways he is still a normal 9 year old boy!
Tomorrow is his last day at school, and with extra time allowed on the computer, I'm sure he will get to finishing it, even if as suggested by Tuberose (thanks!) he does a summary rather than a day to day 'diary'.
Now that we've been back a few weeks, I have started to think of some of the other things that surprised me when we actually got to Bali after many many months of excited planning.
NEWS
At home I guess I am a bit of a news 'junkie'. As such, I suffered serious withdrawal symptoms after just a few days in Bali. I couldn't believe that with 37 channels to choose from, i couldn't even get a cricket score from Australia! I can seriously see how if a bomb or something happened in another area of Bali, how people perhaps wouldn't know about it for some time. Please note, this is not a criticism, just an observation. I'm sure many people would be happy to escape so completely for a week or two!
THE STREETS
After months and months of researching our trip on this and other forums, I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of the place. I quickly learned that 'paper' knowledge is not 'real' knowledge! There were many shops and restaurants which I knew were on such and such a street, but I don't remember seeing one street sign, and I didn't have a decent map with me. (Not as well prepared as I thought I was!) This made it nearly impossible to find all these fabulous places people had recommended. TIP for me for next time... take a good map along! (Luckily for me, the taxi drivers we got were generally pretty good!)
HAGGLING PRICES
I was well prepared to haggle, but I was amazed at the high prices the sellers started at. From advice here, I expected, for example, to pay about 30,000 rp for a pair of copy sunnies (and probably still paying too much!) So when their first price was 150,000 rp or more, I was a bit stumped! I expected them to start at maybe 70,000 or 80,000. I did still end up getting my price (more or less), but it took a lot of hard work. I guess they need to make a living... again, not a criticism, just an observation.
BALI BELLY
Although we had all the good intentions, took handwipes with us everywhere and took the raspberry cordial with us, we didn't really follow through with any of these 'preventative' measures. We used bottled water for everything, including teeth brushing. One night Tara forgot and had a mouthful of tap water. She realised what she'd done and spat it out, but she serioulsy thought she was going to die!! We had really drummed into them the importance of not using the tap water...! Despite our slackness, none of us suffered anything even remotely like Bali Belly. More luck than sense, or are the chances of getting it a bit exaggerated?
I don't want to go on too long (as i always seem to do...sorry!) so I'll finish with a question or two:
1. On the last day, we wanted to take the kids surfing...they haven't
tried it before. But we had to cancel due to the flight changes. If we were to hire a board at Kuta beach, how much would we pay for an hour or two of board hire? Boogie boards/Malibus? I had no idea what we should be paying! And do you haggle for that kind of stuff?
2. It has been suggested to us that if we want to go back in June for a second holiday (bitten by the bug!), we should spend some time in Sanur. Can any of you suggest a place that would be good for us to stay at? We were very happy at the Dynasty, and would still go back there for some of our time.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I really do appreciate all of the positive feedback you all (well, mostly!) gave me.
Even though our holiday is now over, I plan to stick around on here. It helps keep the dream alive, which is why, I'm sure, so many of us keep coming back.
Merry Christmas!