Our Family Holiday group included my husband, my 9 year old daughter, my 8 year old son, my mother and myself. This was the 13th trip to Bali for my husband and myself. The 12th trip for my 2 children and the 2nd trip for my mother to Bali.
We arrived at Denpasar airport approximately 20 minutes later than scheduled. Paid our visa on arrival and collected our bags, which was a quick process. Then made our way out of the airport exit to the sweet smelling warm night air that we embraced with sheer pleasure. I sighed a breath of relief and felt happy to be back in paradise once again 'our second home'.
We were warmly welcomed and greeted by our balinese friends and their children and then found our transfer. We dont usually get transfers from airport as our friends always pick us up, but this time we were staying in a villa so the arrangements were to be picked up by the villas driver and escorted to our villa. Our destination from the airport was to The Royale Kuta villa complex, where we would be spending the next 7 nights. This was a short trip for us and we all wish it could have been longer, as we always do, but of course a quick trip is better than no trip.
So as we'd planned my husband departed the airport in my friends car and they went to get some snacks and drinks and were going to meet us back at our villa. My children, my mother and my balinese friend and her children and myself piled into the car provided for our transfers and were taken to our villa.
Upon arrival to our villa which is located in Kubu Anyar (a street located behind waterbom park)we were met by the villa caretaker whom we happened to already know and he is a great guy. We stayed in Villa A3 and I must also state that this is our first stay in a villa in Bali. We were shown through the villa and got instructions for the use of the safe and shown where the pool was. The pool was located close to the villa so we did not have to walk far to go for a dip in the communnual pool which is situated in the villa complex.
The villa was great and was very clean and smelt beautiful when we first entered it. Its nicely decorated and furnished and was very spacious. There were 4 bedrooms, the main bedroom had a huge king sized bed with posts a television with dvd player and an ensuite bathroom up stairs. Also upstairs was another small bathroom with a shower and toilet and a bedroom with 2 single beds and a rumpus room with x-box and playstation and cupboard with board games to keep the kids amused, there was also a day bed. Downstairs was the lounge room with comfortable lounges, a bed room with another 2 single beds and the kitchen. The kitchen had a full sized fridge, microwave, juicer and all kitchen accessories. There was a door leading from the kitchen to another private bedroom which had a queen sized bed. Outside the glass kichen slider doors was a 8 seater gazebo table and chairs and a very high wall for privacy, we spent a lot of time sitting here and enjoying late afternoon pre-dinner drinks.
So after the men had returned with some cold drinks and we had the run-down and welcoming to the villa we broke open the duty free and had our first drink to celebrate our arrival to Bali with our friends. The kids all got into the kit kats and m&m's and I had bought some butter microwave popcorn from home with me, so popped that in the microwave to snack on with our drinks. We caught up on chat with our friends while all the kids enjoyed the extra space and comfort of the villa and played hide and seek. Our friends left at 2am and we went to bed at 2.30am.
Day 2 in Bali (Monday 4th June):
Considering that we went to bed late or early in the morning, we still all awoke early today and were eager to get out and about. So we all got ready and were interested to explore our location in daylight and get our bearings of where the villa is located. We walked out the villa entrance and followed a small laneway that took us directly onto the main street located directly across from the green garden in Tuban, so that was easy. The children wanted to eat at Daddy's cafe this morning, so Daddys Cafe it was for a 'Reggae Breakfast'.
After breakfast we went to Discovery Mall and had a wander around and looked at all the shops. I got my daughter a silver harmony ball pendant and a good quality silver chain necklace from Centro. I also got a few frangipani hair clasps from one of the small stalls set up on the first floor of the mall.
We then all got a cab to legian and our first stop was indonational where we had our first bintang in Bali. The beer is nice and cold here, as always and the kids had a pineapple juice. While sitting here we were approached by a guy selling music cd's so we purchased quite a few from him and the sound quality of these cd's is great. After we'd finished a couple of Bintang's each we wandered out into the streets to look at the markets.
Hubby purchased about 100 dvd's from Jimmy Disc Centre and the quality of the Dvd's is very good, he told us he sells his Dvd's with a one year gaurantee lol. Also 2 percent of the money you spend on Dvd's or a tour from him goes to help poor school children at his village, which is great. I got a cotton dress from Anton Shop, and my hubby always buys levi jeans from Anton and gets them hemmed up on the spot, as anton's relative in the next door shop to him is a tailor. Then we went to IWAN Collection and got some beaded thongs for my daughter and myself and mum purchased some too. Next stop was Wayan and Friends for a fix of Nasi Goreng and another Bintang. We then made our way a little further up the street and got a taxi to the Bintang Supermarket for some supplies for the villa, the taxi waited for us there and turned his metre off while we got groceries. Hubby got some clear phone covers at the shop located to the right on the outside of the supermarket then we were dropped back at our villa. We went for a refreshing swim at the villa complexes pool then relaxed and enjoyed a few duty free drinks.
Tonight we had dinner at the surf club, hubby had nasi goreng, the kids had a pizza, I had mie goreng and mum had a gourmet steak sandwich. Being my mother's first time here I showed here the surfboard on the verandah and she did some ridiculously funny poses on the board pretending to surf while I took her photo, we all had a turn and the photos needless to say were very amusing. Kids were getting sleepy so we got a cab back to the villa, put on a new music cd and enjoyed a drink in the warm air under the cabanna then retired for the night.
JBR - Part 3 Next Installment Our Day at Ubud.