The Hotel
We stayed at the Ramayana which is in a really good location. Walking distance to everywhere. The room was OK, I much prefer the Bali Rani which is much more modern looking. The breakfast had a wide range of foods but I stuck with toast or cereal every morning. I'm not a fan of having rice and noodles for breakfast...even if holidaying in Bali. The pancakes were really shocking also, thats one thing I love about Bali is all the pancakes you eat...but these were such a disappointment.
The hotel provided a cot free of charge. Talk about dodgy!! If bub stood up at the side and shook it the whole side fell down (which is the way to put the side down to get baby out). It latched together by a tiny little latch that was good for nothing. If he stood at the other ends and pushed the whole cot got huge gaps between the base and the sides of the cot. I wasn't comfortable at all using this cot and really wished I packed my Kinderkot. Oh well I'll know for next time.
The pool areas were ok, didn't get to do much swimming with bub's sleeping and when he was awake we would be out and about. Got a few swims in the morning.
The shopping
The shopping hasn't changed much, same stuff. Got a couple of nice tops and dresses for about 30,000 RP each...give or take. I stocked up on some cheapy sunnies for 20,000 RP each. The main highlight of my shopping was a pile...a big pile...15 to be exact...of Billabong t-shirts for bub. I got 5 real ones and the rest were fake. So cheap, the real ones worked out to be about $12 each. Can't go wrong!! Also got him a couple of Billabong shorts that are great.
The Balinese let you walk away much easier this time round. I had previously bought bub 4 pairs of Billabong shorts for 100,000RP but I wanted to get some more to stock up. I went to a new set of guys on my very last hour in Bali. I tried so hard to get 4 pairs for 100,000RP and they let me walk away!!! I rushed back to the hotel and had my shower and went back to the markets (with 30 mins to go before we had to leave for the airport!!) to see if the original lady I had got them from was open yet. She wasn't. So I went back to the guys and said they could have everything that I had - 101,000 and hooray they let me. Funny the difference 1000 made.
Fire Dances - Seminyak
We jumped in a Taxi just outside Centro at around 5:45. Big mistake. The traffic was crazy. Anyway we finally got to Seminyak around 6:25 where the music was happening on the beach. Good atmosphere and lots of young people around. It kind of reminded me of the sort of people you see at the Fremantle Markets.
We listened to that for a bit before deciding to go get some dinner. We had the 3 wheeler pram and due to the streets being lined with motorbikes there was no way we could get the pram onto the street unless we went over the bikes. So with an empty pram we asked a young Aussie guy to help. He kindly took the pram for us but...it all happened so quickly...he nearly knocked some poor people off their motorbike!!! He walked straight into them. This poor guy was very apologetic to us?? Why us? Anyway no one was hurt and we had a bit of a laugh about it.
When we were sitting down having dinner the fire dances started.
After dinner we thought we should grab a taxi and head back. Wrong. Not a taxi in site. The transport guys wanted about 4 times the amount we paid for a taxi on the way there! So we waited a bit to see if a taxi would come. Nope. So then we decided if we walk the opposite way we would come to the main drag...So off we went down this dark dark road. We really had no idea where we were headed...but we kept on going. It was actually pretty scary! Anyway we finally saw a taxi dropping someone off at some flash hotel. So we grabbed that and finally got home.
Leaving
We got to the airport around 9:40am, we were leaving at 12:45. Got all the baggaged checked and got to the weigh in counter. Wow. All up the 6 of us had 128kilos and that wasn't including hand luggage or the pram!! 5 of us were allowed 20kilos each and bub was allowed 10kilos. Anyway we got through fine, the guy didn't say a thing. Then we went through the Departure tax area, 150,000RP and didn't have to pay for bub.
The rest of the paperwork stuff went really quickly and the wait in the airport was long and boring. We took off on time and had a good flight home except for bub's little debarcle that was all in my previous Flights report.
Other moments
We weren't very hungry one lunch time so we grabbed a cake from BreadTalk in Centro and sat down in Starbucks for an iced chocolate. YUM! Anyway we were all sitting down nicely looking around as you do. A guy came in, wearing sunglasses and holding a bag. I admit, he did look pretty suss. My Mum was extra worried about him. So we cautiously watched him as he kept looking outside. Now we started to get worried!!! He sat at the table next to us and once he sat down he reached into his bag and grabbed his mobile!!!! Right that was it we were out of there quicksmart. Drove past Starbucks the next day and it was still there thank goodness...This was the only time we were even slightly worried in Bali.
I read on here about the staff taking your babies while you have dinner. I must look like an overprotective Mum or something as no one from any restaurant tried to take him. The girls in the department stores were the funniest. I'd be pushing him in the pram and they'd all come up giggling to him and they'd touch his skin then wipe their hands on their skin. They were trying to make their skin 'white'....Good luck..hahah.
We had washing done through Mum's friend in the market. Apparently his sister did it. It always came back smelling nice however she put stupid little tags on the clothes (obviously to know what belongs to who) and she would stick these tags through the clothes down the bottom. Now all our clothes have 2 holes down the bottom. Must remember not to take bubs Pumpkin Patch and Osh Kosh clothes to Bali next time!!!!
Overall the holiday was great, none of us got even slightly sick. The kids were all well behaved except bubs night sleeps which I expected anyway. Would I go with a baby again? Absolutely!