SANUR
We were booked in at the Gazebo and Daddy was a bit nervous after reading some of the things posted about the Gazebo on BTF. These comments seemed justified when on arrival the room didn't look much in the dark and then handle of one of the bathroom doors came off on first touch.
But in the morning after a good sleep things looked different. The Gazebo and the room itself were kind of quirky but in a delightful, pleasant sort of a way. The grounds were not all neatly laid out paths, identical cottages and well-manicured stretches of grass. Instead it was a riot of tropical trees and flowers and felt like a bit of a village. Our ‘family room' (2 rooms) was nothing flash, but let's be honest - we're nothing flash either. It was clean, the bed was comfortable, it had two bathrooms and the best shower we experienced in Bali and a delightful little veranda area. Best of all, it opened right out onto the ‘garden pool' which was perfect for our girls and which almost nobody else seemed to use. If felt like we had our own private pool to the extent that Monkey #1 came and reported with a concerned voice ‘there's someone in our pool' on the odd occasion that somebody else stumbled upon it.
The staff were great too. On the first morning when I wandered up to reception to report the detached door handle I got back to the room to discover two guys already fixing it. The reception staff knew every one's name and were good for a chat and the odd Indonesian lesson.
Breakfast was nice enough and the restaurant was right down on the beach and just the perfect spot to start the day. One word of warning for bacon lovers. The Gazebo appears to be halal, so no bacon just smoked beef which is nice enough but not bacon.
While we were there they seemed to be progressively demolishing and rebuilding large chunks of the hotel, but if the end result is basically sama-sama we'd happily stay again. We loved the beach at Sanur, the path along the beach is stroller friendly and by day two the sellers along the path and the girls on the beach just smile rather than chasing you.
We tended to eat at different places along the beach for lunch but had dinner every night at Kami Sama which was next door to the Gazebo. The food was good but we really kept going back so the girls had a bit of routine. Plus they liked the budgie in a cage (henceforth known with great originality as ‘Blue Bird') and the white dog that hung around.
From Sanur we did a half-day trip to the Safari park which the girls thought was great. We were the first people to arrive at 9.15am and so didn't que for anything. The park is relatively stroller friendly. Maree who owns the villa we stayed at on Lembongan (see below) arranged a driver for us. We thought that he would just take us and wait and bring us back. Instead a lovely woman named Wendy came in the car, guided us around the Safari Park and was enormously helpful with managing the girls as they hit their respective feral patches throughout the morning. All up it was about 5 hours and we paid 200,000 (in the end I gave 250,000 because of all the help with the girls).
We also did a half day trip to Ubud with Wendy again which was less successful. Monkey #1 and Monkey #2 enjoyed the Monkey Forest and in particular the sight of Mummy with a monkey climbing all over her making her clothes all dirty. They were less enraptured at the idea of walking up and down the street looking at shops. At the great Babi Guling place Monkey #1 at plain rice and she only did that under sufferance.
There are some great boutiques in Sanur selling high quality kids clothes at good prices. We liked the ones in Sanur better than the ones we found in Kuta and Legian later on.
Next Stop Lembongan...