TUBAN
We spent the final few days in two interconnecting deluxe rooms at the Bali Garden Hotel. The grounds at the Bali Garden were great and the girls liked each of the pools. The rooms could best be described as ‘mature' and ripe for renovation (not unlike Daddy really) but they were big and perfectly adequate. It felt a bit busy for Mummy and Daddy's taste, it wasn't really, just relative to Sanur where there were unlikely to be more than 3 tables eating breakfast at the same time. The banana pancakes cooked by the girl at the grill with the beaming smile were delicious. One funny thing - you have to ask them to bring you bacon. One guy we met only worked this out on his last morning!
Went to Waterbom one day - excellent. Monkey #1 who loves Scoot boats and motor cycling and what-not loved hurtling down twisty fibreglass tubes. Monkey #2 loved splashing around in shallow waters and going down kiddy slides. Everybody loves ice cream and French fries.
The girls loved to eat at A&W in Discovery and Daddy quite liked their waffles himself. For dinner we often ate an early dinner in the food court upstairs, sitting on the balcony bit watching the sun go down.
Mummy and Daddy bought too many things and worried about weight limits.
GOING HOME
Mummy in particular was worried how the Monkeys would go with the late flight out. Things progressed rapidly at the airport and the decision was taken to spend last rupiah on access to one of the lounges (can't remember the name of it). This proved a strategic move. Chairs could be rearranged to create Monkey Holding Pen and Monkey's could be pacified with drinks and snacks on tap and big TV.
This time nice Jetstar man who said he would try and block 4th seat in the row actually did and both Monkey' slept for hours on the way home. The same could not be said for Mummy and Daddy.
On arrival in Sydney things went swimmingly until we had to wait 200 years for the stroller to come out of oversized baggage. Memo to self - next time Monkey's must be entirely self- propelled.
FINAL THINGS
No where we stayed provided breakfast cereals which are the staple food of our Monkeys. We bought a box of Weet-Bix at Hardy's in Sanur.
We found that when it came to bargaining in the markets we could get most things cheaper in Sanur than Kuta which surprised us.
Brumby tailor made three ‘clergy' shirts for Daddy who is an Anglican minister. They had a bit of trouble getting the dog-collar bit right but were happy to keep adjusting when it wasn't quite right. The finish products were great and $A25 a pop. Mummy had a simple leather jacket made there too for $A105 and was very happy with it.
After reading BTF we had formed the impression that Bali represented the worst the world had to offer when it comes to ‘hassling touts'. This was not our experience in the end. We didn't find it any worse than somewhere like Stone Town in Zanzibar or parts of Thailand.
If we go to Bali again we would probably base ourselves in Sanur and only do a couple of shopping expeditions into Kuta / Legian. The Sanur vibe suited us and our girls better.
At BGH the Coffee Shop staff seem to do the baby sitting which means that it didn't seem possible to get someone before 2pm unless it was there day off and they wanted to do it.