We arrived home 3 weeks ago, but unfortunately I literally got sick the night we returned with campylobacter gastrointeritis which I had for 2 weeks (yeah, I know Ron, I'm bloody hopeless!) so this is very late. Sooo glad I didn't get that infection at the start of my trip! Anyways...
My husband, 9 & 7 year olds & I had a brilliant 3 weeks. We kicked off the trip in Kerobokan staying at the Bali Ayu on Jl Petitinget for 3 nights. Top little very budget hotel. Bathrooms were a bit drab and unclean with cold water only, but everything else was great and for $25.00 per night for all of us, I was very impressed. Beautiful staff, gardens, pool and pool bar, and great breakfast included. We had never been to Kerobokan before and I must admit I loved it. It had a fantastic feel. Even Seminyak is too busy for me now, so I definitely enjoyed the peace and quiet. You can walk around the little windy Petitinget street (which becomes "Eat Street") from the hotel all the way to Jl Seminyak (long walk, but heaps of taxis). Loads of fantastic restaurants along the way. Had a fantastic meal at Venue @ the Moon and highly recommend the chili salt squid, duck spring rolls and death by chocolate mousse cake. The other fantastic and incredibly cheap meal was at Taman Putri Cottages (which is diagonally across from Bali Ayu). Best ‘cumi cumi' ever, as well as wood oven pizza and the best complimentary tomato bruschetta. Also visited Day Dream and was very impressed. Must wear sunglasses as the whole place is stark white and modern and centres around a lovely blue pool. It is basically a bar and swimming pool that serves pool snacks. And then, after months of pleading and several heated arguments with my husband telling me 'It's just not bloody Bali and I'm not going there!, my husband finally agreed to let me indulge in a visit to Ku De Ta. We sat on the edge of the concrete overlooking the ocean (no chairs left, but I soldiered on!) listening to great music and watching our children frolic on the grass with really rich kids who didn't speak of word of English! (wow, I've really made it, I thought). I was loving it and, just as I was savoring the last mouth full of my $10.00!! half glass of wine , husband told me in his serious, monosyllabic voice that it was time to go. I begged for another glass of wine and explained that it is very hard to stop at one and the atmosphere was well, atmospheric, but he said no way, not at $10 bucks a glass. Anyways, after promising to do things no wife should have to do, I finally got my second glass, then after my daughter and I had the best ever visit to any toilet anywhere, (and we had photos taken in them) we had to go as husband was hungry. So after finding out what I had to do for another drink, there was no way I was going to ask if we could eat there.
From Kerobokan we went to Sanur to catch the Scoot over to Lembongan. Very impressed with Scoot cruises. Warning; do not go straight down to the beach, as every man and his dog tells you 'Yeah, yeah, I'm Scoot Cruises' and try and shuffle you into some piece of poop to send you to your watery grave. Scoot's office is at the very start of Jl Hangtua, on the left if your facing the beach. Anyways, they had just put on another run at 10.30am that morning, which was lucky, cause we sooo missed the 9.,30am. It was running very late so Trevor from Perth (the owner), came down to the beach where you wait and bought as all beers and snacks and drinks for the kids and apologised for the inconvenience. He was very nice and the ride over was fast and fantastic! To pull up to that island is mind blowing. It is so beautiful and pristine. A friend in Perth had organised for his mate Putu, the owner of Bar & Cafe Bali on Mushroom Beach to meet us. Putu took us to the Tanis Villas. What a great guy. He really looked after us. He makes the fantastic seafood chowder at his cafe which is beautiful. The White Chocolate and Mango Parfait was also a winner. We had a glorious 5 days on Lembongan staying at the Tanis Villas in Mushroom Bay with our great host Europe. Europe was born with only small stumps for arms and one foot, but completely capable of anything. I saw him about to lift a king size mattress into a villa on his own and I ran to help. He said that he does it all the time on his own because he goes to the gym, works out and does yoga! (more than me). As there are no cars or taxis we hired motorbikes and explored the island with our kids between our legs on the bikes. Absolutely terrified at first, not to mention really embarrassed at having to ask four and a half year old locals to start it for me when I stalled it, but it was amazing that within a few hours it felt like I'd been riding a bike for years. The kids loved it! One day we went out for a ride and my husband and daughter were quite a way ahead of us. Unfortunately I turned right instead of left and headed off down some goat track in the middle of no where and all of a sudden found myself doing a 3 point turn in the middle of a illegal cock fight with 50 blokes staring at me. After apologising profusely and assuring my son over and over again that we'll be OK, we headed back and after three trips between the two villages, met up with husband again. Also happened to be riding along a track heading out to the mangroves and saw literally millions of crisp new rupiah scattered all over the road! At first we thought it was a trap, but then saw the wallet it had fallen out of. Must have only just fallen out of someone's pocket after riding over massive potholes which are everywhere. We collected it all very quickly before the locals that were right near us saw it (I know, half of me wanted to give it to them as well, but the guy who it belonged to was only 16 years old and was going to need it!) Didn't know what our chances would be of finding the lad (as we had seen his photo on his scuba card) but as luck would have it we were walking passed a resort the next day and saw him lying on a day bed. Had great adventures around the island and also over the suspension bridge to Ceningan to see the incredible blow holes. I must admit, corny as it might sound, riding around with the wind blowing in my hair felt so free and exhilarating, I can't wait to go back. Had a great meal at the famous Ketut's Thai, which is just a little room amongst a whole lot of makeshift buildings and very tricky to find, sought of out the back of Mainski I think. Ketut is such a nice lady and does the best red Thai curry. Found out that although she is Balinese she was educated in Thailand, hence the Thai food. Also had lovely meals at Linda's and Mushroom Beach Villas. The food at Tanis Villas is also excellent. Especially the Yam Noa Sod salad and steak, cheese and salad rolls. Unfortunately, as it is set back from the beach, not many people know it is there. Every night all of the Mushroom Bay resort restaurants were booked out and the Tanis was empty. Had several bintangs at Scooby Doo bar on the beach in Jungut Batu and the kids watched a movie on their huge screen. Must admit I loved the being on the beach in Jungut Batu way better than Mushroom Bay. Will definately stay their next time. We had taken over a suitcase full of little girls and boys clothes to give away. Didn't realise how extremely awkward it would feel to find someone to give them to without feeling like you were offending somebody? In our travels we saw a couple with a young 4 year old girl and baby boy in the middle of no where building a house on their own with little limestone rocks. They looked very needy. We gathered up the clothes and went out there to see them and tried to explain to them (as they didn't speak ANY English), that we would like to give them these bags of clothes. They finally understood, and to see this little girl running around with a furry, pink Pumpkin Patch hat on screaming with delight was priceless. Well, that was until we gave them two lovely plush teddies, then the baby just shrieked in terror. I'm sure he's quite attached to it by now...or not. The father was so grateful and did what Westerners usually do; spoke Indonesian very loud thinking we might understand it more, then we drove off. It was beautiful. We then found the little goat track that takes you to Sunsets, which for those who don't know is a two story wooden building with an open top story in the middle of no where, overlooking the most wonderful ocean side cliff and watched the sunset. It was magical. Anyways, definitely going back to Lembongan.
From there we spent 10 days in Sanur. We had booked at the Bali Kembali, but after having a quick look at the place before leaving for Lembongan we decided absolutely not. The place looked positively deserted and unkempt and had a green pool. We had rung Bloody Ron from Lembongan who luckily said he had room at the Inn. Husband thought he was in heaven when he saw the size of the esky near the pool filled to the top with bintang and ice. I thought I was in heaven when I saw the size of the two bedroom house and I had to keep checking with Irma (Ron's wife) that it wasn't a mistake. The wooden carving on top of our fridge said 'Too Easy', which pretty much summed it up. Met some wonderful people there, had some great laughs and the feel is very relaxed and homely. Thanks Ron and Irma for looking after us. We are still missing your 'Cooees' every morning.
Ron was kind enough to invite us to a wonderful party at Spirit Café. We got there about 3pm and didn't leave until midnight. What a fantastic bunch of people we met, including Liz, the owner of Spirit to whom was celebrating her birthday. We had such a brilliant time. When we got home my husband and I who are usually tucked up in bed by 9.30pm decided we wanted to party on. We put the kids to bed at 1am in the morning, asked the gorgeous security guard who sits practically outside our front door to make sure no axe murderers go into our room and gave him one of our mobile phones to ring us on if an axe murderer did happen to get passed him, and told him we were going out for a whole hour all by ourselves. Now, this was a pretty big deal, as my husband and I have been attached at the hip to our kids for 9 years and never leave them with sitters and go out (damn those pink drinks with arak and floating bits of mint at Liz's party...). Oh, but did I tell you that the we asked the security guard (for the life of me I can't remember his name, it was either Wayan, Ketut, Putu, Made, Ayu, Kadek, you get the picture, and again, damn that pink drink), if he had a motor bike we could borrow? He said no, but that he would wake Gede (one of Ron's staff who lives at the hotel) and ask him if we could borrow his bike. We begged and pleaded, (even in our most drunken state we are extremely polite and non troubling people), not to wake Gede, but this guy was so nice and so accommodating he just kept going! Anyway, next thing you know we're out the front being shuffled off on what we then found out to be a manual kick start motorbike. For God's sake, how the hell was I going to change gears on a manual when I didn't have any four & a half year olds around to even start the bloody thing. Anyways, our ‘friend' started it for us, but unfortunately it (or I) stalled it at the end of the road. Luckily, even though the streets of the southern end of Sanur are completely empty at this time of the early morning, a couple just happened to stroll past and kindly started for us, albeit with a lot of trouble (ha, not just me, I thought!). From there we had the most hilarious ride to Double Dutch. My husband was on the back and I've never heard him laugh so hard. He has was so impressed with his wife our marriage hasn't been the same since!. Anyways, we got there and listened to a band, had a couple of drinks and ate some dinner, had a lot of laughs and voughed to get out more on our own, but organize it better next time. What a fantastic hour and half it was. Our ‘friend' even called to see if everything was going well and we were OK. Anyway, time to go and of course we couldn't start the bike. We had to get the bar staff to do it for us! So, next morning we were telling Ron about our great night and how we borrowed Gede's bike and he says Gede doesn't have a bike. Bugger. I said, are you sure, cause I tell you what it was a b**ch to start and I think it needs a new starter motor? He said, 'Mine needs a new battery!' Bugger. Turns out it was Ron's.
We went to the Safari Park which I loved!!!! I don't care how many people have talked about it on this forum, damn it, I will too. I couldn't believe how much thought and effort went into the place. I think anyone who has said it wasn't good or just OK, needs to smell the roses and appreciate the attention to detail. Fell in love, as most do, with baby lions and orangatans and had the photos taken. The baby orangutan was sitting with my children on their laps when she looked down, saw me 10 foot away and proceeded to climb down, come straight up to me, squeeze my hands and cuddle into me. Aaagghh!! Now please, no one tell me that this is what happened to them or I'll be crushed and so will my illusion of being earth mother to all primates. Had the best bintangs and lunch pool side at the brilliant water park. Then did the rollercoasters, bumper cars and ‘really fast spinny up and down make you vomit' rides in the amusement park. We were the last to get kicked out at 5.15pm. Definitely need a whole day there.
Unfortunately I got sick. Very bad gastro and dehydrated very quickly. Irma organized a fantastic doctor and nurse to visit me who were just wonderful. Even when I was vomiting, the nurse was holding my hair (just like high school!) giving me a neck massage and foot reflexology! I was too far gone, so they said I had to go to hospital. After an antinausea jab in the behind we hopped in a taxi to BIMC. Wow. Five star service and surrounds. It was truly a pleasure to be sick there. Balinese people as we know are sooo beautiful, but put them in a care giving role and they just bring tears to your eyes. So did the marble bathroom and the fruit platter. I was well enough to go home the next day. It turned out to be viral.
Went to Water Bom for the day and met up with friends. It was lovely, but unfortunately not hot enough. Surprisingly cool weather this trip! Still, kids had fun as usual!
Best meals in Sanur this trip would have to be at Apa Kabar, Batu Jimbar, Jepun and Stiff Chile.
So, that's it for this trip. Oh and Ron, if you're lying on your bed reading this, I'm sending Irma subliminal messages that she needs to go to Makro today and that you need to go with her. Thanks again for your hospitality and we can't wait to wander in again one day!