Travelled to Bali 26 Sept - 12 Oct, 2A 2C (14 & 12)
Left Bris 9.30am with Singapore Airlines, can't fault this airline at all, love the service and all seats have own personal entertainment screen. We used internet check in for the first time, what a great idea, did this on the internet before we left home, when we got to the airport straight throught the business/internet check in line, no waiting at all. Had 1hr 10min layover in Singapore, this was just enough time to get to next flight, arrived in Bali 7.10pm, only 20min to get through immigration, collect bags and out to waiting driver.
Straight to GVC, other family members already there had organized our rooms (thank you S & W), and some rupiah, so straight to the shops and made our first purchases by 9pm.
GVC was full, we had booked 2 interconnecting superior rooms, we got 1 Deluxe room, and 1 superior room for the first 5 nights, then moved to 2 x interconnecting superior rooms for remainder of time. Minor problems in rooms, the water from shower leaked all over the floor, the towels did smell some days, the tap in sink was just a dribble, one day the air conditioner leaked water over the bed and bedside table, but nothing that ruined our holiday. We got towels from the Day Spa everyday and they were fine! The pool was great most days, but on the last couple of days it was very cloudy and warm (the pool water), there was a huge downpour while we were there, this could have had something to do with it. As we were dragging all our suitcases past the pool on our last day there was a big sign around the pool saying it was closed. Don't know how long this was for, maybe someone else could let us know.
Changed money everyday, sometimes 2 and 3 times a day at the Kodak shop next to Garden View, no problems at all. Although it was hard for them to rip us off when we were only getting 620 000rp to A$100 for a few days.
Our first day trip was to Singaraja, to visit the Helen Flavel Learning Centre, our sponsor child at his school, and to visit his home. I recommend this to anyone who has a sponsor child, it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. I had preorganized the visit with Helen through her website, the driver picked us up promptly at 8am. We had been shopping the day before and purchased rice, noodles, coffee etc to give to the sponsor childs family, and had brought over with us 3 suitcases full of clothing, sheets and some toys to give to the Learning Centre and sponsor child and family. The Learning Centre is very impressive, unfortunately the boarders had all gone home for the holidays, so we didn't see any children there. Next stop was our sponsor childs school and to meet him for the first time, we were all very nervous, and I imagine he was as well. We had been ushered into the principals office when we got there and the little boy was brought in to meet us, he looked very scared, just as anyone does when they are told they have to go to the principals office I guess! We were lucky to be there in time for his english class, so we joined the rest of his class, where we were introduced as very honoured guests from Australia, we had taken a bag of stuffed animals with us, so it was decided we would have a quiz and each child would get a prize. After introducing ourselves, we asked questions in English, such as 'what colour is my dress? What country do we come from? Name an Australian animal?' The child who answered correctly came out to the front of class and had to tell us their favourite colour, in english, and we would give them a stuffed animal that colour. This proved difficult for a few, and I'm sure a lot of them told us the only colour they knew in English, one poor boy couldn't hide his disappointment when he told us his favourite colour was green, and the only stuffed animal I could find that colour was a fish, when all his mates had been getting monkeys, teddys, lions and tigers.
The children were so excited and happy to see us,the school was very neat and tidy, the teachers were all dressed very formally in safari type suits, and the children looked very smart in their uniforms.
School finished at 12.30pm so we then went to the family home. Nyoman from the Learning Centre travelled with us to the school and the family home and he acted as our interpreter.
We arrived outside a row of houses, and although I knew the little boy had siblings, I wasn't sure of there sex, so we had taken one doll with us to give if he had a sister, well, a little girl came running out, so we promptly handed her the doll and off she ran into the house, except we were led down a pathway to a shed type house out the back, oh well, hope we made her day.
This family was very poor, but welcomed us into their home with lovely smiles. They had obviously worn their best clothes, and tidied their garden and cleaned their home in preparation for our visit. The floors were just dirt, there was a mattress in one corner which the whole family of five slept on together. After being at their home for about 15min, a little girl comes walking in, in the same school uniform as our sponsor child, yes, here was his sister, but she had walked home, it didn't even occur to me to ask if he had a sibling at the same school!!! A younger brother, 3 years old was also at home, he couldn't contain his excitement and was asking what was in all the boxes, bags we had taken with us. We had a ball on the top of a basket which was for our sponsor boy, I could see him looking at it, but he didn't touch it at all, so we gave it to him, the look on his face was priceless, we have some lovely photos of the family and the little boy is standing in the front holding his ball with a huge smile on his face.
We stayed at the home for about half and hour, it was such a positive learning experience for all of us, very hard to put into words.
We all want to visit the family again, but next time I think we would stay overnight up that way, the travel was approx. 2.5 hours each way, through winding and mountainous roads and we had to have a pit stop as I was car sick on the way up. Popped a travel sickness tablet before making the return trip to Legian, and all was fine!
We did the Bali Baik Tour - highly recommended, easy downhill ride, only a few uphills, which I just got off and walked up, my children absolutely loved the bike ride, my son rode up the front with the tour guide and other boys, while I straggled at the back. On advice from other forum members I took exercise books and pens for Wayan to give to the school that he sponsors, he was most grateful and we also got to stop at the school that he sponsors, another great experience! Also on the advice of other forum members I took packets of balloons and lollies which we gave out along the way of the bike ride. As you ride through the villages children come out of no where to stay hello and give you high fives. We stopped outside a school at one stage and school was just finishing for the day, this is where we gave out the lollies and balloons. All too soon the bike ride comes to an end and we were transported back to Wayans family compound for the most delicious meal ever. You are free to wander all over the family compound and take photos, Wayan gives a very interesting talk about the Balinese way of life and we met all his family members. Wayan very proudly showed us a JBR he has laminated, which was written by didiaust and is about his Bike Tour, I told him I had read about him on the Bali Travel Forum and that is how we decided to take his bike tour, he told me to make sure I did a JBR as well, so here it is Wayan!! I have contact details for Wayan and plenty more info about the bike tour for anyone who is interested.
We also visited the Safari Park, Waterbom and the usual shop, shop and more shopping. Visited Carrefour twice, love this place, Supernova, Bintang Supermarket, Discovery Mall, Matahari, Unagi and Sukiwati Markets.
For the first time I had my hair cut at one of the little beauty salons down a laneway not far from Garden View, I have to stay it is one of the best haircuts I have ever had, and have had many compliments since being back home. I was having on of those bad hair days over there, where the frizz is never controllable and while having my nails done I saw that they did hair cuts for 35000rp. ''Yes, no worries, I call my friend, she come and cut your hair'', a phonecall and a couple of minutes later 2 ladies turn up on a moped and 1 whips out her cape and scissors. I said just a trim and tidy please, she said what about a concave cut, ok, go for it! About an hour later, I ended up with the best hair cut ever, all for 35000 for the cut, and 50000rp for straightening (just with a straightening iron).
My partner and I both had tattoos done at Buddy Marley, highly recommended, please contact me if you would like further details. We had already chosen what we wanted before we left home and took pictures of the tattoos we wanted along with us. Went in to tattoo studio first and showed what we wanted and to get an estimate of price, he said he would draw them up for us and we went back the next day to have a look, then made an appt to have the tattoos done the day before we came home.
That's it! Thanks for reading.