OVERVIEW: Myself (8th trip) & 2 boys (2 3/4 & 5 yrs) headed over on Mon 15th with Virgin from Perth. Husband & 15yr old son came on Fri 19th - he didn't want to miss the last day of school as graduation and school ball (didn't know the date when I booked, thought it would be the week before). For the first 4n kids & I had a private 1 brm apartment at the Jayakarta Residence and when the others arrived we got another 1 brm apartment that I/C. On the 24th we all moved to the Dynasty for the last 2n over Xmas (apts were occupied for those dates).
FLIGHT OVER: Good flight over with Virgin. I think it left about 1/2 hr late due to 'staff changeover'. Had requested forward seating when booked. No point doing this if you're travelling with kids as they put them all up the back! Managed to get Row 18 which is a couple back from EXIT row so that was ok. Flight fine. They have the free to air TV which works till you're about 1.25hrs from Bali when the satelite drops out. Only charge $4.90 for this which is great value I reckon. You just swipe your credit card next to TV (which are all in the back of the seats BTW). You can't pay by cash. Took plenty of snacks for the kids which was fine, nobody minded. Also took our own portable DVD player with us. This proved invaluable over the course of the trip, worth every penny I spent on it. Able to eat dinner in peace, good on drive to Ubud and on plane etc..
VOA: We were the only plane when we landed - Japan airlines was announced as we waited to go thru VOA. Paid VOA in US$ after being scammed last time in June. Was soooo much easier. Each to their own but I'll be doing that in future. Only about 3 people in front of us to go thru immigration but that took quite a bit longer as usual! Collected luggage, I only had 1 bag as hubby was bringing the rest on Friday. Out to meet driver arranged when I booked our Jayakarta apt thru a private arrangement from a lady here in Aus.
JAYAKARTA APARTMENTS: Was very pleasantly surprised. These apartments were beautiful. Liked the location - we were one floor up and our balcony faced the fish pond in front and 'Rum Jungle Rd cnr'. S/Contained with m/wave, kitchenette, large water dispenser, TWO TV's & DVD's per apt. Was very happy with the apartments and would stay again.
DYNASTY HOTEL: We moved to the Dynasty for the last 2n on the 24th. I booked one of the new Family Studio Rooms thru Qantas Holidays. Family's who are fans of the Dynasty will love these rooms. They really are lovely. Acres of storage room. Lovely bathroom with dble sinks. Set of bunk beds with trundle as well. Sliding doors that partition off the main bedroom if you want with blinds that can pull down to darken the middle room or for privacy. We were on the ground floor and had a little outdoor area with some lawn.
We had organised to have Xmas Eve Dinner Buffet and Xmas Day Lunch & Dinner Buffets. These were pretty good with lots of things going on like Santa visits, carol singing, Ramayana Ballet dancing. Pretty good value.
Personally, I probably wouldn't stay at the Dynasty again. I have stayed twice before in '05 & '06 and after this visit for reasons I won't go into, it's really not for us. We much preferred BGH or even the Jayakarta.
WEATHER: Was pretty good over the time we were there. Rained maybe two days and weather was pretty mild, quite pleasant I thought. I'd heard some bad stories about how awful that time of year was but I thought it was good.
BIMC: Got to head over there at lunchtime on our first day!!! The 2yr old woke up not himself. Very clingy, wouldn't eat (definitely not him!!), crying and wanted me to carry him all the time - he's 20kg!! my back was agony! Said his tummy hurt. Headed out mid morning and went to Zanzibar, thought he might perk up - WRONG!! Screaming, so decided I'd better head over to BIMC. Not too long a wait. I didn't have any passport or ins papers on me but not a problem. Dr couldn't find anything specific, course he brightened up in there playing with the toys the little bugger. He's had quite a history of respiritory and ENT problems from birth which of course I had to try and explain to the Dr. I didn't even bother telling him about his cardiac history, we were having enough trouble already! He got out a picture book and seemed to be wanting me to make a diagnosis?? In the end all I really needed to know was that his ears & throat weren't red. He was talking about referring him to a ENT specialist but I didn't really want to go down that track. Ended up giving me a 'script' for Echinechia (?sp) and Nurofen which certainly seemed to make him happier. Cost was ~$100AU that I paid by Visa. Won't get any of that back as I chose not to pay the extra $25 to cover $100 excess on my Ins policy - oh well! Bought a truckload of drugs with me because of his history (forgot the Nurofen tho!) and rang his GP from the hotel and she prescibed what I was to give him. Whilst he remained clingy he seemed better over the next few days. He slept most of that afternoon.
RATE: First day it was 7200k to AUD, then up to 7300k & briefly 7500k for a day before settling mostly around 7300k. Changed at Kodak shop & hand bag/wallet shop as recommended - across from Jayakarta. Never a problem and mostly rec'd 100K notes or 50K if I requested.
PLACES WE ATE:
All places we ate were recommendations off BTF.
Tommys - Brilliant for snacks etc. Made a habit of going there for afternoon tea before the pool! Fresh juices 8k, plate chips 11k, muffins (beautiful!!) 10.5k.
Waroeng Asia - Asian/Thai food - Very nice food, 89k for me & kids.
Goody's - REALLY great value, cheapest pizza and very nice. Pizza's and pasta's 29k ea. Really good with the kids.
Cafe Seminyak(next to Bintang supermkt) - not especially cheap but very nice pastries and ok coffee.
Flying Piano - Pretty average,not terrible but wouldn't go again. Goody's much better for pizza. 5yr old ordered soup and I saw it & thought there's no way I'd eat that - brown water with few vegies/chicken in bottom, but he ate it and announced it as delicious!
Go figure! 128k total.
KFC at Carrefour - nice food! 88k
Waroeng Tropical - Nice food. I had whole grilled snapper - very tasty but lots of bones, guess you'd expect that with a whole fish!! 45k for snapper dinner. Meal 108k with exceptionally large tip on top. They were brilliant with the kids. Very friendly and kept the kids entertained the entire time. I could just eat!!
Yut's - (Saturday, hubby and older son now here). Supposedly best steak in Bali? 75k for decent sized steak with all the trimmings. My steak wasn't 100%. Hubby tried it, after he'd finished his!! and said his had been much nicer. Nice meal tho and can't complain too much about a steak dinner for $10! Total bill for 5: 408k
Bali Zoo Restaurant - good food. Lunch was 380k
Lanai - 5 of us went for B/F one day. Very nice. Total was 243K
Zanzibar - went for dinner. Must say that service was pretty dismal! Very slow and not overly helpful. Had to ask 3 times before they got the bill right in the end. Charged me for a takeaway dessert they didn't have and kept bringing the bill back still with it on there till, I'm afraid to say, I got a little stroppy. Food ok but wouldn't hurry back. Total 331k.
Indus in Ubud - had afternoon tea here after the Zoo and markets. Lovely as usual, magnificent view. Took our driver in with us as well. Total 241k.
Pantai in Tuban - had lunch here on 24th. Don't know why we haven't been here before?? I thought it was expensive like Ma Joly where we've been a couple of times for special dinner. Lovely location on beach next to Ma Joly. Ordered a massive amount of food - seafood platter etc... Total 620k but would go again.
Most of the above restaurants were around Jayakarta on beach road or up Rum Jungle Road. Most meals we didn't order drinks other than perhaps one or two beers. Only got to try 1/3 to 1/2 of the restaurants on my list but there's always next time!
SHOPPING - Didn't really do much shopping this trip. Very hard with the 2 boys and then the husband!
Went into Denpasar one morning to Ramayana (didn't find much there) and Matahari's - got a few kids clothes here and some sneakers for 5 yr old. Saw Tuppaware shop on way into Denpasar. Had a brief look on way back but they just had a shipment in so boxes everywhere and also kids in car so didn't really get a good look. Told my husband I'd been there when he arrived and had to laugh at his reaction. "What the bl**dy he** would you need to go there for" he said. "What about all that stuff at home in the drawers??". There was a similar thread on BTF just before I left with some similar reactions. You can never have too much Tuppaware!
Carrefour - Went here one am. Didn't get too much, some stationery items and the most delicious pastry items - spent most of the $$ in this department, enough for days - at least one day anyhow! Kids went to Amazone here (like Timezone). Would be a good place to send hubby and kids if you want to shop alone!
Bali Galleria - Bought a skateboard here 'wave board'? from a guy selling in the centre of the mall. ~120AU but we didn't have anything for the 15yr old for Xmas and that did the trick. He really likes it, once a 9yr old showed him how to use it!!!
Ubud markets - Got my bowls that I was after here, the ones with the ?shiny small tiles on. Set of three for 100k, no idea if that's good or not but I was happy. Also a set of the plain brown ones - didn't really want them but she was persistent! 50k, I'm sure I can find somewhere to put them.
DVD's at the new shops ?Glamour or something. Seemed ok. One didn't work but I never got back to change it.
Bintang Supermarket - quite a pleasant walk from Jayakarta, if you weren't dragging along two protesting toddlers that is!! Everything you might need in a supermarket here and another department store type section upstairs with some odds and ends.
DENTIST: Made an appointment before we left for husband to see Dr Rudy at Bali Galleria on his first day in Bali on the 20th. Despite all the good reports on him I have to say my husband was not that pleased and I would have a hard time getting him to go back there. He got 3 fillings done which took 1/2hr. Cost was 1,350k rp which on current rates was about $180AU. He didn't feel they were done properly and had to go back in twice before we left the Galleria because there were sharp bits rubbing and didn't feel right. It is hard to believe that you could properly do 3 fillings in 1/2 hr but there are plenty of people using him and I haven't read any other complaints. Oh well, he'll just have to wait till we've got the money for him to go to his dentist here.
TAILOR: Got an outfit made for our 2yr old for my sister's wedding in Phuket in March where he will be in the wedding party. Both sisters had forgotten to email me a photo of the colour of the flower girls dresses - sooo many shades of white!! and the purple of the sashes so that was reaaalllllly helpful to me!! Ended up not getting a suit jacket made but just went with white pants and long sleeved shirt and a purple tie. It does look quite cute (thank you again to the so many helpful comments about suits being tacky on kids etc, etc ...). With him being sick and off colour for a few days and my two boys being little terrors I simply left it too late to consider getting anything else done. Went there on the 23rd and was able to collect on Xmas day. Bit of a pain but my fault after all. This guy was pretty good but shirt is a little tight on wrists and neck. His price was reasonable tho. A couple of tailors were quoting 750k and 1M rp just for the pants!! Got a bit fed up with it in the end.
TABLECLOTHS: Also got some table cloths made up from sarong material from a shop in Rum Jungle Rd (another recommendation from BTF). Pretty good. Unfortunately we have a ridiculously massive dining table which is 1.4mt wide and that is the widest that the material came in but they'll still do the job. If you have a 'normal' sized table then there are heaps of colours/designs to choose from. I only had 5 or 6 to choose from but still happy.
BALI ZOO: Did a day trip to here and Ubud on Sunday 21st. Bit of a drama with the transport. Was organised thru one of the tourist booths and I stressed 4 x that we needed seatbelts in back, most important thing I said. Showed me the car with seatbelts. Turns up at 8.30am - old car,no seatbelts. Not good enough I said. Rings boss, 'wait 20mins' he asked. 'Nope, I'll get other transport', I said. 5mins later they turn up with car with seatbelts as arranged. I was not doing Ubud without the belts. The kids are a nightmare on a long trip if not restrained. Sorted and we were off. Not much traffic on road so it was a good trip, probably because it was Sunday?
Took about 50mins to get to the Zoo, arriving at 9.35am. Entry was Family ticket US54.50 + extra child US10.00. 15k for bag of fruit to feed animals. We had a good day out and enjoyed the visit. Probably wouldn't suggest getting there before 10am. Shows are not till 11am and 1pm and you really only need 3hrs max here. Did the Safari Park in June and this was a bit different. Not as well organised but a lot of different animals than what we saw in June. Quite a lot of animal holding with birds, bat (on a stick!), cous cous, crocodile, lion cubs (some bigger - very fiesty!!! and then smaller baby ones) and plenty others I can't remember. Could feed most of the animals. Just a little disorganised with a bit of a free for all when the animals came out - lines would be much better. Had lunch in restaurant and stopped in Ubud on way home for afternoon tea and short markets visit.
WATERBOM PARK: Went here again. Ok but it's really not a cheap day out. I think gazebo hire went up 50k from June. If we didn't have the 15yr old we would have given it a miss this trip. VERY busy with it being 22nd Dec and hard to keep track of the kids.
DINNER WITH A BALINESE FAMILY: We were fortunate to be invited to dinner at a Balinese family's home. The husband was befriended a few years ago by my husband's grandmother who has kept a relationship up with them over the last few years including buying them things like an air conditioner, tiling for the house, other household 'stuff' and flying them over to Aus for a visit. It was certainly very interesting and humbling to see how they live. They live with his parents and their 2 children. Six people living in a small home no bigger than my bedroom I reckon. Lovely fried rice for dinner and we stayed a couple of hours. Didn't think too much about it at the time but when Nanna rang him a couple of days later he was apparently so proud that we had come to his home for dinner. A good experience and very nice people.
VIRGIN CHECK-IN: Don't know if it's the same everytime but Virgin check-in desks were 49 - 52. It wasn't up on the board when you walk into airport. An older gentleman on our flight told me, thanks for that as we were able to go and line up and wait and then be first to check in. They opened at 11.15am for our 2pm flight. Flight departed from Gate 3, again, not up on the board!
PRADA LOUNGE: Didn't do VIP VOA and instead saved my $$ for departure lounge. Was heading for Dewa Lounge but came across the Prada Lounge which is the one I think we used a couple of years ago. Charged 150K per adult, 75k for 15yr old and two littlies free. Don't know if they would have come down at all but as I'd budgeted 450k I was happy with that. Heaps of food, juice, soft drink, Bali Hai beer on tap, spirits. Nice clean area to wait with clean toilets and plug to charge DVD player. We got to the airport early deliberately to make use of it. We were in there for about 2 hours but to be honest you probably don't need more than an hour!
Hubby finally got his reflexology massage done here. You'd think in the time he was there we'd find time for him to have a massage but it just didn't happen this trip!
FLIGHTS HOME: Very good. Only short delay waiting for planes to t/off before us. Very nice hosties but they did run out of most things pretty quickly on the trolley. Plane only about 1/2 full coming home Boxing Day so plenty of room to spread out. Free to air came on about 1 1/2 hrs into flight and was free to watch till we got home.
Quickly thru immigration. Only had food on me, mostly what we took out. Didn't open any bags, just xrayed and out the door. From plane touching down to leaving a/port was only 40mins.
IN SUMMARY: This trip was only booked 8 weeks before leaving as hubby asked jokingly could we get away from here for Xmas - yep!!.
Was lovely to see all the Xmas decorations around, the kids loved it. I thought the weather was great. Going again in March for a week, the trip we originally booked months ago, this will be over the Nypei period so will be a different experience again.
Unfortunately my 2 yr old needs an afternoon sleep so we lost ~3hrs a day to this in the afternoon. Adds up to about 30hrs over the holiday, 3 shopping days really, but if he doesn't get it you pay for it by the end of the day.
Did we feel safe?? On the whole and most of the time - yes. There was one night at Goody's, a Sunday, when it was getting dark and there were ton's of people around everywhere. Probably because it was a Sunday but I suddenly felt uneasy and we finished dinner and left. Obviously nothing happened but I was just wary for some reason. I did feel that some places, particularly down on the beach strip from Jayakarta that the security was sometimes a little complacent but at the end of the day I guess if something's going to happen it probably will regardless. I thought before I went that I wouldn't go to places like Carrefour, Waterbom, Centro but I did with no problem and no feelings of being unsafe. Truth be told I was more worried about my wallet being stollen during the trip.
As anyone with small children will know it can be pretty tiring travelling with small children but I think we all had a good time. I wouldn't go by myself with the 2 small boys next time it really was hard work trying to watch them both. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A DESIGNATED PERSON WATCHING THE KIDS AROUND WATER. I nearly drowned our 2yr old twice in two days. I'd be in the water next to him, he'd be fine for 1/2 an hour, happended to glance away turned back and he's fallen over floating not able to get back up. At the Dynasty a little boy maybe 18 mths came very close. This woman was screaming across the baby pool and I thought whats her problem? About 2m behind me her son was floating in the water, hubby was about 1m away and hadn't seen. You've got to be soooo careful.
We are looking forward to March, I think the 15yr old will be staying home (thinks he'll be in the basketball finals!) After that we probably won't return till later 2010 but you never know, a cheap airfare can be very enticing!!
I kept a record of our spending this time out of interest. It is interesting to see where the money actually goes! Hubby couldn't believe we'd spent it all and I was able to show him exactly where. Normally I just spend and worry about it later but with a couple more trips coming up we had to be a little more frugal. Still had a good time. No point worring about the exchange rate. It is what it is.
Thanks for reading, hopefully not too many spelling errors. Any questions - feel free to ask.