A little late I know but thought I'd write a little about our 11 day holiday in August.
We travelled with our family, dad, 9yr old son, 7yr old daughter and Nonna (grandma)& myself., we also went with my best friend, husband, 12yr old daughter and 9yr old son. My hubby and I had been bfore but for everyone else it was their first trip.
The trip took a great deal of planning on account our son being quite high on the Autistic spectrum, he's non verbal and an absolute treasure. The greatest planning sucess for us was he was toilet trained by the time we headed out. Which would make things far easier.
We had plans all over the place, from taking it in turns staying at the BGH pool while the rest headed out, to the extreme of who would leave early and take him home. That was still in debate as to who would leave. Everyone was on Ryan patrol, as we called it.
We arrived in Bali at 1.30pm and our first port of call was Macro's for supplies, water, munchies and the devine Bintang. Our room's were next to each other and the kids roamed from one room to the other. Ryan is quite the problem solver and soon worked out that the blue bird taxi's do not have a child safety on their doors so he could open the door when he chose. From then on he sat in the middle of 2 adults.
We shopped at Geneva, I don't think any of the kids enjoyed it too much but us mum's loved it and bought too many bargins. How can you not in Geneva???
Day 3 the girls got their hair braided on the beach. They felt like princesses having the ladies oohh and ahh over the 12 yr olds red hair and my 7 yr olds natural beauty (she takes after me). Afterwards it was off to Waterbom Park. We had an absolute ball. Cabana No: 29 is the best one there surrounded by plants and quite private. Ryan is a water boy and although did not want to do any of the big slides still enjoyed the day. We took with us 2 portable DVD players (incase one broke) and when he wasn't in the water he was happy watching a dvd. The kids and dads stayed till it closed.
Day 4 was the Bali Safari and Marine Park. It was so hands on everyone had a great day. Ryan loved the piranhas and stood there for 20mins watching them, especially when they got fed a fish. A tiger had given birth to some cubs and we were able to look down on them, the cubs eyes were still closed, it was beautiful to see them so young. We patted a lion cub, held an orangutan, rode an elephant (very sore on the old tushy) and ate in a wonderful resturant and watched the lions peg out my girlfriends son as their menu choice. We even had our tour guide on the bus make everyone go AAHHHH as we rode over the corrugated roads.
Day 5 and time to hit the shops, markets everything!!! We thanked the kids for being so good by forcing the rest of us to eat McD's for lunch. Day 5 and we are all speechless on how well our son is coping with everything we are throwing at him. His whole routine is out the window and yet he is happy and enjoying his holiday. Already he knows the way back to the hotel and will often be in the front of our group leading the way. At our hotel we have a dvd player in our room and he is having TV withdrawals by late afternoon.
Day 6 was a day of not too much, the Legian markets, Bali bombing memorial and an afternoon just at the pool. We took with us some blow up pool toys and sinking disc's to keep the kids amused. The boys drank a Bingtang or 3 and us girls tried out the cocktails. Yum. Actually every afternoon from around 4 to 7pm we were at the pool before dinner. A great way to talk about what we did, what we'll do and where to go for dinner.
Resturants we went to included Mama's, Kori's, Bubba Gumps & Bartan Waru just to name a few (sorry if I spelt the last one wrong, it's right next to the BGH).
Day 7 and we took in a Barong dance. I knew the loud music would freak out our son so we stayed back in the bus and got out our life saving dvd player. Our driver was excellent and opened up all the doors and windows and kept checking to make sure we weren't getting too hot. We also went to the volcano for lunch and I was horrified when my 7yr old stuck her hand out where a window should have been to show me she could look right out and look at the ground below.
Day 8 and time for the girls of the group to go horse riding. The boys were doing a pub/resturant crawl. I told my 7yr old the ride was only a 20min ride, she has no real grasp of 2hrs and if I told her it was 2hrs she wouldn't have come. She had a beautiful pony named Bambi and was led around the whole time, as was the 12yr old and myself. My girlfriend the competent rider went solo. It was wonderful., mind you the tushy took another beating. The following day, Day 9 the boys were off quad bike riding and us girls did what we do best and shopped without someone saying, "what are you buying that for?". Ryan worked out very quickly at the end of each market stall is a stool to sit on, if we stopped he's walk right in, down to the back, find the stool and wait for mummy to finish. Wonderful child.
Day 10 The girls got their hair re-braided, Nails polished once more so they could show off at school. Another relaxing nothing to do days.Last day we are off to the Bali Zoo. Again so very hands on the kids and myself loved it. The resturant is lovely and the show they put on is great. After the zoo it's off to the Monkey Forrest and Tanah Lot.By this time we are all hot, bothered and exhausted. Only one thing to do and that's go home.
Many did not understand that our son was Autistic, so we just explained that he was not normal (so politically incorrect - I love it), when they asked. One even asked why we did not just put him in an orphanage, forget him, and try again. I didn't get angry or upset, actually I was suprised by her matter of fact manner. I explained how I could never do that and her reply was he was lucky to live in Aust. Our holiday was a huge success. I still look back and I'm amazed as to how well it all went. So much so we'll be doing it all again in 2011 but with 3 families. Thanks for reading.