In Reply to: phone calls posted by teenadee on Friday, 29. January 2010 at 00:38 Bali Time:
Definitely do not call from the hotel - or have them call you from the home phone - if you want it to be at all cheap.
Take an unlocked mobile phone with you and get a local sim card (with local mobile number) - they're available plenty of places and they'll set the phone up so it's ready for you to use. Then you text home and they'll have your number to contact you.
You can usually call home for around Rp1000/min at the cheapest - they should tell you what number to dial before the home number in order to get the cheaper rate.
To make it cheaper for the carers at home to contact you, you could get a Lebara sim card (available at Crazy Johns - again, you just need an unlocked mobile phone and they will set it up for you) and they can call your new mobile number in Bali for 9c/min.
The good thing about that, aside from being much cheaper, is if you have a mobile with you, contact can be at any time. You don't have to worry about sitting by the phone in your room.