Ok, as I sit here after arriving home today it is a weird feeling, do I feel happy that we are home and that Christmas is just around the corner or do I feel sad that our holiday has ended.
I guess in short it is a bit of both, to recap we took two of our 3 daughters on our 8th trip to Bali, 27th Nov to 7th Dec.
The first 4 days I posted HNR reports so this is basically a summary of what we did after that.
On Wed the 1st Dec we moved to Beach Melati Apartments in Padma Utara, which are accessed through the coffee shop.
This is a 12 apartment complex with a central pool, we stayed in apartment 201 which was on the first floor closest to the beach, initially we were in an apartment on the ground floor closest to the road, but moved because we thought the noise from the road would annoy us.
I cannot say if it did or not as we moved before spending a night there.
This complex is managed by Jinae a lovely New Zealand ex pat who (as would any of her staff) go out of there way for you.
We had a two bedroom place with good aircon in both bedrooms with another unit in the living area.
The main living area had a lounge that comfortably seated 4 of us with a tv, dvd player , large fridge etc.
The sun faced us in the morning which was good as we had a couple of outdoor chars and a sun lounge on our veranda which was put to good use.
Access to the beach was via an alley way with a locked gate at the end, which bought us out next to the Ramada, very close to the Quicksilver Surf School before the Jayakarta.
A lot of the apartments are owned by Australians some of which keep them for their own use and some of them are included in the rental pool.
Four of the owners were in residence, most of who had been there for up to 10 weeks, imagine that!
You can order food which can be delivered to the pool or into your apartment from the Coffee Shop, which is a separate business to the Apartments.
In short would we stay their again, definitely.
In summary:
Trips:
We went to Waterbom, the Safari Park and my wife and one daughter did the Anika Cooking School.
For a family of 4 Waterbom cost close to $2 M including lunch and cabana hire, 10% discount for paying by VisaCard.
Safari Park was close on $3M with lunch at the Lion restaurant, 10 min elephant walk, and again if you had an ANZ visa, you got a 15% discount, (wish I had added an ANZ card to my stock!)
Don't know what the cooking school cost but it is the third time my wife has done it, and she has enjoyed every time.
Eating
We ate at may varied restaurants and Warungs, including Ketupat, Made's Warung, Seaside, Lanai, Mozzarella, Sammy's Restaurant, International Warung and a Warung on Jln 66 which name escapes me, the cost of our dinners for 4 including drinks were from 180K rupiah to over 700K rupiah.
I am not going to rate them, but the most disappointing meal we had was at our favourite restaurant over the years, Ketupat.
Whilst they did have a notice on the table warning they were short staffed because of Galuglan, there were only 4 tables of patrons and it took 90 mins to get our meals, by this time we were starving.
The food also tasted almost identical and very bland, not what we had experienced previously and at over 700K for the 4 of us it was very disappointing, would we go back, probably not.
We tend to eat a lot of Asian food rather than Western, and almost someone at every meal had Nasi Goreng, although towards the end the burgers and fries snuck their way in at lucnhtimes.
We ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner and on average we would have spent 120 to 160 for breakfast, 200 to 300 for lunch an 200 to 700 for dinner for the 4 of us, I realise this is a pretty wide range, but I really depends where you eat, and what you are looking for.
On average we would have spent $300 per day including food, shopping, trips etc.
Shopping
We bought the usual stuff from the markets and street vendors and again roughly paid 20K to 30K for sun glasses, 35 to 40K for Billabong tees and 20 to 25K for Bintang singlets.
Did we pay the cheapest price, probably not , but do we care , absolutely not, so long as we had a bit of a chat with the store owners it was all a fun experience.
We let our girls (13 and 17) do the bargaining on the stuff they wanted and they quickly caught on that to pay a bit more than they first intended didn't matter.
We did buy approximately 300 dvds from a range of shops and all were the same price and quality, if they were no good the store owners told us so and not to buy them.
I am convinced that the cheapest dvd player you have is the one that will play any Bali dvd.
Lucky I have an LG at home that cost me $47, you guessed it, no Bali dvd is a challenge for it.
Exchange Rate
Over the 10 days the rate varied from 8500 to 8900.
We changed our money from a range of money changers all of whom were on the main streets and never had a problem.
My wife did talk to someone who withdrew 3M from an ATM only to find 8, 10K rupiah notes in the middle instead of 8 100K notes, how do you prove that to the bank?
Health
I am prone to a weak stomach which has been proved over prior trips to Bali and other Asian destinations; my wife on the other hand is known as iron guts and has never had a problem, even going to India 20 years ago.
We all drank Yakult every day, I and our youngest took Travel Bug every day and we used Aqium hand gel at every meal, and the only person to get sick was iron guts.
So much so that we had the doctor come visit, 4 lots of prescription drugs later and 1.6M it just goes to show, it can strike anyone no matter what precautions you take.
A claim on our travel insurance ought to get back the cost, but not the 24 hours spent in bed.
Weather
A little rain at times, then sun and extremely humid, we were all constantly drenched in sweat and that is just form sitting still.
We spent most afternoons on the beach, lying around watching the world go by, with a drink, a massage, pedicure or just talking.
Schoolies
Bali is traditionally quiet at this time of the year, and if it wasn't for the schoolies it would be absolutely dead, did they worry us? No, not in the hours we kept, and for the many we spoke to it was their first overseas trip and they were having a ball.
If you were to generalise it's those of a little older age that can cause us to wince at some of their behaviour.
The proliferation of cheap air fares at this time of the year is only going to enhance Bali as a destination for schoolies as is the general cost of living, weather, shopping, different country etc (But in part isn't that why we go anyway?)
Dumb Stuff
I saw a family of four on a motor bike one day, husband, wife and two kids approximately between 8 to 10 year old, obviously tourists but don't know what nationality, only two of them with helmets and it wasn't the kids.
Funny Stuff
On a couple of occasions we saw a woman (Anglo-Saxon) who must live in Bali with her 6 dogs walking along the beach, not a big deal except when all 6 of them and her got onto a motorbike, two in a bag on each of her arms and 4 of them at her feet, it appeared each dog knew its spot
Getting there and back.
We flew Jetstar both ways from Melbourne, this is the third time we have flown them to Bali and have never had an issue apart from things out of their control, such as a fogged in airport upon our return last year, and a strong northerly wind this morning which closed one of the runways at Tullamarine, delaying our arrival by 30 mins.
It must be such a long day for the crew, having to fly to Bali, then return straight away but they always seem to have a smile on their face and are courteous.
We had a great time and just to spend time away from work with your family in a warm relaxed environment, with a different culture than our own is what does it for me, roll on next year.