Hi all.
We left Brisbane on Saturday 17/9/11 on Strategic Airlines flight to DPS. Being the first day of school holidays, the flight was packed. I was allocated a seat next to 2 young girls who looked they might be a bit of a handful. I asked the attendant if I would be able to swap seats. She informed me it was customary for a father to sit next to his daughters. Fair enough then. Our travelling party consisted of myself (4th trip), my wife (2nd trip) and our two daughters 5 & 3 yo on their maiden voyage to Bali. We were joined a few days later by my wife's cousin and her 9 yo son who flew over from Coolangatta via KL on Air Asia.
The flight itself was quite uneventful. There was a fair bit of noise being a full flight with loads of kids but nothing to get too upset about. A few people were taking full advantage of the hospitality and were pretty tanked by the time we arrived. One guy bolted out of his seat as soon as we landed to use the bathroom and was told to sit back down. He must have had about 12 cans on the way over and was almost crying when it was a case of access denied. He was doing it tough.
Once out into the terminal, the arrival process was very simple and painless. We sat up near the plane door and were let out fairly early on. Even so, some people want their holiday to commence sooner rather than later and were running past us through the terminal. Maybe Mr 12 cans had flooded the plane and a tsunami was imminent? Either way, we walked up to a vacant booth paid our dues, then lined up at immigration when a guy opened another lane and called us over. The bags turned up at the same time as we got to the carousel, went through the xray and we were on our way in about 20 minutes. Good start. Now to find the driver. I never did get around to asking him how he fitted our name on a postage stamp. But after duly locating him we set off to the Novotel Bali Benoa. The trip took about 25 minutes. We hadn't been to Bali since April 2002 so we were trying to remember landmarks on the way over to Benoa. The main thing I noticed was how much the traffic had increased. I got to notice this a fair bit in our 2 weeks in Bali. It really became a deterrent to moving about as so much time was wasted sitting in traffic.
We arrived at the NBB for our 7 night stay and check in was very simple. Once checked in we had a look around the resort and we were sure we would enjoy ourselves here. My wife started running off at the mouth about something or other when I suggested we should move immediately to a venue showing the rugby league semi final between the broncos and st george. I think she agreed and when she found me down at the tree on pratama st a frank excahange of views took place. My luck had deserted me. The tree was only showing the Wallabies - Ireland rugby match so I sat watching Ireland take us apart as I followed the scores on my phone of the nrl match. My wife commented that this was exactly how she had hoped the first night of our holiday would pan out. At least I think that's what she said. It was a night of mixed fortunes. I got to watch the wallabies but they lost. The broncos won but I didn't get to watch it. We had dinner and plenty of drinks at the tree this night (no downside to this bit). We actually ate at the tree a few times. The food here is standard pub fare along with Indonesian dishes. Prices were OK. Beer was nice and cold.
Our holiday really began the next morning. I got up early and went for a walk down to Nusa Dua on the beach path. I tried to do this each morning even if I did have to drag myself out of bed in attempt to do an enforced mini detox. I really enjoyed these walks each morning. I would walk for between 1 to 1.5 hours depending on my energy levels. Then head back for a shower, hit the buffet and then have a swim with the kids. This left the afternoons open to either laze about or head off on a bit of a trip usually shopping somewhere or a bit of sightseeing. In the evening we normally had dinner somewhere along jl pratama, then grabbed a few beers from a mini mart and had a few drinks back on our terrace.
I will do separate reviews on our accommodation, but in brief, we stayed in a family suite at the novotel which was on the beach side of the resort. It was a great room that afforded us plenty of space with 2 bathrooms, 3 televisions, a separate lounge and a small terrace outside with an outdoor setting and a set of kids table and chairs. The resort offered a kids club for ages 5 to 12 yrs. The kids went there once and we got a babysitter for our youngest to look after her while in the kids club so the kids weren't split up. The kids said they liked it but seemed a bit nonplussed about as there were no other kids in there at the time. The 3 pools at the resort are great. We spent most time at the main pool beside the beach. There weren't a heap of loungers and umbrellas about the pool, but it was never a problem to get one. Although a few towels, books and magazines were staking out loungers by 6 am as I was on my way for a morning walk. I also liked the mix of guests. There was mixture of Australians, new Zealanders, plenty of Europeans (uk, French, germans and Russians) which I find interesting at least.
During our time at benoa we ate out most nights at places along jl pratama: the tree as mentioned, Casanovas and nusa dua sports bar and grill which is part of peninsula beach resort (and does actually show the nrl). We didn't have a bad meal in TB and I found the prices quite reasonable. Maybe because it is so expensive to eat out in Austrlaia these days. On another night all 6 of us headed over to legian to have a few drinks on the beach and watch the sunset. We chose Raymond's bar out the front of the Jayakarta whose truth in advertising is to be admired. After a few drinks we decided on Lanai for dinner. We ate upstairs and all enjoyed it. Another evening my wife and I were able to head out without the kids. We had a few drinks at Potato Head. I enjoyed the design and architecture but didn't really like the place . Just wasn't my kind of place. We decided to jump in a taxi and ended up at JP's in seminyak. The night we were there they had an amazing band playing. Mainly classic rock stuff and the band had an brilliant female singer. One woman from the crowd felt that the spotlight should be shared and invited herself up to sing a few songs. The sound engineer gave her about 5 seconds before cutting her mic. She wasn't happy. I was. It was hilarious.
OK I've prattled on a bit so I'll write another instalment later. I hope.
Next was Ubud and a few nights in Kuta.
Any questions fire away.