Hi All
Sadly i arrived home from bali last night. Stayed 10 nights, there was me, hubby, 3 kids (8, 5, 3) and my sister for the first 5 nights.
prior to leaving everyone had to put in their 2 cents worth "be careful over there, they spike your drinks, be careful cause they try and set you up with drugs, be careful cause they go around bashing people (laidley incident), OMG get over it, and not even the 6.0 eartquake is gonna stop us from going
Smooth AA flight from perth to denpasar, no complaints, well actually i will complain a little lol.. did the web check in to save time, but when i got the the normal check in was clear and the webcheck line was chockas. and when i got to the counter, he said "sorry to take so long, i have to do it all manually" so that felt like forever.
It was a blessing to land in denpasar. off the plane, straight to empty visa counter, handed over $27aud per person. then was processed at immigration very fast, luggage out in mins and away we go.
Met our driver and went to febris. me and my family had a Quin family room - very nice and spacious and clean. they gave us such a good price for a returning customer. my sister had a standard room which was still nice and clean.
febris is such a relaxed place, food is pretty good.
I dont know if the heat got to me or if it was cause the kids were with us at all times (no supervised kids club :( lol) but it felt like every where we went the service for food and drinks was soooooo slow. it feels like forever when the kids are moaning they are thirsty.
we stayed at febris for 5 nights, then the following 5 nights at sanur.
Whilst staying at febris, we did the new kuta green park, a bit of a drive, but well worth it. 100,000 rp entry fee each, was approx 20 other people there, we thought we would stay the day, but were only there for a few hours due to not having to line up. loved the lazy pool. plenty of slides and interesting features for the little ones, pool bar in the little kids area, we hired a lovely cabana, hubby took our 8 year old to the huge slides in the big kid/adult section. we hired a tube for 25k
Places we shopped - all the local markets on JL kartika plaza street, mataharis. our favourite Diannes fixed price shop, went to garlic lane, and ketuts shop was closed (monday) :( love shopping there
So sad carrefore was closed, its undergoing renovations now.
Massages - as usual this is the best place for massage, you pay more than on the street, but it is sooo worth it.
Places we ate: Blue Lobster - expensive, hubby felt sick after the lobster pasta, i ate the fresh seafood and felt ok
Pizza hut - great as usual, febris - good food, good prices, flap jacks - spaghetti alla olio with chilli is to die for, The boardwalk at the Bali garden - as usual the best lamb shanks, Swish in garlic lane is awesome! the beautiful lady Ayu remembered i was there in february on valentines day - what a great memory!
Went over to the dynasty for lunch at grace kellys, we stayed there in feb and liked it. this time was disappointing. Prior to lunch we went to the pool bar for drinks - for 2 beers, 3 sprites was something like $20 AU, bit rich for me lol..
After seeing my sister off back to perth after her first bali trip off to sanur we go
i booked the rooms on agoda - 2 rooms for a family of 2 adults 3 children. Despite many requests, they couldnt guarantee me interconnecting rooms and i thought as i booked through an outside agent they probably wouldnt try to give them to me. But i was stoked to be told at check in it is possible for me to have them YAY!!! way to go Mecure Sanur. the rooms with fees added on worked out to just over $80 per room and they were lovely, clean, modern. I was worried when i read some of the reports on the trip advisor, but i was totally blown away.
The staff are just soooo beautifully friendly, there is a kids club but you have to pay 90,000rp per child
the food was sooo much cheaper in sanur. Plenty of warungs on the beach with mie gorengs and milk shakes @15k each, dirt cheap.
our food bills for a family of 5 were less that 200k from eating at the warungs.
Some of the ones we tried where on the beach on the right hand side of the hotel (nyomans and kesumas) nice food, very cheap, but awesome beach setting, our photos turned out awesome with the beach in the background.
shopped at hardys - mecure has free shuttle that leaves every hour
didnt have massage here, as expensive at hotel. plenty of places on the beach that are cheaper.
Found a little italian gem! A restuarant on the same side as hardys, called La Baraccas. Boy can they cook italian! I am italian, and i was blown away, pasta alla oglio -Fantastico! Pizza - better than any i have tasted in freo! my hubby and daughter loved the lasagna and the complentary foccacia pizza bread they give you taste the same as my nanas - i did go back the next night and try the creamy pasta, but i didnt like that, but the pizza was still brilliant!
Also ate at flapjacks in sanur - here you can order the staduim menu as well. in kuta stadium and flapjacks are next door to eachother, but in sanur its practically as one.
ate at corianders too, beautiful mie goreng and sooo cheap.
also had canvas prints done at JB In kuta, there is one in sanur at hardys.
I really loved sanur, its sooo much more relaxed and the market stall holders dont hound you. its a very quite place, the streets are quiet too.
when i go back, i wanna go back to sanur again, there is still so much to explore, after 4 trips, i have seen so much of kuta, so now its sanurs turn.
feel free to ask any questions :)