Bali 2012
I'd never asked or had Christmas off from work in the last 24 years and when I did manage to get the green light I thought we'd better go somewhere and make something of this auspicious occasion.
So Bali it is.
A group of four grew rapidly to a group of 16.
We managed, at reasonably short notice, to get everyone into the Ivory Resort and Villas in Jl Petitenget Seminyak. We booked through Desiree who works for another villa company, not associated with this website, so I won't try to sneak in a plug for her.
However, out of everyone who wears cheesecloth in Bali she carries it off the best I saw this trip. I have to be careful because her husband is Niko HAN who is a world class MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) trainer based at Synergy in Bali. Lovely guy.
In the past we've stayed in various places in Tuban, Kuta and Tuban so we thought we'd try Seminyak and a villa. I'm glad we did. Though the area will soon go the same way as Kuta it has an awesome selection of shops and restaurants.
Ivory or if you have to explain to the taxi driver where you're staying, the Eyeporee Resort. I'm not being racist, that is simply how it had to be pronounced or you ended up at the Oberoi every time.
The Ivory was nice. The staff were very good and helped us out no end with a few little issues we had. We booked out about half the resort including the big villa at the end which has its own pool. That's where we all ended up each afternoon for a catch up and quiet drink.
Brekky was provided and was taken at Flapjacks, which is at the front of the resort. The menu is limited for brekky but it sufficed.
We ate at, Tulip twice while we were there. The service, food and over all experience was great. Prices were top end but mid range compared to Perth. Check out the bats flying around while you're eating dinner. The owner is Turkish and is very hands on. The staff can't be faulted and the food is some of the best I've eaten in Bali or Perth for that matter.
We also ate at Cafe Jemme for Xmas Eve dinner and again the food and service was fantastic. It really felt like we were in a French restaurant. I drove the family nuts with my cheesy French accent and recital of the restaurants name for a week or two leading up to dinner.
The price again is top end but again mid range by Perth standards.
For 15 of us with drinks, entree, mains and desert at both Tulip and Cafe Jemme (Cheesy French accent) it worked out to around 3.700.000.00rph or about $27AU per person.
We also ate at a little retro place across from Tulip called Warung Good Deal. It's run/owned by a young guy who spent a bit of time in the USA. He man's the grill and the stove himself and does an awesome job at turning out some great food. The restaurant is quirky with old style school chairs and club lounge style seats. The floor is polished concrete and there is a little fashion shop under the same roof.
For the 15 of us it was like $4.00AU a pop and the food was good tasty fair. Chicken Parmigiana, ribs (good ribs), bolognese and the usual Indonesian mie and nasi dishes. If I had to go by the, tasty food to cost ratio, I'd go back there over any of the other places we visited.
He managed to get most of the meals out together and that's a pretty mean feat given the number of people and it was only him cooking.
We went to Naughty Nuris in Jl Batubelig for Xmas lunch. The food was good, not over the top and the ribs were certainly one of the best dishes but again, I'd go Warung Good Deal over NN. The décor is cool with a 16 foot pig in a tight dress hanging from the ceiling. They're obviously environmentally concious there because they've turned their bottle caps into all sorts of things in and around the restaurant.
The service at NN was great and they were really accommodating. The only downside and I say this knowing full well I was in a tropical country, was the heat inside the restaurant. It's not that I expected aircon because I'm not that much of a sook...........no I'm not. But the ceiling fans and low roof make for a bit of a hot box. The tables nearer the grill and road are way cooler than the ones in the depths of the boiler room. I reckon I lost weight as I chowed down on the huge plate of ribs.
NN is only 5 minutes north of Seminyak.
My wife and I, who own a travel agency, that shall remain nameless, also went to Potato Head or Pot Head as those in the know like to say. We caught up with a business associate and all round nice lady, Desiree, the one who arranged our villa, for a drink and face to face.
Pothead is an awesome spot. Walking in is a little like walking into the Spiegel Tent. The entire east facing wall is a series of curved window frames and shutters which surround the grass area and tiered bars and restaurants. The drinks are pricey. We had 5 cocktails and a spirit between us and the cost was 670.000.00RPh or around $70.00AU. I like to spoil us sometimes but I can only imagine what the food must have cost. There's a lot of people in cheesecloth at Pothead! I'm not anti-cheesecloth. It just seems to be worn by a lot of people at all the places where the drinks are the same price as my kidney if I was to sell it at a flea market in New Delhi. Potato Head is worth a look but being the type of person I am I'd perhaps go there for lunch rather than to be seen in my Billabong (legitimate I'd like to add) T-shirt and board shorts (bought from Big W because I liked them).
We also ate at Ultimo which has the best crème brulee I have ever eaten. The meals are very nice and the service again can't be faulted. The prices were equivalent to Cafe Jemme (Inspector Cleuso accent)
Mikonos was also a favourite and pumped out some good food at a very reasonable price.
We popped over to Sanur one day for lunch and ate at the Star Bistro. We've eaten there before and the little place didn't let us down. The food was great and the prices are just as appealing. It's across and down the road from Hardies.
A couple of days later we popped back to Sanur to have a yack to the people from Bali Access Travel. They specialise in disability assistance and have the only bus I could find with a wheelchair lift in Bali. The bus is very good and can accommodate up to 4 wheelchairs and a number of carers depending on the configuration. Their wheelchairs and other equipment is in really good condition. They can also provide carers with experience working with people with disabilities.
I've got a price list but I won't go through the costs, however, the prices are very reasonable. You can find them on the internet easy enough.
We did the usual shopping stops like the Tupperware Shop. I say usual because if we didn't go there I would have spat the chewy like my twelve year old daughter did when I said she couldn't buy the 5 inch stilettos. That was a fun shopping trip.......I love being the only bloke in a family with three women/girls of various ages and hormone levels.
We visited the Surf outlets on the bypass road and I'm still stunned that the original one, which is much bigger now, still can't afford air conditioning. With all the money I've thrown at them I reckon they could float some icebergs from our shrinking icecaps to cool down their shop. But nooooo, instead I get told we can't use the downstairs change room because that's for people to try on wetsuits.
Honestly if you're game to try on a wetsuit in Bali, in a shop without aircon then I reckon you deserve your own change room, and a good lie down afterwards.
Nothing a nice strawberry Fanta won't fix. Why does strawberry Fanta taste so good in Bali but I wouldn't touch the stuff here.
The only place that we we haven't visited before on other trips was the Kitchen Pantry which is on Jl Dewi Sri next to the Roxy Outlet. It's got some really nice kitchen wear and also the worse case of Nanna cupboard in the world. You know when you were a kid and your older brother use to lock you in your nan's cupboard when your folks left you with your grandparents while they went trotting off to Europe for three months? Well my nan's cupboard always smelt of mothballs. That and we had to empty my pops goes-under each morning......yeah if you know what a goes-under is then you're dry reaching right now. Anyway, the Kitchen Pantry has some really nice kitchen ware but the prices are much the same as Australia so you'd only go there for a squizz and buy if something took your fancy.
We also scouted around some shops opposite Seminyak Square in the short cut the taxis sometimes take to avoid the road works. The shops are really nice. There is a little surf shop that had some really good specials in the sale area. There is also a really nice home wares shop in the middle of the same row that has some beautiful trinkets and foibles. The bits and pieces there aren't cheap but they are very very good quality. The shops are opposite a spa and diagonal from the Grocer and Grind.
I had a wander around the little Flea Market they have set up in the parking area just up from Ku De Ta but it was much of a muchness. Lots of the same things you buy at Kuta Art Markets but a little more of an upmarket set up with white tents and plastic tables. You can haggle for the best price and I suppose the best thing about it is it's nowhere near as hot as the Kuta Markets.
Matahari and Ramayana had some really good sales on and my wife walked away with nine pairs of shoes from the various outlets. I bought a couple of hats from the Eiger section of Ramayana. I noticed there is an Eiger store somewhere in Denpasar but by the time it registered I missed what road we were on. I reckon it was somewhere near the Tupperware shop but I'm fixated on that place so I get distracted when we go to Denpasar.
We visited the fish and tackle shop in DPR also. The prices of the no name lures and rods are at least 50% of the Perth prices but the name brands like Shimano etc are twice the price. So if, like me, you like to throw away lures so it makes you feel like you're fishing, then I recommend the fish and tackle shop in Denpasar.
We hired a bus this trip to see what it would be like to run a tour over there. We wrangled the whole family into being our guinea pigs. We headed up to the Botanical Gardens in the mountains and stopped at a coffee plantation slash tourist trap on the way. You can try all the tea and coffee for free except the poo coffee which considering where it comes from should perhaps be free also.
We went up to the Botanical Gardens in Bedugal after that and spent about three hours at the Bali Treetop Adventure Park. The kids and big kids loved it. The whole set up is very good with a safety briefing at the beginning and lots and lots of guides along the way to shout encouragement or mock you when you hit the net too hard and bounce off the tree that attached the net to just to make the sudden stop that little more exciting.
The cost was only about $15AUS and you can spend as much time as you like hanging from the various torture devices they have strung up in the trees. They have stages for all ages and levels of confidence.
Bedugal is the area in Bali where they grow strawberries and the ladies at the markets and in the shops near the Tree Top Park sell big and small punnets of fresh strawberries. We ate at the Strawberry Hill Hotel. The food was good and really well priced. It was very slow to come out but it's understandable considering we did just lob on them without notice.
The rooms there are really nice and worth an overnight stay if you're in the area.
There is a family adventure and camp near the Botanical Gardens. Don't get the two confused because I'm sure the adventure camp would be far more pricey than the Botanical Gardens.
One of the other things we did while we were there was to take the girls horse riding at Kuda P Stables. We ended up there after the booking agent forgot to make our booking at Umalas.
Fran, the owner of KudaP, was more than happy to take us in at a moments notice. Fran is a lovely Welsh lady, via Australia, and couldn't do enough for us.
The stables are very clean and the horses are in good condition. Fran is having a purpose built guest area constructed at the moment which will have its own toilet and sitting area.
Our daughters, 12 and 8, obviously enjoyed the ride because when then returned instead of fighting with each other like they had been for the last week, they were happily chatting about the men fishing in the drains.
The girls went on an hour long ride trough the rice fields and surrounding area. They each had a person to accompany them. The horses were well behaved and did the usual things horses do like try to bite each other and give a little kick at a fly or each other if they got too close. Much the same as my daughters do to each other.
Overall the horses were well behaved and our youngest who has only ridden half a dozen times had no issues. Our eldest who is a good rider enjoyed the ride out.
Fran also accommodates people with disabilities and has a friend who pops in on Tuesdays and has experience working with disabled riders to help her.
When you're there ask Fran about her range of joddies and horse gear. Our kids loved it and we bought a pair of the joddies which look great for banging around the bush.
Overall a great day.
While were in Bali we had some chaps made by Donny. He did an awesome job at copying an expensive pair we brought from Australia. His were half the price and I reckon about 95% the quality. I was very impressed. They cost us $110.00 for two pairs.
We also had an eventing jacket made by Wendy for our 12 year old and she did a fantastic job. Funnily she copied a copy of one someone else had made in Bali some years back. It was only $65.00AUS.
On the second last day we did the top end of JL Legian/Jl Raya Seminyak. The shops are great up this end and we bought bits and pieces at various shops including some cute hand painted pictures of weird looking birds that you can find in most art shops in Bali. We had fun working out which member of the family looked like which bird. There was never one that looked like George Clooney so we couldn't find one that looked like me......
We ate ate Queens Tandoor and I wish we had done so earlier in the trip. The food was fantastic and very well priced. Their sizzling browny is wickedly delightful. I'm not sure if I read that on the menu of if I'm a little gay, as my nephew would say, but regardless it's 'roolly' nice.
We managed to fit in Water Bom Park once while we were there and got a gazebo (number 42) near the kiddies pool. I even managed to stagger up the tower about 12 times only four months after a knee reconstruction. My 8 year old was bounding up two steps at a time by the end of the day, asking how I was going. It's hard to sound convincing when you're crying like a school girl without a date on prom night. I wanted to push her down the stairs by the time I got up the top but apparently you can't do that in Bali either.
Knee recon I hear you ask. Yep. How did you do that? Well interestingly, I was fighting the 2008 WKN, Welter Weight Champion of the World, and as far fetched as that sounds, it's the true and most ridiculous story I have ever told. Apparently when you're 40ish you shouldn't spar little Muay Thai World Champions. Four months and one knee recon later I was struggling up and down the tower at Water Bom Park being mocked by my 8 year old daughter. I always loved the 12 year old more. I hope neither of them read this until they're old enough to know about the concept of tongue in cheek.
All our transport was arranged with Raceng who runs a small fleet of new vans. We've known him for almost 10 years now and he's been a godsend on various occasions. He has two baby seats in his vehicles which are a great peace of mind in Bali and also has a stroller and pram for his customers.
If you search the forum you can find his details and also Wendy and Donny's from previous posts of mine.
We had some pamper packs made for our business that we give to our clients when they arrive in Bali. The place we had them done is called Republic of Soap which is owned by a guy, John MARCIANO and an American lady. Their product is all natural and John develops all his own lines. We only place small orders so I'm sure if you wanted anything made, as long as it's in sufficient quantities, John would be happy to do it for you. As an example, in our pamper packs we have a small sunblock, after sun gel, insect repellent and hand sanitiser all in a small canvas bag. The cost is only around $5.00AUS but we have 100 made each order. They can ship them to Australia but you'd need to factor in the cost.
Worth keeping in mind if you're into those sort of spa products.
I always smell like I spent an afternoon in a expensive bordello when I leave there. It must be funny watching two blokes sitting around putting various lotions on each other and sniffing sample bottles, discussing the benefits of tea tree compared to eucalyptus. Or maybe that was a video I accidentally clicked on one day on the internet.....
We flew Virgin and they were alright too. I haven't got any complaints about that budget airline. I was spewing we couldn't bring water through from the Bali side but that was a small price to pay for the cheaper fares.
The traffic in Bali is getting worse with every trip but the people and places are just as lovely.
As a side note. My sister had to take their 6 year old to BIMC for a tummy problem. The cost was very reasonable, 880.000rph, and that included all the medicine. The doctor even called the next day to see how my niece was progressing. Very impressed with BIMC and their service.
We hired two scooters from Raceng to get around locally. I have made a promise to my children that I will not be one of those older men wearing an open button Hawaiian shirt, shorts, thongs and a big gold earring minus a helmet tearing around Bali when I'm that age. Unless I can wear a helmet with Viking horns and the motor bike is made from galvanised plumbers pipe. Those bikes are so cool.
We managed to get the whole 16 of us to Bali and back without any great problems and had a great trip to boot. I know there is so much more to Bali than shopping and Water Bom Park but that's what this trip was for and funnily enough when our friends from Bali popped over earlier this year I was the one sitting around Garden City while they went shopping and I was the one trying to explain why kangaroos sometimes eat tourists......