Happy to say I am taking the family back to Bali in September. This will be our third trip... first one to Sanur 15 years ago (I bet it is different now!), then with the kids 6 years ago, staying at the Dynasty, and this time (kids are now 12, 12 and 16) we will be at the Hard Rock. I know this will be far from seeing the 'real' Bali. I feel a bit like we've sold out, staying at somewhere so 'Western' and commercial, but given the ages of the kids, it was highly recommended to us. All the same, we are REALLY looking forward to it, and I am spending many nights reading these posts and getting more and more excited.
I'm sure I will have many questions over the coming months, but a couple to start with:
My 12 year old son is heavily into skateboarding. He is asking us if he should take his board with!! We said there would be nowhere to use it (remembering what the pavements were like last time), but I'd hate to land there and see an awesome skatepark there! Anyone have any clues about this? Also, as a keen skateboarder will there be things there for him to save up for? I assume there will be T-shirts, caps etc with skate logos. But are there other things we may not have thought of to do with skateboarding?
My daughter, on the other hand, is a mad tennis player. Same question for her... any tennis gear on sale?
Finally (for now) we are looking to do white water rafting, the downhill bike ride, Waterbom park and surfing lessons, none of which we've done before (apart form Waterbom.) Any suggestions about which companies are best and/or prices we should expect to pay? Also, should we book and pay for these things before we go, or wait until we hit the streets?
Thanks in advance, look forward to reading many more posts, JBR's and HNR's in the coming months.