The monkey family first visited Bali in 2008 and then mum and dad monkey popped up again in 2010 for some scuba diving. There was no way the girls (now 7 and 5) were being left out this time, so we all set off on May 17.
First happy experience was at the airport in Sydney where we could hand over $A25 for VOA and the girls were given free shoulder bags that proved quite useful later on. Flight was smooth, immigration man sorted everything out on the plane and we walked straight through to collect out bags. In a Bali miracle, our bags were quickly on the carousel. Our bags NEVER come out quickly on the carousel!
We'd arranged to be met by one of the Mades recommended on BTF and there he was with our name on a card. He was a nice guy and we had plenty of chance to get to know him on our drive to Ida Hotel, because the traffic was demonic! We absolutely crawled through Tuban and Kuta and it must have taken us 45 minutes to reach the hotel.
We were only staying at Ida for one night because it was a bit late to drive to our first ‘real' destination Pemuteran and while it appeared to be surrounded by a construction site, the staff were nice, the room clean and the location convenient.
The junior monkeys were holding up pretty well, so we ventured out to Un's for dinner and were rewarded with a beautiful meal and the girls loved the lights in the trees.
After dinner Mummy monkey (MM) put the little monkeys to bed and Daddy monkey (DM) went out searching for SIM cards. At Matahari they wanted 150,000rp! DM wandered the streets for a bit soaking in the sensory overload of Kuta until his feet got sore, so he gave up and paid 20,000rp each at some little shop and whacked some credit on them.
We had decided that the girls could share a room with MM and DM and that the girls could share a bed. We won't decide those things again, but eventually we all got something resembling sleep.
Our driver arrived after breakfast next morning and we set off for Pemuteran. We didn't set off very fast though because again we crawled through Kuta, Legian and Seminyak. Finally the traffic thinned, and the scenery improved but then the combination of tiredness and stop-start driving hit poor monkey #2 and she was sick! Thankfully the ever resourceful MM had a zip lock bag, so our poor driver didn't end up with mess all over his car and was more than happy to stop for a bit while sorted her out.
Things went uphill from there, both for Monkey #2's health and for all of us as we headed into the hills. We hadn't been through the mountainous green heart of Bali before and were blown away by how beautiful it all was and endlessly amused by the things people to carry with them on a motor scooter. I have pictures of a guy balancing a 6 foot gas cylinder, another cooperating with his passenger to balance multiple sheets of corrugated iron and another guy with 3 dozen bushy door mats. We stopped at some overpriced tourist trap at Lake Bratan for lunch where the food was unexpectedly good and the view a delight.
We travelled through some more fantastic scenery before finally reaching the Adi Assri resort in Pemuteran, about 5.5 hours after we set out. We really liked the Adi Assri where we had two interconnecting bungalow things that were pretty flash for the price we paid. The grounds were great and the staff lovely. There were two pools down near the beach and the breakfast area had views to the beach too. There were maybe 50 rooms at the resort, but I'd be surprised if more than 10 of them were occupied. The entire time we were there, we didn't share ‘our' swimming pool with another guest. It was mellow as.
We love Pemuteran. The beach is black sand, all the accommodation low rise and the water a sublime temperature. There is coral not far off shore and an endless stream of beautiful landscape photos. Not a tout in sight, a string of simple tourist warungs on the main road and not much else. The girls had a ball. While DM and MM went scuba diving with Sea Rovers (the onsite dive shop) the office girl Dita looked after the girls. They made sand castles on the beach and she taught them to make origami everything. She wandered up the beach with them to Reef Scene where they visited the turtle hatchery and made friends with Coral, the owner's Labrador. They played in the shallows with other kids who happened to be on the beach. Reef Scene arranges pony rides, so they got to ride up the beach with the Labradors trotting after them and then the guys took the saddles off and they got to ride them into the bay as the horse had a wash and a swim. Because of the bio-rock project that Reef Scene initiated there is coral and fish only metres from shore and DM got to take the junior monkeys snorkelling for the first time and they saw Nemo in his native home.
For logistical reasons we only ate at warungs that provided transport. The three we tried for different meals were Frangapani, Waung Susu and Warung Suka Sari. Frangapani had best view, Susu had best food (although all were nice) and prices and Suka Sari had nice grounds and friendliest staff. The transport to Warung Susu was one of those beaten up old VW convertibles that some of the day tours use.
DM and MM dived did two dives at Pemuteran and another double dive at Menjangan Island. On both dives we had the same dive guide, Made who was great and each time we were the only divers in the water. Great coral, a million fish and saw a few reef sharks. Paul who owns the dive shop is great and so are all of his staff. Dita, who looked after the girls while we were diving, seemed surprised when we paid her for it after her last dive. On the morning we left she came by our room with some snacks and drinks she had bought the girls for the drive down to Sanur.
We spent four nights there, but could have stayed longer.