Niki and Family Just Back Report

Terima kasih to all in here who wrote their own JBR's so that my family and I could have such a STUPENDOUS holiday!!!

We flew Garuda from Bris, flight OK kids were happy with Kids Meal and games. We went with the neighbours who had kids same age, so they always had mates to play/scrap with lol.

5 nights at the Sanur Paradise Plaza Suites on the bypass road. Location not that bad, but not really good either. Bit of a walk to the beach as there are no cut throughs close to the hotel, but for about $1 you can get a taxi, so who really cares. Just beware the holes in the footpath, they are real killers!!!
You can buy a 50% discount food and 25% discount beverage card at the hotel, but as we ate out mostly, it wasn't our thing. Our friends took the breakfast option when booking - $34 for a huge buffet breakfast each morning. We ate at the hotel on some mornings and it was Rp 60.000 for adults and half price for kids plus the usual tax. The Nasi Goreng, pancakes and bacon with maple syrup was my staple which is probably why I put on 1.5 kg in 9 days!!!!

The Suites run Camp Splash which my kids just loved. Dian is the LOVELY young woman who runs it along with a funny guy named Ngurah or better known as Bling (blink). He would play all night with the kids if we let them, and I was actually quite upset when we had to leave as these two people really made our holiday in Sanur fantastic, knowing that the kids were well looked after. The cost was Rp 75.000 for the two of them from 9 - 5 including lunch. The added costs were Rp 15.000/hr for a game of pool, Rp 15.000/hr playstation and I think Rp 30.000 for 10 tokens for the machines. We did have to buy some more drinks which were expensive by local standards, but to have happy kids and sane parents is worth it in my books.

I won't bore you with what we did, but I will thank the people/person (sorry forgotten who it was) who recommended ketut "Teddy". We used him for 2 days and he took us to some wonderful places!! Nothing was too much trouble and he even got a bigger car for the day that we took the kids out. His friend Ketut (of course lol) had a minivan and would not lend it to Teddy for our daytrip while we were in Ubud as he didn't have any work, so we settled for the second Ketut who was not bad either, but my 7 yr old son had a bit of a soft spot for Teddy and was quite sad not to be able to say goodbye to him :(

Ubud was such a pleasure for us because thanks to the BTF we had booked into the Tegal Sari. From the time Pande picked us up thru til when Wayan dropped us off, nothing was too much trouble for any of them. My 7yr old son made friends with the wood carver Nyoman Jinggu and on the last day, Nyoman and James made a flower carving which Nyoman finished off and painted ready for our departure. James was stoked!!!! Nyoman even gave James his wood workers mallet. We used another Wayan as our driver and the hotel price was actually very good Rp 40.000/hr. Wayan has lived in Perth and is very knowlegable about the area etc and he took us to a family compound where the kids had a go at the painting. We ended up getting a painting like the one that was in the toilet of room 8 at the Tegal Sari which I had fallen in love with. Painting plus frame for Rp 250.000. Luckily, the spiders didn't come with the painting and the painter laughingly picked the huge buggers up and threw them away. ewwwww.

The elephant park was on our agenda that day, and thanks once again the the BTF we got in early about 9.30 and got straight onto an elephant. We got the driver to take us there, so for a family of 2 adults and 2 children it was US$135 for admission and a safari ride only. I wasn't too fussed with staying there for lunch and the shows which would have cost incl hotel transfers $207 for the family.

Kintamani volcano was awesome, we were there early the first time and saw only 3 hawkers, but the next time was lunch time and it was frantic. Luckily the restaurant had bars to keep them out, but they still shouted at you whilst you were trying to eat. The food was only so-so, but the view pretty amazing. Not to mention nice and cool the days we were up there.

Beware Gunung Kauwi temples as the stairs back up are KILLERS for the unfit such as me. The kids were like mountain goats skipping up easy as you please, but I though that I was about to pass out!!!!

Git Git waterfalls were fantastic, especially when you get up close and wet lol.

Bali Ballet is on every Tuesday night at 7.30pm at the Ubud Palace. Just watch one of the ticket sellers at the entrance, he tried to tell me that my 11 yr old daughter was full price, but luckily one of the younger ticket sellers soon put him right hahahaha. That performance it started to rain, so we adjourned across the lant to the pavillion and watched in the comfort of shelter, but prob not as exciting as in the open air. I was more than impressed with the show, as I love all the colourful costumes and one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen (even if she was playing a man lol) It was a highlight of my trip I must say!!!

Can't think of anymore to add, but if anyone wants more info, I have a pile of leaflets that I collected in my travels, so maybe I can answer any q's via email.

Oh one more thing - we booked via Bali on any Budget and young Angus our rep gave us a leaflet advertising some budget watersports package down in Nusa Dua. It was Rp 300.000 for adults, with kids half price and we did - parasail, jetski, banana boat, snorkelling and a trip to Turtle Island. We got picked up from our hotel and were met there by a fantastic man who made sure we got all our goes and was so organised it was amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed our day in the water, but I must say that Turtle Island was quite sad with poor monkey's, fruit bat and snakes and turtles just sitting there waiting to be petted that I don't think that I could recommend that part of the trip to anyone. The snorkelling was OK the kids were well looked after by the boat crew who came in with us and made sure that the kids never strayed too far from all of us.

Anyway, enough wittering on, Terima Kasih to every one once again. And now I am off to check out my next years holiday with kids - Disney Land LA. Gee I must be masochist lol

Niki xxx