Bali Family Adventure - Day 1

Now that I am finally home from my family holiday and can blog so much easier with real wifi and a computer I have decided to share our adventures with you on here like I wanted to do originally while I was away but found it very difficult with the wifi situation and working from my Ipad.

I managed to keep a travel journal everyday while we were in Bali so I am planning on sharing our experiences with you day by day. I will go through what adventures we had as a familyas well as reviews on restaurants, hotels and I will be giving some tips that we learned on our journey and travelling with kids.

Stay tuned everyday for the next two weeks to keep up to date and then following Bali Adventures I will finish my 31 days of blogging which I was half way through just before we took off in that plane, high in the sky.


Bali Family Adventure - Day 1:

Snoozing on the plane

We arrived in Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali in the late afternoon and managed to make it through the airport very quick and easy compared to last year. They have pretty much finished their renovations so it was much better in there. I'm always a bit nervous when i'm going through customs, always thinking that something will go wrong because I am quite the worry wart but it was quick and painless and we had plenty of excitement coursing through us.

Having the kids this time made it so much more exciting and fun. We already knew that we needed to catch a 'Bluebird Taxi' - The light blue ones! as they are the most trustworthy ones and they have meters in them so the driver can't charge you whatever they feel like so we grabbed one of them and headed to our first hotel, Bali Garden Beach Resort. The drive was pleasant. Our driver wasn't very talkative but he was nice enough and it was a quick drive. The kids checked out the streets along the way for their first glimpses of Bali life and their crazy (but still workable) traffic.

On the shuttle bus from plane to airport

First impressions of the hotel involved lots of oooohhhs and ahhhhs! The entrance looked very classy and nice with a bali feel to it despite the busy busy busy road it's on. As you walk up the steps to the main lobby you are met with smiles and a huge chandelier in the entrance that I could not stop looking at, *sparkles*. We checked in and a bellboy showed us our room and brought our bags down for us. We were in a family suite for our stay at Bali Garden which was one room that consisted of a king size bed and a bunk bed for the kids. We also had a small outdoor are surrounded by trees which had a table and chairs and a drying rack. The website called it a private patio but it was connected to our neighbours patio, however because of the trees we were private to the rest of the hotel so it wasn't so bad and we only used it once.

Bali Garden Entrance

We were all hungry after the long flight so we just dumped our bags and headed out to the street. We were in a great location as we had Waterbom Park in front of our hotel and next to us was Discovery Shopping Mall (Yay!). There was a little collection of cafes attached to the front of the resort so we went to them to see what we could find to eat. Mikey spotted 'Bubba Gump Shrimp' restaurant across the street and he was excited as we had only just the week before watched Forrest Gump.


We chose to eat at the cute coffee shop attached to hotel and we were served by a beautiful girl called Resti who was absolutely adorable and told us that it was her 20th birthday just the previous day so we all wished her a Happy Birthday. She laughed with the kids and was a very great hostess. For our late lunch I ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice which was delicious and I also enjoyed a Lychee Iced Tea. I always find that the drinks in Bali taste so much fresher and yummier than Australia. Mikey is the noodle king, that kid would eat the 2 minute Mie Goreng packet noodles for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let him so of course he was dying to try the real thing, he and Rahni chose that for dinner and Ross chose the chicken special.

After dinner we headed back to the resort. So far all we had seen was the lobby and hallways but we were keen to find the pool area. From the front the hotel looked very small and it seemed like everything that was on the website was a trick as we had no idea where they could fit it all. We asked the lady at the reception where the pool was and she pointed us to the corner of the lobby where there were some steps leading down. Once we got down the steps we were surrounded by the most beautiful garden areas with little ponds, bridges, statues and a temple in the middle with little paths that lead to all sorts of things including a gym, spa, restaurant and finally the pool!

We were all dumbstruck that so much could fit in the resort after looking so small, it was like paradise and there right in front of the pool was even more restaurants and..........

The Beach..........

Oh my we were in heaven!

Of course the kids ran back to the hotel room even though it was getting dark and they grabbed their swimmers and jumped in. We were able to leave them to play and float the night away while Ross and I headed to the beach bar and enjoyed cocktails while watching the sea and the action on Kuta beach. I found it very hard to concentrate out there as it got darker and all the bats came out to play. I watched them swoop around the sky in front of us and I felt very uneasy about them but generally they left us alone. On the way back to our room I had an encounter with a little frog who scared me to death by jumping out onto the path.


Day 1 was over and we were all ready for a good sleep but we were super excited for what was coming up next in our adventures!








Oh and just a quick note: - We found Krispy Kremes on the way to Bali in Sydney Airport.......excitement plus for Mr Mikey who had never had them before hehe:

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2's adventures in Bali!