Tourist Traps Today we did the tourist traps. After yesterday’s unsuccessful attempt at buying boardshorts, we started the walk down Legian Street again…but we got a headstart by jumping into a taxi and going a few kms first before walking. Initially we just planned to go to the WaterBom park but we spotted a slew of surf shops on the way down there so we got out a bit early. We wandered into RipCurl and at first, they weren’t sure if they had board shorts for girls! But then they understood what we wanted and we found a rack of suitable [View Full Entry]

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Suckers! The day after Wayne’s 40th I was feeling decidedly seedy. A good sleep in, a hearty grease-laden breakfast of egg and bacon and taking it real quiet was in order. A couple of Panadol sealed the deal. Later on around 1pm, we decided that we’d try find Lauren a new set of board shorts and headed off up the road in search for a shop. We bumped into an equally seedy Wayne and Cathy headed back the other way - said some quick hellos and made some rudimentary plans for later, or maybe the next day. Near Legian Street, we [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the Intercontinental was like having a warm safety blanked snatched away. It had felt so safe and protecting and familiar - yet plastic. I have been entertaining the idea that it’s about time to stop staying at 5-star resorts and start searching out unusual accommodation instead - places that haven’t yet succumbed to the tendrils of marketing agencies. We had such an experience back when Lauren was 4 years old. We’d stumbled upon a great deal to travel to Borneo and stay in a (yes…5 star) hotel for 8 days for a shade over $1,100 per person for *EVERYTHIN [View Full Entry]

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Shopping Trip to Ubud All great journeys are paved with good intentions. US$40 to hire a driver for 8 hours includes car and petrol - cheap! The plan was to drive to Ubud and spend the day there shopping, checking out galleries, restaurants and maybe some cultural shows. Dancing First stop, major touristy Begong and Keris dance centre about 10km from our villa and about 20km short of Ubud. At first when the driver pulled over, there were lots of official looking people waving traffic to park on the wrong side of the road…what’s going on here? All the p [View Full Entry]

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Bali Belly Lauren and Jane have been have a slight taste of Bali Belly. Nothing too serious at this stage - not sure what could have caused it. My strategy of sticking to cooked-only food and heaps of alcohol seem to be paying dividends so far. 4WD Safari Waka Land Cruise safaris took us up into the hills today. It was our first real encounter with all the traffic conditions and types of people that Bali had to offer. We were picked up in a Land Rover fully kitted out for a serious expedition - there was no mistaking that our [View Full Entry]

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Bali, a tropical island at the end of the Indonesian archipelago. Lots of Aussie tourists love to come here for a cheap holiday, not so much so these days since the Bali bombings a few years back. Schapelle Corby is their most famous resident at the moment because her boogie board could really get you boogying ;) Why have we never been here before? I guess it’s too close to home really…it’s in Australia’s backyard and there’s too many Aussies here. We like to go a little further out of the way - off the beaten tourist track. So why are [View Full Entry]

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Today our goal was to find a helicopter and take a tour of the Rockies in it. We had a brochure and a phone number. But they weren’t answering - or were incredibly busy. So we drove. Valemount is back in British Columbia and the base of Mount Robson Helitours. It took us a while to find their operation, but it was in the obvious place right where there are two large helicopter company signs (neither which say Mount Robson Helitours). So we went in and the place was shut up tight with a few cars around and no-one in sight. [View Full Entry]

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Escape From Edmonton Edmonton "Maul" + Boxing Day Sales = Bad Idea! We really would have loved to spend a day at the water park and it might have been a good idea too in hindsight as we had quite a time trying to locate accomodation in Jasper! But the trick with the waterpark is that it has an early bird special that is more a "mid-day" special ideally engineered to force families to spend an extra night in Edmonton to get great value. If you rock up between 12noon and 4pm it's only $11...before or after that time entry is [View Full Entry]

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I would have thought that driving to West Edmonton Mall...that the Destination would be the predominant subject of this blog...but it was the journey! We had heard about a massive weather storm moving up through the states and it was hot on our heels. The Plan The basic schedule of events for the day was to simply drive up to Edmonton via Calgary (to pick up a new GPS unit) and hopefully get to Edmonton by about 2pm so Lauren could have some quality waterpark time. The Reality We woke up to a fresh dump of powder snow in Kananaskis. Fortunately, [View Full Entry]

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Our White Christmas has finally arrived! And almost as if I had my finger on a remote control...snow would start to softly fall each time we looked outside. It was very fairytale like...surreal almost! The Delta Lodge laid it on like nothing I've ever experienced before; not one but two massive banquets through the day, a Santa stocking was hanging from every hotel room doorknob in the morning, Santa made an appearance (apparently)...Lauren had no wish to go down and meet him in person in the lobby. There was face painting, a clown making the most amazing balloon creations and festive [View Full Entry]

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