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Published: January 29th 2012
We have just returned from another long weekend in paradise 😊 In fact it was really nice weather...about 30 degrees every day, some rain at night but none during the day, massive winds the first day but perfect blue skies for the last 4 days.
We decided to try a different location and a different hotel... and we decided to upgrade a little as it was only 4 nights so we purchased a family suite at the Holiday Inn Tuban. And it was excellent! I really really enjoyed the hotel and found it the best i have stayed in on Bali. It was newish, clean and not too big. It didnt have the huge feel of the Jayakarta or the Dynasty or Melasti. I could say "meet you at the pool" and we would all be able to find each other 😊 It had a really great relaxing feel with big cabanas and lounges everywhere...and enough people to give it atmosphere but not enough to get in your way. But....and as always there is a but, the location is awful. It is nowhere....well, it is at the end of Tuban near the airport. So 10 min walk one way finds
nothing but a garbage lot and another hotel, 10 min walk the other way finds 1 cheap local restaraunt/cafe, a few 7-11 type shops and a massage place. But that was it. So what we really need is the Holiday Inn relocated to Legian - that would be perfect!
Our midgit (4 yo) decided to play up on the 1st full day 😞 He was pretending he was a teenager and there was a lot of 'no, i dont want to' coming out of him...gggrrr. This of course led to hubbie also being grumpy and pretty much an entire day of both yelling at each other. Day 2 onwards was all good though and we had a great time - yay! We wandered around the area heaps attempting to find places to eat or things to see and do... the beach was quite large and nice in the bay with heaps of long boats for fishing to watch going out. We took the kids to a temple just out of Kuta and the taxi took us via a local dance/festival thing. The temple was good and apart from lots of 'why?'s from the midgit which were often hard to
explain but the kids were interested and took it all in. The dance thing though freaked the 4 yo out and he had nightmares that night - doh! they had some really strange outfits with big scary fingers and ugly heads and although we tried to explain the story and then the other option of its just people dressed up telling a story it was definitly on his mind for a good 24 hours.
We went out to Jimbaran Bay last night for dinner and to watch the sunset. The fresh seafood available at the many restarants on the beach was excellent and we definitly had an amazing feast - yummm! It is always fun to pick what you are going to eat while it is swimming around. It is weird to watch the aeroplanes land right there in front of you but sort of out in the ocean...good to keep little (and big) boys entertained though lol! One small problem we had in the last 2 days was with Australian schools going back next week the Aussie families all headed home, and with Chinese New Year on, the hotel and all tourist things were taken over by Chinese.
Not normally an issue but they were going mad for my blonde kids. Papparazi style on Jimbaran bay over 20 Chinese tourists were standing around taking photos of our family and kids....it was weird! One lady picked up the little miss (now 14mths) and when she got upset another lady grabbed her and then another...all with me running along behind attempting to get my baby back and none of us speaking the same language. Then eating dinner there was honestly 4 men with digital slr's taking photos of us eating!!!! We got that a bit when we went to China pre-kids but it seemed a bit far fetched in Bali! I'll let the photos show how full on they all were.
So that was pretty much it! Lots of swimming, lots of eating, and mostly a fun time had by all 😊) Oh, a good tip for those with youngens, i was letting the little miss run around in the customs line at Bali while Hubby stood in line...and a security guard came up and told me he would take my family through as it was a security risk - wahoo! So we managed to miss about 45 minutes
of waiting!!!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Can't wait for your pictures...
so went to the Holiday Inn website so I could picture your family there. The hotel lobby and pool looked beautiful. Sorry about the location. However, after reading Cockle's blog at [blog=679098], you might want to give Legian a miss. I'm still waiting for someone to write about the perfect place to stay on Bali. Next time you visit you need to drive all over the island to find that place, so that you always know where to come back to; and so I know where to stay. Actually, I can wait for your pictures. Don't you have an SD chip in your camera that can be taken out and inserted into your laptop computer. That was my only solution as I always lost the cables connecting the two.