The Bali Vacation

Bali, Indonesia
April 2010

Spent 5 days in Bali with the husband and the baby, before flying back to Manila via Singapore:

• Sanur
  
• Kuta
  
• Ubud

Back Story
April was a personally tiring month for me, but Bali was one of those places that I wanted to go to and where I haven't been to yet. So when the opportunity came up, I said 'yes' to Bali and a quick stopover in Singapore (because I also wanted to visit friends).

I had to work with limited budget (mine), and limited cheap flight schedules. We rode a smorgasboard of budget airlines -- Tigerairways to Singapore, Airasia to Denpasar (Bali), and then Jetstar back to Singapore. It was a whirlwind of late night flights that you probably shouldn't put a toddler through, but hey, we survived!

No major tantrum issues (she's normally a patient kid, even through long car rides and flights), except for the Jetstar flight back to Singapore, when Zoe didn't want to sit on her own chair at once. The flight attendant came to our area and said the kid had to sit on her own chair. Bok said, "ok, she will in a while", intending to sweet talk Zoe into sitting. The flight attendant said, "now sir" in a taray tone. Kainis, sarap saksakin! I mean, it's not like Zoe was a noisy brat who was disturbing everybody (I think), but demanding the kid to sit now at that very instant when she expressly said she didn't want to was inviting the kid to a major tantrum. So she cried loudly. Another flight attendant came and bribed Zoe with 2 pieces of chocolate. She sat on her own chair after, sniffling and eating chocolate. Although it was good the other flight attendant managed to subdue Zoe with chocolates, I didn't particularly like bribery as a method of discipline. Whatever. By that time, I was slightly burned out as well.


Back to Happy Thoughts
Ok, so Bali has several areas you can opt to go to. We spent 3 nights in the Sanur area and another night in the Ubud area. Most people go to Kuta where the bars are. All of the travels were done on a leisurely pace. We only visited 2 major temples, because one of my companions does not like visiting temples. =) There was also this grand plan to rent a bike and bike around Ubud, but someone developed a mild case of vertigo and plans didn't push through.

Already forgot the names of the restos we ate at (sorry!), but all of them were great. At Sanur, we stayed at the Puri Mango Guest House. At $35, the rate included tax and breakfast. There was a mini-pool too. The rooms had a slightly old-ish style -- big wooden bed frame, big wooden cabinets, the type of decor that reminded me of "Blusang Itim" or "Bahay ni Lola". It wasn't really creepy though. The room was clean and spacious, and yes, it was value for money at $35 with breakfast.

Bok liked Ubud better. We stayed at Tegal Sari, where our room cost RP330,000 a night including tax. The room was spacious and more modern. It looked like a 5-star hotel room! There was a veranda that opened up to a view of really green rice fields. Reservations had to be paid in advance though. After the conversion, credit card surcharge (1.8%) and tax, the room costs PHP1700 a night. Not bad, and so worth it since Bok really really liked the room. Tegal Sari is maybe a 15-30 minute walk from the Ubud downtown center, although there's a free hotel shuttle to downtown.