Bali 2011 #1

Now in Seminyak; arrived very late last night.

The trip over was much better than expected... cognac in the Qantas Club, then a Jetstar flight full of Aussie bogans - but through a series of events which we are struggling to piece together it emerged that we had ordered all of the optional extras.  Plus immediately after take-off we were moved to the front row, which had a bassinet, and we had 2 seats each... H crying during take-off really worked in our favour! 

I felt like we were Kath and Kim if they'd won tattslotto; flying Jetstar to Bali but with 2 seats each and with all of the options (blow-up neck pillow, portable DVD player, blanket, food, etc etc?!?).

As soon as she was put in the bassinet H fell asleep, and slept pretty much the whole flight.

Late at night arrival in Bali... the journey through the airport was pretty good - going through immigration we were waved through the diplomatic aisle - the benefits of travelling with a cute baby.

A terrible night - after all of the commotion H decided it was morning (we finally got to bed about 130am local time, 330 Melbourne time).  She didn't sleep more than 30 minutes straight after that.  Looking forward to a better sleep tonight, hopefully.

Our hotel is pretty good - not all that close to the beach, but nice.  After a good indonesian breakfast, we went for a wander.  Our stroller is totally useless and we shouldn't have brought it.  The streets are crappy and falling apart and not suitable for a stroller, plus there is people and traffic everywhere.  Constant beeping by taxis wanting to attract your attention.  Lots of people trying to sell stuff to tourists (not on the scale of Cambodia, but still quite a few).

Sat down for a drink at Ku De Ta - a v nice beach club / bar / restaurant on the beach.  Very relaxing and a great place to spend some time.  The beach itself was pretty good, but not amazing.

Relaxed and swam at the hotel, then quite a long walk through busy and crazy streets to Made's Warung.  It felt like we had taken a few wrong turns and got really lost, but it emerged that by fluke we had headed directly there.  A really fantastic Balinese/Indonesian meal, and H slept through the whole thing (plus the walk there and back).

Now relaxing at the hotel, soon we'll watch sunset.  H is having a great time, and seems to be coping really well with the change in temperature.  M still has a ferocious head cold, but the weather seems to be helping.  I'm looking forward to finding time to read the MIFF guide properly.