Living in Jimbaran, Bali: WiFi Woes & Lollypop Playland

Bali, Indonesia By

Movies Under the Stars

Saturday, Discovery Mall has a movie under the stars.  It was a bit of a let down as we thought it would be on the beach. It’s on concrete out the back of the shops with about 20 plastic chairs lined up. The guys running the film sat in the middle of the chairs, smoking and there was a bright light shining on the screen. I left the kids and Josh watching Astro Boy and did some shopping. Upstairs in Discovery Mall is a family fun zone with an indoor playground for the kids. After I finished we decided to head home, I wouldn’t make the effort of heading to ‘movies under the stars’ again.

Bali WiFi

Josh and I are having trouble with the Wi-Fi at our house, it seems impossible to get or rather at times possible at other times not possible. We have commenced café jumping. One of the best things in Bali is the amount of restaurants and cafes with free Wi-Fi and set up for you to come and stay. Dunkin Donuts is a huge café with power points and free Wi-Fi where while we were there for 3 hours, others were there longer. KFC also has lounges and computers for Wi-Fi lovers. McDonalds has a bench set up for Wi-Fi uses with powerpoints. The Internet café is 30 cents an hour, but not as comfortable as the above. Anyway it’s fun changing your work place every day & while my husband might not feel as productive in moving around, I think it’s good for us to get up off our computer move to the next café and have a little space between our fingers and the keyboard for 15 mins/half an hour.

Lollypop Playland

Tuesday is one of our family days. My husband attempts to finish all his work before 10am and then we head off with the kids on an adventure.

This Tuesday we headed to Lollypop Playland.

This neat little playground is great fun. The price is close to a Western indoor playground, but with many added benefits. Not only does it have an indoor playground complete with trampolines, bungee jumping, jumping castles, slides, etc. But out the back is a climbing yard with rock climbing, lapels, crow’s nests, etc. And down the side is a water playground for kids to run around once they are all hot and sweaty. 

Unfortunately the day we went they were having issues with the water playland. Usually $10 entry we got a discounted entry. The kids still loved it. My daughter, especially fell in love with the bungee trampoline and went on 3 times soaring into the ceiling and coming back down for another bounce. 

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Not many photos of my son… he was tired and grumpy the whole time, unfortunately.

I would definitely come back, hoping next time the whole thing is working.

Christian Churches 

After lunch we stopped at a Burger King on the kids request. While eating, a couple next to us started chatting to us. They had been in Bali for 4 months volunteering at an orphanage not to far from us, supported by a church. One thing led to another and they found out we had been looking for a church in Bali. One like our Church back home, Globalheart. They attended a Church in Nusa Dua called Global. Coincidinc, I think not! They invited us along this Sunday and we swapped numbers to meet up with them again. 

We are very excited to try it out. Last Sunday we went to a Church in Denpasar, the traffic was horrendous at 4:30pm and I don’t think I could do it again. The Church (Jesus Lifehouse) itself was fantastic. The people were so friendly and welcoming. Supper was held beforehand and we met the pastors. It was a small, new church and, unfortunately, for us the service was in Indonesian. They were gracious to find a translator for us and we enjoyed the experience very much. However our Spirit enjoyed the service, we are hoping our ears will this Sunday at a bilingual service.

Daycare

Or “school” as my daughter prefers to call it is going very well. My kids absolutely love it and ask me everyday when they are going back. Mia is loving learning Indonesian and comes home everyday to tell me new words she’s learnt, animals, colours, numbers. She also tells me about her friends and all the strange food they eat – Tuna Soup! 

Caius tells me a lot as well, he loves to talk, but I’m not sure of half the things he is saying haha.

Balique

Wednesday night we went to a beautiful Moroccan restaurant in Jimbaran called Balique. The service was friendly, the atmosphere absolutely stunning and food scrumptious. It was expensive by Bali standards, the whole meal set us back by $55, but we had a lot of food – Entrée: Turkish bread, dips, cheeses. Mains: Roasted beetroot & feta salad, Steak with chips and salad. Fish fingers (real fish) & chips. Dessert: Lemon cheesecake. Drinks x3. And it was quality, one of the best steaks we’ve had since being here.

Overall it was an experience I was glad to have.

Balique, Jimbaran

Bali Dynasty Resort, Kuta

Thursday is another family day and today we tried a different approach. Swam in the pool, hung around the house and made sure both kids had a proper nap. After Mia’s hour and Caius’s record 3 hour nap they were so much happier and ready to go, so we set off for Kuta.

On previous visits to Bali we have stayed at the Bali Dynasty Resort. It is a great hotel with family rooms, kids club, 3 pools, many restaurants, markets and a great location in South Kuta, minutes from Waterbom. Recently they did some work to the kid’s pool and reopened it with a big, kid’s water playland.

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So we decided to go check it out and make an afternoon/evening of it with dinner at their H2O restaurant. We knew from previous times that Thursday was Satay night and we love Satay night.

The guard let us right in and we parked out front, no charge. We went straight through to the pool and armed with our own towels, set up shop. Mia with her floaties on, got straight into it and soon realized the big slide was way more fun then the little ones. I can’t count how many times she came down, only to go straight back up and do it again. Only a month before at Waterbom she didn’t want to go on anything, now armed with 2 tiny Dora armbands she is king of the world! 

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Caius loves water too, but only with us, so stayed fairly close as we showed him the water park and all the different levers and handles.

A quick dip in the main pool, back to the kids pool and finally we had enough. We took a quick trip up the road to the ATMs outside waterbom where we found an ATM allowing 2 million rp withdrawal – SCORE! We had made dinner plans at 6:30pm and since it was only 5:30pm we decided a quick massage was the answer for the next hour. 

Caius armed with the iPhone, Josh went for a back massage, Mia had a pedicure & manicure, and I had a foot massage. Unfortunately they were a bit sloppy. There was no technique, just pressure, but hey $15 later for all of us no complaints, it was nice to just sit there and be pampered, and Mia loves her flower nails.

After that we stuffed our supermarket purchases and towels in the car and went to dinner.  The Bali Dynasty is mainly Aussie guests, so going to dinner felt like we were back home in Perth, Australia. Everyone had a great Aussie twang and loud laughter, but we were eating cheap with top service.

It was a satay buffet with pork, beef and chicken satay sticks with a peanut sauce that I’m still drooling over. Another section had breads and salads. Another section kids favourites, chips, veggies, sausages, etc. And lastly the dessert bar with strudel, tarts, fondue and ice-cream.

We all had a great feast and the kids ate so much food. It set us back 170,000 rp ($18 AUD) each and the kids were free.

Towards the end of the meal they put on a dance show in which the kids became part of the act. Mia had a blast dancing with feathers and being on the stage and pulled me into have a dance with her after the show had finished and the DJ was playing up a Top 40 storm. Caius soon joined us while Josh sat on the sidelines photographing and video taping. Man, did I have a blast dancing with my kids and listening to music I hadn’t heard since we’d left Aussie-town.

Caius got into his first fist fight with another boy, much older. I was secretly proud of him, shhhh, don’t tell him. And we knew then it was time to go home.

After photos with the little Bali Leprechaun and my tall husband we jumped into our car and headed home all worn out from a fantastic afternoon/evening! Oh, by the way I don’t think Mia had met a little person before and the look in her face on discovering this man, the same size of her, but resembling an adult, she was enthralled and Caius found him a great dancing partner.

So that leaves us to today, Friday. Kids were still exhausted from last night and having no sleep at daycare fell asleep in the car the moment we got in to go to dinner. So we went back home and ordered Italian from the local Pizzona store. Beautiful pizza and wonderfully, they smsed after the meal to ask how it was and what they could improve on! Such service!  I really love the Bali spirit, they are such genuine people.

Another week down and the count down is now on for our departure from Bali, I never thought I would say this but ‘oh no’! Next week my sister and brother-in-law are coming for a visit. I am beyond excited and can not wait! Bring on Thursday. 

And that’s my Jimbaran in a week, wrap up.

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