Things To Do Around Bali: Kidsworld, Sari Organik & Retail Therapy

Bali, Indonesia By

Kidsworld

Been very busy the last couple of days with my best friend departing Bali all of a sudden we found ourselves cramming everything in.

A few days this week I took my kids to Kidsworld. It’s a new indoor playroom opened about 6 months ago. It is filled with about 7 giant inflatable slides/jumping castle type things. It has a few toys, a colouring room, a PlayStation room and a canteen, oh and a trampoline. It’s in a large warehouse about 10 minutes from our house.

$6.50 per child, unlimited play & free wifi for the parents. There are a number of fans around the room, but no aircon and after jumping around with the kids I was sweating! But they had a ball. $1 for 2 ice creams later we headed to the colour room for a cool down.

The inflatables are loud and there is no atmosphere music, except in the colour room, however it was a win. A few days later we were having trouble with our internet at home so we packed up the whole family and headed back. Josh and I managed to get some work done on our laptops at the tables while the kids jumped and slid and crawled throughout the whole joint, joined by some local Balinese children.

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Sari Organik

Wednesday was my friend’s last day in Bali. We organised to meet them at Sari Organik. This is an Organik farm 800m from the best parking spot. We enjoyed the walk with the kids through the rice paddies and nature, took maybe 1/2 hour with our two toddlers.

The restaurant is completely organic, with all food grown and produced by hand. It sits on a rice paddy in the middle of nowhere and is absolute serenity. My fried bananas were delicious. Josh’s sweet potato sorbet not so much!

Instead of trekking back we decided to jump on a passing motorcycle that happily gave us a ride back for $1. I found this terrifying with Mia sitting between him, and me but she loved it and cried when she had to get off. Again, mummy, again!

Sari Organik

Kuta Shopping

During all this it was decided I would head to Kuta with my friends, bringing Mia along and Josh would head home to work and let the iBabysitter (iPad) take care of our son after his nap. I left the car with Josh and hopped in the transport Sharelle had organised to get to Kuta. We left about 12 and got there just after 1pm.

We spent the first 2 hours at Discovery Mall and Burger King. My first takeaway in 3 weeks, it was yummy! We also checked out the Home @36 hotel located in the mall. A large room with King and single bed was $100 per night. The environment is quite sterile, but there was lots of room and an amazing shower with an on/off button and a dozen or so shower heads ready to shoot water at you from every direction!

After this we decided to hit the shopping outlets on Sunset Road. Large shops filled with clothes on racks, folded in piles to the ceiling and no sense or direction whatsoever. Rummaging through all those piles I must admit, after no retail therapy for over a month, I felt slightly euphoric.

I got both my kids cute little board shorts for $1.50 each. I got Mia – shorts, 2 t-shirts, 2 dresses. Caius – Nike basketball shorts with matching tank. Myself – a pair of Jeanie shorts = less than $30!

We then hit the Surfer Girl outlet where I managed a skirt and top also for less than $30 – a nice bit of colour to my wardrobe since I brought all black shirts??

Before we knew it, it was 6pm and my 4pm transport ride was long gone. I decided to stay for dinner and we headed to Kartika Plaza next door to the Mall on the beach. It has a great playground where the girls played while we ate a fairly expensive Bali meal ($8 pizza!)

On our way out Sharelle bumped into a couple and called me over. Turns out they were visiting with the plans of moving to Ubud in December. They were basically me and Josh 6 months ago. They had two children, were looking at selling all their belongings, he was a website designer and heading over. They told me about an American couple living in Ubud who had a chef and driver and a nanny for $150 per month! For sure we swapped details. We will be meeting this American couple on Saturday to swap stories and tips, I’m excited!

After that we hailed a cab. Transport to Ubud is minimum 200,000 rupiah, where as a taxi would be max 180,000. Hugs, kisses and a few tears later I jumped in the Blue Taxi. Mia fell asleep straight away seeing as she was a trooper the whole day without a sleep and I got to finally rearrange all my apps since what I use here is much different to back home.

The taxi driver got lost so I used my iPhone GPS to direct him to my place. Gave him a nice tip and finally fell into bed just after 9:30pm.

It seems we have more visitors in Bali then we did in Perth! Now that my friend has left we have a busy weekend with meeting the American couple Saturday lunch then my aunty and cousin Saturday dinner. Sunday we finally move from the ‘nature hut’ to Jimbaran, where my sister and brother-in-law are coming for a visit.

I must say the Nature Hut has grown on me, as has Ubud. I could consider living like royalty here more permanently. But I am also looking forward to aircon and space. Maybe a TV :) And being only 15 minutes from the shopping district in Kuta. I am also looking forward to trying to remember life without mozzie bites!

We may even look at a school for the kids for the month we are in Jimbaran.

Until next time…. 

Reader Comments...

"I respond to every comment by direct private email. I look forward to your feedback" -

Hi Erin
Great blog! I am learning so much lol
Just thought I would mention that we went to the Bali galleria shopping mall today and they have a huge kindly/school display area where all the local play groups/kindy/schools all had different stalls and lots of information ... Though you might be interested as they had heaps of program's for 2 and 3 year olds as well as older kids!
Secondly I thought I would recommend a restaurant we went to in Ubud ... Betelnut ... It is next to cafe de Luna and across from poan and looks a bit like a dodgy Australian bar but it was empty when we were there still never know, however they have a great little menu which allows you to buy everything in half portions so Scott,Tom and I had 4 half meals and it was more than enough! There is a courtyard out the front for kids to play and a fountain (entertained Tom for hours) service was incredibly slow (no surprise there) but the food was fantastic and worth the wait!
Great to meet you the other night ,,, we are hoping to make it up here for good in december but have to go home and tell our friends and family now ( which I think will be the hardest part) looking forward to the life change!
Good luck in jimbaren ... Are you moving to a house? Does it have a website? We haven't considered that area for living so might be interesting in having a look around!
X Jen

Jen May 25th, 2012

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