Clifton

We usually do quite a bit more research before heading off on a trip than this one. But unexpectedly, someone has given us a flight (w/ miles) to Bali and use of their very nice villa for about a week for our anniversary. Since we're available, we're jumping at the chance.

The issue is that if things work out, we'll leave about 9 days from now and I know little about Bali except some past reading about Ubud that I hadn't kept up with. So, we could use some perspective.

Some background:
- The villa is about 5 mins drive further inland from Seminyak.
- We'll are going to try to have access to a driver who is recommended by family and whose rates seem reasonable.
- We don't enjoy crowded beaches and water-y activities (BUT), if there were a spot where a quiet walk on a "deserted" beach were possible, that'd be nice.
- We love cultural interaction, meeting people, traditional markets, handicraft making and seeing off-the-path sort of places.
- We will have our two year old with us. She is a game kid, having been up to Machu Picchu with us in Oct, but she does have her limits (as do we all!)

Questions:
- What sort of day trips could we work out that would be feasible from Seminyak? Would love to know if Ubud is possible.
- From our base, is there any way to get away from the sun-seeker crowds and poke around in some more traditional villages? Crafty sort of villages?
- Does that quiet beach exist anywhere within reach of Seminyak?
- Any restaurants in or around Seminyak that specialize in good local food without an upscale atmosphere?

Anything else you want to throw in is fine with me, and thanks!

Cliff

Carrabella

I haven't been to Bali for some time, but as you have a two year old, I just want you to be aware that there is a rabies outbreak in dogs there at the moment. It was reported this week on Australian TV. Dogs, which are everywhere, are being immunised, but apparently some of the vaccines used have been substandard, and not effective. Am sure your villa will be fine, but please watch out for dogs and monkeys, with your precious Littly, when you go exploring. You'll have fun anyway!

We had a walk on a pretty secluded northern beach called Lovina. Dirty sand though. ( Aussie beaches are MUCH nicer!)

rhkkmk

bali is small.. your locatiom will be fine..

that driver availability is important or get another one...

ubud will be close.. the restaurants there and in Sem. are cheap and good--kid friendly...

get a general bali guidebook and you will be fine..

marmot

Cliff, Lucky you! There are hundreds of villas in the Seminyak area – many in Canggu and Umalas. If you’d give me more specific information on the location I could tell you what’s nearby.

The beaches in Seminyak and further north to Canggu – and in fact in Bali overall – are not deserted. The Seminyak beach is a long sandy beach with a very aggressive surf. Canggu beach is black sand and less attractive, but also more of a surfing than a swimming beach. Still Seminyak beach is good for long walks, people watching, sandcastles and the sun sets can be magnificent. If you enter the beach near Petitenget Temple or around Jalan Oberoi, you’ll see several places where can rent beach chairs with an umbrella. For a swimming beach you should head over to Sanur which is about a 45 minutes drive.

There are plenty of choices for restaurants in Seminyak. For the family, I’d recommend La Lucciola (on the beach with a big lawn where kids like to run around), Talese (across from the Legian Hotel, inexpensive, casual Italian). For the adults, I like Sarong (pan-Asian in a garden setting. It’s definitely upscale but the Indonesian and other Asian food is very good) and SIP (French bistro). Indonesian food is everywhere. Generally speaking food is inexpensive, alcohol very, very costly.

Your villa will probably have a cook who will do the shopping and prepare Indonesian or simple Western food for you. Having a staff takes some getting used to, but do take advantage of it. They’re there to serve you.

For culture, you should definitely head to the Ubud area. It’s about 30-40 minutes from Seminyak. Plenty of traditional villages, arts and crafts, cultural events and dance/music performances.

Be sure to see a dance performance at Ubud Palace or in one of the nearby villages. The Ubud Tourist Information Center will have a performance schedule. I like the Kecak at Junganan Village. They will pick you up at the Tourist Center.

Find out where the driver is from. Balinese tend to only knowledgeable about their home areas, so unless he’s from Ubud, you may need to get a driver/guide who knows where to go. There are several guides whom Fodor posters recommend.

The warning about rabies is very serious. Stay away from stray dogs AND MONKEYS! I’d also mention that Bali villas are generally not child-proof, so be extra vigilant on electrical outlets and around the pool.

Balinese love children -- and kids love Bali -- and you will find excellent and inexpensive childcare; however, be aware that most of the babysitters can’t swim. The pool most likely won’t have a barrier so if you leave your child with a baby sitter be very clear that she mustn’t be allowed to go near the pool.

Cicerone

What a lovely gift! I was in Seminyak last week for part of Chinese New Year. I would first suggest you get some guidebooks and read up on Bali and on the Seminyak area in particular, as you will find small villages in the area actually. Places like Kerobokan where you will find rice paddies. While Ubud is certainly a centre for arts, it positively <i>heaves</i> with tourists during the day, so don’t rule out just going by foot or on a bike not too far from your own house and seeing what is up locally there. You only have a week, and you don’t want to spend all of it in the car when you most likely can find interesting things nearby. Bali to me is like India, there is always something interesting going on right next door, and a religious festival within walking distance worth seeing. If the villa does not come with bikes, you can rent them. I believe you can rent child seats/trail behinds. I would bring a bike helmet for the baby as I am not sure they would have them. Generally roads are OK, there will be traffic, but take it slow and you should be fine. I would avoid downhill’s with a baby on board, but in the Seminyak area you should not have major issues with that.

Bali is relatively small, and Ubud will be less about 30-40 minutes’ drive, assuming no traffic issues. As I said, it’s loaded with day trippers and even at night is pretty busy, so IMO if you want to see quieter life, you need to head to other villages like Penestanan which is an artist’s village north west of town or Batuan, which is a painter’s village to the south, where there are also some basket weavers. There is an excellent map called the <i>Bali Pathfinder</i> which you can find in tourist shops in Ubud that shows good walking trails through the rice fields and villages and some bike routes as well. You can walk for a few hours or the better part of a day. Great for bringing a picnic, or some of the trails have restaurants along the way. I like paths toward Tegallalung which has some wonderful rice paddy terrace areas, with of the walk along a high ridge with excellent views. (Perhaps there is a Kuta/Seminyak version of the map. The Pathfinder includes street maps of Kuta and other towns, but not walking trails.) You might also look into organized day hiking or bike trips where you could join a group, try something like Sobek at http://www.balisobek.com/ (Sobek does a great half-day whitewafter rafting trip as well, although they most likely won’t take a 2-year old. I would not recco a bike trip in the area as it is quite hilly and has narrow roads with no shoulder, and with a baby on board may be a bit too much. There have been some posts here about people getting hurt, I myself was sideswiped by a Japanese tour bus some years ago while moving fairly slowly in town traffic which knocked me off the bike and broke my arm. The only possible exception would be to ride to Batuan, which is virtually flat the whole way and is not a main road. It’s 5-6 miles. Views are not as good, but you will see a lot of village life. You can rent bikes in Ubud.)

Also, for day trips, try the very northern areas of the island and esp the relatively undeveloped western parts, both of which have some large national parks like Bali Barat. These are much quieter, and would be 1-2 hours each way from you, so doable as a day trip depending on your taste for being in the car. The Lonely Planet book covers these less-touristed areas pretty well. I also think it is good for more local restaurants as well, although in Seminyak you don't IMO, find a lot of cheap local warangs like you can in some other parts of Bali (as you can see by the reccos above which are not Indonesian or are trendy Indonesian). It's a bit too developed for that. But a lot of Bali is that way too at this point.

Clifton

This was way more than I expected. Very useful! I will take the rabies warning especially to heart. We're very careful that she learn not to approach strange dogs.

I do have the LP Indonesia. travel guides have been sort of an addiction. Unfortunately, it's packed in a box crossing the pacific somewhere, as we just recently moved countries. I'll have to run out and see if I can pick up a Bali guide. Maybe two...

I've been looking at the villa site and it appears that it's actually IN Kerobokan. In the pictures, I can see rice paddies out the lounge room window (and I know who took the pics). So it sounds like this may be a good position for us. It would be nice to not be car bound at least 2 or 3 days, and if the immediate area is interesting and lively, that would be fantastic. They do have bikes, btw, so we'll see about bringing her helmet along and play it by ear from there. Not sure how far we'll get, but we have a habit of getting into talks with people and blowing itineraries, which in the end, is the most memorable parts. But we have to get out of the confines of a car to do that.

I think once we have a guide book, I'll be able to look up a lot of these and see what fits best, maybe each day. There's wi-fi as well, so if we discuss traveling out further with the driver and he doesn't seem knowledgeable, I may jump back in for those driver recommendations.

Thanks too for the term "warang". That's kind of what I had in mind, but a shame there's not more of that sort of thing still around.

Oh, - to get to the north part of the island as suggested. What sort of routing is that? I see on a terrain sort of map that there seem to be a highlands area and just got curious about it.

Also, I see a temple called "Tanah Lot" seems fairly close (relatively speaking). A fairly cool place to visit?

Thanks

Gpanda

You might consider actually spending two nights in Ubud. The hotels are cheap and it's a wonderful place to walk around and just soak up the ambiance. You could use the driver on other days to visit some sights.

kmkrnn

One of the things your little one might enjoy is to visit the kite place near Ubud. There she can see them painting and making kites, then buy her on (very cheap) to fly her self. They are made of nylon and foam. Delightful dragons, butterflies, birds etc. Have some one show you how to get them aireborn. We had a bit of trouble with ours.

marmot

Kerobokan is a large area that encompasses several villages. It’s in transition from rice growing to foreign-owned villas, but there’s still a good deal of open land. I’m sure you’ll find it easy to walk or bike around the neighborhood. South Bali doesn’t have the spiritual intensity and cultural richness of the Ubud area, but it can still be charming.

Warungs are everywhere that Indonesians are (which is everywhere). You sound like a seasoned traveler so know what you’re getting into, but suffice it to say that hygiene is variable.

I’m not a big fan of Tanah Lot as it can be overrun with tourists, but it certainly has a dramatic and photogenic setting, especially at sunset. Every village will have its own temple – small village small temple, bigger village bigger temple, right up to the mother temple at Besakih.

Your new Balinese friends will gladly invite you to visit their local temple and will explain the fine points of the religion. The Balinese religious calendar guarantees that there is an event going on every day somewhere on the island, so most likely they’ll be a festival or procession nearby while you’re there. If you happen to be there on March 16, you’ll experience Nyepi, one of the most important days in the years, the day of ritual purification.

Even on lesser, local holidays, temple celebrations will go on all night with gamelan, masked dance, cock fighting and a lot of ceremony. If you’re lucky you may hear about a cremation, which is another big, public event.

In South Bali a lot of the tourism workers are actually from other parts of Bali and they still “belong” to their local village, so they’re not always up to date on what’s going on in the area where they work. That’s why professional guides are a good source of information.

The northwest coast of Bali is about a 3 hour drive. The drive itself is scenic – rice paddy, lakes, waterfalls, vistas – but it’s a lot of car time. There are plenty of opportunities to experience village life and natural beauty in the Ubud area. It helps to have a guide who can lead the way to the markets and point out the flora and fauna and explain the agricultural methods. The subak, or ancient irrigation system, is especially interesting. If you’re a climber, mountains are available.

There several good books on Bali and they are available in Bali too. They are more for background than specific information as they tend to be obsolete as soon as they are published. I like just about anything put out by Periplus. This is one of my favorites on performing arts – good information and beautiful illustrations (but I think it’s only available in hardcover)
“Balinese Dance, Drama and Music: A guide to the performing arts in Bali”
I also like Judy Slattum’s book on Balinese masked dance: “Balinese Masks: Spirits of an ancient drama”

Clifton

Haven't thought about staying in Ubud for a night or two. It's a thought, although one of the main reasons we're going was that free bit. But I've always wanted to go to Ubud and have lots to see there... The kite idea sounds great. Even if we bring one back to fly closer to "home".

marmot, again, thanks for all the detail. I know we won't work in everything, as it's nice to have that relaxed, wandering around close to home time with a little one too. But that drive you described, just once... would be a really up our alley.

I think I would be open to the name of a knowledgeable and honest (and most of all patient) driver/guide around the Ubud area for use one day, if we can work out when that would be, if someone would like to make that suggestion. We probably will keep our daughter with us all the time as we've not left her before except with people she knows well, so that, with my love of stopping for photography makes for a day's itinerary that's best not planned to the minute or too strenous. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks so much for that book suggestion too. I'll look when we go back out.

Oh, and without trying to give out the exact address, since the villa belongs to family and all and could be perceived as a conflict to post here, it seems to be right between Kerobokan Kelod and Batu Belig. About one km to either. Hopefully that sounds like a real place, haha. And hopefully a nice local-ly sort of area to wander around

Bokhara2

Hi Clifton,
Good for you! I'm a reasonably regular visitor to Bali and love it. Do try & stay a night in Ubud; as others have said, it's tourist town during the day, but quietens down quite a bit at night. You'll occupy a day & a night easily. It has some very interesting art galleries, an art school and your little one will be enchanted if you get to see a gamelan band and the "monkey dance". There's also a big market (spices, herbs etc, and soft furnishings, clothing, bric a brac) in the centre of the town.

Speaking of monkeys, if you're near them, beware. They're naughty little tykes and will snatch ear rings, necklets etc. Can be frightening for littlies. People feed them peanuts, so they think everyone will & can get a bit aggressive.

You'll be able to get accommodation at VERY reasonable rates at a variety of places.

http://www.indo.com/active/ubud.html

Interesting aside as you're now a Melbournian: Melbourne girl Janet De Neefe went to Bali as a teenager with her family for a holiday; returned a few years later, fell in love with a Balinese and now owns Casa Luna & Indus restaurants, a cooking school, and the "Honeymoon Guest House" just off the main street, with her husband. She was instrumental in setting up the Ubud Writers Festival and her own book "Fragrant Rice" is a good read and an interesting insight into Balinese culture. http://www.casalunabali.com/

Great exchange rate at the moment - official 8385 IDR/AUD. I take AUD 100 bills & change them at the Kodak money changers. They don't charge commission and have a good reputation for honesty. Make sure you ask for their largest denomination and have them count the bills out onto the counter in front of you. THEN PICK THEM UP AND COUNT THEM YOURSELF. Usually no problems at the Kodak shops, but it's good training for you, and a very common trick is to slip a few bills off the table as they're being counted. I usually get $100 changed, count it out etc., and then do it again if I need more, rather than getting multiples at once. It's an easy currency to make mistakes with - lots of oooooo's Of course, you can also use ATMs.

Couple of links for you. Bali Travel Forum is a great source of current info. The forum is largely populated by Australians, many of whom will be posting from Bali, so you can just ask anything and get an almost instant response. www.balitravelforum.com

Filo's Bali: Filo & his wife have been visiting Bali for eons and do amazing charity work up there. He's compiled a very good "helpful hints" webpage. http://www.filosbali.net/

Wine's expensive and not a fabulous range of imported; so either take your own or drink the local beer, which isn't too bad at all on a hot day We usually take a couple of bottles of Gin/Vodka & stick with that.

The Balinese are lovely people and they just adore kids; you 3 are going to have SUCH a good time. We'll be looking for pics & travellers tales at the GTG, you know!

Do your friends have a driver they use regularly? If not, let me know & I'll dig out our guy's details for you. He's super reliable & his English is excellent.

marmot

Clifton, The driver that many Fodorites use is named Putu. There's another thread going titled "Help! Need Puta's e-mail address. . ." that will give you details on how to reach him. I don't know him myself, but everyone who's used him likes him.

Batu Belig is the next village north of Seminyak and as I said is in transition from rice fields to a combination of villas and commercial establishments serving the villas. It's a laid back friendly place. No great cultural attractions, but pleasant all the same.

The beach is a bit scruffy but it's one long beach all the way to Seminyak and on to Kuta so you can walk as far as you're up for. You'll often see religious ceremonies on the beach around Petitenget Temple.

If you do decide to spend a night in the Ubud area I'd recommend you look at the Alam Sari (outside of town) or Ketut's Place in town. Both are well run and moderately priced. (Actually Ketut's has some really cheap rooms, but I'd suggest you trade up to their better rooms.) Both places offer a lot of cultural and nature oriented activities. They'll take good care of you.

Clifton

Thank you all. I'm going to find that thread and keep it in case we decide to stay up there. Still haven't decided on that for sure but we'll talk it over. We're pinching pennies these days due to the move and employment stuff.

Laid back and friendly sounds ok to me marmot, and so does maybe catching a local ceremony.

Bokhara, thanks too. Yeah, I think we're going to give wide berth to at least the monkey forest. The driver family has used I think should work out ok. They had a lot to do with his having a business and they recommend him highly. Major thanks the story about Janet De Neefe, money changing (does the old approach of using ATMs hold up as well?) and especially for the forum links. I'll be reading over on those for some time.

Bokhara2

ATMs are fine, just use the usual cautions that you'd use anywhere else. I use the money changers because I'm used to them and, from memory, don't think there are ATMs everywhere.