Ika is getting to meet all kinds of cool parents, who contact me through Baliblog. Today she got to meet Tamara and family, who are in the middle of a RTW trip. Tamara got great air tickets online, which were shipped by FedEx to my house in Bali. Today Ika, Jevon and I rode over to the Hotel Sarinande in Seminyak, to join them for lunch. I suggested Warung Kolega on Jl. Petitenget, as it is cheap and good. After scooting back to Jl. Dhyana Pura and dragging a taxi back down the narrow lane, we were all heading to the warung, which took only a few minutes. Traveling with kids is more possible than most people think, if everyone is willing to relax a bit. Tamara’s kids seemed super relaxed and played with Jevon.
She was a bit concerned that the food might be too spicy, but the Javanese style food served at Kolega, is only medium hot and many dishes are not spicy at all. Closed on Sundays, Warung Kolega was doing good business today, and most of the tables were full. We found an empty table and sat together, enjoying travel talk and the tasty food. My meal consists of steamed rice, a large piece of BBQ chicken, green beans and eggplant sambal, for 11,000rp.
Tamara and family have spent the last 10 days exploring Bali, loving Amed. They rented scooters in the area and found the local people extremely friendly. On the whole, they have managed to do well at finding small independent places with room large enough for the 4 of them and also good places to eat, Ubud being tops.
Of the annoying things they encountered, the Kuta Beach vendors were high on the list. Having already visited Australia, NZ and Fiji, Tamara told me Bali was their first real taste of a truly new culture on this trip. The family spent a day at Waterbom Park in Tuban and said it was worth every penny. Safety was well taken care of with plenty of staff on the spot, the kids loved it. That’s a great recommendation and one I’ll have to put to the test myself. Waterbom has huge slides as well as smaller pools and slides for the toddlers. Tamara and family fly out to Singapore tonight, the Sarinande allowing them to check out late today. She was searching for discount hostels in Singapore and said right now many are full. If you happen to be flying into a big city, it can pay to reserve your hostel be forehand. Good luck to Tamara and family and hope to hear more about their travels.
