Last year, my hubby had a brilliant idea that we should go for a holiday with my family at Bali. And so we did! A few weeks ago we met up with my siblings and their families at Hard Rock Hotel, Bali for a super fun and relaxing vacation. Although, the trip started on quite a sad note for us.
We had bought an early Wednesday morning flight (7am), so that we could arrive at Bali at noon, meet my side of the family, and proceed to have a good day together.
So we woke the kids up at 3.30am, left our house by 4am, and reached the airport at 5am. The kids were SUPER excited about going on an airplane, and we happily wheeled our luggage to the check-in counter.
Only to be told that our flight has been delayed.
To 9pm.
Yup.
I thought I heard wrongly. Are you sure it’s 9pm and not 9am??
Alas. It was 9pm. Which meant we would lost an ENTIRE DAY. A day that we were supposed to be having fun in the sun with my family. ARGHHHH!
The flight was later delayed a few more times, from 9pm, to 10pm, and finally to 11pm.
To help cap our disappointment a bit, and also to avoid ferrying the kids back home (they would go nuts!! Can you imagine?? After all that excitement only to RETURN HOME?!), we used that day for cuti-cuti Melbourne instead. Checked into a hotel near the airport, hopped on SkyBus and trains and took the kids to a Science museum in the western suburbs lol.
After a full day of exploring and walking around, finally, it was time to fly, and this time, thank God, there were no more delays. In fact, when the plane finally moved on the tarmac, some of the passengers clapped and cheered hahaha. You can imagine everyone’s frustration, having lost one whole day at the destination. But of course, sometimes technical issues happen, and these can’t be avoided.
ANYWAY.
The kids were surprisingly good in the plane, no fuss at all! I was nervous for nothing hahaha! Maybe it was because it was a night flight, and we kinda tired them out through the day. All they did was watch a little bit of TV, ate tonnes of snacks, and went to sleep. Yay!
Six hours later, we finally arrived at Bali at 4am!! The adults (the hubby and me) were super tired because we hardly slept on the plane, but the kids were almost jumping off with excitement. 😀
We met our family for breakfast, and our holiday truly started.
The children practically stayed in the pool the whole day for two days! I must say though, that Hard Rock Hotel has a really large pool area, enough for everybody and you won’t feel as though you’re bumping into strangers all the time. It’s great!!
We spent an eternity trying to convince Amy to have a go at the water slide, and she finally took courage and went on it twice. But after that, never again. Haha! Alistair too refused to try -.-” Their cousins, on the other hand, were going on it hundreds of times with no fear at all!
Amy and her favourite cousin, Jeslyn. She stuck with her the whole time, always looking for her, wanting to sit with her, play with her, talk to her. 🙂
Bali’s Angels. 😛 With my sister-in-law and my sister.
Forever my favourite and best big sis. She’s also the family’s “photographer”, always the one who would diligently take photos and force everybody to pose. And thanks to her, we will never lack photos for memories. 🙂
We seldom get a chance to take a nice picture together these days. Here I mustered all my wifely authority to force him to stand in front of the camera with me. 😀
My wonderful family arranged for a surprise birthday celebration for Amy! That was so thoughtful of them! When the restaurant staff took out the dessert with a candle and started singing Happy Birthday, Amy was so surprised and shy! Her face turned beat red and she looked at me with a big smile, “Mamaaaaa!!! Mamaaaa!!!” hahahaha she was really cute.
All Alistair wanted to do was to grab sand and throw at people. -.-” He’s really a cheeky boy.
The waves were huge and great for surfing, but other than that, I have to say that we didn’t really enjoy the beach we were at. The sand was a bit too coarse for us. Some of my family members actually hurt and cut their feet when they went into the water, due to the tiny stones in the water.
All in all, it was an awesome time together, and definitely not enough. We spent the entire time just in Hard Rock Hotel, and it was soooo gooooddddddd. All we did was chill and relax. None of us wanted to leave lol. We just wanted to stay in the pool and enjoy the spa and eat and sleep all dayyyyyy.
A tip if you are ever going to Kuta in Bali: the traffic can be atrocious. Plan ahead and allocate plenty of time to travel if you want to visit places outside of the hotel. More importantly, leave earlier than you think you have to when going to the airport!
Love,
Natalie