Our second trip with 2 young kids brought us to Bali in November 2013, just a week after Jah’s 2^nd birthday and just as Bella was turning 6 months. Honestly we had no expectations for this trip at all and fully intended to stay in our villa through all 5 days. This was our chance to just relax and bond with both kids and to introduce Bella to her first ‘swim’.

We booked a two bedroom villa (Villa Hibiscus under Serene Villas) in Seminyak, the villa had its own pool and the management arranged for a pool fence so that we didn’t have to worry about Jah jumping in on his own. I can’t tell you how important and helpful a pool fence is especially when danger is not part of a young child’s vocabulary. The package also included breakfast (which the housekeeper would prepared in your villa every morning), 1 hour of in-villa massage for 4 pax and a BBQ set dinner for 1 night.

We also arranged to hire some baby items from an external baby hire company (Bali Baby Hire) and they delivered the items to our villa before our arrival. We hired a baby bath tub, a play pen, bedrails, an exersaucer, an outdoor activity slide, a bouncy castle (because our garden was huge!), pool toys, a Fisher Price rocker, bottled water, diapers and milk powder so that we didn’t have to lug them over ourselves and everything came up to approximately S$300.

We essentially spent most of days by the pool with the kids. You will be surprised how much fun a bucket and a big body of water can be for a child. I also got to use my water wrap on Bella (basically a baby wrap that is made of mesh material and dries really quickly) which meant that I had free hands to play with Jah. We also brought big floats which was great fun for the adults! :p

Our villa was a 3-5 minute cab ride away from the ‘Eat’ street in Seminyak and getting a cab to and fro was pretty easy. Lunch was the only time that we made it out out of the villa and we tried 3 different restaurants during our trip. Side note – Please do not attempt to walk if you are there with a child. We attempted it on the first afternoon (Jah insisted on being carried by me only) and I nearly died in the heat!

Lunches in Seminyak

Our first lunch was spent at Coco Cafe which was connected to a big supermarket (Coco supermarket). When I say connected, I actually mean the restaurant was ‘within’ the supermarket. This was fantastic because Joel could walk around the supermarket to pick up stuff and still check back with me, while Jah and I remained seated and waited for our lunch. From what I remember, the nasi goreng was good!

Our second lunch was at one of the restaurants found on the ground floor of Seminyak Square. It was relatively empty with big sofas that we could chill on. However I don’t really remember much about their food which might explain the emptiness hmmm….

Fortunately or unfortunately we only chanced upon a little gem (The Bistrot) during our last lunch trip. Ironically it was not serving local cuisine but instead serving western food, a vintage restaurant bar lounge. The place was very nicely decorated, with a great ambience and the food was awesome! The staff were very nice to the kids and offered to play with them while we finish our meal.  The drinks were really good too and not surprising, given that it is a watering hole by night.  Definitely going back there!

Dinners in Seminyak

Our package included a complimentary BBQ set dinner prepared and served in-villa. Jah was so amazed by the concept of a BBQ and kept ‘spying’ on the staff who was preparing our food.

We used a delivery service from Hallo and had all our dinners, in-vila. Hallo provides detailed menus from a handful of restaurants in Bali on their website. You basically call their hotline to place an order and your delivery charge will depend on your location and how many different restaurants you order from. Our delivery charge was about S$3 and every additional restaurant was another S$1. A rider will be sent to go make your purchases and everything will be delivered to you within 60 minutes! Payment is made upon delivery and the wonderful part was our food was piping hot every single time it reached us!

I realized later that we missed quite a bit of the must do or must go to places in Seminyak but I guess we were still slightly hesitant and frightened as first time parents travelling with 2  young kids.

That being said, I cannot wait for our next trip to Bali!!! This time with the village or well part of the village!

See you Bali in 2015!

JahBella’s Mummy