Bali, Indonesia (May, 2013)

We booked the Stones Hotel in Legian (Marriott brand) near Seminyak for 3 nights using cash.  We didn't use Marriott points since the hotel was relatively inexpensive at ~$200 per night which included $50/day in the hotel restaurants in addition to the free buffet breakfast that came with our temporary Platinum status.

We walked around Kuta a bit during the afternoon and got 90 minute Balinese massages (~$12.50) in the evening.

The next morning we booked a private car to take us whitewater rafting and to the Bali Zoo to hold some of the animals.  The rafting was pretty cool...mostly mild, but we got wet and our guide kept paddling us under waterfalls to soak us.  The scenery was beautiful...very green, tons of waterfalls and cliffs.  We got out and snapped some pictures of the waterfalls, and the highlight of the trek was at the end of the journey we got to go over a 12 foot waterfall in the raft, which was fun.  By the time we got to the zoo, bad weather was rolling in.  We got about 3/4 of the way through the zoo and it started to pour down rain.  We did get to hold monkeys, exotic birds, and huge lizards, but we rushed out to get out of the downpour and back to the hotel.  We had dinner in the hotel, swam in the pool, and watched a couple movies in our room before going to bed.

The next day we slept in and then went to Waterbom park for some waterslides.  The highlight was "Climax," a slide that is nearly vertical and starts with you standing on a trap door and a voice counting "3...2...1..." before opening the trap door and dropping you into a free fall inside of a closed tube before you go into a full loop before plunging into the water at the bottom of the slide...good ride.  After leaving the park, we wandered around the shops in Kuta before heading down to Kuta beach to watch the surfers.  We had another relaxing evening eating dinner by the pool and watching a couple movies in our hotel room.

We didn't go to Ubud or Nusa Dua this time around (we spent all of our time in those 2 areas the last time we visited Bali in May, 2012).  We were missing the kids so bad after 14 days away and getting anxious and excited to see them the next day.  We took our $60 Jetstar flights home from Bali (Denpasar) to Perth and arrived home to our excited kids.

 Eliza after dropping from the near vertical "Climax" water slide at Waterbom Park.