Bali 2: Waterbom, Dream Villa, and I Could Get Used To This...

Our Bali holiday really was a lot of fun, and as with all fun things what could be better than telling everybody about it endlessly? So here you go, more cheesy family holiday shots and anecdotes.


On a more serious note, we would definitely recommend the place we stayed in, Bali Dream Villas. Not only was the accommodation luxurious, it also comes with a bunch of wonderful staff who make it their mission in life to make your holiday as relaxing and comfortable as possible.

The kids immediately latched onto Daywa, our softly-spoken driver who spent half of his time in fits of giggles at what the kids were saying, especially Carl who took to yelling "don't speak Dutch!" at me in the car. They of course loved the extra attention, especially Niels who has always been a more male-focused kid, wanting to be ‘one of the big boys’ hanging around kicking the tires of the car and sneaking out to watch cartoons (in Balinese) on the tv in the security guards hut with the guys.

Carl, who has always been a ladies man, soon had Nade and Nyome, the cook and housekeeper, wrapped around his little finger. He had them fetching drinks, looking for toys, and even dressing him in the mornings, all with a charming smile on his face. He only had to sidle up, hold their hand and gaze into their eyes and they would melt in a puddle, ready to do his every bidding. All joking aside, I could seriously get used to having staff – well who wouldn’t! – it’s just so nice not to have to do everything and just focus on enjoying the time you have with the kids and each other. So if I ever win the lottery, that’s going to be near the top of my list!



One of the most fun things for the kids that we did while in Bali and which is a definite must-do if you are going there with the family, is the Waterbom park.
This is your typical water park with slides ranging in excitement from a gentle float in a rubber tube down a quiet jungle-lined river to ‘don’t look behind me the water wasn’t that brown colour when I started the slide’ terrifying.
Most rides are done on tubes, which seat either one or two people, or on mats with handgrips. The extremely fast and scary slides required you to lie on your back with your hands folded onto your shoulders and your legs crossed at the ankles. Having stood at the end point and watched a few people come down it was immediately obvious that if you forget to cross those ankles, you are going to experience the enema from hell, baby!

One of the funniest parts of the day (well for me anyway) was watching groups of 18-24 year old Aussie guys whooshing down the slides, climbing out at the end with a look of OHMYGOD on their faces and then needing two hands to pull the extreme wedgie out of their arses! Perhaps it’s just my infantile sense of humour but it had me in stitches. I said to the attendant standing at the bottom “you must have the best job in the park” and he cracked such a wide grin you could just tell he was having a whale of a time watching these guys with their too-cool attitudes and loud mouths getting what they had coming to them…right where it hurts!

The kids water playground at Waterbom is also a blast, with lots of valves to open and shut, levers to turn, and unexpected jets of water popping up from everywhere. A huge bucket on the top was constantly filled and about every 4-5 minutes it would reach the point where it tipped over, inundating the entire playground in a deluge of water. Holger reckoned there must have been around 1,000 litres of water in there, so you can imagine the effect it has – the noise alone was impressive and the kids just loved it.


One of the last things we did – remembering just in time on the last day – was find a Balinese costume for Niels. His class is doing a new IPC (International Primary Curriculum) unit on textiles and fabrics and all the kids had to go to school wearing a national costume. We got him a beautiful batik sarong and scoured the markets for a topi, the pointed woven hats the farmers wear in the rice paddies. He looked so cute all dressed up and ready to go to school! Carl of course wanted to be in the photo which is why he is standing there with his Cheshire grin, still in his Superman pyjamas. I love the look of forbearance and patient suffering on Niels face in this photo.



All in all, we would thoroughly recommend a Bali holiday, although I would suggest renting a villa as we did rather than staying in a hotel. Kuta would have been too busy and noisy for us to enjoy staying there so we liked being a bit further north, on the coast. It also means you are closer to the sights and don’t have to drive through the town (which takes forever) to go anywhere.