Hallo from Sanur, Bali - 14th March 2026
- Brett Sedgwick
- Mar 19
- 5 min read
Hallo from Sanur,
After our flight from Manila, we got into Denpasar airport at night, and the first thing that we noticed was how much it had been improved since we were last here, which was about 10 years ago. The airport is huge, modern and efficient, with beautiful gardens throughout. After customs and passport, we grabbed a Grab and checked into a beautifully air-conditioned room near the airport for the night.
The next day, we taxied back to the airport and waited a few hours until we saw some familiar faces come through the door: Jake, Tymina, Lylee, Violet and Baby Vinnie!! Yay!! After lots of hugs and kisses, we grabbed our two vans and 30 minutes later, we were walking through the ornate doors of Villa Stella in Sanur.
We had spent a decent amount of money booking this place as it had three bedrooms with en-suites, a full kitchen and our own private pool. It turned out that one of the bedrooms was in its own building, so the oldies - i.e. us- got that one.
The rest of the day was spent swimming in our amazing pool in beautiful Balinese gardens before we walked down to the beachfront, found a restaurant, gorged on Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng, and satay for the adults, and chicken nuggets and chippies for the kids!! Lylee was super keen to try a drinking coconut, and predictably, she found it gross!! Everyone slept well that night in air-conditioned luxury. Bali is hot at this time of year - let me tell you.
The next morning Jen-Jen and Grandude took Lylee and Violet back down to the beach for breakfast, so that Mum and Dad could sleep in with Vinnie. We found an amazing organic cafe called Lemo Beach Cafe by Malaika, and we ordered a dragon fruit and a mango smoothie bowl that was served in half coconuts!! Incredible. Jen also ordered a coconut coffee that blew her mind. It was basically an espresso shot topped up with fermented coconut sugar…insane. We also noticed a dive shop a few doors up, and we organised an hour snorkelling trip for the afternoon, and the guy let the girls take a pink mask, snorkel and fins back to the villa to practise in the pool before the big event.
The rest of the morning saw us teaching the girls how to snorkel while Jake and Tymina ripped into some good old-fashioned Bali haggling in the shops! Lylee and Violet were great students and after 30 minutes were almost professional snorkellers!! Legends.
After lunch, we went out off Sanur Beach with Captain Wayan in our own private boat. It was choppy AF out there, but all five of us (including Jake) snorkelled, saw fish, coral reefs, and statues on the ocean floor. The girls were absolute champions, and because they had trained in the pool, their first ocean adventure was a resounding success!!
The rest of the week saw us eating breakfast nearly every day and all adults becoming obsessed with the coconut coffee and all six of us loving the mango smoothy bowls. The girls got their hair braided, we went to a night market for food, and we swam, shopped, and ate all week. It was an awesome family holiday!
We also wanted to show them a bit of the interior of Bali, so we organised a van and driver for the day to check out Ubud and the surrounding areas. The first stop, after an hour, was Tegenungan Waterfall just as the heavens opened! After bartering for ponchos, we went down to the very posh/expensive Ommas DayClub, which overlooks the waterfalls.
We had a few jugs of posh lemonade before descending to the falls. It was too rough for swimming, but we got some excellent photos posing near this cool fall.
Our next stop was the terraced rice paddies at Uma Ceking. Again, the rain hammered down, but the rice paddies were so green, and we got some beautiful photos of the girls in the swings and nests…so cute!!
By this stage, we were starving and stopped at a random restaurant called Warung Mina - and of course, we made Tymina pose by the sign. The girls fed some huge koi carp here, and the nasi goreng was top shelf.
Everywhere we’ve been on this trip, has seen us marvelling at the beauty of the gardens. The amount of amazing plants, statues, pots, shrines, temples, ponds and lighting is truly spectacular and has made us love Bali so much this time around.
Our next stop was Tirta Empul - the famous purification temple in Tampaksiring.
We all donned sarongs as we walked around and saw the koi ponds, the eternal spring and the purification pools, though we didn’t undertake the ritual as it was pretty hard with the kids. They had a ball feeding the hundreds of koi anyway.
Our final stop was the Tibumana waterfall. We trekked down many stairs and over bamboo bridges to see this beautiful fall and pool. Unfortunately, all of the rainwater had turned it brown, and nobody was swimming. We trekked back up the humid stairs to the van and told our driver to take us home.
Our driver was a dude, by the way. His name was Koming, and he was a guitarist. We spent about 40 minutes talking bands, guitars, amps, gigs, etc… Legend.
We made it home, tipped Koming and flopped into the pool with ice cold Bintangs!! Oh yeah, great day.
The other really cool thing that we did with the kids was go to Waterbom - the biggest waterpark in Bali. We spent a very hot day on waterslides, in pools, on lazy rivers etc… The only downside was when some peanut playing water volleyball was unco AF and smashed Grandude in the side of the head!!! Jerkwad.
That’s about it for Sanur, except I met up with my old mate Azza, and jumped on the back of his bike without a helmet while we did a pub crawl…so good. We ate at a fusion restaurant where we had pork satay and pork chop noodle broth bowls…so good.
Before we knew it, the week was over, and it was time to go. We packed up the villa, and the kids got in a taxi to the airport to fly back to Sydney. Due to the Orange Fucktard bombing Iran, we had to change our travel plans as we could not fly through Dubai, so we decided to stay in Bali for another week, but more on that later.
We had an excellent week. The girls were good, and were keen to learn a few words in Balinese, tried new things and ate some new food - including delicious watermelon, dragon fruit and banana smoothies. Jake and Tymina loved the holiday, and Vinnie was the best baby. He ate, laughed and slept. Legend. The girls should remember this forever, and hopefully, the travel bug is ignited in them thanks to Jen-Jen and the Dude.
Terima Kasih.
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