Dive Monster Sr & Mamma Monster on a Vacation in Bali

I, Dive Monster Sr., am really bad when it comes to Christmas, Birthdays and stuff like that. Buying presents is a nightmare and being in Dumaguete limits the options to buy anything nice to start with. Local department-shops simply cater the low income of the population. An easy solution is, to bring your loved one to a nice trip. As Mamma Monster is most of the time a really nice person (when she sleeps, cooks, or eats newborns), I decided to take her to a little holiday for her birthday to Bali.

Bali Vacation in May 2019

Mamma Monster’s birthday is beginning of May, according to the Facebook notificatyion I get. So, I booked a cacation in Bali, starting the trip on May 1^st. I booked some flights just before Christmas with Air Asia. Can’t remember the exact rate, but it was a good offer. From Dumaguete to Manila and back I got a good deal with Shabu Pathetic. This carrier once again proofed that their nickname is spot on.

Now some may say, that you pay is what you get. Well, that is not entirely true. The whole planet is full with low cost carrier. Most of them still do a decent job, when it comes to customer-service, Check-in procedures and so on. All stuff which one should not expect with Shabu Pathetic.

Just two days before our departure they cancelled some 70+ domestic flights over the next 10 days to have better customer service.

Really??? Ask the passengers of 70 flights about service… We were lucky, the flight before and after ours was cancelled. The same was for our return flight… Guess, they are just scared to see Dive Monster Sr. rolling in to their office, fuming and high blood… Lucky them that our flights too place.

The Grand Inna Kuta – Our Hotel in Bali

Mamma Monster was pretty calm and good behaving over the first 3 months of 2019. Therefore, I decided to get a bit a better Hotel in Bali. I wanted to stay in Kuta. Even it is a kind of crazy place, it is a perfect starting point to everything. There are great restaurants in walking distance, trips are easily organized and there are a few decent malls nearby, just in case I need some peace and freedom and have to send Mamma Monster on a shopping spree.

I was a few times in Bali before, for Mamma Monster it is the first time. I booked the Grand Inna Kuta for different reasons. First and foremost, there is no road between the Hotel and the beach. A lot of expensive Hotels, including the Hard Rock Resort in Bali, have a road with crazy-ass traffic in the evening between them and the beach. The Grand Inna has also one of the best breakfast-buffets on the Island. Living in Dumaguete, where the food-scene is close to a 4^th-word standard, if that would exist, good food on a vacation is important to me. I also was looking for a room with pool access. The Grand Inna was simply perfect. 12 steps from my veranda and I was floating like a dead walrus in the pool. Those rooms are pretty limited and I was lucky to get one, even it costs a few bucks more… I simply deserved that.

Our Bali Vacation Plans

My plan was to be the laziest person on this planet. I thought, I had everything sorted. Room by the pool, near the beach, with great food options in 10 minutes walking distance. Nothing could interrupt me. How wrong I was. During our stay, I was more active than the first 4 month of this year together. According to the tracker on G-Maps, I walked 2 marathons in 10 days. While doing so we were:

Eating at some outstanding Restaurants in Kuta and surroundings
Went to a coffee farm to drink the most expensive coffee in the world
Shot ourselves into the sky at the 5GX Reverse Bungy
Went to many temples, of all kinds of believes (Batuan Temple, Vihara Dharmayan Temple, Br Pering Temple, etc)
Released baby-turtles to the ocean
Watched countless breathtaking sunsets
Went to the best and biggest waterpark in Asia (where I bruised my ass to all colors of the rainbow)
Had copious amounts of Bintang Beer and some cocktails
Took 2.000+ pictures and 300 short video snippets
Gained 5 Kilos each…because we can!
Went souvenir shopping multiple times, just for the fun of getting a low price for stuff we never need again in our life

…and basically, had a wonderful vacation in Bali.

I only can hope, that I find enough time over the next few days to write some of our experiences down, remember a few of the anecdotes we experienced and tell you more about our vacation in Bali, the Grand Inna Kuta and why coffee made out of the poo of the civet cat costs literally shit loads of money.

Cheers

Rhoody