We are just back from a ten day trip to Bali (Ubud and Sanur) and I wanted to write down all the stuff we dealt with (warning: poo alert) and all the stuff I think you might find useful if you are teetering on the edge of travelling with your wee one.
Wren was nine months and I uuuuhmed and ahhhhed for ages before booking the trip. What’s the worst that could wrong right? We end up in a Balinese hospital with food poisoning? Let’s do it!
The trip didn’t start well as we missed our connecting flight from Auckland as there was fog in Queenstown. Cue a twelve hour lay over in Auckland airport (we were lucky and had lounge passes) and then a twelve hour flight to Singapore to then come back to Bali on a three hour flight. Because we were paranoid we put lots of things in our hand luggage and thankfully we did!
Just incase:
Food for baby. It occupies them and keeps them full. More formula than we needed (if you’re breast feeding-easier). Snacks, pouches of food, rice cakes etc.
Toys/ stickers/ rattle things to keep her occupied.
Blankets for on the flight as it gets cool with the air-con.
Noise cancelling headphones. This was for when she was asleep! So I could get some shut eye.
A change of clothes for us all
Lots of nappies incase of emergencies
Wipes for all the mess.
A selection of dummies and the most useful thing of the whole trip- one of those dummy things you can clip to her bib. Nothing worse than having one dummy and it rolls all the way under your seat to the other end of the plane.
A sense of humour. I lost it into the trip.
Ubud
If you’re wanting all the things to do in Ubud this is not the post for you (sorry!). We were so tired we wanted to rest, relax, do yoga and not walk very far. I will be returning to Ubud alone in the future to go and explore but for now this is what I got.
I had booked a retreat in Ubud that was recommended to me online and was incredible. Ubud Aura is right next door to the Yoga Barn (if Yoga is your thing- it’s mine) and it was literally and I mean literally, five steps away. At Aura we had massages, lay by the pool with a wonderful little hut for baby and us to sit in, keeping her away from the water and a lovely breakfast was all included.
Yoga at the Yoga Barn is on all day and all night so you rock up, pick a class and then do it! There’s also a cafe, relaxation areas and you can sit there all day in the garden if you wish.
We were lucky enough to catch up with the organiser of TEDxUbud in a lovely cafe on the main street. There’s also HUBUD (the community working space), monkey forest (which we didn’t visit as I HATE monkeys) and shops a plenty.
We also drank the best (and I live in NZ where coffee is so good) flat white and pain au chocolat of my life at Monsieur Spoon. Yes it’s French and yes we were in Bali but we needed coffee. And good coffee is what we got.
Sanur
Sanur was recommended to me by another blogger who had taken her baby there on the advice that the roads were better for buggies and also alot quieter than other towns. May was the perfect time to head there with a baby as the restaurants were all quiet and relaxing and there wasn’t the (I imagine) hubbub on the beach. We rented an Airbnb which was perfect. It had a small pool, was right in the heart of things (but quiet) and ten minutes walk to yoga. The unfortunate thing was we all got Bali belly and were ill for the remainder of the trip. This in itself would have been hellish with just the two of us but with the added bonus of a baby who got sick too it was was at one point, hell. I won’t lie.
At one point I wanted to be at home (invent a time/travel machine now dammit). Heat and food poisoning (or whatever it was we couldn’t work it out) was not fun. BUT so glad we took in our safety sickness kit from the Dr (which we got when we went for our jabs). We also took hydration sachets (which we could give to the baby too), drank lots of coconut water (green ones are best, not the drink in packets as it’s full of added sugar). We also took Milton tablets for baby’s bottles which we religiously sterilised (and still got ill which makes me think it wasn’t the water). We also boiled all her water even from the bottles of water supplied by the accommodation.
Yoga was wonderful at a little bamboo made structure right behind the Mercure Hotel and on the beach. Check out Power of Now Oasis.
For sickness and mishaps make sure you pack:
Hydration tabs (dr can give you them in a pack for food poisoning and sickness including tablets for if it gets really bad. Just ask)
Milton Tabs for baby to sterilise anything! We bought a big container to soak stuff when we got there
Pamol for colds and coughs which she also got whilst away
Paracetamol and Nurofen for us
Tissues and plenty of them as they’re really expensive there
Take your own formula if you can as it’s double even triple the price. If you don’t care get it there, they had a good selection
What to take and not take:
We didn’t take the car seat as may people had said they just chuck it in the boot. Most of the cars don’t have seatbelts in the back seat too (eek) so I strapped her into the front pack and there she stayed.
A pram. We were in town but away from the beach (where’s theres a really good walking path all the way along the water) and the pram would have been lethal. Front pack all the way is amazing. Most of the cafes had high chairs.
Hydration sachets for when you get a sniff of anything
Milton to sterlise. Just to be cautious
Pouches of food (I know I know Dolphin killers but when there was no way we could get out of the house because we were all so ill they were a life saver)
Bali is wonderful and the people the people the people. They love babies and children and were always so so helpful. Go to Bail it’s amazing.
I was in no way endorsed by any of the businesses above to write about them. I just loved Bali and I couldn’t find much online about travelling with babies so here you are!
