Bali with kids: tips and hints

If you want to introduce your young children to Asia, I reckon Bali makes a good choice. Singapore would be the best in terms of cleanliness and orderliness, but you won’t get the most bang for your buck like you would in Bali 🙂

I found Bali to be the most relaxed and easiest Asian holiday destinations for less than $150 a day (depending on your accommodation, obviously). Since it is basically an extension of Australia, you will be able to find most everyday things that you need there. Plus, with the strength of our dollar, you will get luxury for a lot less. There are heaps of cheap flights to Bali, and though there are also articles trying to persuade readers to ditch Bali, I reckon it will still be one of the most popular places to visit.

So, here are my tips for travelling to Bali with young children – based on my experience travelling with a 10 month old (not yet walking) baby and a 3 year old boy.

Japan!

We’re only on our second full day in Japan today and we have done soooo much! Summer night dancing festival, dressed up in a Yukata (a summer kimono), had a 10-course dinner banquet, did loads of sightseeing, and ate copious amounts of food. We’ve also spent heaps on the vending machines, making the difficult decision of only choosing one drink at a time 🙂

I am missing Little E a lot! It is difficult when I see little children around his age cuddling up to their parents. Or running around having fun. I feel like we should have brought him with us. Everything I look for at the shops are for him, and it was hard not to as everything here are just too adorable! However, my in laws are wonderful at keeping me up to date with photos and messages about him. By the sounds of it, he is behaving himself, going back to having full nights of sleeps!

I also appreciate this opportunity of being me again, enjoying the company of my husband and my family members. It is nice to have undisturbed sleep and not to follow a routine 🙂

I am having a great time here, Japan is almost like my (third) home. I hope to continue to post photos of this holiday and take you all with me 🙂

Child friendly restaurant: BentSpoke Brewery

BentSpoke Brewery
Ph: 02 6257 5220
38 Mort St
Braddon
Website here

After a whole week being cooped up inside, we decided to go out for lunch last Sunday. Mr E wanted to try a new place so we went to BentSpoke Brewery. We arrived just as they opened (11am FYI) and were served straight away. It was their 5th weekend since they opened on the weekend and you could feel it too. The restaurant is decorated in a “warehouse” style, it’s open and airy, with cool decor using old bike parts. Mr E said that apparently the owner’s wife did the welding herself! So cool.

I really want to recreate that vertical herb garden on my top right picture.

The menu isn’t extensive but I think it caters for a lot of people. I couldn’t go past the ribs and wings so that’s what I ordered. Mr E went for the Ploughman and I was glad that he did, because I wanted it too. We were able to give Little E bits of our food for lunch so he was happy too. There is also Kids’ menu if you prefer, which I think are reasonably priced at $8 each.

I liked my meals, though there were things that I think they could have done better:

• heat up the sauce that came with the meals, as it was weird having hot things with cold sauces
• or even better, marinade the ribs with the sauce
• the Ploughman needed a bit of “something” like chutney, salsa, cranberry jam or even just a knob of butter, as it was a little dry

In saying that, I think Bentspoke Brewery has way better food than the owner’s last gig. I will go back to try their other meals, definitely. It’s also in a cool area, so I need to hang around there more often 😉

I didn’t mind the beer that Mr E ordered but as I’m not really a beer connoisseur I couldn’t say anything other than that I liked the fruity beers that the owner’s old joint did. Mr E liked it though, so I guess that is good. They seem to have a number of selections, which they of course brew in-house, so for any beer-people, do check it out. The menu for last weekend, the place isn’t cheap but as I said above, it is located in a hip area so I guess we have to allow for that. I like that they have a highchair available – though they have only 1 that we could see, so you may need to mention when booking a table. The beverage menu indicated that they’ll have a bigger range of beer as they go, so I can foresee Mr E wanting to visit loads in the future.