Bali by Mia
Getting to Bali at 11 pm was a bit disorienting and sorta scary. We had to take a taxi from the airport because we didn’t have a car and there was a ton of people trying to get us to go with them. The drive to the house was also scary because the roads are extremely chaotic! Some of them are pretty much one lane wide with a line in the middle, like a bike path. That sort of makes sense though because most of the traffic is motorbikes. The roads felt really claustrophobic because of the small size and the large traffic! The taxi driver didn’t know where our house was so it took a while to find it. When we did it was good though because it’s a really pretty house, though a bit unusual. There are two big bedrooms and a main room with a second story/ loft thing that is more like a hang out. There is a little yard with a wall around it and a little pool. There are plants and vines everywhere so the whole place looks a bit magical. 
The day after we arrived we went grocery shopping and daddy got a driver to drive us to the market because the roads are so insane. Even though it takes so long to get places due to the traffic, you never get bored because there is so much cool stuff out the window! At the market there was a big grocery store and a bunch of other shops and restaurants lining the street. Everything was really cheap! We got lunch for all of us for about $20 USD! It was awesome, and that was a touristy market so everything was more expensive than at the local markets. We hung out there for a few hours grocery shopping and looking at all the stuff they were selling. The girls went looking for new bikinis while Zander and daddy did some other man stuff. The bathing suits were surprisingly expensive there so we decided not to get anything. When we were done we found our driver again and left just as it started to rain. The driver didn’t speak English very well so daddy decided to get a new one for the next day. We all agreed that we would need drivers for this trip! The driver did tell daddy that motorbikes cost next to nothing to rent so he got one of them for fun! Everyone but me has gone on a ride with him but, I decided I don’t want to die just yet.
The next day daddy got another driver that spoke English a little bit better. He is a really good surfer so we rented boards and went surfing with him. The beach we went to was absolutely nasty! The water was a muddy brown and there were all sorts of things floating around in it. There were whole plastic bags and daddy even saw some toilet paper! It was gross I only went in for about five minutes and came out with a bunch of dirt in my bathing suit. I lay on the beach for the rest of the time watching them surf and guarding daddy’s stuff. It was hilarious how much better at surfing all the Indonesian kids were than mommy and daddy. I witnessed a few very embarrassing wipeouts by mommy. One was the board slipping out from under her and her falling backwards, and the other was her face planting on her board. She got a bloody lip out of that one so we all decided to call it a day. We showered as much of the dirt off as possible before getting back in the car to go to some temple somewhere. 
The temple we went to was really touristy and we couldn’t actually go in to it. There was a whole street of shops selling fruit and clothes and stuff that led up to the temple. We ate really yummy lunch before going to the temple. The fruit juice we got was actual fruit! It was amazing! We had to wade across to the temple because it was on a rock a little bit off from shore and the pathway is only dry at low tide. When we got across some guys stuck rice on our forehead and put a really pretty flower behind our ear. The temple was closed off so we just went back and walked to a place where we could see it from afar. All along the pathways there were people selling things and cute little kids would come up and try to sell you postcards and jewelry. It was really sad. We made our way through the maze of paths and shops until we got to the car so we could go back to the house. 
On Thursday we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were huge! There were trees gardens, flower gardens, and even a cactus garden! My favorite was the Orchid Garden because it was all mossy and old and magical looking, like the yard of our house. There was a pond and a little waterfall in it and everything. We went in the cactus garden, and walked up a hill to a little gazebo where we could see the lake. It was really cool! We walked around until we were about to fall over and die of heat exaustion. Then we found the driver and had a picnic lunch on the lawn of one of the garden's guest houses (thats how big it is! It has houses on it!). After that, we saw some more temples and stuff. They were a bit better because they were less touristy and you could actually see them. We saw like three or four temples that day and the best was called the elephant cave. It wasn’t like the other ones because you could actually go into it and stuff. There was a concrete tunnel, a few pools with fountains and fish swimming around in them (some of the fish were giant and had to swim on their side because the pool was so shallow). We waded through a little pool with a statue thing in the middle of it and then we went up to a little temple and a lady splashed water on our heads (that’s a blessing I think). By the end of that we were pretty much temple-d out! We drove home and stopped at the local market on the way to get some jackfruit (that stuff is good, though I think it is filled with glue). Mommy had asked the housekeeper, Komang to cook dinner for us so when we got home there was a really yummy dinner waiting! There was fried chicken, egg rolls, chicken curry, and chicken sate with peanut sauce. It was so good that everyone ate too much and we just sat around being fat the rest of the evening. It was delicious, and she even did dishes!!!!!!! I’m starting to like Bali.
Getting to Bali at 11 pm was a bit disorienting and sorta scary. We had to take a taxi from the airport because we didn’t have a car and there was a ton of people trying to get us to go with them. The drive to the house was also scary because the roads are extremely chaotic! Some of them are pretty much one lane wide with a line in the middle, like a bike path. That sort of makes sense though because most of the traffic is motorbikes. The roads felt really claustrophobic because of the small size and the large traffic! The taxi driver didn’t know where our house was so it took a while to find it. When we did it was good though because it’s a really pretty house, though a bit unusual. There are two big bedrooms and a main room with a second story/ loft thing that is more like a hang out. There is a little yard with a wall around it and a little pool. There are plants and vines everywhere so the whole place looks a bit magical. 
The day after we arrived we went grocery shopping and daddy got a driver to drive us to the market because the roads are so insane. Even though it takes so long to get places due to the traffic, you never get bored because there is so much cool stuff out the window! At the market there was a big grocery store and a bunch of other shops and restaurants lining the street. Everything was really cheap! We got lunch for all of us for about $20 USD! It was awesome, and that was a touristy market so everything was more expensive than at the local markets. We hung out there for a few hours grocery shopping and looking at all the stuff they were selling. The girls went looking for new bikinis while Zander and daddy did some other man stuff. The bathing suits were surprisingly expensive there so we decided not to get anything. When we were done we found our driver again and left just as it started to rain. The driver didn’t speak English very well so daddy decided to get a new one for the next day. We all agreed that we would need drivers for this trip! The driver did tell daddy that motorbikes cost next to nothing to rent so he got one of them for fun! Everyone but me has gone on a ride with him but, I decided I don’t want to die just yet.
The next day daddy got another driver that spoke English a little bit better. He is a really good surfer so we rented boards and went surfing with him. The beach we went to was absolutely nasty! The water was a muddy brown and there were all sorts of things floating around in it. There were whole plastic bags and daddy even saw some toilet paper! It was gross I only went in for about five minutes and came out with a bunch of dirt in my bathing suit. I lay on the beach for the rest of the time watching them surf and guarding daddy’s stuff. It was hilarious how much better at surfing all the Indonesian kids were than mommy and daddy. I witnessed a few very embarrassing wipeouts by mommy. One was the board slipping out from under her and her falling backwards, and the other was her face planting on her board. She got a bloody lip out of that one so we all decided to call it a day. We showered as much of the dirt off as possible before getting back in the car to go to some temple somewhere. 
The temple we went to was really touristy and we couldn’t actually go in to it. There was a whole street of shops selling fruit and clothes and stuff that led up to the temple. We ate really yummy lunch before going to the temple. The fruit juice we got was actual fruit! It was amazing! We had to wade across to the temple because it was on a rock a little bit off from shore and the pathway is only dry at low tide. When we got across some guys stuck rice on our forehead and put a really pretty flower behind our ear. The temple was closed off so we just went back and walked to a place where we could see it from afar. All along the pathways there were people selling things and cute little kids would come up and try to sell you postcards and jewelry. It was really sad. We made our way through the maze of paths and shops until we got to the car so we could go back to the house. 
On Thursday we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were huge! There were trees gardens, flower gardens, and even a cactus garden! My favorite was the Orchid Garden because it was all mossy and old and magical looking, like the yard of our house. There was a pond and a little waterfall in it and everything. We went in the cactus garden, and walked up a hill to a little gazebo where we could see the lake. It was really cool! We walked around until we were about to fall over and die of heat exaustion. Then we found the driver and had a picnic lunch on the lawn of one of the garden's guest houses (thats how big it is! It has houses on it!). After that, we saw some more temples and stuff. They were a bit better because they were less touristy and you could actually see them. We saw like three or four temples that day and the best was called the elephant cave. It wasn’t like the other ones because you could actually go into it and stuff. There was a concrete tunnel, a few pools with fountains and fish swimming around in them (some of the fish were giant and had to swim on their side because the pool was so shallow). We waded through a little pool with a statue thing in the middle of it and then we went up to a little temple and a lady splashed water on our heads (that’s a blessing I think). By the end of that we were pretty much temple-d out! We drove home and stopped at the local market on the way to get some jackfruit (that stuff is good, though I think it is filled with glue). Mommy had asked the housekeeper, Komang to cook dinner for us so when we got home there was a really yummy dinner waiting! There was fried chicken, egg rolls, chicken curry, and chicken sate with peanut sauce. It was so good that everyone ate too much and we just sat around being fat the rest of the evening. It was delicious, and she even did dishes!!!!!!! I’m starting to like Bali.
Mia,
ReplyDeleteYour house sounds pretty nice and, yes, Bali is a magical place. The temple in your photo looks like Tanah Lot. Yoan and I have been there. It was not my favorite because it was really hot that day and I found it to be less impressive than Uluwatu.
The beaches have gotten more polluted in the past few years. One of our surfing instructors was telling us that there is no proper waste management in the villages and people just throw things in the river. Guess where the river empties out? So that explains a lot of the garbage you are having to swim in. I do hope that they clean up their act because I love Bali! Glad you are having fun. If you guys get sick of the crowd, you can take a ferry to Lombok where it is much quieter.
Hey Mia--delighted that Bali is treating you so well that you get to hand the cooking and dish washing over to someone else. That is cause for celebration!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks much for your wonderful rendition of life in the Balinese track. Sounds like you managed to see an awful lot in a very short time. But with your driver, there's probably lots more that he will be showing you. Have a blast and continue coming home to yummy cooked dinners and continue telling us all about your adventures. We love it.
And it was very nice to see you briefly during our first foray into Skype.
MERRY CHIRSTMAS and much love, bippy