Bali hai...

We left Jogja and arrived in beautiful Bali. Bali, in my opinion, is an acquired taste. It really is beautiful and its history and culture are fascinating. The streets are chaotic, there are no rules to driving (well there may be but I am a non-witness (no different from Jogja)), the people are aggressively sweet and the temples, garudas (Google that one) and statues are breathtaking. The service industry in Indonesia and the Asian airlines leave America with much to be desired.

The hotel we stayed at was a flat line aesthetically. However, the staff, entertainment, location and food were all fabulous! It was close to the beach, shops, stores and restaurants. You won’t escape the chaos of Bali but why would you – that is part of the deal!!

For two days we strolled down to the beach, bought some cheap (semi-cold) Bintangs and jumped into the warm, fish-infested, Bali Sea. It was remarkable! The kiddos loved it. We dove for coral and dug our feet in the sand!

New Year’s Eve came and the poor, over-exerted, kiddos were out by 8:00 pm despite their wishes of staying up late. Mike and I listened to the firework booms and pouring rain while watching TLC food shows that made our mouth water – missing home and American food. We watched the ball drop at 3:00 pm on New Year’s Day, it was weird! The rain continued and we stayed in the hotel which worked out great. I got to complete my final paper for school and the kids got some, much needed, downtime.

The rain subsided and off we were again for shopping and then to the Bali Safari Zoo. The zoo was awesome but a little nerve-wrecking with their wildlife tactics. Nonetheless, it was a great day.

We were sad to go but Mikey has to go back to work (somebody has to, right?) and back to the Denpasar airport we went. I am not going to insinuate that airports are fun but some are more than others. Our 1:50 am flight (terrible time to begin with) was delayed almost 3 hours by the time we boarded and took-off. I don’t get angry very easily but when the temperature of the terminal is a blowing-cold-less-than 60 degrees Fahrenheit for over four hours, this mama was mad. Mason was shivering in his sleep and I looked at the other, anxiously waiting, passengers they were shivering too, I asked them to turn the cold air off or make it warmer and the guy just said no (not a representation of my raved customer service). So finally freezing and tired we made our way back to Timika.

Due to transportation issues we had to stay another night in Timika before getting home after 48 hours later.  

Still tired but happy to be home, we now wait another 3 months before we head to Thailand.

As always to be continued….