When your hubby tells you that he's teaching at a conference in Bali at a nice resort, you say, "We're finding a way to go along." Right? Right. I usually do a lot of research before we head off on a trip, but we'd been to Bali before, so I remembered that it was incredibly tourist friendly and English speaking, and I chillaxed. It was so nice to do that.
I'm pretty sure that all flights to Bali from the Philippines are night flights. The cheapo airlines ask you for $1 if you want a bottle of water, so I had worked up a thirst by the time we landed. I stared groggily at the unfamiliar water options at the convenience store in the airport while the traveler's SIM card hawkers wearing traditional Balinese dress talked to the boys about Pokemon. We dragged ourselves through customs and found the guy with the "Grand Hyatt" sign in the line up of many Balinese men holding signs. The last time we came to Bali, we stayed at a $35 a night guest house on the back side of a family's traditional compound in Ubud. It looked like this was going to be a less personal and more manicured experience.
We ooohed and ahhed at the aisle of lighted umbrellas at check in. And when we opened our windows the next morning, it only got better. It's awfully nice that places that host conferences sometimes have other fun amenities.
We ate a buffet breakfast every morning sitting and looking at the water. There was no rice to be found, and that was ok with us. It was very Western food which was a nice treat. :) We discovered that January is Aussie vacation season in Bali. Their kids are on summer break, so the food follows Aussie standards more. The boys were so excited about ordering hot chocolate or decaf coffee every day.
The first day that we were there was David's only free day with us before the conference started, so we rallied from the late night and dragged ourselves out to see the sights. We hired a driver for the day, and he took us to Bali Bird Park first. You could put your fingers out to these birds sitting on branches, and they would bite them so hard it hurt, and you'd yell and pull your hand away. The boys did it over and over. So fun.
Our next stop was the Bali Night Safari. They take you on a short walking tour of the nocturnal animals that are beginning to wake up, and then you get a buffet dinner overlooking the elephant enclosure. There were even baked potatoes! (I know, I know, but I've NEVER seen baked potatoes on a buffet in Asia. Never.) Then they put ya in a rolling cage, and you get THIS CLOSE to lions and tigers that they are feeding little bits of chicken. We could feed the herbivores carrots. But who cares cause... tigers on the roof above you!
And then David's daytime stint with us was over, and it was time for me to sit by this gorgeous, man-made river and water slide all morning long for a couple of days. They went up and down over and over, borrowed floats from parents who had known to bring them (not me, obviously), and we had lunch by the pool every day. I ordered pizza and fries and Cokes from smiling men, and they brought them to me! It was blissful. I loved watching the boys get exercise outdoors in clean, fresh air, since honestly, that's one of the biggest things lacking in our everyday life in Manila.
Speaking of a lack of fresh, clean air, I was highly distracted during the Night Safari because the little volcano 100 km from Manila had decided that it was time to erupt for the first time since 1977, and all my well laid plans for managing Seth (still in Manila because he didn't want to skip school) were rapidly going to heck in a handbasket. We got him safely to his best friend's house where he stayed while ashfall covered Manila, rendering his school, the reason he'd stayed behind, closed for the entire time we were gone. I spent some time trying to find face masks in Bali pharmacies, and I resolutely prayed not to worry that the Manila airport would remain closed. With regret at our need to fly back towards an active volcano, the boys and I headed out on a slightly delayed flight on Wednesday night. But hey, I made it back to Seth as planned before he started missing us too badly. :)
Sometimes my life makes me laugh in disbelief. "Really, Ellen, you left your son in the Philippines, and then a volcano erupted with no warning, and you were in Indonesia?" "Yup, that about sums it up."
David stayed to finish out his work week, and then he left the gorgeous hotel (sob!) and found a cheap place in Ubud for the night before taking a night hike through the jungle so he could get this picture at sunrise on top of a mountain. 'Cause we're so Instagram perfect like that. (So not, but many Asian tour guides know all the tips and tricks for taking pictures of you from multiples angles that make you look all cool and Instagrammy and whatnot.) And then he flew back to the bosom of his loving family and we all reunited and checked the daily volcano reports to see if anything else was going to happen, and that is what we're doing to the day of this writing. Let's all hope it dies down, shall we?
Oh, and I love Bali. Can I go back? I need more gorgeous Balinese sarongs and floaty pants, and I keep daydreaming about smiling men that bring me pizza while I'm making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and teaching division.
