Trip to Bali started on the wrong foot. We left all our packing to the last day and Ethan was snuffly all night making it very difficult. I went to bed at 2am and Joan probably at 4am, and we were on the road to LCCT at half-past six.
Day 1Flight was ok for Ethan, thanks to Actifed and Oxymetazoline. A one-hour delay getting our room was a slight dampener but the room itself wasn't bad though a little below our expectation after what we experienced in
Chaweng Regent, Samui. We needed rest, so the entire afternoon we slept with Ethan. Going out to
Kuta square was a jarring and disorientating culture shock for us - a mish-mash of branded stores, bars, boutiques and every kind of night-market hawking all crumpled into tight streets with motorbikes-a-zooming and touts-a-screaming. A compulsory horse-ride (ripoff 100,000rupiah) through Poppies Lane & Legian made it a little better and on spotting the legendary Made's Warung, we stopped for dinner. Large tuna in Balinese sauce, Gado-gado and Sate Babi redeemed the day for me though I had to fend off ferocious mosquitoes the whole time.
Day 2We didn't sleep.. again. This time because of bed bugs!! Took three calls and half and hour at 2 o'clock in the morning for the hotel staff to change our sheets. Ethan was still snuffly and pukey, waking at least six times in the night. So day two was going to be NO TRAVEL. After mega breakfast (we eat for two meals) we headed off to Discovery Mall - no adventures for today, we thought. Intercepted by some tourism promo boys, we won a prize - t-shirts, free stay at Royal Bali and an island tour!! (I thought to myself - this is a conjob, Joan thought - this is a conjob, but what the heck... let's go see this hotel.) Man, were we conned... An hour of the most annoying and irrelevant sales talk which we had to practically shout to get out of at the end really botched the day. Only redeeming point was the free island tour we won
After an afternoon nap, I said to myself, we're going to enjoy our dinner no matter what. So, off to the BEST Balinese
haute cuisine in town - KETUPAT! It was well worth the price of some 300,000+ rupiah. Hidden behind an antique gallery on Legian, it was the most exotic looking place I've ever eaten in. Eating gazebos fashioned after ancient royal houses, poolside dining, and Balinese spa music made for perfect ambience for the night. And the food was.. oh my god... orgasmically good.
Sate Lilit(check out the slideshow/photos)- pervasively spiced meat rolled around a serai stick, exuding the most heavenly aromas and flavors to titilate your palate - served on barely burning embers of coal. Time stopped as I bit into the succulent flesh made for gods...
Ok back to earth.. That night we hung out at Starbucks, Discovery, had ourselves some frappucinos and caramel machiato while Ethan played himself silly over the couches after his meal. MISTAKE. All the excitement and aerophagy just made him pukey, and puke he did.. Trying to save the upholstery and carpets from permanent graffiti courtesy of Ethan, I took the entire load of vomit on myself (see photos). That totally made my day.. It was hilarious - father & son covered in vomit, people opened doors and stepped aside for us to get back to the hotel to be hosed down!
Time to cash in our island tour prize. We headed off to Kintamani to see the live volcanic mountain of Batur. The usual stops on the way up - batik, silver, art, carvings, etc. Kintamani was crispy cool, the volcanic crater spouting off a little ash, and the large expanse of Danau Batur serene and sedate. On the way back, the driver suggested we try out the Elephant Safari at Bakas.. MISTAKE. The bloody entrance fee and elephant ride for 3 of us would've cost us 1.5million rupiah!! We said thank you very much, take us home.
Dinner was at Discovery Mall's food court where we had some Soto, Gado-gado and more sate. We decided we didn't need the grime and crowd of Kuta so we did all our shopping at TandaMata - the souvenir/craft shop in Discovery. I'm sure we were paying far too much for the stuff, but what the heck..
Day 4This was going to be Joan's day at the Spa, and my day with the boy. All was going according to plan. We had breakfast, Ethan was happy watching Bob the Builder, mother bundled off, and I was feeding him on his pram before heading out to Kuta square. Then on his last spoon, he gave me that classic stare which says daddy I'm going to puke, like mega puke.. It was volcanic, like Batur in 1917. Puke splattered on the floor, the walls, and filled the pram. It took me a good hour to hose us both down, lay towels on the floor, and disrobe the pram for washing. Off to the laundry with another sack of clothes and pram covers, and finally back to Discovery for more gift hunting.
With all that exhaustion, I decided we were not going to do Jimbaran. I didn't want to risk another eruption and didn't fancy the traveling anyway. So, instead, we had seafood at the hotel's beachside BBQ. That was the best decision I made. The food was good, the poolside ambience chilling, and the entertainment - a Tek Tekan dance by a reputed troupe was
par excellence. And we got some good photographs with the cast too! So for a stress-free, minimal fuss, great food and dose of local culture - I'd give the evening an 8 out of 10.
Day 5A laidback breakfast, stroll-come-photoshoot around the gardens, and finally packup to go. All in all, a challenging but fun trip. Not the usual see-all, do-all adventure. More of a highly-selective sampling of food, culture, and sights of the island paradise; perhaps an introduction to Bali for future reference should we decide to go again..
Picked up our compulsory cigarettes, brandies, chocolates and fragrances at the airport duty-free; let Ethan do some last-minute flirting with the babes, and off we go on our airplane. Thankfully Ethan knocked out even before we boarded and slept the whole way except for the last half hour.
Goodbye Bali. Hold your own.
Getting back on Sunday, we were actually quite happy - both from the trip and to be back home. When I had my shower, I realised we have a little resort of our own right here in our own home. It's great to be home and great to have a home I can call paradise.
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