Cruel and Unusual Torture

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Having to stay inside your own home with two sick kids for days on end = pure misery



Having to stay inside a hotel room with two sick kids for days on end = cruel and unusual torture (for everyone involved!)



Exactly a week ago tonight, Jake woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Since then, it's safe to say that things have gone from bad to worse. The next morning was when we checked into the fancy "flashpacker" hotel in Sanur that I talked about in my last blog. After a couple of days of luxury, Jake was on the mend and we headed off to Nusa Lembongan, as island just a 30-minute speed boat ride away. Upon arriving at our accommodation, we soon realized that we were having our first booking.com hiccup.



We'd booked five nights in a family room with a double bed and a bunk bed, or so we thought. We were asked to pay the full amount in cash upon check-in and then were shown to our room. It was not what we'd expected. It was just a small room with a double bed and nothing else. When we complained, the manager told us that they could put two mattresses on the ground for an additional charge. In so many rooms, this is how we've had the kids sleep, but it wouldn't work in this room. For one, there was only a small L-shaped space around the bed, only just big enough to place two single mattresses, taking up all the floor space. This would mean sleeping with our luggage in bed with us, or putting it in the bathroom? Not practical. The real problem, though, was that the room wasn't completely sealed, meaning mosquitoes could get in. Our double bed had a mosquito net, but the kids would have had nothing. Again, just not practical. After about an hour of (politely) arguing with them that it wasn't what we booked, they finally agreed to give us a full cash refund. By this time, Jake was a hot mess and was screaming at us to find his bathers and go in the pool. This obviously didn't help him to get over his lingering fever!



Now that we'd got out of our botched reservation, we had to find an alternative. Scott stayed with the kids in a cafe while I went in search. Prices varied immensely, everything from 300,000 rupiah ($22) to over 2.5 million rupiah ($187). After checking out several options I finally found a great fit at the Tanis Villas. The room was completely sealed from mosquitoes (a rare find) and they said they'd put two extra mattresses on the ground for a grand total of 500,000 rupiah ($37) including breakfast for four. The most exciting thing, however, was that it was right on the beach AND it had no less than three pools, one with a big slide. I couldn't wait to see Kyla and Jake's reaction!



The catch? Well, there were two small catches, both of which the friendly staff member proactively told me about before I agreed to check in. 1) there was a lot of building work going on to extend the hotel, including a view of a digger from breakfast (much to Jake's delight), and 2) every day they had a huge Chinese tour group come in for a day trip, meaning the pool with the slide got inundated between 10am and 2pm. Neither of these things particularly bothered me so I checked in, even negotiating a deal for 400,000 rupiah a night if we stayed for two weeks.



Well, the room worked out well, the breakfast was your bog-standard veggie omelette of course, and the kids had a fantastic time on the water slide. Unfortunately it was all very short lived as both kids came down with a fever and we spent the majority of our time inside the air conditioned room. Whenever we tried to venture out, the kids' fevers would spike and we'd have to hurry home. If I've learned one thing these past few days, it's that American TV isn't as awful as I always thought it was. Indonesian TV is so much worse than even the most b-rate sitcom! Mind you, I guess I shouldn't complain as the kids enjoyed zoning out watching the Balinese dancers on local TV.



By day three, Jake was fever-free for the first time in days but Kyla was getting much worse. Jake and I did a little excursion in a truck-taxi to check out the medical clinic in the town. It looked nice enough and I spoke to a friendly nurse who said that we should have Kyla see a doctor before she gets to 40*C. Jake and I hurried back home to check on Daddy and Kyla. She was now at 39.2*C, and that was after taking paracetamol and after being in air conditioning all day - worrying. We decided to take her in to see a doctor. Our hotel arranged a driver for us and off we went. At the clinic, we were told to take a seat in the waiting room to wait for the doctor. Before we even had a chance to sit down, we were called in. Wow! The doctor seemed fine and asked all the right questions before suggesting we do a blood draw to test for bacterial diseases. We agreed, and she told us to wait a minute. Fifteen or so minutes later, she came back and said that they were having a hard time finding the person that does the blood draws. They'd sent someone to run over to his house but he wasn't there, and he was apparently the only one with access to the vials to store the blood for the lab. Crazy! As time ticked by, the doctor hinted that we might be better off on mainland Bali. We knew the last boat off was at 4:30pm, but it was now 3:32pm. We had just under an hour if we wanted to get off the island that night, and our hotel was a 20 minute drive away. We decided to go for it.



Our driver rushed us back to the hotel and had the reception get our bill ready while he went to book us four seats on the 4:30pm speedboat. We got back into our room and I realized that we'd pretty much unpacked everything we own. We threw everything in, packing in record time. Jake even helped out by packing all of his toys into his drawstring bag, while Kyla zonked out on the bed. By 4:15pm we were walking down the beach to wait for our boat. The hotel was great again, sending two people with us to carry our bags so we could look after the children.



The speed boat ride back to Bali was very fast and a bit bumpy, making the kids laugh out loud. At least Kyla seemed to be doing ok in the heat. The plan was to arrive on the mainland and get into an air-conditioned taxi straight to the Australian-run hospital in Kuta. Kyla's fever had been as high as 39.5*C before the boat ride, so we feared it could have gone up to dangerous levels, but to our surprise we found it had actually gone down a bit to a much more respectable 38*C. Maybe we'd been too hasty leaving the island?



Instead of going to the hospital, we decided to check back into Touring Homestay in Sanur and just monitor her. At least we had the peace of mind of knowing that if her fever spiked in the night, we could be at an international hospital within thirty minutes versus being stuck on an island with just a clinic that couldn't even figure out a simple blood draw!



We monitored her throughout the night and her fever continued to drop, even without paracetamol. By morning she was fever-free and seemed back to her usual self. Not wanting to go out in the heat, we stayed in the room for much of the day. Unfortunately, we discovered that the air conditioner had a hard time in the mid-day heat and our room wasn't exactly cool. Kyla's fever came back, and Jake was super cranky, saying he was too hot. As much as I hated to do it, we told Touring homestay we were checking out the next day, and we just booked two nights back at Parigata, our flashpacker hotel down the road. We are moving there tomorrow to wait it out until Kyla (and now Scott) are fever-free. At least we know the air conditioning works really well there and there's the added bonus of the Disney Junior channel, in English! Oh,the luxury! I'm really hoping some rest in a big comfy room will get everyone better soon so that we can get back onto that speed boat and actually do Nusa Lembongan island properly. Still debating whether to go to the hospital or not in the morning just to try to get a root cause... wish us luck!

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