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Published: April 11th 2010
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Once upon a time, we would take the long way for the experience, opt out of air conditioning if it could save us a couple of bucks, and would even switch our undies inside-out so that we could get another day's use out of them. That was then . . . and well, this is definitely not then. Nope, we're respectable parents now and as such, we've got another little guy's health and well-being to look after. And let's just face it we're getting a little soft. The bones ache after too long of a flight, I get cranky if I'm forced to skip a meal, and if we're in the tropics I want my AC for pete's sake.
So with all of this in mind, we decided to live it up on our first international vacation with Elliot and booked a gorgeous four-and-a-half star resort in Bali. It was absolutely plush and luxurious, but I couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed everytime we pulled into the place and the lovely staff would open our taxi doors and welcome us by name (Mrs. Thomas--who's she?). It was sort of like I was a kid dressed up in mom's fancy dress,
but I guess maybe I could grow into that sort of service and swankiness too.
Before leaving for Bali, I did quite a bit of research. All I have heard about the place since moving to Australia is how great the partying and shopping and stuff are. (In a lot of ways, Western Australians treat Bali as their debaucherous playground much like Americans use Mexico's resort towns.) I wasn't remotely interested in any of that sort of thing. I wanted nature and culture and most of all relaxation!!! With these things in mind, we decided on the gorgeous, laid back beach town of Sanur (nick-named "Snore"). It was perfect! No hustle. No bustle. And best of all, very very little hassle.
Day One started perfectly with a trip to a spa. I was treated to 3.5 hours of pampering (massage, body scrub, body mask, flower-petal bath, facial, hair treatment, the works!!). Paul got a massage and reflexology treatment. And best of all, the spa staff watched Elliot for us while we got to lay back and forget about everything. Would you believe that all of that cost us less than fifty buckeroos? I was already in love with
Bali!
That night we kept up the swanky trend and hired a baby-sitter from the hotel and feasted at a pool-side seafood barbecue while being entertained by colorful and graceful Balinese dancing. We tried to go out for drinks afterward, but Elliot had other ideas. He woke up inconsolable and screamed until our babysitter rang us to hurry back to the room.
Day Two was pretty much perfect. I was a bit nervous as we'd signed on to do a 25 km bike tour through the countryside and I was a bit unsure about how Elliot would feel about a long day in the sun. To be honest, as lazy as we've been lately, I wasn't sure we'd be able to cope either. But we slathered on the sunscreen, and the day couldn't have gone any better. It was a stunning (and thankfully easy) ride and the mob that we booked with were so helpful with Elliot. They'd unstrap/strap him into his baby seat at every stop and haul him around for us so we could enjoy the temple or traditional garden compound or wherever it was that we stopped to explore. And the ladies in the villages
where we stopped helped keep him good in spirits too as they fought to hold him or kiss him on the cheek. Gosh, he eats that sort of thing up. He's shameless I tell you!
Another cool thing about our ride through the countryside is that we got to see all the incredibly menacing and exquisitely imaginative ogoh-ogohs dotting the roadside.
Ogoh-ogohs are these amazing statues that the Balinese meticulously contstruct, then parade about and finally burn to ashes as part of their Nyepi Day (New Year's) celebration. We'd hoped to watch a bit of the parading and burning the next night, and we threw Elliot into the backpack and headed off for the celebrations, but it kept getting later and later and Elliot was getting sleepier and sleepier, but still the ogoh-ogohs stayed sitting on the side of the road. So we fuddy-duddies headed for bed before the fun really took off.
Earlier that day we had been quite busy animal handling, you see. We visited the Bali Safari and Marine Park where we watched an impressive elephant show. (Elliot especially enjoyed it. He was glued to the action and kept clapping and throwing his hands over
his head.) Later on, we got to pet and feed elephants and I got to tick off one of the things on my things-to-do-before-I-die list and went on an elephant ride. Much wobblier than I anticipated, I tell you. My favorite part of the day was getting to hold and play with a four-year-old orangutan. It was so cute to see Elliot and the orangutan check each other out.
The next day was the religious holiday of
Nyepi Day, a day of silence, fasting, and meditation which meant that we were not allowed to leave the hotel premises (not really such a horrible thing in our hotel paradise!). It was also Paul's birthday and he was so excited that I couldn't plan some sort of adventure that would take us bustling around all day (he was really looking forward to the relaxing part of our holiday). So we splashed in the pools and lazed in the gorgeous gardens and signed on to the Regency Club which meant free breakfast and lots of happy hour drinkies and nibblies in the extra-fancy-pants part of the hotel. Who knew that compulsory confinement could be so ridiculously extravagant?
Our last full day in
Bali, we hired a driver to go to the artsy mountain town of Ubud. We'd heard all sorts of fabulous things about Ubud, but were quite thoroughly unimpressed. Maybe it was the heat, or the tourist-trappiness, or the exorbitant prices, but we just wanted to get back to our little haven in Sanur. The only really fantastic thing about our little journey to Ubud was visiting the Monkey Forest where hordes of gregarious monkeys harass tourists in the midst of breathtaking jungle surrounds. Elliot loved the monkeys and decided to call them boom-boom (no idea where that came from, but kept us and our driver in stitches).
And that was it in a nutshell, beautiful friendly people, cheap massages, amazing food, gorgeous scenery and ogoh-ogohs and boom-booms everywhere we turned. We couldn't have imagined a better little get-away and the fact that we can fly to Bali more quickly and more cheaply than we can fly to the East Coast of Australia means that we will be visiting there again in the very near future. Want to join us?
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Mona
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Smooches to you, Casey Soo!
Oh Casey Soo!!! I am SO glad to see this blog up and running again!! How great that you got away!!!!!! LOVE IT!!!! And YES YES YES, I would love to join you, Paul and Elliot in Bali someday! What a blast that would be!