This was our first morning in Bali and already Nathan had adapted to brushing his teeth using bottled water. We started off our day at the breakfast buffet and then set out to the spa.
On our way to the spa (I'm giving you fair warning now: this will become a daily occurrence for the duration of our stay in Bali), we saw so many of these beautiful offerings laid along the streets and in front of every statue and storefront.
This time it was Andrew's turn to have a massage. While he did that, I was accompanied by the boys at my pedicure.
The staff were nice enough to set both the boys up in their own chairs so they could relax while they waited.
I won't name any names, but one of them sat in their chair the entire time (playing on my iPhone towards the end of the session) and the other one scrambled out of his chair halfway through and got extremely restless.
After being pampered, we set off to find Bintang Supermarket to buy some drinks and snacks for our stay. It was a really difficult walk because it was so incredibly hot and humid with lots of winding, uneven roads. But I think the most difficult part was not knowing how much farther we had to go before reaching our destination.
About three-quarters of the way there, Nathan yelled at us to ask for directions. He had learned too well the night before that we had no idea where things were and that meant possibly getting lost and having to backtrack (aka walk even more).
So we asked and found out we were indeed on the right track but Nathan was still cranky and understandably so. I promised he could choose whatever cold drink he wanted when we got to the grocery store. Caleb, luckily, fell asleep on Andrew's shoulder during the walk so there were no complaints from him.
After purchasing said cold drink and some postage stamps, we decided to grab a bite before buying more food and heading back to the hotel.
I think we had the most typical tourist-in-Bali meal for lunch: Mie Goreng and Bintang.
Before coming to Bali, my biggest concern was Nathan and my peanut allergies. I know a lot of Asian countries cook with peanuts and/or peanut oil and a majority of them don't understand the severity of peanut allergies. I even learned how to say "no peanuts" in Indonesian.
I'm glad to say my very first Balinese dish didn't make me sick and was in fact, quite tasty!
After lunch, we grabbed some snacks and drinks and took our first taxi ride home. The boys were thrilled they didn't have to climb into carseats. I was okay with that though, because the roads are so busy here, the car can't go very fast anyway.
When we got back to the hotel, we put all the food away, changed into our
To the boys, this was a dream come true. To Andrew and I, it was a disaster waiting to happen. We had been warned to not let the boys get any water in their mouths because the water will make them sick.
We weren't too worried about Nathan, but Caleb has a habit of drinking pool water. We know this because he's not afraid to hide it and he always has a super full diaper after swimming. Caleb did end up swallowing a lot of water but luckily, he didn't seem too affected by it. The other worry with Caleb is that he'll jump in without a thought of how he'll get back out. He kept us on our toes the whole time we were at the pool but every single moment was worth it.
After swimming, we took a walk down the street to a shopping mall filled with Western retail stores. I almost felt like I was home again. Of course, we didn't buy anything though - what's the point of coming all the way to Bali if you're just going to buy things you can get at home?
So we walked right through the mall and out the back where we found some more markets.
I'm trying to figure out where exactly it was looking on Google Maps but their images are a little outdated. I'm going to venture a guess and say we were on Jalan Poppies 2.
Along the way, we saw this man with his pet monkey who was dressed up like a little human and had his own chair and motorcycle. The boys thought that was pretty cool.
At the end of this street lined with market stalls and shops sits the memorial for those who were killed in the 2002 bombings. It's an enormous monument made of carved stone and marble.
By then, it was about dinner time and we managed to find a little restaurant up the road that looked decent.
We passed the time waiting for our meals to arrive, learning how to say "Can I have a beer" from a poster on the wall. We took turns saying it in different languages and the rest of us had to guess which language was used. All good fun. And now my 6-year-old can ask for beer in several countries across the globe! Just kidding. Sort of.
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| Andrew sporting his newly acquired shades. |
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