Before I Forget...

I was talking with an old college friend this week and the subject of blogging came up. I was sharing with her that one of my favorite things about having a blog is that I am able to write down and capture special memories before I forget them. Because, let's face it. I am getting older and the details of those special times seem to fade away faster OR are replaced with the more immediate thoughts and brain power necessary to run this busy house. So without further adieu, the rest of the stories from our Bali trip...


So if you have viewed our pictures from the trip, you might be able to guess what we spent our time doing (or NOT doing) while we were in Bali.


First of all, the discerning eye might have picked up on the fact that there were not a lot of pictures of us hanging out on the beach. While some might expect that lazy days sunbathing on the beach and playing in the waves would be one of the top ways to spend your days here, Bali actually has so much more to offer. I think that some of the beaches in the Carribean could rival those in Bali, from what I could tell. What I think sets Bali apart is other things Bali has to offer and at such an affordable price for those of us who are Indonesian residents. So what DID we do?


Our first full day in Bali, we spent hanging out at our hotel. The boys took advantage of the golfing facilities in the morning. Justin took all the boys to the driving range and putting green. They also got to practice there chipping skills and bunker shots. It was a pretty cheap 2 hours of entertainment for 5 people at only $8 for the bucket of 100 balls. That was until Justin ordered the apple juice to refresh the kids after their hours in the sun. What would you expect from a 5 star hotel but FRESH apple juice. At $6 a cup, the 2 cups of juice cost more than the golfing. The rest of the day we played in the hotel pools and near sunset, took a walk over to the Tanah Lot temple that you could see from our hotel. During that time of the day, the tide was low enough for us to go stand on the "beach" rocks. That was as close as we got to the ocean the whole time we were in Bali.


The next day we headed out to the new Safari and Marine Park that had opened on the island in October of 2007. This safari park has a "sister" location, which has been around for awhile, about at 1 and a half outside of Jakarta. We visited there soon after we first arrived in Jakarta. You might remember the story of Justin being stepped over by an elephant on our trip there. So with that place in mind, we were not sure what exactly to expect from the safari park in Bali. We were very pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to find an animal park on the magnitude of something we had experienced in Singapore...very clean, very modern, well thought out and put together. With the park being new and our visit happening during the week, there were also no crowds, which was great. Although as crazy as this may sound, that day we were missing the smog clouds of Jakarta as the hot Bali sun was beating down on us. With the newness of the park, the areas of shadiness were lacking. But that didn't put a damper on our safari fun.

The kids love looking at animals. And at different spots around the park, they had photo spots where you could take pictures with some animals close up. There was a baby lion, a full size white tiger and a couple of baby elephants. Jack has grown particularly fond of elephants and so when we came across the baby elephants, he was eager to get close and "pet" them after a little prodding from Daddy. His encounter started off with Justin holding him while he touched the elephant's nose. Then he became braver and walked up to touch the elephant himself. As we hung around longer and Jack and the elephant became familiar with each other, the elephant decided to become playful with Jack and nudge him with his trunk as Jack neared to touch him. The small nudge from the elephant sent Jack crashing to the ground. He was shaken up but not injured. That was our cue to leave. After this experience, Jack kept saying, "He hit me on the nose." He seemed eager to recount his experience to us all several times. And just in case you are wondering what Jack thinks about elephants now...there is no love lost. When we passed by this same elephant later, not only did we notice that the elephant handlers were keeping a tighter reign on this elephant but Jack was still wanted to go up and say "hi" to his new friend.

After our animal adventure, we headed over to Kuta, one of the main tourist areas. We visited a pottery shop called Jenggala. Here is their website if you want to check it out, www.jenggala-bali.com. I had been eyeing their line of dinnerware for awhile after seeing it in Jakarta and for Christmas Justin gave me the go ahead to buy some dishes. So while I shopped in their gallery, Justin entertained the boys in the painting studio. They had fun each painting their own piece of pottery. And they turned out quite nice.

We finished up our day with a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe and watched the sunset on Kuta Beach.

to be continued...