On Friday night, we arrived in Bali after two 3 hour flights. We had an hour layover in Singapore and again, it was apparent that Asian countries place such a high priority on children. There was a rather large indoor playground (free of charge) for school-aged kids to play on. It was three stories high and had four slides, among other features. Needless to say, Chloe loved burning off energy here. During both flights, the children were served first and then the food/beverage service came by for all other passengers.
I spent Sunday checking out two nearby beaches and getting to know the area we’re currently staying in (Seminyak). The beach closest to me, Double Six Beach, is only a 7 minute walk. While strolling the beach this afternoon, I noticed there were a lot of beach soccer games going on. Naturally, I strolled right up to one that had uneven teams and asked if I could play. They reluctantly said yes (I later noticed I was the only girl playing on the entire beach).
I can’t wait to see your faces when you realize I can hold my own against you.
And sure enough, after I stepped in to win a ball and converted it to a shot on goal, I had their respect.
I ended up playing with five local Indonesians against six Australians for over an hour. It was so much fun!!!!! The Indonesians said they play pick up on Sundays but I’m hoping other tourists have games going every night. I’m pretty sure I looked like a chicken running around with its head cut off, because it’s been 10 months since I’ve played. We’ll see how my knee feels in the morning as this was my first time cutting and coming to quick stops since my ACL surgery nine months ago. I honestly don’t even care how bad the pain could potentially be in the morning because did I mention I played beach soccer?!?!
My hopes of nightly beach soccer were quickly crushed as it rained every single day from sunrise to sunset. Today was the first day of sunshine and just as I was headed to the beach this evening, the rain appeared. Of course.
This week started out in our AirBNB rental. The front porch/hangout area was the best, complete with a hammock! I spent more time lounging in that hammock than I care to admit. There was a hotel just up the street that allowed us to use their pool if we bought a beer from their bar.
Twist my arm on that one!
Two of the downfalls to this rental were we tripped the power quite often (Not fun when you’re in the middle of a shower) and the water smelled horribly of sulfur. By Tuesday, Brittany and Michael had found another rental for us to live in for the remainder of our 30 days in Bali.
Holy beautiful new house! The backyard has a swimming pool, cabana, and patio furniture. All three bedrooms have their own in-suite bathroom. My room upstairs has a deck right off of it overlooking the pool. Donna, the on-site daily housekeeper, cleans our house from 9am-2pm Monday-Saturday.
I feel like a high roller living here!
Due to a pretty influential taxi Mafia and location of the new house, all three of us rented scooters for the month. I wasn’t able to get an international driving license before leaving the US but once I saw numerous children (we’re talking seven years old) driving scooters, I figured the police don’t really care if drivers have licenses or not.
Fun fact: Gas comes in Absolut Vodka bottles.
As in Thailand, my first couple of days driving I just followed the scooter traffic. This led me to driving on the sidewalk for over 1km, driving the wrong way on a one way street, and driving on the center line with traffic going in either direction. I really put my scooter handling abilities to the test and was feeling pretty confident in my skills until…. a scooter clipped mirrors with a taxi and I witnessed the taxi driver beat up the scooter driver.
Is he part of the taxi mafia or is that just how they handle sideswipes here? Either way, I think I’ll be a bit more cautious.
I wish I had a Go Pro so I could show you just how insane the intersections are. Some intersections you just blaze right through; others are more free for all and quite chaotic. Neither way is marked so I just roll the dice if there’s no car in front of me. In the free for all intersections, the trick is to not hesitate. Just pull right in there and you’ll get through unscathed.
I feel like I should place a bet on me being accident-free with this chaos.
Today’s day off led me to the northern part of Bali. I went to Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple and NungNung Waterfall. The pictures make the temple look way cooler than it actually was yet doesn’t give justice to how massive and powerful NungNung Waterfall was.
The road from the temple to the waterfall was essentially a double black diamond for scooters. For your Coloradans, imagine Starfire run in the back of Keystone. Now envision driving up that, on a scooter, and throw in some random hairpin turns. Now repeat that for 20+ kilometers.
Oh my gosh. I’m going to die today. Why am I on this road? This waterfall better be worth it. What if my brakes give out? That’s a pretty long drop over that edge. Is this even the right road? It feels more like a demented back alley.
Oh wait. I made it?! Oh wow. That was actually fun! I can’t wait to drive that out of here! I should see how much I can lean into those turns on the way home!!!
Now to the not so glamorous part… I find myself struggling to live in the same house as the kids. I feel like even when I’m off duty, I’m still working. I definitely took for granted the peace and quiet I had in my own place back in Thailand after spending eight hours with the kids. Watching Netflix in my bedroom with my headphones in can only provide so much distraction. Chloe is struggling as well. She’s been acting out this week due to a new/different house, me living with them
(there’s not a clear definition in her head when I’m there to take care of her and when I’m there just to hang out),
and Brittany and Michael’s friends from Denver also living with us for their two-week vacation. To top it off, Brittany & Michael have hired an additional nanny to cover the nights and my two days off. That’s a lot of people taking care of Chloe and all of us having different boundaries. I’m sure her mind is completely frazzled right now.
I need to find my Patience Pants and cross my fingers that we can regain some sort of normalcy this week!