BALI

Wow. So much to tell!



On Friday, Brandon and I went ahead to our Friday playgroup. We didn't have to leave for the airport until late that afternoon, and I wanted Brandon to have some playtime with friends before his nap. Our friend, Kristie, was hosting this week's group for her son's first birthday. Kristie has a lovely three bedroom apartment. I think that her apartment rent is reasonable too. Maybe we will look into those apartments. As I've mentioned, we currently live in a serviced apartment. Serviced apartments are more expensive because of the amenities (maid service). I might be willing to trade the serviced apartment for more space. The only issue is that serviced apartments offer furnished living and short leases. I did hear though that some non-serviced apartments can come furnished with short leases. Worth investigating...



While Brandon took his nap Friday, I packed and cleaned like mad. I didn't want to leave dirty dishes in the sink, and I wanted everything to be ready when Brandon woke up.



Perfect timing. When Brandon woke, we took a cab to Steven's office to pick him up from work, and then from there we headed to Changi. Something neat - On the way to the airport, the cab driver pointed out that all of the plants in the median on the road were moveable. He said that in case of war, the plants would be moved, and the median would serve as a runway for planes. Cool. He said that there is another place for this on the west side of Singapore.



Two things I noticed at the airport. 1) They had a kids' playground. What a great idea! A place for kids to play while parents are waiting at the airport! 2) The airport security is at the gates. I enjoyed this as there were no long lines of security. We just had to go through security for our plane flight. No crowd. No line. Yay!



We flew Jetstar from Singapore to Bali - Denpasar. Our flight left at 18:35 pm. Really happy that we were able to leave on Friday instead of Saturday. However, the late flight wasn't ideal for Brandon. He was okay on the 2 1/2 hour flight, but it was the most difficult flight we've been on. He is so active, and he just didn't want to sit still. Luckily, the plane wasn't full so we were able to walk Brandon up and down the aisles with his ball, and he was able to climb into many different rows of seats.



We arrived in Bali, on time, at 21:15 pm. Brandon did sleep for 15 minutes on the flight, but I could tell that he was crashing quickly. We had to wait in line for about an hour to get our passports stamped at immigration. It cost $25 U.S. dollars per person to enter Indonesia.



Hotel transportation was waiting for us when we exited the airport, and it was about a 30 minute car ride to the hotel. There was quite a bit of traffic out, probably because it was Friday night. The roads were nicely paved, but I could see that the sides of the roads and entranceways to shops were dirt. The driving was crazy too! Motor scooters were zooming in and out of the cars. It looked and felt very dangerous, but the drivers seemed good at working with each other. I wonder if there are many bad road accidents in Bali?



As we were driving to the hotel, I noticed that we were going up in elevation. When there were breaks in the trees, I could see lights down below on the coast. Gorgeous.



Poor Brandon fell asleep a few minutes before we arrived at the hotel and woke up once we arrived... :( He was ready for bed!



I was so impressed when we arrived at our resort. Even pulling into the entrance, I could tell that the Nikko Bali Resort and Spa was going to be wonderfully luxurious. Large, open air, hot tea served to enjoy as we checked in. Ahhhh... Below is the link to where we stayed. I took some pictures, but once we returned I wished I had taken more. It was kind of nice, though, to not have the camera out all of the time. More of a relaxing vacation. http://www.nikkobali.com/



One thing that stood out to me was that our resort was built into a cliff. We entered the resort at the main lobby, but then we had to take the elevator down to our room (from floor 15 to 8). Very cool.



Our room was very nice. We were upgraded from a standard ocean view room to a deluxe ocean view room for free (special promotion). As soon as we had Brandon down to sleep, we enjoyed some room service and drinks out on the balcony. Chicken satay, ice cream, and some beer - Heineken and Bintang. Bintang means "star beer", and it is the best selling brand of beer in Indonesia. The sound of the ocean and the breeze created instant relaxation and vacation mode. Life is good. :)



On Saturday, we went down to one of the restaurants for the breakfast buffet. Great variety of ethnic foods. Bacon and eggs, vegetable curry, and congee to name a few. After breakfast, we took Brandon down to the beach and the pool for a bit. The Indian Ocean was beautiful. Very blue! I was impressed with the strength of the water. Very, very strong undertow. It also looked like there were quite a few rocks in the ocean. Not many people swimming in the ocean all weekend. The area of beach in Bali that we stayed in was Nusa Dua. A pretty quiet area. A more popular area is called Kuta. Kuta is known for its active nightlife. I also think that people go there for the great surfing waves.



Brandon loved the water and the sand!!!



After some time in the water, we took Brandon back up to the room. We had scheduled a babysitter at the hotel for a few hours. The hotel had a Jungle Camp for children, which was one reason we chose this particular resort. Although the playroom was geared for children from 4 to 12 years of age, children younger could go as long as they were accompanied by an adult. I was worried about whether or not Brandon would be okay with us leaving him, but he did fine. We kept checking in on him throughout the three hours, and he seemed to be keeping busy. The Jungle Camp wasn't very busy while we were there. Most of the time, Brandon was the only kid in there. I think that at most there were two other (older) kids at one point. So, Brandon didn't really have any other kids to play with, which kind of bummed me out. I was hoping that he would have more socializing with kids. Oh, well. Mommy and Daddy sure enjoyed their time off! We swam in the four pools, went down the water slide, had yummy drinks, and lounged. Nice to not have to chase the little man around for a while. Also, it was nice to be out in the sun, but not have to worry about Brandon getting overdone due to the cold/allergies he has had.



We picked Brandon up from the Jungle Camp before his nap, and we all had a nice little afternoon doze.



The pool and beach areas were quieter in afternoon. The resort was on a private beach, and it seemed like most of the people came out in the morning but went inside or left the resort in the afternoon. We took Brandon down to the pool again after his nap. One of the pools actually had a beach. Brandon loved playing with the basketballs and volleyballs on the beach. He also had a blast throwing the sand, most of which ended up in his hair. I noticed that the sand was larger and more course than most sand I've seen before. It wasn't easy to get the sand out of Brandon's hair, as we couldn't really give him a full bath. The tap water wasn't safe to drink, and Brandon loves to drink his bath water. So, we just sprayed him down with the hand shower as best we could before bed.



After we put Brandon to bed, we had another babysitter come from 9 pm to midnight. We went down to The Shore, the restaurant right on the beach. We lounged on a couch, enjoyed tapas, drinks, and dessert by candlelight, and stared at the stars. Heaven. The weather in Bali was amazing. Not too hot or humid like Singapore. And, at night it was perfect. So comfortable to sit outside - probably around 70 degrees with a cool ocean breeze. Again, ahhhh...



Brandon didn't sleep very well later into Saturday or Sunday night. Because we were all in one room, he would wake up in his crib, see us, and then want to be with us. We tried getting him to sleep in our bed, but he couldn't get comfortable. The nights were rough, but Steven and I were able to take it easy enough during the day to catch up on rest.



Sunday morning we had the buffet for breakfast again. Brandon was quite cranky from sleeping poorly the night before, and after being awake for a couple of hours, he went down for a nap. This is not like Brandon! He must have been exhausted! We were happy, though, that he took a morning nap, because he was in a good mood for the babysitter and the Jungle Camp again on Sunday. He did cry when Daddy left the room, which was so, so sweet. I could tell that Brandon really enjoyed having the extra time to spend with his Daddy. We kept checking on Brandon at the kids' club, and he was fine a few minutes after we left.



It was strange having time in the day away from Brandon. In a way, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. And, I missed Brandon! It didn't stop me from enjoying my time away from him, but he is so much a part of us now. As a friend of mine said, we are no longer a couple now. We are a family.



But, time away was refreshing. We lounged by the pool. As it was Mother's Day, we both thought we would treat ourselves to Balinese massages at the spa. Steven had his massage in the morning, so I was completely by myself for an hour with NOTHING to do. Hmmm.... I guess I'll order a mojito and doze. :)



I went for my massage while Steven put Brandon down for a nap. What a Mother's Day!



Late afternoon on Sunday, we left the resort and went to a outdoor shopping and restaurant center called Bali Collections. We visited a souvenir shop where I bought a couple of items. I bought a carved wooden mask, which was colorfully painted. Brandon also bought me a wooden handicraft. Won't say what it is in case he also bought one for each of his grandmas. :)

The currency in Bali is the rupiah. U.S. dollar to rupiah is about 1:10,000. So weird carrying around a 50,000 bill!

We passed on food at the restaurant center as we weren't all that hungry. Plus, once we put Brandon to bed that night, we had the sitter come again. As this was already our last night in Bali, we wanted to enjoy drinks on our oceanfront couch again.



Monday, we left the resort at 5:30 am. While we were only in Bali for three nights and two days, we felt like we had a vacation that was longer. Great time together as a family. Great time together as a couple. Very worth the traveling and money. (I did tell Steven "Happy Father's Day" and "Happy Anniversary" while we were there. :) )



We flew Air Asia back to Singapore. Our flight left Bali at 6:55 am and arrived back at Changi at 9:30 am.



Brandon was difficult on the plane. Although he stayed sleeping until we arrived at the airport, he was still very tired. We thanked Uncle Ryan again for the first birthday present for Brandon. We played the Baby Einstein DVD on Steven's computer, and it really helped calm Brandon down for the last 20 minutes of the flight.



Sadly, we took a cab from the airport to Steven's office. Brandon had fallen asleep in the cab. Very hard to part ways with Steven after such an amazing weekend.



When we returned back to our apartment, I wanted to cry. Actually, I did cry for a minute. Just a wave of homesickness. It was a very strange feeling to go on a vacation and return to Singapore. Normally, you go home after a vacation. While this is what we did, it was awkward when I didn't get that feeling of "home" when we returned.



Since Dino helped me get our bags up to the apartment, I was able to keep Brandon asleep. I even took a little snooze with him. It was still early, but it had been a long day.



When Brandon woke up, I was a bit lonely, so we went down to Jo's apartment for a while. The kids were at school, but I wanted to find out how their weekend was. They also traveled over the weekend. They went to Bintan. Bintan is also an island in Indonesia, but it is close enough that you can take a ferry over from Singapore. Maybe another excursion we can do later!



This afternoon, I took Brandon back to Dr. Chiang for his follow-up appointment. Dr. Chiang took him off of the cold and cough medicines and one of the inhalers. Since Brandon still has some cough, Dr. Chiang wants to see him again in two weeks. We were going to also have Brandon's bloodwork done on Monday, but as he was tired and cranky I decided to wait until our next visit. Great vacation, but exhausting and busy for the wee-man.

Brandon weighed 10.4 kg with his clothes and shoes on. That's a bit less than 23 pounds.

Brandon and I made a quick stop at the grocery on the way home from the doctor's office. As I was checking out, I heard Brandon saying, "Dog. Dog. Dog." I told him that there weren't any dogs in the grocery. Then, I looked up and saw a statue of two dogs. So cool! He told me! :)

I was even so tired that I crashed at 9:30 on Monday night. Why is it that you often need a vacation from your vacation?



Don't know if we'll ever go to Bali again. If we do, we'll try to see more of Bali. Since we wanted to relax on this trip, we spent most of the time at the resort. We've heard that there are some amazing sights there. There's just never enough time...



It was definitely a weekend to remember!!! I just wish that it was something that Brandon would actually remember too. :)