Just Put In On The Tab- Bali, Day 6

Our day at the pool.  I could definitely use about five more of these.  While the hotel was not our favorite, the pool was pretty great- we spent the entire day either in the water, laying out in the sun or resting in the beds built over the water.  It was pretty tough to beat.  Especially when there was a bar you could swim up to, if you felt like expending that much energy.  If that was just too strenuous, (which at certain points in the afternoon, it most certainly was), you could just have them bring you your drink.  Life is tough in Bali. 

For dinner, we headed out to Jimbaran Bay for dinner on the beach while we watched the sunset. 

We all got too hungry and impatient while we waited for our food so we took a walk down the beach to visit a man selling roasted corn on the cob.  I took the opportunity to show off my Thai dress that I bought in Phuket three years ago and have never had the opportunity (or courage) to wear.  Tonight was the night.  It was the right thing to do.  The dress was overdue for a night out.

 

 

 

 

Some guys from the restaurant gave Aliana some blue lobsters to play with.

We had a great meal.  But then.....

We should have known.  

We were still in Bali.  

The Good and NotSoGood rule still applies.

Yep, all was going very well until my mom got very sick toward the end of the meal and provided us all (driver included) with a very eventful trip in the van back to our hotel on the other side of the peninsula.  

There are (thankfully) no pictures of this.

A note to fellow travelers: there are many strategically-placed convenience stores and gas stations between Jimbaran beach and Nusa Dua that may come in handy if ever you find yourself in rough spot.

From forest to beach: Bali, Days 4 and 5

So, I have decided to pretty much skip over Day 4.  It was pretty lousy, due to the patch on my eye and an insanely tired and cranky daughter.   Mike and my mom spent most of the day at a cooking class while my dad and I entertained Aliana and attempted to go to lunch- a disastrous afternoon and one I would not like to relive through this blog.


By the time we all headed out to dinner, however, life was better- we spent some time in the market doing some shopping and ending up with some great spices.

We spent some time listening to Balinese musicians

beautiful fabrics.

Shopping in the market.

 

We packed up in preparation for our departure from Ubud the following morning, put Aliana to bed, and Mike and I spent some time in the hot tub outside of our room.  It was lovely.








The next morning we headed for our final breakfast at the mansion, said goodbye to the great staff, and Mike, my mom and I went off for a walk through the village in search of some batiks, before packing up the car and heading down to Nusa Dua.

Artu, one of our great waiters at the Mansion, who took Aliana while we ate breakfast.  Aliana adored him.

basket lady

batiks being made

We found a place were batiks were being made to be sold to Tahiti- most of the batiks at this 'factory' (not much of a factory, really, more like a four people making batiks in their backyard) had "Bora Bora" or "Moorea" written on them- they were beautiful, though, and my mom and I both bought one. 

Kids taking a break for their morning snack at a local elementary school.

 Then, we packed up the car, said a sad farewell to Ubud and headed down to the beach.  (about an hour and 1/2 drive).

We arrived in a resort town that basically looked like it could have been anywhere, and regretted having left Ubud.  At first we were not very excited about our hotel, but quickly settled into the beach/pool scene, and while my dad headed off for an afternoon of golf, we headed to the beach.

Aliana wasted no time making friends in the water.

Aliana drew a crowd of beautiful girls who sat and played with her for a long time.  We considered handing her over to them for the rest of the day, but alas, the girls had to go.

We all loved the ocean. 

We headed back to the hotel, hot and exhausted and long overdue for a nap.  We stuck close to the hotel for dinner, enjoyed a great Thai meal and went to bed.

The Good and Not-So-Good - Bali, Day 3

This morning, we woke, enjoyed our fabulous breakfast at our hotel, and then Dewa picked us up again for our morning in the Monkey Forest and a little shopping.  We heeded some great advice and made sure not to bring any food in our bags into the forest, but a few of the monkeys were pretty aggressive anyway- one jumped up onto the Backpack when my mom got too close with her camera, but Aliana was cool with it- the rest of us freaked out a little, though.  We did have a great time exploring the forest- it was beautiful.  

Aliana loved the monkeys!

We do some monkeying around of our own...

Sharing Backpack duty

Aliana and I enjoying our fabulous lunch.

After that, since Aliana was still pretty good to go for about another hour, we stopped and did a little shopping at a beautiful boutique- I could have spent all day in there- after much deliberation, I ended up with one dress and my mom with three.  My mom wasn't so sure at first if she was going to be able buy her three items when the lady told her she would not be able to use her Visa card because she "needed the cash".  My mom and I were very confused about this and they went back and forth for awhile about cash vs. visa until we figured out that what she needed was for my mom to pay for one of her items in cash because she was the first customer of the day and she had to bless her store with this cash "for good luck!"  So my mom handed over the cash and the lady proceeded to go all around her boutique blessing her store with the first cash of the day by touching the cash to each garment hanging on the rack.  

The hostess at Nomads who took Aliana while Mike and I enjoyed our lunch

Bags in hand, we headed back to the hotel so Aliana could nap.   My parents then headed off to go white water rafting.   Following Aliana's nap, we headed back out in to Ubud for a fabulous lunch at Nomads- if you are ever in Ubud, go there!  The food and drinks are wonderful!  And, bring your babies- the wait staff in Bali will take your baby away while you eat- we took full advantage of that. 

....a few hours later....

so, I have learned first-hand the truism that is the balinese phrase “the good and the not-so-good”.  In Bali, people never say anything is all good or all bad.  Instead, life is at once good and not-so-good, so you should plan for it and not be disappointed when things turn out “not-so-good”.  I had thought that our ‘not-so-good’ had been covered with the bite on ALiana’s ankle that had swollen to worrysome proportions, which we are pretty sure was either a spider bite or a very bad scratch that may have started to become infected.  While the bite/scratch looked like it was getting better, I had thought we were in the clear.... I was wrong.  It was all going great at first- we spent the afternoon having a great time in the pool until my parents got back from a fabulous afternoon of white water rafting.  Then, we all got ready to go out for an evening at a Balinese dance show.  As I was getting ready, I put my left contact in my eye and immediately realized that I had placed it in my eye after dousing it in contact cleaner. It started burning terribly right away and I desperately tried to get it out.  When I finally got it out, I realized I had scratched my sclera.  It was terribly painful and even after rinsing it like crazy I still feel like I had a piece of sand in my eye.  I went straight over to my parents’ room since my mom is a nurse, and well... she’s my mom.  She immediately had me cover it, found out where the closest clinic was and organized someone to take us there.  When we got there, the dr. (who my mom said looked all of 18 years old) checked out my eye and told us they didn’t have the equipment to really assess the damage to my eye in Ubud and that I should go straight to the hospital in Depensar, an hour and 1/2 away.  My mom quickly nixed that idea when she found out he could prescribe certain eye drops with steroids that could hold me over til the next day (or the day after, when we’d be heading down toward Depensar anyway...)  So, my led me around while she picked up the drops and some eye patches and we headed back to the Mansion.  Aliana burst into tears at the sight of her hideous monster of a mother with a huge patch and medical tape covering half her face and who was being led around by Gaga... She quickly figured out it was me, though, and she was all smiles again.  

scary Mommy.

Miserable. Definitely not-so-good.

They put me straight to bed and all headed out to the dance show.  

not sure what this was (I wasn't there...I was in bed...with a large patch over my painful eye) but it was from the dance show...