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...

Eat, Pray, Love, Laugh - Bali, Day 2

The next morning, we woke refreshed and ready to go.  After a great breakfast in which Aliana thoroughly enjoyed her second of many breakfast banana smoothies, 

our guide, Dewa, who my mom found through recommendations of friends, picked us up in his car (with a/c!), for tour.  We saw the beautiful rice terraces-

The Tallalangal Rice Terraces

Aliana gets ready for the hike.

and then Dewa took us on a hike through some rice paddies to his own village of Keliki (where the scene where Julia Roberts is biking through the rice paddies took place) and showed us around and even to his own house.  

rice a few months away from being ready for harvest

Some of the happy villagers of Keliki

They were collecting insects to eat using glue on the ends of long sticks.

Bees for their village

the 'vacuum cleaner' ducks that eat the insects off the rice paddies

the boys who take care of the ducks

Dewa showed us some of the work the boys in his village were doing to practice patience and focus.

the beautiful artwork of one of the boys.

Aliana was more interested in the birds

Dewa told us all about the Balinese culture and how everything relates to balance and how at all times one must be connected with God, with others and with nature.  He also told us that when they were shooting Eat, Pray, Love in Ubud and had to close down the main road for the filming and everything that people didn’t really know who Julia Roberts was (and still don’t).  He said they mainly listen to the radio in their village and that only on Saturday nights they’ll watch tv- he said their favorite show is Mr. Bean, because “he makes our teeth dry”.  (from smiling so much).  

Aliana makes new friends

Dewa's wife and two boys.

Dewa explaining some things about his village

Everyone smiles so much here- Dewa said that’s how they say hello and goodbye- with smiles- there are no real words for hello and goodbye in their language. 

We then had a fabulous Indonesian lunch and then it was a stop at a supermarket and a pharmacy- (Aliana woke up with a swollen bite on her ankle today- we think it’s a spider bite) and then home.  Aliana did great today- she slept in the car between stops and spent the late afternoon in the pool with Mike while the afternoon rainshower poured over them.  I laid down in one of the covered beds by the pool and listened to the rain.  

the walk back to our room

The Backpack Goes to Bali

Ok, so I must not be very good at this blogging thing because it’s been almost 6 months since I last wrote anything here... a lot has happened in the life of the Well-Traveled Stroller since its last trip, but basically, it’s been replaced.  Yes, the Stroller made one final trip across the globe, but it was only to Florida for Christmas, so not exactly blog-worthy, at least not according to the Stroller.    Now, however, the Stroller just remains parked outside of our apartment like a lost puppy, quietly waiting to be taken out on a walk, but the unfortunate reality for the Stroller is that Aliana is just not so into it anymore....  so it has been replaced.  Enter the Backpack.  As we have recently discovered, the previous tenants of our apartment left behind a fabulous baby backpack that Aliana just loves.  She wants to be up high, a part of the action at all times, and the Stroller just couldn’t do it for her anymore.  So, it was the Backpack, not the Stroller, that joined us on our Spring Break trip to Bali. 

Aliana in the Backpack.

We flew AirAsia, SouthEast Asia’s equivalent to Southwest- a cheap, no-frills airline that did provide us with bulkhead seats and a basinet, but not much else.  Note to anyone traveling AirAsia: bring blankets, pillows, water and snacks aboard!  Otherwise you will spend your 11:30-5am flight freezing and starving, desperately trying to get your 1-yr-old toddler back to sleep in her basinet that she doesn’t quite fit into anymore.  

Air Asia- no-frills, but affordable!

Fortunately, Gaga and Pop-Pop (my parents) joined us on this adventure so we could trade off the baby duties.  Mike and I are both very grateful for this!  We arrived at the Kuala Lumpur airport so glad to step off the cold plane and into the 80 degrees early morning air.  We spent an hour or two at a Starbucks, trying to fend off our killer exhaustion headaches with some caffeine, while hunting down some milk for Aliana... and then a few more hours wandering around the gates waiting for our 10:30am flight to Bali.  A few more hours on the the next plane and then we finally arrived at 1:30 in our tropical paradise, completely exhausted and ravenous, but glad to be here.  Our driver from our hotel picked us up and took us another hour or so to Ubud,  to the Mansion Resort Hotel & Spa- an amazing place- our room, (with a crib!) was gorgeous and Mike and I couldn’t help thinking how great it would be to be here senza bambina!  (It’s still pretty great though- even with a toddler).   

The entrance to The Mansion

We cleaned up a bit and had our first meal at the hotel- we all took turns holding Aliana in the pool while we waited for our food. 

exhausted from the long trip but excited to be in Bali!

Loving the pool

Woo-hoo! (nearly) naked in the pool!

We hit our fabulous beds totally wiped out from our long day of travel, but so happy to be in surrounded by balmy night breezes and all sorts of sounds.