For those of you considering visiting us in Indonesia while we are here or even if the thought has ever crossed your mind, “Hum, I wonder if we should visit Creed and Heidi?” Maybe this will convince you….
We left for Bali on Tuesday morning. Creed had to go for an event for work (opening a second Ford dealership in Denpasar), so it worked out perfectly for us to tag along, especially because the boys had no school on Thursday & Friday.
We arrived at our hotel, the Intercontinental Resort, in the early afternoon. The lobby of the hotel was breathtaking. It was an open air lobby, which is like a lot of places here, and as you looked out the back of the lobby you could see straight out into the ocean. The lobby was patterned after an old Balinese building with carvings and a very high roof. It was beautiful to look around and see the grounds, the pools and the ocean. I felt as if we stepped onto a movie set.
We went to our rooms and then went out to eat at the restaurant which is by the pools and the ocean. It was fun to look around and see the 35 acre resort and all there was to do. We later went up to the room and put on our swimming suits and got the boogie boards. We headed down to the beach only to find out it was closed for swimming. There had been a large storm the day before and a lot of logs, branches, coconuts, and just about everything else had washed up onto the beach – unsafe for swimming. We were told it would most likely be open the next day after they cleaned it all up.
No worry, the boys had fun playing for hours in the sand. They built a little village they called “Coco’s Home”. They thought it was hilarious. Apparently, they had several coconuts (one named Coco) and sticks and built an elaborate village. Mallory and I went to swim in the pool so we didn’t see it.
That night Creed went to the dealership opening event and the rest of us stayed at the hotel, had room service, and watched movies.
Wednesday we spent most of the day at the beach. We sat on the beach chairs under the cabanas, read books, built sand castles and caught some good waves with the boogie boards. We also all caught some good sun and were all burned…except Mallory and Grant. Skin as white as mine and Creed’s don’t mix too well with the sun. We bought some surf shirts for the boys later and they wore those the rest of the time to protect them from the sun.
That night we went into Kuta and went shopping and out to dinner. Mallory is very wiggly and doesn’t sit still for long at all so eating dinner at a restaurant is always interesting with her, especially when they don’t have high chairs. She is the center of attention everywhere we go with her curly blond hair and blue eyes. She looks so different to the Indonesians that they can’t keep their hands off of her and she does not like it these days.
Having four children also got us a lot of attention. We heard “Madam…all these yours?! Big family for you, ya?!” We don’t get that too much here so it was odd to me. The other thing that cracked me up was the shop keepers trying to get us into their store and they would say to me, “Hey Mommy….big family, you shop here?”
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to see a Balinese dance performance. It is so interesting to me to watch the dancing. I remember watching these kinds of dances on the National Geographic shows with my dad when I was younger. I remember thinking it was so exotic and so foreign and that the place was so far away. Now when I watch it in person it is astonishing to me that I live here! I kept telling the boys that. I’m not sure they cared, though. They really do like watching the dances, though. The costumes are amazing and so is the way they move. They open their eyes so wide and move in jerks and sudden movements. They also do a move with their hands that is amazing. They hold their hands flat and wiggle just one finger so fast you can hardly see it. We all liked watching it.
Thursday morning we got up and went with a tour guide up to Ubud. It is toward the middle of the island on the way to the mountainous area. The people in Bali are mostly Hindu, not Muslim like most of the rest of the country, so things are quite different there – the music, dress, architecture, etc. You also see many more people in their traditional clothing walking around the streets.
We enjoyed another dance performance (called the Barong and Kris) in a village called Batubulan and then went on to the sacred monkey forest – a several acre forest with a couple of Hindu temples and three groups of sacred monkeys…I think. These monkeys are just walking around all over the paths and climbing all over the trees in the forest. We were told not to buy the bananas the women were selling to feed to the monkeys because the monkeys can get pretty aggressive so we just walked around. While we were taking a family picture, Creed said, ‘One is crawling on my back.’ I thought the monkey had just touched him and then went away. When I turned around, the monkey was on Creed’s shoulders! Our guide and a guide in the monkey forest were quite anxious to get the monkey off Creed. The little ones were pretty feisty and would snip at you if you got too close. It was hilarious to have them just all around, jumping from place to place and grabbing anything they could. We loved going there.
Mallory went crazy with the monkeys. She would squeal and kick her legs so hard when she would see them. She would have taken one home with us if she could have.
We went shopping a little in the market in Ubud, had some lunch, and then went back to the hotel. The boys had a great time that afternoon & evening going from one of the many swimming pools, to the beach, to the little playground, etc. As the sun set that night we saw several people wading in the ocean trying to fish with nets. I don’t think they caught anything, but it was interesting to see their technique. It was so beautiful and peaceful watching the sunset there.
Friday Creed took the boys to a different beach about 15 minutes away to go snorkeling while I stayed at the hotel with Mallory. They went to a little snorkeling and diving hut and rented equipment and then a glass bottom boat took them out in the ocean. I’ll let Creed tell you how that was. Nash said it was one of the greatest things he’s ever done.
We were sad to leave on Saturday. The boys were especially sad. However, they were much happier when I told them that we would be back there in June with Aunt Heather. Soooo, anyone wanting to come and visit us is pretty much guaranteed a trip to Bali!
Snorkeling
The boys and I had a great time snorkeling on Friday morning. It was one of the things I had looked forward to most about moving to Indonesia, so I am glad that we finally had the chance to go. We snorkeled at a place that was just a 5 or 10 minute ride out from the beach in water about 3 to 4 meters deep. I was amazed to look out and see fish like you see in an aquarium. We saw fish ranging from black and white vertical stripes to horizontal neon rainbow stripes, from 2 inches to 10 inches in length. Nash and I also tried just diving down without the snorkel to get a closer look at the fish and the rocks at the bottom. I decided I need to get certified to be able to go SCUBA diving.
Bats
Tonight when we got home from an open house for a missionary couple who is leaving to go back home, we looked out our back porch and saw lots of things flying around. There were tons of bugs flying around our porch, which is not unusual, but what is unusual is to see bats flying around our backyard. There were about 10 – 15 bats flying in circles over our pool and then they’d sweep in and eat the bugs flying by our porch. It was so interesting to see these bats up close and “in action.” Nash, Grant, and I took turns sitting on the chair on the porch, and the bats didn’t seem to mind that we were there – they kept on flying around in circles, often just 1 foot from our faces, trying to catch the bugs.
Here's a photo of our family with the Palmers -- a missionary couple who has been working here with LDS Charities, overseeing all of the church's humanitarian relief efforts.
