We have been looking forward to this vacation for over a year! We had it planned in October, but had to move it because Kyle was selected for the instructor pilot upgrade which conflicted with our original planned trip. Now Kyle is done with the IPUG, and we are Bali bound for Christmas this year.
Our trip started off by taking the trains down to Tokyo the night before our flight from Narrita to Denpasar, Bali. The kids were all excited to be on the trains, and thought we were going to Disneyland since that's usually where we go when we take the trains to Tokyo... ha, not exactly kids, this trip will be even better than Disneyland! I sure do enjoy going over 200 MPH on the Shinkansen bullet train, it’s quite the experience. All was going well when out of the blue Connor just throws up everywhere. It's all over himself, the seat back in front of him, his seat, and the floor. I originally though he must of either ate something bad or got motion sickness from the train. We did our best to clean it all up and I took him into the bathrooms on the train to change his outfit.
After we sat back down in our seats I thought all the adventure of this train ride was over, but oh was I wrong! Abby was playing with her ponies, Kyle was chasing Brayden in the back car of the train, and I was snuggling Connor who was playing with his paw patrol toys when all of a sudden puke goes flying everywhere, AGAIN! This time the people sitting across the aisle from us were starting to freak out. Japan is such a clean culture that I am sure a spewing induced, vomit projectile child was causing them to go into cardiac arrest. I rushed Connor back to the bathroom car where Kyle was entertaining Brayden. We couldn't believe our luck, and now I didn't just have to get ANOTHER new outfit for Connor, but I had to get one for myself as well and clean up the mess all over the train seat once again. With our luggage opened and thrown all over the bathroom car floor trying to find clean clothes, we finally got decent again and were able to salvage our seats from the mess at least a little bit, the stench was a different story. We learned our lesson this time and kept Connor in the back right next to the restrooms for the remainder of the ride. It was a good thing we did cause he had ANOTHER puking incident and Brayden thought it would be fun to get in on the action and have a complete blowout with poo coming out his diaper, all over his shirt, and making a complete mess. Kyle said if we were not already over half way to Tokyo he would have turned back around and headed back home. For the rest of the ride we just Prayed we would get there soon and tried to black out this horrible experience.
We did make it to Tokyo thank goodness (only 3 pukes and a blow out diaper later), and we were exhausted, smelly, and just wanted to find our hotel so we could shower and get clean. That night we stayed at the Hilton next to the Narita airport so we could catch our early morning flight out to Bali the next day. I was a little embarrassed upon arriving to the hotel because it was a very nice, swanky hotel and in walks a family of 5, distressed and disheveled, smelly and covered in vomit. The first thing we did was clean up once we got to the room, got some food, and went straight to bed. Thankfully Connor was feeling much better, and I think he just had an upset stomach from something he ate.
The next morning we woke up refreshed and ready to get on our flight to Bali for the fun to finally begin! We showed up to the airport, made our way to the Air Asia counter, and started to check in only for the lady to tell us that our flight had been canceled and we were bumped onto the flight that was Bali bound leaving tomorrow. WHAT?! I thought this was a prank at first. They canceled our flight with no heads up, and didn't provide food or lodging. So we were missing out on a day in Bali and had to pay extra out of pocket to stay an extra day in Tokyo, not to mention we didn't have anything to really entertain the kids with. Kyle was furious, I was destrought, and the kids were sad and confused cause all they wanted to do was go swimming in Bali. So far this vacation has been a total bust! We thankfully were able to stay at the Hilton for another night, and just hoped and prayed that our luck would take a turn for the better the following day.
We arrived to the airport the next morning, hesitant this time that our flight would even leave. Thankfully it was scheduled to leave, and thankfully it wasn't a full flight! Yay, a little sunshine on a so far gloomy trip. As you can imagine the most difficult child was Brayden who just wanted to crawl up and down the plane aisles. It was a long and painful 7 hour flight, and when we finally touched ground in Denpasar both Kyle and myself were just relieved that the wrestling match we had been tag teaming these past 7 hours against Brayden were finally coming to an end.
We were picked up from the airport by the Bali Dynasty resort shuttle. The driver's name was Sooney, and he was so generous and nice. He thanked us for coming to his island because Bali survives off of tourism and lately they have been hurting for tourist due to the active volcano that has been causing some problems. Sooney helped us exchange money at a local market, and even helped us get settle into our room at the resort. We stayed in the executive suite which was absolutely beautiful. Out our windows you could see the ocean and the pools. Our suite was divided into two halves, the living room where the couches turned into beds for the kids, and then the master bed room with the fluffiest king bed in the world. Not only were we excited to be in Bali, but we had the most amazing room to stay in during our week there. Since we arrived at night time, we let the kids run around the room and get their excitement out, and then it was off to bed to start a fun and relaxing vacation in the morning.
Our first day in Bali it was a little chilly and overcast. It was the rainy season, so we were a little disappointed it wasn't going to be sunshine and blue skies everyday, but that's what we get for planning a trip during the rainy season, nothing Bali could do about the season and weather. It was still beautiful though and even though it would rain, it would be a warm tropical rain. It was still plenty warm outside, and we even got a little burned that first day (probably cause we are so white from living in northern Japan that we would burn in the snow too probably, lol). Partial reasoning behind picking this particular resort was due to their ratings on how family friendly of a place it was. There was a giant kid's pool with fun toys and water slides. We spent most of our time over there for obvious reasons, and perhaps the one who loved it the most was Brayden. He loved just floating around in his little floaty feeling like one of the other kids. Abby enjoyed going down the little slides, and Connor liked to pretend he was a sharky in the water. Abby would occasionally find another little kid there and start playing with them cause she is our social child, and this just put Connor over the edge. Connor would get so upset that Abby wasn't playing with him and would come crying back to either myself or Kyle. I sure do love my Connor, but sometimes I worry about how tender and sanative he is. I was trying to figure out how I could toughen him up and it hit me, we will take him down the big water slide. Neither Abby or Connor had even attempted the big water slide, and Kyle finally coaxed Abby into going down with him a couple times. Connor wouldn't even thinking about it and refused to go down the slide. Kyle and I made it our mission to get Connor down that slide at least once during our trip.
We booked a couple of excursions to do, and our first one took us to a jewelry factory, the monkey forest (we thought the kids would like it), a traditional temple, and the famous Tanah Lot Temple. It started out fine as we drove into Ubud for our first stop at the jewelry factory. It was fun to see how they made different types of jewelry, but perhaps what was even more fun was how much the workers there were enamored with the kids. They all wanted pictures with Abby, Connor, and Brayden.
Our second stop was at a traditional temple site. It was a Hindu temple since the majority of people in Bali practice Hinduism, but this particular site was ginormous and very old. It was at this site that we learned about the differences of different colored thatched roofs, and their significance as well as the barong. The barong is a lion-like creature in the mythology of Bali and is the king of spirits. The barong is also the leader of good and fights away rangda which is the mythology creature of a demon queen. The two mythological figures fight which is represented in a dance in which many Indonesian people would dress up in the costumes and represent the eternal battle of good versus evil. I found all the information so fascinating and just love how similar and yet so different cultures are. Every culture/religion/people/tribe/community has a way to discuss or address matters that affect all humans such as good versus evil.
While we were at the site it started to rain pretty good and the kids were getting hungry. That's when things started to head south fast for our family. We had thought since this was an all day tour that lunch or at least a lunch break would be included. Boy were we wrong. We were now heading off to the monkey forest, in the rain, hitting a ton of traffic, and now all the kids were super "hangry" and we didn't have any food or a food break in the foreseeable hours ahead.
After a painful 40 minute drive we finally made it to the monkey forest. Following around cute monkeys did help to distract the kids from the fact that they were starving. We got to walk around the grounds, see monkeys, and even feed them. Some of the monkeys were very aggressive and some were meek and timid. My favorite monkeys were the sweet mommas that had their babies clinging onto their backs or stomachs.
After the monkey forest, the "hanger" level in the kids elevated to a whole new level. They were crying, having melt downs, and I was getting so sick and nauseous trying to take care of the kids and distract them while the driver was driving all around super curvy, twisty roads. And just our luck, we hit major traffic...AGAIN! Even our tour guide mentioned that he had never seen so much traffic in that part of town before. Perfect. Kyle and I decided we should just cut our losses and skip the last stop which was the Tanah Lot Temple. We asked our guide if we could just head back to the resort cause the kids couldn't take it anymore (it was 4:30 at that point and they only had breakfast that whole day to eat). Our tour guide didn't seem to understand us because an hour later we pulled up to the Tanah Lot Temple. SERIOUSLY?! We made the most of our last stop and got to see the Temple, which was out in the water during sunset. The tide was high and we got to see the water come in even higher and higher. It was a unique experience that I can now say was fun, but at the moment it was painful due to three tired and hungry kids.
We didn't make it back to the resort till 7:30 that night due to all the traffic, and we immediately fed the kids and put them straight down to bed for the night. Kyle and I were exhausted as well and completely crashed. It was a fun day, but it could have been WAY better if our driver and guide would just let us stop and get food or at least something to eat. I guess that's the problem with the language barrier. To bad We don't speak Indonesian.
The next day we decided to take things slow and easy. We just stayed at the resort and went swimming all day long. Thankfully the sun came out so we had beautiful weather to accompany us on our pool day. During lunch/nap time Abby and I went to the spa at the resort and got manicures and pedicures. I was fun and I know Abby was absolutely loving the pampering cause every time I looked over at her she was completely frozen still. She never is still, not even for a minute. I let her pick out the color for my nails as well, and of course we had to be matching. The nice ladies at the spa put fun flowers on our nails as well which just made Abby's day! Now this was the vacation I signed up for, relaxation in the sun, and nails with my girls!
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