On the road to Ubud

We left Villa Balquisse at 1 pm to head off to our new home in Ubud.  It was our first chance to see Bali outside of the purely tourist areas.

In a traffic circle

There was an entire village devoted to stone carving, with one building after another displaying large inventories of sculpture

Kite Store

Jimbaran Beach

In the morning we headed to Jimbaran beach, a long curved beach with the Four Seasons on one end and the International Airport on the other.  We were at a public access near the middle.  It was an unpromising first impression off a small trash strewn street and the sand looking a muddy gray.  Stray dogs roamed the beach, which led immediately to thoughts of the serious problems with rabid dogs in Bali.

But it turned out to be a fun beach and the girls had a great time collecting shells and jumping waves.  Overhead every few minutes another plane load of tourists dropped from the sky and landed at the airport.

Offerings left in the water, including 2000 Rupiah note (about 25 cents) [Photo credit: Alexa]

Four Seasons in the background

Playing in the waves

Villa Balquisse

Yesterday we finally made it to Villa Balquisse, the small boutique hotel that we had originally booked for our first nights in Bali. It is stylish, with side by side swimming pools and a small open air restaurant. The restaurant had a surprisingly extensive menu for serving so few guests and the food was quite good. The girls spent a lot of time in the pools.

from Alexa: our flights and arrival in Bali

Our adventure is off to a great start!

We woke up in the Marriott hotel and headed for the Dulles Airport.  At the airport we had  good breakfast Charlotte and I went crazy rolling dad's four wheeled carry-on (as shown in the picture below). Then we hopped on board.We were greeted by two flight attendants wearing shiny light blue shirts and ivory skirts with matching blue hair bows.  We were pros (according to mom&dad) at staying occupied on the plane. It helped having games on the TVs in the seat-backs.  We also had lunch and dinner on the plane which was delicious.

Then we landed at Seoul airport.  We found a Korean cultural center.  Charlotte and I played a Korean game where we stand at a distance and throw arrows into a bucket.  Then Charlotte fell asleep and Daddy watched the bags and Mom and I explored and found another cultural center and set to work making beautiful lacquer necklaces by gluing small pieces of shells onto a shiny black disk, then adding a string around it.

After we finished our craft work we got onto the next plane.  That went by quickly with a few times of turbulence.  We landed smoothly at 2 am in Bali.  At the airport, we made it through immigration and customs faster than expected.  It was very humid outside and there were palm trees everywhere.  We drove to our hotel and there were many people having new year's parties in the houses along the road.  We made it to the hotel and sadly there was a leak in our room, so we brought all 12 suitcases to another hotel nearby and closer to the beach.  We knew nothing about this hotel, but made do.  Travelers always say, go with the flow!

Our room had a regular queen size bed and two mattresses on the floor, one for me and one for Charlotte.  When we woke up the next day, we had breakfast and swam in the pool nearby.  The pool had a beautiful fountain with two mermaids pouring water out of pots.

We went to our next hotel, which was even better than the first.  We lounged by the pool until dinner.

So far are trip was worth the long flight!

First morning in Bali at Puri Kosala

Puri Kosala, our substitute hotel, is a charming, small boutique hotel whose grounds are filled with statuary carvings.  By the time we left our room around 8 am, the large tour group that had booked the rest of the rooms was just leaving.  So we had the place to ourselves in the morning.

We had open-air breakfast in the small restaurant, and the girls then spent the rest of the morning frolicking in the pool.  We were very close to the beach, but chose to relax on site instead.

View from our room

Intricately carved wooden door to our room

close up of the Ganesha fountain

Entrance to the hotel courtyard

Close up of the carving on the villa door

Sign on the toilet in our room.  A reminder of Bali's recent past.

View of the swimming pool from breakfast

Six nights, six different beds

Wednesday - home
Thursday - Marriott Dulles (making sure we were out of the house and ready for flight out the next morning)
Friday - in the air
Saturday - Puri Kosala (our substitute hotel)
Sunday - Villa Balquisse
Monday - Sanctuary in Ubud (if all goes well)

In Bali

We have arrived in Bali!

We landed around 2:00 am January 1st.

We survived the long trip much better than I had feared.   On the first 14 hour leg to Seoul, the girls kept themselves occupied and stayed up the equivalent of the middle of the night with their insatiable appetite for iPad games, and the games and videos available on the in-flight entertainment system.

Both girls slept most of the second leg into Bali.  Lynn and I didn't get much sleep, but managed just enough winks that we weren't wrecked when we arrived

Based on our other experiences dealing with long immigration queues on other trips, we had visions of facing a lengthy wait with strung out kids while being wrecked ourselves and having to navigate an unfamiliar immigration bureaucracy.  Before we left, we had therefore arranged for a man to meet us to help usher us through immigration.

We had obtained multi-visit visas before leaving DC.  When we reached immigration there was a small queue of tourists at the Visa on Arrival counters, but no one at the Other Visa counter.  We handed the man our passports and he disappeared and then a few minutes later returned with them stamped.  We paid a hefty fee for this service, which it turns out we probably didn't need.  But we couldn't have known this in advance.

We had also arranged for two cars to meet us at the airport.  This was useful as the four of us and all our luggage couldn't fit into one of the micro-vans that serve as airport taxis.

We convoyed over to our hotel, Villa Balquisse, where the security guard needed to call the manager who was offsite.  He arrived after a few minutes, looking like he had come straight from a New Year's eve party, and told us that he couldn't give us a room for the night as the ceiling in our room had sprung a leak.  He had made arrangements at a nearby hotel, so we headed off again, and a short while later, after navigating around drunk tourists partying in the middle of the road, were finally able to lay down on real beds and fall asleep.