Bali - part 3

Tuesday was our last full day at the lodge.  We woke up to a beautiful sunrise.  The kids were surprised to find me in their room.  Just before breakfast, we helped feed all of the animals and then went exploring.  There was a little covered platform called the Tea House that the girls really loved to go visit.  We walked there and all over the grounds.  At breakfast, Linda, our hostess told us that all of the other guests have left, so we had the entire place to ourselves. 

At 10:00 we scheduled a Balinese arts and crafts lesson :)  One of the local ladies came and she showed us how they made the beautiful alter offerings each day.  She told us she personally was responsible for making 20 every day!  It's hard work to be Hindu!!  

Scott and Wyatt chilled on the hammock while the girls and I made crafts.

This is the wood carving that is on the inside, under the roof of the little covered platform where we had our class.

Arts and crafts supplies.

Lily's palm basket!

Wyatt was playing peak-a-boo with me behind the palm fawns.

Madeline finished her first offering basket.

Another one...

Our instructor then made Madeline a crown.

And a ball for Lily and Wyatt.

A sword for Wyatt!

A star flower!  So pretty!

Madeline stuck a band through it and made an arm band.

The girls placed their offerings at the temple.

Next up, Balinese costumes!

Makeup too!

Once dressed, the girls wanted to show all of the Lodge employees how beautiful they were!  I followed them around with my camera.

This is where we ate all of our meals.  

The kids picked it at our very first lunch and they didn't want to change after that.  There were several baskets of toys kept here for the kids to play with during meals.

The view out of the front door of the restaurant.

The other tables.

All of our hot drinks were served with a banana leaf heart placed under the mug.

This is a curly wing bird that our craft leader made from palm for Madeline.

After lunch, we hiked down to the waterhole again.  We recognized more of the plants along the way after our lesson with Ebudina the day before.  We still didn't swim, but the kids were a little braver with putting their feet in the water.  We were tired when we got back to our Tree House.  We read our books and played puzzles and games.  Scott had a 2 hour massage scheduled at 3:00.  The kids and I went into the restaurant to play with the wonderful musical instruments they had there.  While we were in there, we noticed a mist was coming.  Linda was there and she suggested that I make sure all of the windows are closed because the mist will make everything feel damp.

The mist is coming!

It rained!  It was amazing.  It was gentle and hard and beautiful!  The kids got a little scared because we were sitting outside on the veranda.  They wanted to go inside.  I loved it!  I had a 1 1/2 hour massage at 5:00.  Our massages took place at the Massage and Yoga Bale.  It was a raised platform with a roof.  There were bamboo shades that were put down on 3 sides to give more privacy.  There was a soft mat to lay on and we were covered in with a sarong.  During my massage on Tuesday, it rained.  It was so peaceful.  There was a gecko close by making sounds, I had never heard one before!

This is the rabbit and guinea pig cage.

The male Balinese monkey.

The garden!

This pineapple was growing right outside our door!

A pineapple bush.

The long narrow path that leads out to the road.

Here, Lily is feeding the monkey a piece of papaya.

The Sumatran monkeys eat red ants!

Here's the frog that Scott caught on Monday night.

There were a couple of "snails looking for a shell" (aka slugs) in the bathroom.  The kids found them fascinating.

Tuesday night was uneventful.  We seemed to adapt to the new environment.  Everybody slept well.  We woke up early, anxious about our day of travel ahead.  We got our things all packed up and ready to go.  We had a lovely last breakfast and then we had to visit all of the animals and say goodbye.

Our driver picked us up at 9:00 and we headed to the airport.  Thus beginning the worst travel day in our experience.  It could have been worse, I suppose. 

We headed down our little mountain on the bumpy twisty road.  It was still raining off and on, so we kept the windows closed and it was kinda cold outside, so we didn't have the air conditioner on.  This made the car kinda stuffy.  I didn't think about it at the time but a hot stuffy car on a bumpy twisty road is probably a bad idea...

Once we merged onto the main road we immediately came to a stop.  Traffic jam.  We didn't move at all for 10 minutes and then we only moved a little way.  Another 10 minutes, another little way.  Finally, after a total of 30 minutes we see the cause, a truck had a flat tire.  sigh.  Okay, finally we can move quick.  By this time it's about 10:30 and we were hoping to be to the airport by 11:00.  Not gonna  happen.  Our flight is at 1:00.  We've never left from the Bali airport before, so we have no idea how long it's going to take to get through all of the lines and security, etc.  Our driver is keen to our stress and he does everything he can to get us further down the road at a quick pace.

The kids are being pretty good.  They are tired and hungry.  We are distracting them with the ipads.  Lily then tells me she feels sick...  uh oh!  I hand her a plastic bag that I had swiped from the plane, just for this reason.  She gets the first load in the bag, but then totally misses the bag with the second load.  It all lands on her vomit platform, aka Dad's ipad.  Gross!  We pull over and I find another plastic bag and we get Lily changed into some different clothes.  Scott wipes off his ipad as best as we can.  So yucky!

We continue down the road...  Not long after Madeline announces she has to pee.  Another stop.  She didn't actually pee, she was just bored and thought stopping would be great entertainment.  All the while, the clock is ticking and Scott and I are feeling more anxious.  The kids all finally fall asleep and we reach the airport just after 12.  Our flight is at 12:55 and boarding starts at 12:15.  Yikes!

We figure out where we are supposed to go and find a very long line at the check in counter.  I go by myself to ask what I can do to get us checked in and I am taken up to the counter.  I'm not sure exactly why I was able to totally cut in line, but hey, at this point, I'll take it.  We decided not to check our bags because we were in too big of a hurry.  

Okay, boarding passes in hand, it's 12:20.  We can make it!  We race up the stairs and we are greeted by another set of counters.  No lines, it's some kind of immigration.  Remember the US$25 we had to pay to get a tourist visa to enter the country?  Well, now we have to pay another $20 to leave.  Cash only.  We don't have any cash.  We intentionally used it all.  Okay, no problem, where is the ATM?  The woman at the counter says it is downstairs.  Scott races off to find it.  The kids and I stand aside to watch all of the other angry people.  Apparently nobody else knew about this extra charge either.  You can pay in other currencies besides the Indonesian Rupiah, but it costs more money.  Scott was gone for about 10 minutes but he comes back with his belt in his hand, sweating and cash.  Hmm.. We pay, get through and find our gate.  One more security check.  Oh yeah, I have some large bottles of liquids.  I checked my bag on the way there.  So, no more shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunblock, bug spray or shaving cream.  Whatever.  

We get inside our gate.  Totally crowded, no aircon.  There is a bathroom so the girls and I head in.  All of the toilets are clogged.  Gross.  Finally, we board the plane.  The flight was uneventful.  We were able to have some food and drinks.  We finally arrive back in Singapore.  Home.

Bali - part 2

This is the part of the blog that I've been really wanting to write...  I took too many pictures (really, can there ever be too many?!).  Seriously...   Between the three blog posts, there are about 90 pictures, but I took over 350.  So, I think I will follow up the blog posts with a facebook or picasa web album.  I'll let you know...

Originally, I had planned for us to spend all of our time at the Eco Lodge, but there was a mix up with the room reservation and we had to find other accommodations for the first night.  It all worked out for the best though...  The long drive after the flight would have been too much.  By the way...  I forgot to mention, Bali is a 2 1/2 hour flight from Singapore and it is in the same time zone. 

The Eco Lodge has won the WildAsia award for Eco Tourism.  They exercise sustainable living practices and help to support the local community.  Please read more about it, if you are at all interested.  Their work is really impressive.  

Sarinbuana Eco Lodge can at any time have as many as 15 guests.  There is a restaurant on site where you order your lunch and dinner meals at breakfast.  The staff then collect all of the ingredients for your meals from the gardens on site or the local merchants.  Everything is local.  The food was amazing.  Really, truly, amazing!

We arrived at lunch time and we were led by our driver down a long narrow foot path.  We were taken directly to our Tree House!  The Lodge manager met us there and she showed me where the light switches were and the basics of the house.  She then invited us up to the restaurant, after we finished settling in, for lunch.  

This is the living room on the first floor.

The spectacular view out the side window.

After we checked out the tree house and were overcome by the amazing views, we realized that we were really hungry.  So we headed over to lunch.  I read the menu and I started to cry a little.  I was really so excited to be there.  Way way way excited.  Everything on the menu was healthy.  Everything was grown organically.  There were vegetarian and vegan options for every meal.  There was loads of information about how to live more sustainable and why you should eat local.  All the things that make my heart happy.

Lunch was fantastic.  At this point, it was about 2:30 and we had the rest of the day to explore.   In our room was a book with activities that the Lodge could arrange, but they needed a day's notice.  So, Scott and I wanted to review that and make a plan.   Other than that we just wanted to explore and take in the beauty.

This is Lily, heading to our Tree House from the restaurant.

Beautiful Balinese decor.

The view from our veranda.  The tree on the right is a Jack Fruit tree.  Most of the trees surrounding us are edible fruit trees.  There were Mangosteen, Jack Fruit, Cocoa, Vanilla, Coffee, Snake Skin Fruit, Guava, Durian, I am sure there are others that I am forgetting...

Our Tree House has two floors.  This pictures the stairs going up to the second floor.  On the first floor, was the living room, 1 bedroom with 2 beds (1 queen and 1 twin) the kitchen and the bathroom.  On the second floor was another bedroom (1 queen) and a sitting room.  Our plan was to put the 3 kids in the room downstairs and then Scott and I would stay upstairs.  I was a little nervous about the stairs being outside, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Another view of the downstairs living room.

The twin bed in the downstairs bedroom.  There was a door leading out to the garden from this room (on the right of the picture).

Adorable umbrellas hung outside the front door.

The upstairs bedroom.

View from the upstairs sitting room.  One thing to note...  This window did not close!  It was huge, almost the entire wall and it was always open.  There was a bamboo blind that could be lowered that really did help with the wind and to keep flying bugs from accidentally coming inside.

Upstairs sitting room.

This is a view from on the stairs looking toward a little covered bale for classes or meditation.

Our garden shower!

The bathroom sink (it's a bamboo faucet!)

Jungle kids on an adventure!  We decided to head down to the waterhole.  On the website, it says you can swim there.  We actually found the water to be much too cold, but we enjoyed the hike.

The path to the waterhole was pretty long and difficult.  I'd say the toughest hike my kids have ever done.  I was certainly out of breath by the time we returned.  It was mostly all stone steps.  Scott and Lily counted the steps and it was about 300 stair steps each way.

There are two pools.  This is the waterfall into the lower pool.

My Madeline posing by the water.

This is the waterfall into the higher pool.  Scott actually was able to make it over to the waterfall pictured here and climb up the wall.  He said there is another pool up there and another fall with a difficult path leading up to an even higher pool.

The kids all wanted to soak their feet in the water.  It was crystal clear, we could see all the way to the bottom.  So pretty!

Madeline next to the rice patty.  Off of the path to the waterhole, there is a rice patty that we were able to walk over to and check out.  I had never seen rice grow.  It was actually quite dry.  All of the local people talked about how much they needed rain.

These are the Snake Skin Fruit ready to pick.  The proper name is Salak.  We ate it several times during our stay and we found it to be delicious.  I think it tastes a little like a pear.  When we ate it, it was pealed and boiled.  It appeared white and was soft and sweet.

The lodge had a fish pond, monkeys, guinea pigs and a rabbit.  Every day at 4:30 was feeding time.  My kids LOVED helping with the feeding of the animals.  Here they are feeding the fish.

A view from our veranda.  We had a bamboo wind chime that made a beautiful sound.  So peaceful.  We brought two different chapter books that I am reading to the kids right now.  We enjoyed sitting out side and reading the books and listening to the wind and the animals.

Dinner started at 6:00 and was served until 8:00.  We were hungry and a bit tired so we were there right at 6:00.  The food was amazing.  The kids ate well too.  The staff was happy to serve the kids simple foods that they enjoy.  We all were able to eat well.  After we ate dinner, it was dark.  REALLY dark.  We walked carefully back to our Tree House to get ready for bed.  We didn't think about it before, but we really should have closed the windows before we headed up to dinner.  When you turn a light on in the night all of the flying creatures swarm in.  It really wasn't too bad and we got the windows closed right away.

Time for showers!  We decided to all shower together.  It had been a lot of travel and we would all sleep better that way.  So, Scott and the kids got in and out and then I hopped in and just when I was all soaped up, the water turned off.  Apparently, we had used up our earth friendly allotment of warm water for the day!  Oh no!  I was really soapy.  It was getting in my eyes.  UGH!

Scott to my rescue...  He filled up a couple of glasses in the kitchen with COLD COLD COLD water and brought them over to dump on my head.  It got the soap out, I must admit, but it was cold.

Night time was another adventure all in itself.  Have you ever slept a night in the jungle or forest?  We were right on the edge of a rain forest.  Animals live in the rain forest.  Some of them like to be awake at night and make sounds.  I don't know what we were listening to, but it definitely wasn't the traffic sounds we are used to.  All of the kids felt a little scared and admittedly, I did too.  Scott and I got the kids to fall asleep and then we weren't sure what to do.  Suddenly, the upstairs bedroom seemed too far away and too open.  I decided to climb into bed with Madeline and Scott slept on the couch.

When you don't have curtains and there are a ton of windows, you wake up at sunrise.  Especially if you are a little kid that likes to wake up early anyway.  The chorus of "the sun is up, it's wake up time!" greeted me much too early.  But, I didn't really mind.  I was excited about the day and ready to explore our new environment.  All of the uneasiness from the night before disappeared with the rising of the sun.

Our plan for Monday was to have breakfast at 8:00 and then go on a hike to a temple starting at 9:00.  Scott and I both had massage appointments in the afternoon.

When you wake up at 5:30, breakfast at 8:00 is a little late, but we managed to survive.  We helped to feed the animals breakfast and then showed up at the restaurant right at 8:00.  We had fresh fruit plates and pancakes with syrup and sugar, hot chocolate and coffee!  It was delicious.

We met our guide Ebudina next to the kitchen at 9:00 and headed out on our way.

Ebudina taught us a lot about the local people and the plants in the area.  This is a chocolate pod.  We got to eat it!  She found a ripe one and broke it open.  The white pods are covered in a sweet and creamy paste that is chocolate.  If you let it dry, it turns brown and then you can break it up into the powder that we are all used to.  Amazing!  The kids loved it and so did I!

We passed rice fields.  Ebudina also told us that there used to be a lot of wild dogs in Bali.  They were actually quite a nuisance and they had a serious problem with rabies.  About 18 months ago, Bali had every dog on the island killed.  Can you imagine!  Apparently a lot of people had died after being bitten by a rabid dog.  Now they have strict requirements for rabies vaccinations.  So sad!

On our hike we passed some men working on building a road.  The road was just two cement paths about tire width apart.  However, only one side of the road was finished (one path) so only motorcycles could drive there.  These men were putting in the cement for the other tire, so a car can go as well.  It looked like hard work!

When we reached the temple (our destination) Ebudina took out the required clothes for us to wear.  She dressed us and took our picture before we headed up to the temple.  

The temple is called Pura Luhur Muncaksari.  Inside, there were 3 priests dressed all in white tending the temple for the day.  Ebudina brought offerings for us and the priests prayed for us and we got to participate in the Hindu prayer ceremony!  We sat on the ground with incense burning and we used the white and red petals from the flowers in our offerings.  The priests came over and sprinkled water on us and gave us rice that we then had to put on our face and our neck.  They also made bracelet for each of us that had one each of a red, black and white thread.  Each color representing a different aspect of the gods.  It was really special!  Lily and Madeline did great and seemed eager and interested.  Wyatt refused to participate.  The priests didn't seem to mind, they thought the kids were cute.

The trip back to our lodge went quick.  Ebudina carried Wyatt on her back the whole way!  We were starving and it was already lunch time when we arrived back.  We were all tired, so we lounged and read and played games.  Scott and I each had a massage.  I think that getting a massage every day is a great idea!  We of course fed the animals their dinner too!

By the time evening came, we were a little better prepared for what night would bring.  I made sure to close all of the windows before we left for dinner and to bring our flashlight with us for our walk back.  Dinner was fantastic.  Scott and I shared a bottle of wine.  Wonderful!  On our walk back, we saw a frog on our path!  Scott even picked it up and the kids got to touch it.  Showers went much better.  We turned the water off when we were soaping up and we did not run out of warm water this time.  Whew!

The kids went to bed rather easily.  They seemed better adjusted to the sounds of the night and Scott and I were too.  We headed upstairs to go to sleep.  However, I really only made it for about 1/2 of the night.  I woke up to the sound of some wild animal trying to escape its death.  It sounded like it was on the path right outside our Tree House.  In my imagination, it had to have been two creatures at least 30 or 40 pounds making all that noise.  In reality, there was a dead mouse on the path not too far from where we were...  I'm not saying that it wasn't 30 or 40 pounds, just that the sound didn't seem to make much of an impression on anybody else.  

After being awoken by that, the frogs and other night song animals seemed to get really excited too.  Then, I heard something that sounded like thunder.  I felt scared and I was convinced that it was a tiger.  I have read Wikipedia now that I have returned to Singapore and apparently there have been no tigers seen in Bali since the 1940's.  I didn't know that at the time and I'm quite sure you couldn't have convinced me.  I woke up Scott and told him that I thought there was a tiger.  He didn't think there was one.  I was scared for the children, so I really needed to go downstairs and sleep close to them.  He was quite comfortable where he was, so he didn't join me.  I climbed in bed between Madeline and Wyatt and I felt much better knowing that a tiger wasn't going to get my kids without me fighting it first.

(I'm tired now and heading to bed, I will post about the rest of our adventure in Bali - part 3 tomorrow).