When I was pregnant with Scout, Micah and I had tickets to Bali. We ended up refunding them, because going outside of the country during my first pregnancy, where a lot of people get sick from the water, seemed sketchy. Fast forward 12 years, and when the tickets were on the hugest sale ever…I secretly bought them for Micah and I to revisit this place we have wanted to go for so long. Because of the amazing sale, the Brockbanks bought tickets too…and it just so happens, that they were on our exact outbound flight. BooYeah!!!
Bali was really fun.
Getting there was the never-ending adventure, with a stop in China in the middle. We found China…to be China. Very poor and dirty, with lots of people. The most disgusting open air market where all sorts of animals hung bleeding, turned even more disgusting when it started to rain and I was in flip flops. The highlight was finding an oyster that had over 30 pearls in it for Navy! And there was one booth that had a really yummy lemon treat in it. Trust me…it took 15 “that is delicious” comments from others before I tried it. But it really was good. We topped off our China stay with a big Chinese feast — that everyone indulged in, except me.
I stuck to my prepackaged stuff after the airplane food I saw on the Chinese airline! YUCK.
When we got to Bali, we stayed with the Brockbanks for a night in Kuta.
The next morning we all rented scooters, and checked out the city. One of the coolest things, was when we had to gas up, there would be old, recycled alcohol glass bottles filled with “petrol”. We would pay the money, and they would come fill us up!
I love scootering — but a few people had “incidences”. Trey gassed it on the twist throddle when he meant to be stopping, so he sketched out and became an all-time passenger. And Chloe had a crazy experience, where she tried to stop, but skidded out, and ended up riding down five stone stairs and taking out a booth of goods to sell. Needless to say, the scooter portion of the trip was over for the Brockbanks.
Micah and I went and did our own thing for a few days. We started in Nusa Dua, and stayed at the Grand Hyatt that was beautiful! We read by the beach, swam in their pool, had delicious food, and lived a few days of the pampered life. We loved it!
We then went to Ubud, where Micah took me to a five star restaurant that was so stinking good! It was a seven course meal, and everything was amazing! They brought out a tray filled with all things exotic and possibly unfamiliar to us, so we could see exactly what we were going to be eating. It was a total highlight of the trip!
We then rented scooters and saw the amazing rice fields and scenery of Bali. It is so green and lush, it is almost in technicolor.
We scootered to the Mason Elephant Lodge — a place where they have rescued dozens of Sumatra Elephants from being killed. They were treated very nicely, and it was a sanctuary for these elephants. They gave a few rides a day, but most of the day, they were on their own.
Micah booked us the raddest room, where we fed our favorite elephant “snaggletooth” (because of only one tusk) from our fruit basket. Snaggletooth would always thank us by lifting his trunk, and wiggling his ears.
I went to the spa for a massage, and check out my view! It was amazing — the whole place was AMAZING!
We got picked up for dinner right outside our front door — HOW COOL!
We got to go on a mini safari through the Taro Jungle. It was really short, but enjoyable since we FaceTimed the kids while we were on it.
Micah went swimming with an elephant!!! It was awesome.
We met this few week-old baby elephant. It was amazing. We even got to wash a pregnant elephant, and we could literally make out the elephant she was carrying. She was only two weeks away from delivering.
The Mason Elephant Lodge was a total highlight of the trip.
After the elephants, we headed back to Ubud and met up with the Brockbanks to go to the Monkey Forest.
Another highlight!!!
This might have been the best moment of the trip. This monkey stole our phone and was taking selfies!
The monkey forest was amazing. They would steal water bottles out of our hands. One almost attacked Cade. And they were everywhere! It was a bit creepy….but more funny than anything.
The boys became very good at finding “Gucci” goods to bargain down to nothing! It was more about the game for them, than the purchase. But the girls and I found great things while shopping! I got the best sun visor ever!
Micah and I crossed off another bucket list item in Ubud, when we got to eat Japanese food while sitting on the ground!
Micah and I took off to Seminyak to go meet our new best friend who knows how to make all things leather and snakeskin. Lucky me, that Micah found this rad hotel…where we stayed in a room that the pool went right up to. We read on our patio, and then we dipped into the pool a foot later!
Our leather guy — Idris agreed to take us into the city, where we could pick out our own leather and snakeskin. I got some shoes and a purse out of one of those beauties. Talk about a cultural experience. Maybe one of the best I have ever had! It is just too bad that Bali isn’t closer to us, so we could get there every time styles change!
While we were in Seminyak, Megan ended up close by, so we met them at the beach, and then went shopping and had pizza with them. Honestly, having Megan’s family there ended up being awesome! The beach was so pretty, and the vendors were hilarious.
The boys were all competitive bargainers, but Micah might have been the most shameless.
After pizza, it was the pool tables for the boys, and massage parlor for the girls!
When we left Bali, we decided it was an amazing place that is really hard to get to. Micah came home with three pairs of snakeskin shoes, and I had two pairs of shoes, and twelve new purses to pass out to my sisters!
Honestly, Micah and I have fun doing anything. But just the two of us in Bali — with an occasional meet up with the Brockbanks — was two thumbs up for us.
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