Bali Trip

Scott and the Girls in the Lobby of the Padma Resort

This year, we decided to take a week long vacation to Bali, Indonesia, leaving Dec 17th, returning the night of the 23rd. What we didn't realize was that it is the official "rainy" season in Bali...which doesn't necessarily mean it will rain. Last year, it was a "draught" year, and the weather was hot and beautiful the whole time...this year however, we went during the torrential downpour part of the season! Out of the 5 full days we were there, it rained non-stop for about 2 full days, and intermittently during part of the other. Scott and I both say we have NEVER seen rain like we did there- crazy, up to your calf water(of course, Bali has next to no infrastructure, so there is no where for the water to go!). The night we arrived, it was raining when we landed. Thanks to our friends Joell and Chris and their friends Greg and Atin (who have a home in Bali), we had a fella meet us, and get us through customs with zero wait (actually we went through the "Crew" exit!). By the time we got our luggage and walked outside it was a complete downpour, with HUGE thunder and lightening...crazy. We were booked to stay at the Padma Resort Bali and Legian (after much research on Trip Advisor), and were THRILLED with our resort- everything from the location of it, to the beautifully kept grounds, to the pools, to the staff and rooms- we couldn't have picked a better place to stay.


Christmas Tree at Padma

Day 1
The first full day, we woke up to a beautiful day- partly sunny and nice and warm. We headed to the pool, where we spent the entire day swimming, laying in the sun, playing with the girls, eating by the pool...what a magnificent day it was. Our friends, Greg and Atin, arranged for Atin's sister, Nurul, and their driver, Achok, to drive us around and help us with the kids for the next few days of our trip- it was fantastic to have help, and to have someone who knew the area and places to go. Nurul was really good with the girls (they both took to her and liked spending time with her!), and Achok was a great driver- it is nuts driving in Bali- reminded me of driving in Beijing, with less traffic lights and more motorcycles and scooters!



Day 2
The second day, we choose to go to Waterbom, a water park in Bali that we were told was a "BLAST". Well....for a family with a little more adventurous and actually probably a little bit older kids, I think it would definitely have been. We have two that are intimidated a bit by water, and mostly nervous about "new" things. I had taken both girls to the Kalahari water parks last summer, and they had a complete ball, so I thought they would feel the same thing at this one. A few things went wrong with this theory:
1. Though it was "warm" outside, when it rains, it gets chilly- especially if you are in a swimsuit. It drizzled, then rained, the down poured, etc., the entire time we were there, so we were all freezing (my girls said my they have never seen my lips so purple!)!

2. The slides/rides were either for quite little kids, or pretty adventurous kids- not a lot in between to let my girls get comfortable.

The pools there were a little too deep to swim in (Maya couldn't touch at all, which makes doing flips, etc. pretty tough). So, there was some crying and complaining, which was completely frustrating to Scott and I, as we figured (incorrectly, obviously), that this choice of ours was a complete "slam dunk"! Turns out it didn't matter, as by about noon, the rain and wind became so terrible and intense, that they shut the water park down and we were forced to leave anyway. We did get to play one fun game of water balloon toss with a bucket launcher, and I will tell you this- you ask Hanna what her best time in Bali was, and she will say going to the Water park!! Our kids are going to be the death of us! :)

We ended up going back to the hotel, where the girls went to the kids club, and of course, the rain cleared up and Scott and I spent the afternoon having some drinks by the pool and recovering from our unsuccessful attempt at family fun!

Day 3
We went to Ubud, to go to the Monkey Forest, to the markets, and for lunch. This day was overcast, which was perfect, as it was a day we were wandering and not wanting to swim. The Monkey forest literally has hundreds of free roaming monkeys, and we had heard some creepy things about them and how aggressive they are. We walk in, and the first monkey in the darn place comes right for us, walks behinds us and grabs onto Hanna's pants and would not let go. Thank god Hanna seemed to think this was funny! It eventually let go when it realized she didn't have any bananas....the girls loved the Monkey park, so at least this choice of ours turned out to be a good one! From there we headed to lunch at Bebek Bengil, dirty duck diner, which was right on a rice field. The lunch was very tasty (though if you ask Hanna, she would say NO food there was tasty unless she could eat a hotdog...ugh). From there we went to the Ubud Markets and shopped around a bit. Ubud is known as the "artsy" area of Bali, and there are a lot of stores and shoppes that sell crafty things. After that, we headed home to swim and play at the resort!


Nurul, Girls and I with a few baby monkeys


At the Monkey Forest


Day 4
DOWNPOUR. Torrential DOWNPOUR. It was crazy how much, how fast and how long it rained on this particular day. Lucky for us, Nurul and Achok knew of a place where there was Barong and Kris Dancing under cover, so that was the first thing we did. The Barong Play represents an eternal fight between good and evil. Barong (mythological animal) represent a good spirit, and Rangda (mythological Monster) represents and evil spirit. It was interesting, and though the girls had zero idea what was going on, it kept them entertained the entire time.


With a Barong Dancer

After that, we headed to Jenggala, which was a Pottery shop selling gorgeous pottery. It also had a place where the kids could paint pottery- which is why we went. The girls each picked out a piece of pre-made pottery and had a blast painting it. From there, we headed to Jimbaran beach for a fresh seafood lunch. Unfortunately, it was not how we hoped to have our seafood lunch- inside the restaurant, watching it POUR outside, but non the less, the food was delicious and it was a definite feast! This was the only day in Bali that it rained the entire day- start to finish, and was a bit of a downer.


Jenggala- Pottery Painting

Day 5
The girls favorite part of our vacation!




The girls headed to the Kids' club for a few hours in the morning, and Scott and I headed out to Legian to do some "bargain" market shopping. We ended up spending more than we had planned, but found a lot of deals on fake goods! The rest of the day, we were fortunate enough to be able to spend at the Resort Pools. The one thing both of our girls LOVE to do is swim- we could be anywhere as far as they are concerned, as long as there is a fun pool for them to play in. They had made friends with two sisters that were the same age as they were during the morning fish feeding (our resort was FULL of Koi ponds), and time spent at that Kids' club. We ended up next to them all day at the pool, and the girls swam for 6 hours straight. It was a great way to end our vacation!


Feeding the Fish

We are so glad we went to Bali- the weather wasn't fantastic, but we made the most of it, and had a great time together as a family! The experiences and things we are getting to see and do while living over here in Tokyo are phenomenal- we are so lucky to have these opportunities, and will definitely miss them when we move back to "real" life in 2012!

Field trips, Winterfest and a Night out!

The past few weeks have been completely jam packed with fun things to do! Both girls had field trips within a week of each other, both of which I volunteered to chaperon. Maya's 2nd grade class went to Inokashira Park, a great park with a small animal area, temple, etc. This was a morning field trip, but once you put travel in, becomes an all day field trip! The fall colors were all around us, and we had the chance to spend all morning out in the nice sunshine!


Maya and Classmate Lauren at Inokashira Park

Hanna's 4 year old preschool class went on an all day field trip to the Children's Castle. I was assigned 4 very good little four year olds, so the day was quite enjoyable. The kiddos got to go to a Samba presentation, where they got to listen/dance to a Samba "band", then play and try out all the instruments, then make their own "shakers". The kids all had a really good time. The afternoon consisted of free play in the Children's castle, which completely wore Hanna down- she was near meltdown on our way home!


Hanna and her friend Tessa

ASIJ's Winterfest was this past weekend, December 4th. I had signed up for the Kimono booth, not really knowing exactly what that entailed, just knowing we would be paying to get a family photo taken in Kimono's. We arrived 45 minutes early to find a Tokyo Japanese Beauty school ready and waiting to do our hair and makeup (well, the girls and I...Scott didn't get his done!). To the girls, it was like playing professional dress up- they loved it! From the hair and makeup area, we were taken to a "dressing" area, where they got the girls and I in our Kimono's (let me tell you, this is a PROCESS!! Kimono's have to be put on a certain way, in a certain direction, and pulled SUPER tight- it took quite a long time!). Scott had to put on a Samurai outfit on, and because he is so big, they had to improvise to make his fit his tall body (not many if any Japanese are as big as Scott is, which I am sure doesn't come as any big surprise!). We had a really nice family picture taken, and are excited to get it from the photographer! Maya also had to sell Sugar Cookies for a Girl Scout fundraiser. On Thursday, the 2nd, I volunteered to go help the Girl Scouts (all troups, K-5) decorate and frost 2000 sugar cookies. I will tell you, it was the most organized Chaos I have ever seen- those troup leaders and mom's who have done it in the past had their game on- so well organized and thought out. We completely frosted (which included making the frosting, putting it in bowls, actually frosting and sprinkling), dried, packaged and bagged 2000 cookies between 3 and 5pm- it was simply amazing and more fun that I thought it was going to be. After the selling, the kids played on the playground, ate at the international food booths, played in the games and bouncy houses and had a great time seeing all their friends from school.




Last night, Sunday, the 5th, Scott and I went to a music concert at the Tokyo Main Dining Hall in Shibuya with Dan and Yumiko. Scott works with Tony, one of the guys in the band, and he invited us to come see him play. We didn't exactly know what we signed up for- Tony (who is Japanese) said it was a dinner performance, and that there would be three stages with three different types of music. We thought it would be fairly informal, and we could listen to some music and sneak out whenever we felt like it. It turned out to be "snacks" not dinner, so we didn't end up eating until close to 10pm...not good after a few Japanese beers! It also turned out that there was only ONE stage, and each band played a 50 minute set....we immediately started planning how we were going to escape- we don't usually go out and about until 10pm on a Sunday night! We both had quite low expectations for the evening, but it turned out to be a really fun night, with interesting entertainment, a funny older Japanese man busting a move for part of the concert, another Japanese man in the band singing in English (or I thought that was what it was...it seems like a mix of English and Japanese! I'm feering so Ronery, I could die! It is very difficult for Japanese to say their L's, so they come out as r's), and just an overall funny night. I am not sure when I have laughed that hard since we moved here, so it was very nice...the night started out with a Flamenco band (and dancers..at this point, Scott, Dan, Yumiko and I were all trying to plan our escape!), moved on to a Japanese "Dixieland" band...not sure how much of a want for Dixie music there is in Japan, but they band was pretty damn good..minus the singing part- that was just funny- but hey- I can't speak a lick of Japanese, so I give credit to any Japanese who speaks any type of English!), and ended with Christmas songs...which were equally as entertaining, as some were in Japanese, some were in English and some were in both! The entire place (minus Scott, Yumiko, Dan and I) was up dancing and doing a Christmas "Conga" line through the entire facility! During the entire last 1/2 of the show, there was an older Japanese man up dancing in the back- I am talking suit coat flying, hip thrusting dancing...to DIXIE music. Completely Funny..I feel sometimes that we live in Bizzaro world...but, how many of our friends will ever be able to say they saw Dixie music, Flamenco music and dancers, and Japanese/English Christmas carols in Tokyo?? I am betting not too many!! Fun was had by all!

Oh yeah...and Scott and I - the ONLY non-Japanese people in the place!