Bali, Indonesia

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Bali. It is definitely a trip that all of us took something away from and will remember.....for some of us, like Halie who is too young to remember, the only thing she took away was a bad case of "Bali Belly". Which is the Eastern Hemisphere's version of Montezuma's Revenge.
In all seriousness though, we all had a really nice time.

View from our pool out to the ocean

Bali is a beautiful island and we really liked the Indonesian people that we interacted with. After a brief 2.5 hour flight from Singapore and a 10 minute cab ride we were at our hotel, The  Discovery Kartika Plaza, a large resort on South Kuta Beach. Kuta is the main beach community of Bali due to its large amount of hotels and wide span of beaches. It is also the main area for restaurants and shopping. As it was high season the area was extremely crowded and we all could have done with a bit fewer people but none the less it was enjoyable.
Bali is very similar to any small Mexican resort town with islanders at every step looking to sell you souvenirs, jewelry or other useless tourist items.

View from breakfast during our bike trek through Ubud villages

My favorite day by far was our second full day on the island when we took a 24km (15 mile) bike tour through the inner villages and rice fields of Bali in an area called Ubud. I had researched this company as it is owned by a local man. His company comes and collects you from your hotel first thing in the morning and drives you about 90 minutes inland to a beautiful restaurant set on a hillside where you can get breathtaking views of the terraced farming and mountains in the distance.

Terraced Farming of Rice fields

Halie's Initial reaction to the bike helmet

We ate a quick local breakfast of plantain pancakes and freshly squeezed juice before being driven another 15 minutes to start the bike tour. The benefit to this company is they have bikes with baby seats and small infant helmets

Halie cheered up for a few seconds with the helmet but shortly after this we gave up and let her ride without it.

as well as air conditioned vans that follow discreetly behind in the event that you need to take a break or can no longer ride.  This came in quite handy with Halie who did not enjoy the wind in her hair as much as we thought she would. I was only able to complete the first 1/3 of the ride or so and spent the rest in the van with Halie but that was still a great way to see the villages. My favorite part was the initial portion of the ride where you get to visit a

Halie harvesting rice with the villagers

family compound. A family compound is where all family members return for holidays and important family moments.  Many of the family live there year round and are called "active members". These individuals are responsible for everything in the compound from farming, religious ceremonies, caring for the animals, housekeeping, cooking, cleaning and minding the children.  The "inactive members" are allowed to live away from the compound to earn money which is shared by all members of the compound but must still return for all holidays and important family times. Compounds house large numbers of people, some as high as 30! Everything is quite primitive but I admire their resourcefulness and complete reliance on themselves. They make only what they need and eat only what they can grow.  The family compounds are passed down from generation to generation and can never be sold.

Touring a family compound

The goats were for meat, not milk.

This compound also has chocolate and nutmeg!

We also got to go into an actual rice field and see how they harvest rice. In addition to observing them harvest rice, we all got to try it ourselves.  Dannette got an extra bonus as an elderly woman asked Dannette if she would be interested in meeting her grandson who would be needing a wife soon! We all got quite a chuckle out of that.

A village temple

Enjoying our Balinese lunch after the long ride

The ride continues through numerous villages where the children come running out to greet you and wave from the roadside.  This is something I will always remember as they were so genuinely excited to see us it felt like being in a parade.  The ride ends at the owners plantation home where his wife and several other members of the compound prepared a traditional Balinese feast for us to enjoy for lunch. The food was delicious.  We all really enjoyed this one spicy noodle dish that they made and I fell in love with these toasted soya beans covered in a thick peanuty soy sauce. Yum!

Dannette enjoying her boogie board

The rest of the trip was very low key with lots of swimming and relaxing.  Halie proves to be much like Dannette and enjoys the water.  She especially enjoyed her time in the ocean when the waves would come and crash up against her.  She didn't even seem to mind the saltwater in her face.  Dannette received a boogie board for Xmas and tried that out as well.
All in all, a very nice vacation that we all will remember.

The beach at sunset on our last night

Dinner along the water at our hotel

Dannette lounging by the pool

Proving once again that Halie makes friends wherever we go! She befriended this Cambodian family from Darwin. Turns out the father lived in the States for a few years! Luckily, unlike them we were not stuck in the airport for 5 hours!!