I cannot believe how many experiences we have fit into our time abroad so far. Somehow we went from traveling once a year on our own without the kids to getting a stamp in our passport every other month. I actually caught myself in June bemoaning that I hadn't left Australia since April. We looked at our budget and vacation time and decided we could do two more short trips before we head home in the end of August.
We decided one of these trips should be somewhere in Asia. We sought advice from well traveled friends. Thailand, Vietnam and Bali all came out high on the recommendation list. The exchange rate makes these destinations affordable once you get there. The people in each location enjoy children and seem to welcome families in hotels, restaurants and all over. Of these Bali is both the closest - only a seven hour flight! - and the easiest. Australians go to Bali all the time. For years it has been the most popular international destination for Australians with many of them saying it is cheaper to go to Bali than to go on a beach vacation elsewhere in Australia. People here view Bali a little the way Americans view Mexico.
We liked the idea that Bali would give us a mix of experiences. We could enjoy a family friendly tropical island get away and yet also get a dose of culture and the experience of being in a relatively accessible Asian country. We have loved Australia and New Zealand but we also want our children to go somewhere really different and see people of other backgrounds, races, and religions.
Each day we started our day at our hotel with its kids pool and continental breakfast buffet, and self service juices. And then we headed out into the chaos of trying to get anywhere by road.
The girls were prepared for buying sarongs and enjoying the warm weather in Bali. They were thrilled to see it look like this.
And then overwhelmed to see it look like this.
We casually looked out the window and played games of see who can find the most people on one motorbike. Emily and Tess tied at four. While we brought our booster seats with us and insisted they sit in the rows with shoulder seat belts they marveled at the families they saw out the window. "I think a kid is driving that one!"
They definitely snuggled closer on the first drives. Tess told me she thought she felt homesick and Emily kept saying that this wasn't what she expected. Brian and I had our own moments of uncertainty. Would the driver that his Indonesian distributor recommended actually show up even though he hadn't returned our texts? How much were we supposed to pay him? Did we pick the right hotel? Where are we? Is it okay to eat that? This level of uncertainty was stimulating at times and exhausting at others. We expected to do a lot of our planning online while we were there only to find our hotel Internet intermittent at best. Sometimes we felt really on top of things. Other times we felt totally clueless.
I suspect if you go to Bali a lot (and people do) you could get very good at knowing where to go, what to eat, how to make your vacation just what you wanted. We did a whirlwind of five days and I'm thrilled with how we ended up but we only scratched the surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment