Let's go!

We're flying to Bali! Then Surabaya.

The mission of this trip is:

• See how well Kai survives a flight
• See how well we survive Kai surviving a flight
• Oh and meet some relatives.

Kai's great grandma turns 99 this year! We'll be seeing her in Surabaya.

Flight #1: Perth -> Bali

Aaand we're off! Its been awhile since we travelled. Maybe 2 years?

He would NOT let us put the blindfold/headphone baby thing on him.

Flights to Bali are quick and easy. Well except for this one. Apparently there was a stuck plane on the runway (that forgot to drop its landing gear!), so we ended up circling the airport for about 30 minutes!

Not only that, the plane was stuck was so long we were running out of fuel so we had to divert to Surabaya before returning.

Yes you heard right. The original plan was to take a "break" in Bali before we had to fly to Surabaya, but now we're going Bali -> Surabaya -> Bali. The wait was tortuous. I think the trip ended up taking 5-6 hours.

That said, Kai actually was a good sport for most of the flight. He kinda sat there and minded his own business, even during the stupid delays. I even caught myself (erroneously) thinking, "man, Kai is great on flights. We can probably take the long haul to Tokyot next time!".

I was wrong. The next flights, you see...

Food!

First stop, as usual (we do this everytime), was at IBC (Ikan Bakar Cianjur). Its a restaurant chain owned by Steph's aunty.

Its a real fish focused restaurant so we got a bunch of fish dishes. Those of you who know me knows that I'm not really a "bony fish" kinda eater. But I still appreciated the quality of it.

The iced drinks were solid 10/10 though. Es Cianjur (left) and Es Tempo Doeloe (right). These iced drinks are filled with lots of fermented cassava. No idea what its called in Indonesian, but the point is you'll never get that specific flavour in iced drinks in Perth. And we totally should!

Got cool koi ponds too.

Hotel!

We stayed at the Westin in Nusa Dua. Its your "standard" tropical Balinese resort.

Super kid friendly bath. The bathroom floors definitely weren't kid friendly though. More than once Kai would walk in there and slip and bonk his head on the tiled floor.

Beds were super comfy. Pretty sure its bigger than a king bed too. The whole family managed to fit on there! Though Kai is pretty small...

The balcony was kind meh I guess. There was constant construction going on outside so it wasn't as relaxing as the pictures would make it seem...

Also there was constant construction going on in the hallway as well! Heavy renovations, but it also meant our room was fresh and newly renovated.

Kai was mesmerised by this.

Kai got to live a pretty good life here. Watching cartoons, eating snacks. I hope he'll reintegrate well back into the school of hard knocks (living in Perth) once we get back.

The beds are pretty comfy too!

There's a huge... forest... thing... outside our room. The funny thing these plants are all "exotics" that you'd see in the houseplant nerd community in Perth. People get all excited seeing this or that plant and appreciate their loveliness (or whatever, idk).

But here? Those same plants are basically growing like weeds! Its the power of humidity!

In the evenings the lights all turn on and it looks really nice.

The balcony was mostly used as a safe zone for messy eaters, hah!

Hotel Swimming!

The pools here were pretty great.

There were artifical caves, and a bunch of different pools to play with.

Steph endeavoured to swim everyday with Kai. Didn't reach the goal but got pretty close!

Yes, even I was in the water at some points. Amazed I'm still alive.

The boi gets real tired after swimming, dawww.

Hotel Food!

So much food! The buffet was so good. It was the best buffet of any hotel so far I reckon.

Smoothie bowls were really good too.

Unlimited fresh juice! They're really into having tumeric in their juices... Not sure how I feel about that.

Some Indonesian style breakfasts.

A simple nasi goreng but with all the various sambal you can try.

Desserts. Kinda meh some of them. But the kelopon (green round thing) was great, unfortunately they ran out of it! Then never made it again for the next four days we were there. Like what the heo man.

Breakfast foods at the Westin. Solid 8/10. Which is REALLY good if you compare to other hotel foods. But that's a pretty low bar, kinda unfair I think.

The breakfast food at the hotel was really nice too.

The in-room dining was sorta meh. But we gave it a shot. Insanely expensive though.

So I had an obsession with sambal when I was there. I wanted to try them all! So I did. My bum did not appreciate it.

Near the end of our stay we splurged on Ikan, restaurant at the hotel for some high quality Indonesian food. The verdict? Not that much than the cheapo street stuff haha.

Delivered Food!

Why spend 15 bucks on in-room dining soup when you can spend 7 bucks on a solid babi guling meal!?

More Go food! We lived off a lot of Go food. Its like Uber Eats but (literally) about 10x cheaper. I actually always tip the drivers cause I feel so bad for them.

Bubur (rice porridge).

Going out to eat food!

We ate at Menega cafe (20 minute drive). Its a really touristic spot, on the beach. Its PACKED with people and is honestly kind of a gross area. Food is good tho.

And you can get grilled corn from some dude pushing around a bbq trolley.

Around the Hotel

The lobby has some fancy fountain that Kai loved looking at.

The hotel lobby itself was basically a playground for Kai.

There was also a dedicated kids area. We didn't even discover the ACTUAL kids building until right at the end of our trip!

Kai likes drawing these days.

As typical in Bali, there is a fancy holistic... "sound bathing"... room? I guess Yoga with lots of tibetan bells ringing in the background maybe.

AFter awhile we discovered the beach area. Kai wasn't that keen (he normally loves the beach!). I think Bali beaches are less nice to stand on, they're usually covered with rocks and stuff. Makes me really appreciate Perth beaches now.

The hotels are connected by the beach. So walking along the beach you'll slowly just go past other resorts along the way. The one next to us was a lot fancier.

Places for fancy weddings too.

Our area was not so fancy :(

There are hipster gyms. They're actually normal weights but just covered in wood somehow.

We discovered the toddler zone right at the end of our stay! Kai loved it but man it was humid in there.

The kid zone was a much cooler area. There was a huge room with 2 staff who watched the kids, and there was a hut for the kids to explore and stuff.

Leaving

After 4 days (I think?), we prepare our next flight, to Surabaya.

We had a relaxing time, and didn't get up to too many shenanigans. It was mostly just being bored (which is ok) and eating explode-y flavoured food.

Bali was nice, but man that weather is stifling and oppressive. I would struggle to live there.