Bali : Family Sweet Escape

Ep.31

“A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.” - Author Unknown

DPS – Bali, Indonesia.

 4^th-6^th June 2010.

Mi Familia

It’s family vacation time! It was actually rather long ago. Back in 2010, an impulse decision of my Dad, made me awestricken by the fact that he want to go on a family vacation (something that I wouldn’t be expected from him at all). He called and asked whether if I am available or not (even if I didn’t, I’d make it available. It was such a rare opportunity). Last time we did a family vacation to Bali was like on 2004?? Can’t even remember.

Ready to go.

Tickets booked. My family of five plus my grandma were ready to go on a vacation. In fact, I skipped classes and part time job. Anyway, I would do anything for a vacation. Ah! destination is Bali, the island of Gods. The most popular island of Indonesia. Living culture of Hindu, and heaven of Sun, Sand, Sea, Shore for Shella! The flight was early morning that we reserved a cab to take us to the airport. Terminal 3, we boarded the airplane and 1 hour 40 minutes later, we landed in Bali already.

who's the most narcissist?

When we arrived, a chauffeur from the hotel we booked has been waited for us in the arrival hall. He guided us to our dedicated car and kept talking to my Dad. Our hotel is located at Tanjung Benoa, Nusa Dua, a little bit far away from the airport, so he brought us to a restaurant in the middle of the way, quite decent in taste, but rather expensive one.  Tanjung Benoa is really popular for its water sport attractions and it is a really peaceful place. Not as crowded as Kuta or Seminyak area. I gave my dad a rental car phone number (recommended by my EF manager), and we rent a family car for 4 days (IDR 175.000 per day excluding fuel). Yeay!

boys bored of TV drama!

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was noon time already. The hotel was above my expectation. It was a four star hotel divided into two main area separated by a road. One of them was have the access to the beach, while the other, where I stayed, has the access to the swimming pool. Just by passing the swimming pool while we heading to our room, I knew what I should do in the next 30 minutes: Jump into the pool! My family and I offloaded our bags, and I directly changed into my swimsuit. I asked my brother to came along and finally my big brother joined me. We swam swam swam like a fish for about 1 hour, well I was the one who swam, he was just laying under the sunshine, tanning (he was black already! What’s the point?). Dad and Kevin joined us and suggest us to move to the beach. We crossed the road and there were actually another pool in the other side as well, with basketball ring at the end of the pool. Now the role is different, dad was tanning, whether three of us monopolize the basketball area. We moved ourselves to the beach and found an empty volleyball court. So we teamed up and played. After an hour or so, Dad called us and asked us to prepare for ourselves for the trip of the day. So off we go!

he was black and he was tanning!

Andrew is quite familiar with Bali, that he became a sudden tour guide. He said that he knew a restaurant with the best pork satay in Bali. He drove us to Denpasar, the city center of Bali (it was like 1 hour driving or so). And it was true! The pork satay was ultra delicious and cheap (even though I cant remember how cheap). We continue our day to the Sunset Road, where all the souvenir shops and tour groups came. Then, all the ladies (including me) went crazy digging up the pile of items. By the time we finished our little war with shopping we headed back to the hotel. But, we stopped in the middle of the way, having dinner at one of the hawker shops by the street (I only got myself a dessert) and finally back in the hotel. Dad having conversation with Andrew in the balcony, Kevin (my little brother) was fighting over the TV with grandma, who definitely would do anything for her TV drama series. Has the first day over? Not yet! Andrew asked me whether I would like to strolled the street or not, I agreed (or I will be bored to death in the room), as the night was still young. We strolled the area nearby the hotel. I spotted some massage centers and mini markets. We stopped from one mini market to another, then finally we bought ourselves beers. We had the beers in the gazebo by the pool. Talking about nonsense and every things (that was what I would do with Andrew anytime we got time, it used to be our pre-sleeping bed time stories). As we finished our beers, we came back to our room to find that everybody has slept already (of course, it was midnight already!). And we went to bed as well.

Good morning from Bali!

me and my ginger tea.

Second day, we got up early. I went with Andrew to the beach and have a quite nice morning tanning by the beach. Parents were about to have a presentation held by the hotel and we had our own free time. Andrew chose to sleep again (he was someone that is fully awake at night time and sleepy head in daytime). Grandma enjoyed her TV shows, Kevin went with parents, and me? I treat myself a massage. I went to the massage booth near the hotel. I chose traditional yoghurt massage package that cost me around IDR 280.000 for 2 hours treatment. The lady gave me a glass of ginger tea and we start the treatment. It was a tranquil place, a very relaxing one. The therapist was very professional that she sent me to sleep few minutes after she started. I was awake when I found something cold touched my skin. It was the yoghurt. The massage session has been finished, now she applied the yoghurt and let my skin absorb it for 10 minutes. Afterwards, she left me and let me to take a bath. Finished with all the treatment, I paid the bill and she served me another glass of ginger tea! (it became my favorite type of tea already!). I headed back to the hotel and found out that everyone was ready for the trip of the day. So I changed into our family uniform (we bought the barong t-shirt last night and we intend to wear it at the same time today.

we finally know where do we got our talent from?

We haven’t come to Bali yet if we haven’t made a stop at Sukowati Market, the most famous market among the tourist, where you can bargain many many things. You name it, they probably have it. We bought some items here and due to the boys (never shopping with the presence of male), we have to make our visit at the market as quick as possible. Next, Andrew drove us the famous pork ribs restaurant in Ubud area. It was quite far and up the hill, about 1.5-2 hour driving from our hotel. The restaurant was called Nacho Mama. It was actually a Mexican restaurant with a little Balinese twist. We ordered 4 racks of pork ribs for the family and I ordered myself a Quesadilla Nachos as a side dish. We took some funny pictures and jammed the food in front of us. The price there was quite reasonable as far as I remember (sorry, I never remember the price if that wasn’t me to pay). Our next destination was Legian. The most crowded place in Bali. We parked our rented car at one side of the street and walked along the street. The monument of Bali bomb incident, Hardrock Café Bali, and so on and so on. When it was late already, parents suggest to go back to the hotel. So we traveled back to the hotel.

Monument of Bali bomb 2001

The fun was just to begin. I got a conspiracy signal from Andrew and I agreed. We drove back to our hotel, when parents and grandma were all got off the car already, we closed the door and bid them a loud “bye bye”. Yes! We kidnapped our little brother, Kevin. Tonight, he will taste a little adventure with lovely big brother and sister. He didn’t asked anything (Kevin is a soooooo quiet, introvert type of boy...like me?). He has 12 years difference in age from Andrew and almost 10 years apart from me. So by that time, he was only 11 years old. We drove back to Legian and Kuta area. Along the way, we had a little brother sister to little brother doctrine infused session, explaining this and that (e.g. wise words and philosophies, do you believe it?).  Andrew and I were quite confused where to stop. Kevin was still obviously under age, he was not tall enough to distract the club guard, if we want to bring him into the club. So, we finally made a stop in one of the live music pub by the road. We sat on a table for three and explained what people’s doing to Kevin. He was, I would say, absorbing all the new scenery around him. We ordered 3 cocktails for the night: Illusion, Tequilla Sunrise, and Brown Cow. As the drinks came, we said to Kevin, “Try them all and drink the one that you like most.”

what a drink!

We were a very nice older brother and sister, right? We gave our permission to our little brother to taste his first alcoholic drink, not one, but three glasses if he wanted to. Kevin tried 3 of them, a quick gulp of each and said that he liked the Brown Cow (I guess hw thought it was iced cappuccino), so that was his glass. I didn’t even asked if he had any idea if there is alcoholic content of the drink, as he drained the glass quite fast. His face turned red but he was still under control (clap clap!). Andrew offered the next session of drink; beers. The local brand beer of Bali is Bali Hai, and that was what we offered to Kevin. He was obviously aware that beer has alcoholic content within, so that he refused to drink. Ha-ha! Good boy! We finished our drink, I passed my left over tequila sunrise to Kevin (I guess he thought it was orange juice), while I was having my Bali Hai. We finished our glasses and bottles and head back to our car. Kevin is better than I expected, 1.5 glasses of cocktail still have no effect on him. He still walked straight and under control, with his reddish face. He fell directly to sleep when he touched the car cushion as we drove back to hotel.

kidnapper and kidnapee

The next morning, Kevin was interrogated. Ha-ha! but it was okay. He was still sober, right? We just had some fun. Parents just laugh and let it be as it was on a vacation and he drank under guidance (could I say that?). The third day was the day for another adventure with Dad. Daddy wanted to do a little fishing trip (one of his hobbies) and Andrew suggested a place, which is 4 hours driving from our hotel, Amed village as our destination. Amed  was a very secluded part of Bali, not many tourists know this place yet. And the tranquilness of the place would sway you away as you relaxed by the beach. Dad rent a small boat and asked whomever want to join, he was going to fish and we would do some snorkeling at the other side of the reef. Kevin and Mom chose to just snorkel by the beach, it was true, you can just walk 5 meters from the shore and plunged your face under water and those colorful corals would amazed you in thousand ways. I was amazed already by the shore underwater view, but I craved for more. So I joined Dad and Andrew to do the adventure.

Hard Rock Bali

Amed Beach (that's the boat i hit my head to)

A small boat catered the fisherman, Andrew, Dad and myself to pass on 3 coasts. Daddy didn’t catch any fish by the time. The technique of fishing, he told us, was called trotting, which made him to hold on the bait while we were sailing, hoping that the fish would catch it. By the time we arrived in the middle of nowhere, I could already see that corals invited me to jump into the sea. The water was crystal clear and the colorful corals were just too intriguing to be ignored. I put on my snorkeling equipment, goggles and fin, and jumped right away. As soon as the underwater view greeted me, I felt like I was in another world already. I just keep looking at them and let them bring me to wherever they lead me. It was sooooooo damn beautiful down there and I wish to be a mermaid at the moment. Andrew poked me to remind me that I have swum too far and the see would be too deep. So he grabbed my hand and led me to the safe depth area. We snorkel and I was like a dead fish floated in the sea, afraid that my little movement would distract those living creature under the sea. I saw a sunken shipwreck and point at it (that was our way of communicating in the water, poking, thudding, pointing). Dad was nowhere in our vicinity but we continue our little adventure under the sea. I was grateful enough to be able to see magical under the sea vie like this, colorful corals, little fish and many others. Andrew and I reached the shore with black corals instead of sandy beach, walking on the corals without our fin was just like having a foot massage. We swam back and we let the view brought us to wonderland once again. Having lost of tracking the time, we finally saw Dad. He was also snorkeling, but he kept his distance safe from the boat. He was also pointing and poking when he saw something interesting. We all knew that Dad’s knowledge of saltwater fish is dependable. He likes fish so much. I let the view swayed me to far that I didn’t pay attention to where should I stop. I hit my head to the body of the boat. I could still remember that both of my Dad and brother laugh at me clumsiness and bullied me all the way back to the shore where the other waited us.

It seemed that we lost the track of time to far. We let ourselves snorkeled for more than 3 hours and those waited for us already gave us long faces. We cleaned ourselves as fast as possible and head back to the city. We finally had our dinner at Jimbaran. Having ourselves with seafood dishes, where the waiter mixed up when we asked for the bill and the beers. Haha! We head back to the hotel and we rest. Water sports will always drain your energy as twice.

Breakfieee

The fourth day, when we had to fly back to Jakarta and continue our routines, was started by a breakfast at the hotel.  We fueled up ourselves and ready to go to the airport. We made a stop at the Titiles, the most famous floss and sausages store from Bali. Titiles store in Denpasar, the main building where everything produced, also have its own uniqueness. The owner of Titiles had breed a tiger matched with lion, which made the animal have the body of lion, but it sounded strange. There were also some snakes, and other wild animals kept in his ownership and displayed at the store. We bought some floss and sausages as a gift to people back home and we went directly to the airport. We handed back the car key to the man from the rental and we checked in. the flight was delayed for 1.5 hours, but we finally arrived at Jakarta safe and sound.

The Pack

It was a sudden impulsive trip from my father and it was still the best ever we had done in such a long time. A little adventure could be done anywhere and anytime in our life as long as we were eager enough to do so. Just don’t let your mind set killed your adventurous instinct. I wish my Dad would have that kind of impulsive idea of family vacation again (which is not occurred yet until today). Haha! I love my family no matter how strange and troublesome it is.

“ Family to support you in times of need, to challenge you to grow, to celebrate with you in times of victory. "– Me.