We arrived at our next villa in Seminyak and found it on a quiet residential street off a tiny walkway.
Welcome to Villa Phinisi! We didn't get the greatest first impression because it was closed up from the huge rain in the morning and the pool was all out of whack for several days. The fish pond clearly overflowed into the pool because we found a few guppies floating. But it was a beautiful and unique villa and a great location for week 2.
It was just a few minutes' walk to Seminyak beach and we were happy to spend our afternoon enjoying the new scenery. It does amaze me that just a few miles away the thick black sand is gone and it's soft and yellow again.
The kids found a new river to enjoy and worked on making steps for the walkers to use to get across.
We walked down the street to enjoy the restaurant at the Legian hotel again and share the gorgeous view with the kids. We happened to run into some of our neighbors from Jakarta by the pool...it really is a small world here!
Ben was pretty happy with his choice of steak with a fancy side of french fries.
It may not have been oceanfront, but the view from this villa was still beautiful! The morning sunlight was the best in the tropical garden.
I did get a surprise visitor in the living room one morning. Not sure how he got in but I was extremely thankful it wasn't a spider!
I enjoyed a walk along the beach down through Legian and into Kuta. Things were SO quiet. These beaches would normally be packed every day.
We booked a Sunday brunch at Kayuputi at the St. Regis and it was one of the best ever! Oceanside with full table service, so we never even had to get up...we just ordered all the small dishes we wanted from the menu as many times as we wanted. I was proud of the kids for trying lots of new foods and combinations of fancy dishes they'd normally never even consider.
Alex was channeling his instagram face with his fancy fruit cocktail.
We made several trips to Kuta during the week to enjoy the surf in a place the kids could go out as well.
Alex's friend Landon was in Canggu with his family and they had Alex over for a sleepover one night. We met up at the Hard Rock Hotel pool to swap kids back and enjoy the afternoon with the incredible pool all to ourselves. It has a sandy island in the middle, water basketball court, playground, and even underwater speakers. I wish I'd gotten pictures of the kids but we rarely saw them since they were so busy playing for hours.
Ben's only request for the week was to find something that he could drive. I discovered an ATV company in Ubud and was really happy to make the drive away from the beach on an incredibly beautiful day.
They were so happy to have their own 4-wheelers. I had asked for the most exciting trail so I was happy knowing they each had a lot of experience driving.
We got to spend some time in a muddy pit getting each other muddy and learning how to drift. Ben was in heaven!
The cave was pretty cool!
It wouldn't be a good day unless at least one bike got stuck! The nice thing was that all they had to do was call a few friends over and they got the little bike out easily.
It was thrilling and muddy and so much fun. Thankfully, they had showers at the end!
We decided to visit Capella resort, recently voted Travel and Leisure's best resort in the world, to enjoy some lunch and see what made it so special. There was not a single guest in residence on the day we visited! The heated pool down in the valley was so peaceful.
Our lunch was incredible and it's possible I got overexcited and ordered too much food.
It was an interesting place with luxury tents and a whole jungle expedition feel. Even the toilet was quite fancy.
On our way out of Ubud, I wanted to stop at Nyoman Jendra's art gallery after reading about his traditional paintings and Matt and I both fell in love with this painting. It was 6 months of work for him and a beautiful depiction of the circle of life on Bali. Maybe it's a tiny bit big, but it's going in our living room!
I really enjoyed seeing the process of his work, from pencil drawings, to shading, to painting. So detailed and so extensive.
Back in Seminyak, we wanted to visit a few of my favorite stores but sadly found most of them closed.
We did open up the doors on the sunken living room to enjoy the pool and garden from inside.
The water features were so realistic! It was a very unique design.
Ben's sandcastle turned into a dog bed! Luckily, we'd seen these beach dogs all week and they were very sweet so he didn't mind so much.
This was our favorite dog, who we affectionately called Low Rider. It was like a lab with the shortest legs ever and a pug tail. Very unique.
Our dining table was very unique and my favorite feature was the gecko that would pop out of the holes during dinner.
Because our trip was two weeks, we needed to get new Covid rapid tests to stay within the 14-day travel window. Something I never thought I'd need to do on vacation.
The pool was such a peaceful and fun place to enjoy!
One more dinner at Ku De Ta, since it was right down the street and the view never disappoints!
The fun activity that Alex requested was an escape room, and as luck would have it, there was a terrific one right down the street that would open by appointment. We went three days in a row!
But, like all good things, our time in Bali finally came to an end. We were treated to one last perfect sunset on Seminyak beach.
Even though some things like school were more challenging and things like grocery shopping and laundry never do go away, our weeks in Bali were so good for our souls. A real change of scenery and a different pace, several meet ups with friends from Jakarta, nearly all of our time outdoors...just so many things we needed. We were so thankful for the time and the memories made and were able to look forward to going home and settling back into our regular stay-at-home life with a renewed energy.
