Working in Bali

Covid cases started rising in Jakarta and the city went back on a serious lockdown.  With no possibility of the kids going to school and Matt still working 100% from home, we decided everything could be done just as easily from Bali.  We left a week earlier than planned for fall break to get some fresh air and enjoy the beach after school.  Jakarta was rainy and messy when we flew out, further reinforcing our decision!

Indonesia closed its border to international tourists months ago, which really put a dent in Bali's tourism economy.  It's very sad to see how it affects people's jobs and incomes, but certainly makes for a dream come true for those of us in the country who are still able to travel domestically.  I found an incredible deal on a beachfront villa north of Canggu and was so excited to check it out.

The outside was pretty and unassuming, but we could already hear the waves so we were getting excited.

The entry was charming, full of fountains, flowers, and fish ponds.

Once we reached the open air living room, we knew we'd made a great decision for the week. There was nothing between us and the beach except our own infinity pool!

The master bedroom upstairs had gorgeous beach views.

Not only did we have a pool, we also had a real hot tub - the first we've seen in Indonesia!  (And in true Indonesian style, it took four days of investigating why it wouldn't heat up to discover that the gas tank to the water heater was empty)

It was truly a little private resort with a sundeck, poolside table, and grassy yard.

Our first afternoon was spent enjoying the sunshine and all the gorgeous space of the villa we'd call home for a week!

It was several separate buildings.  We used the one on the right, with a master bedroom upstairs and two bedrooms down.  The living room and kitchen were behind the pool, and Matt used an extra bedroom as his office.

The first sunset was a beautiful one!

It was a lot of fun watching groups of people come out to assemble and fly their massive kites.  Most days, there were several in the air at any given time and the teamwork required to launch them was impressive.

This was our first time having a chef.  We would look through the menu, select the dishes we wanted, and he would buy the groceries and cook everything.  It was delicious and such a treat to sit down to a fantastic dinner each night without ever leaving the house!

Even the desserts were amazing - personal pavlovas with fresh fruit the first night.

We had a big rain our second morning but once the sun came out it was a beautiful day.

The guys showed us our dinner (local lobsters) before they went into the pot!

We wandered down to Canggu beach and admired our favorite elephant/fish statue.

There is an interesting surf break at Echo beach and about 10 seconds after Ben asked "would Kelly Slater ever surf that?", we happened to run into none other than Kelly Slater, probably the best surfer in the world. Matt was thrilled to talk to him for a few minutes.

Also saw some cows on the beach, because why not?

Those lobsters looked much better cooked up and ready to eat! And the best part of our private dinners - we no longer felt the need to change out of our swimsuits.  

Even at night, the view was beautiful.

I enjoyed morning walks on the beach, sometimes with friends who were staying about 10 minutes away.

Cannot complain about this view with my coffee!

On school days, the kids loved being able to run out to the beach during breaks or lunch.  They especially loved the rivers that would change constantly with the tides or the rain.

Lots of fun after school! They boys did say it was hard to concentrate on classes with all this right outside their room, but each of them had two days off for teacher conferences so they got to spend plenty of time outdoors.

While we waited for the hot tub mystery to be solved, we used the outdoor tub on the porch overlooking the beach and the sunset.

We also got to watch some sort of girls-in-bikinis-on-horses photoshoot.  Interesting.

Gotta love the resident wildlife.  I have an uneasy agreement with geckos but the extra large ones really creep me out.  This guy was probably 10" long and lived in our roof.

Finally, we got the hot tub working and got to enjoy our beach front view!

Great views of Mt. Agung on a clear morning.

I spent a lot of my week by the pool or right here on the couch devouring books.

After school several days, we walked down to Old Man's so the kids could go surfing with other JIS kids.  And guess who we saw again? Kelly Slater, hanging out with his friends.  

On this particular day, Ben finished class later and ended up staying to watch Kelly surf so only Alex went out.

Just Kell...again....a video of this was on his Instagram a few days later and we were there!

We had some more incredible sunsets during the week.

I had Alex log into at least one conference with a view! But the waves and the wind were too loud and we had to move to the living room.  It was stormy in Jakarta that day so each of his teachers quickly figured out we weren't calling in from our house.

On our last night, we asked for babi guling, the Balinese specialty of suckling pig.  I'm not sure how they roasted it but the skin was crispy and the meat was tender. It absolutely melted in our mouths.

They brought the meat to the table and we feasted! Didn't even eat half of the (small) pig so we made sure the staff feasted that night as well.

We woke up to a big storm on our last morning.  At first it seemed disappointing that our last morning would be a rainout, then I remembered that we had a hot tub.

We took our coffee and tea to the hot tub and enjoyed the rain!

With some clever positioning of the umbrellas, we had the perfect place to enjoy the morning.

Naturally, everyone still wanted to go out and explore the beach.

The rivers were huge! We actually couldn't have gone far in either direction with the water flowing so fast.

Things were still beautiful!

Our driver from our second villa came to pick us up in his "minibus", which we expected to be slightly larger.  Somehow, we managed to fit our suitcases, surfboards, golf bag, groceries, wet clothes, and 4 people into it to move to our next villa for another week.  And our driver Wayan was terrific...he was wonderful to have all week.

Bali is such a gorgeous place! Even the bad weather can look good.

After a full week with the beach in view almost 24 hours a day, it was hard to leave.  It did make it easier knowing we weren't leaving Bali altogether, but we were so grateful for a week to be spoiled in a place we'd never afford under regular circumstances!