Sentul Hike

I've been wanting to get the family out for a hike in Sentul for years and it took another family to finally make it happen.  Big thanks to the McCulloughs for being the driving force behind the event and getting us out of bed at 6am on a Saturday for a little adventure.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

The Sentul hiking business had absolutely exploded in the year plus since I'd last been out that way.  We used a different company but still hiked around familiar rice paddies and hills.

All smiles at the beginning, but Alex ran out of steam about halfway through.  Between a stomach bug and the new braces, he hadn't eaten much all week and the calorie deficit definitely put the hurt on his energy.

Alex was helping keep the geopark area intact!

Matt found the biggest millipede we had ever seen.

There were new overlooks and rest stops throughout the entire hike.  We still decided that 4 people max on the overlook was a safe idea.

For the first time ever, I was able to look over the hill and see Jakarta in the distance.  Amazing how close the Sentul hills are to the city and how infrequently they can be seen.

 We finished up with a picnic at the car and then decided to meet at the American club later for some real food and our favorite buffalo chicken wings.  It was a really enjoyable 4.5 miles and a fun morning out of the city.

New Year, New Smiles

The kids were still on break until January 12th, so we made good use of the time at home.  Most importantly - braces! We spent a few hours at DW8 orthodontics to get these smiles and overbites corrected.

Alex got to go first and was a little shocked by the new feeling in his mouth.  Ben had round 1 in 5th grade so he was an old pro. He was just excited that he no longer needs to remember his retainer.

The new smiles at home afterward! Although the next few days were more sad because of sore mouths but they found things to eat while they adjusted and made the best of pudding and ice cream.

 During the week, we also did some fun things - like buying another parakeet to make it an even number.  That makes 4 lovebirds, 2 cockatiels, and 4 parakeets in our flock for anyone keeping count.

Ben wanted to take the new guy out for a little while before he went in the big cage and wisely chose the bathroom, but he realized too late that the toilet was open in the back and new guy found a perfect place to hide for the morning.  Took a few hours, but we coaxed him out and introduced him to his new home.

For their last meal pre-braces, the boys chose the new Taco Bell - the first in Indonesia.

It is two stories and really nice, especially for a Taco Bell! The outdoor takeaway line is convenient, even when it's crowded.  

Bali New Years

It was hard to say goodbye to Raja Ampat, but we were traveling to Bali instead of Jakarta, so we were all excited despite the long day of travel.  The 2-hour boat ride kicked things off at 7:30am.

We missed all the beautiful blue skies but the islands of Raja Ampat were still lovely on the way out.  We saw just a few dolphins, not the hundreds like we saw on our first trip.

Loved the decorations at the Sorong airport!

We decided to wait in the lounge to stay away from as many people as possible...thankfully we didn't need to use the smooking room.

We had to make one stop and then had a long wait in Makassar.  Thankfully it's a pretty nice airport with decent food and chargers.

It was 11pm by the time we made it to villa Oomski in Canggu and we crashed from the long day.  The next morning we checked out our new digs and the kids took advantage of some time to build their Christmas legos.

It was a very cool villa but I wasn't a huge fan of a bathroom and shower completely open to the bedroom.

One of the best features - a surfboard rack!  We've been lucky to find a great driver who will store some of the surfboards for Matt in between trips to Bali.

The next most important stop - Mexican food!  Don Juan's was too far away in Kuta (and traffic was much worse over the holidays) so we went to their other restaurant, Johnny Taco's.  Delicious!!

The most exciting difference for this trip was that our friends the McCulloughs had rented a villa on the same street!  The kids couldn't wait for them to arrive so we could play at the beach together.

Probably my favorite tropical Christmas tree!

The best part of our villa was the big open kitchen and living area.  It was so easy to have people join us for dinner.  The McCulloughs joined us most nights and the Richardson family, who were staying a bit farther away, came a few times as well.  We all celebrated Georgia's 12th birthday together.

It was a really nice bunch of kids that didn't know each other well but all had a great time together.

We did a (mostly) fun 4-wheeling trip north of Canggu.

Riding along the beach was a ton of fun! We got a little rain but not enough to spoil anything.

Afterward, we made a quick stop at Tanah Lot to enjoy the lovely temple on the water.

Back on our street, we got some friendly cows visiting for the day...

...and one pretty incredible sunset that we enjoyed from the McCullough's rooftop bar. We had the entertaining space and they had the view.  It was a perfect pair of villas!

After a morning of surfing, we had a delicious lunch with a view at La Brisa.

Most of us enjoyed the very cool Alcatraz escape room (poor Matt had some calls) and we made it out with 30 of the original 120 minutes to spare.

One last sunset for 2020 and we couldn't have picked a better place to enjoy it.  I had to laugh at all the dads looking at their pictures on their screens instead of looking at the sunset!

We had another big dinner at our place for New Years Eve with more food delivered and a really fun game that is a tradition for Alice's family.  Each plate had 5 gummy bears hidden in whipped cream and the kids had to race to find them all without using their hands.

So much tasty fun!!

We had a pretty competitive game of Pictionary afterward.  The girls had a big lead early...

...but the guys came back for the win.  Alice and her family left early because there was a curfew in place and they wanted to be home in plenty of time.

We played a few more games and then went back to the McCullough's rooftop to watch the fireworks and ring in the new year.  It was almost as fun watching the construction workers across the street celebrating their own little party!  Cheers to 2021!!

The nice thing about having been to Bali so many times now is that we have lots of people we can call for different things.  Pak Wayan, our awesome driver there, helped us get back in touch with the chef Ketut we used in October.  He did a nice dinner with freshly caught fish one night and was able to do a babi guling dinner for us as well.  Turns out it was his first time to serve guests the traditional roasted suckling pig and he was pretty proud of it.  

Because he had to serve dinner at his regular villa first, he didn't arrive until almost 9:30pm, but it was worth the wait!  While he carved the pig, his partner was making warm lava cakes to bake for dessert.  

The McCulloughs loved their first babi guling dinner and we were all so happy that we could enjoy such delicious food in the comfort of our own kitchen.

We had a lovely and lazy New Year's day, and then one last day at the beach before our 9pm flight.

Once again, having neighbors on the street was helpful because we moved our bags to their place and then showered up before our last dinner.  The Fat Mermaid was just a few doors down and a great place to eat any meal.  Love that places like this are open air so we barely set foot indoors in the two weeks we were traveling.

We arrived back into Jakarta late on Saturday night, tired and still a little sandy, and happy to be home.  It was a wonderful holiday trip and a great way to spend our break if we couldn't make the trip to Houston.  Even better, we found another family that enjoys the same kind of things as us when we travel, which doubles the fun!

Even the Garuda planes wear masks now!