Bali Weekend

Bali is the closest getaway for us so we head there pretty much every chance we get.  This time, Matt had Friday off work and the kids had Monday off school, so we left late on Thursday and actually had complaints from the middle schoolers that they were missing school on Friday.  Once we arrived, everyone was happy and all complaints were forgotten.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Resort on Kuta and were pleasantly surprised at the food and facilities.  The two must haves at breakfast - pork bacon for Ben and pancakes/waffles/pastries for Alex - were spotted first thing so we were set up for a good weekend!

First thing, we headed up to Kuta for some surfing and the kids both caught great waves.

Lunch at the Boardwalk is always a winner.

Back at our resort, it was almost eerily quiet.  The coronavirus meant all trips from China were cancelled and it was low season for visitors from Australia, so we had most of the place to ourselves.

This is how we travel...you somehow make the adapter fit and improvise a device to keep it in the plug.  It's always an adventure.

Baby gecko out by the pool!

The kids learned how to make kites the local way.  No tape or glue, just incense sticks to melt the plastic together...ingenious!

We hit up the Waterbom water park and had a lot of fun, again with very little crowd and almost no lines.  We left for lunch and found the best place in Kuta - Don Juan's Mexican food!

We were some happy people with our nachos, tacos, and salsa.

That evening, the kids tested out their kites and had a great time with them.  Sadly, we realized they wouldn't fit on the airplane so we had to leave them there.

Nothing like a Balinese sunset to make my heart happy.  It was the middle of rainy season but we were really lucky that it just rained overnight a few times and we had gorgeous skies.  I was anticipating some rainy afternoons.

Envy restaurant was delicious and we ate their every night because it was so convenient.

Sunday morning we woke up to the clearest skies I'd ever seen in Bali!  We could see all the volcanoes.

Matt did a little more surfing while the kids enjoyed the beach and I enjoyed a radler.

One more time back to Don Juan's because there is no telling when we'll get food like this again!

perfection.

Matt had to leave on Sunday afternoon to get back to work but the kids and I got to stay one more night and we soaked up as much pool time as possible.

We spent our last morning in the pool until the exact minute we had to leave.  It was only 10 minutes to the airport so I didn't even have to shower until 2 hours before our flight...Bali is the best!

Ben kicked one of Alex's baby teeth out in the pool - that was a new way to lose a tooth!

And back in Jakarta, where they don't do plastic straws but you can get as many plastic cups for ketchup as you want!

BWA Charity Ball

Matt and I enjoyed our third annual BWA ball at the Shangri La.  A quick picture from our room before we met up with our friends.

The theme this year was Arabian Nights, so lots of lamps and camels everywhere!

Ed, Jo, Jenny, Erik, Pam and Brice

We had quite the international table this year! America, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, and Zimbabwe were all represented.

The tough ladies at table 8! Leigh, Jenny, Benedicte, me, and Jo

Met up at the bar with the two martini lovers, although this year's cocktail was not great.

Before they photoshopped in the flying carpet!

The entertainment this year was great.  My personal favorite was the Jakarta belly dancing school!

We had to check out the crowd downstairs at BATS as well, and enjoyed the latin band.  Matt and I were both diagnosed with a parasite earlier in the day, following a pretty miserable week, so we were troopers to make it till 1am.

Sunday morning, we slept in, started taking antibiotics, and then enjoyed a lazy morning by the pool with the kids. Thank goodness for medicine to get us well again!

Farewell, Andrea

Expat friends are the best.  They become family because most of us have no relatives within 10,000 miles and we rely on one another to get through this crazy life.  Which makes it a million times harder to say goodbye when one of them has to move on.

Andrea was the second person I met in Jakarta and I started going to her boot camp my first full week here.  I have seen her probably every single week since then and our schedules slowly lined up so much that we were eventually meeting every day for a workout, golf, tennis, or lunch.  So when we found out she was moving sooner than expected, the news hit really hard.  We were happy to get 10 more days with her while she was in town packing up her house and closing up her life here in Jakarta.

Pam and I planned a dinner at her favorite restaurant, Komunal 88.  The owner knew her family and left the sweetest note on the table.

They did a really lovely job of setting up everything for the ladies.

We had a wonderful evening talking and laughing and celebrating our friendships.

Cheers to Andrea!

  

We also managed to squeeze in some spa time, several dinners, and one last plate of chicken wings from the American club.

Pokeeno nights are going to be particularly quiet with Andrea's laugh and energy.  We had one final evening together to enjoy before she becomes one more Pokeeno legend who has moved on.

As much as I'm going to miss her, I wish her family all the best in their new home!  There will be no replacing her as my every day friend, but I'm grateful for all these other sweet women here and their friendships as well.

Roemah Djawa

Our friends Pam and Brice hosted a dinner for 20 at a local home that is better than any museum in Jakarta.  We were so excited for a tour and dinner together!  The owners have been traveling around Indonesia and Asia for the past 45 years and have amassed an incredible collection in their home.  They spent the first 90 minutes walking us through the incredible home (which is actually 5 traditional houses joined together) so we could soak in the sights.  Some rooms had specific themes (like this Chinese guest bedroom) and some were from specific islands of Indonesia. 

Tiny shoes from Chinese women with bound feet

Masks from all over the Indonesian archipelago

A complete gamelan orchestra and wayang puppets

A lot of these relics are rare and unique.  It made me nervous that many of the rooms were in a basement, because Jakarta floods often!

An incredible array of puppets

Dinner was in the most incredible room, filled with masks and carvings from tribes deep within Papua.

The number of authentic shields and statues was staggering! And thank goodness the tallest ones were secured to the ceiling - one of the servers at dinner bumped into the statues and caused a chain reaction that knocked over several!

Ceremonial masks

We were served a traditional Javanese dinner, starting with nasi kuning, yellow rice with coconut milk.

The food was really delicious, but I didn't enjoy much because, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was coming down with a parasitic infection and I felt pretty poorly.

The entire group for the evening.  It was a really fantastic dinner and experience!