Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Our second visit to Kuta in Bali was just as great as the first! Before heading over there, we at breakfast at the same Irish restaurant we ate at the previous day and then took a 30 minute taxi ride from Sanur to the same hotel we stayed at in Kuta two weeks ago. We enjoyed it so much the first time that we had to go back and stay there again. What’s awesome about this hotel is that it’s a 4 star resort that is walking distance to tons of shops and is right next to the beach and is only $40 a night, including free breakfast. Such great bang for your buck! On the drive over we passed a McDonald’s and for some crazy reason it actually sounded really good to me. We haven’t had much fast food this entire trip except in airports where it is sometimes the only option. A chicken sandwich and (more importantly) a chocolate dipped ice cream cone sounded amazing (remember I always think about my desert before my meal so I can plan accordingly). It ended up being like a mile walk in the blazing sun, but was well worth it.

That afternoon we explored the town a bit and eventually made our way to Hard Rock Café by dinner time. It’s always comforting to go to a restaurant serving good ol’ fashioned American food. Marshall enjoyed a burger while I chowed down on some chicken strips. Tyson ate a little of his pasta and broccoli, but was more excited about the doggie balloon that one of the servers blew up for him. Well, that is until he unraveled it and it became an airless long skinny piece of plastic. At that point it was time to shovel a little more food in his mouth before we skiddadled.

After dinner we walked across the street to the beach to watch the sunset. The tide goes way out in the evening and Tyson loves to run around in the wet sand and get as dirty as possible. We still think it’s so funny how many people take pictures of Tyson when we’re at the beach. Last time we were in Kuta an Asian family not only wanted to take a picture with Tyson, they wanted to take a group picture with their family and ours. Not quite sure what the deal is. We’ve heard that some cultures think that blonde babies are good luck and we’ve actually seen people point at Tyson and say “good luck baby”. We generally just smile and nod back.

The next morning we headed straight to the beach after breakfast. Tyson absolutely loves playing in the sand and spotting all the dogs running around at the beach. He also likes to run down the beach and see how far he can get before we chase after him. Hint: Not that far. He thinks he’s so funny when he runs away from Mama and Dada and we start coming after him. His run is the cutest thing in the world. He’s got this twinkle tow version of a run when he basically runs with his arms locked straight out to the side and runs on his tippy toes as fast as he can. That’s one thing we’d love to catch on video if we ever get a chance! After an hour or so of building sand castles and having fun at the beach we walked across the street to a little mall called the Beachwalk.

We were on the hunt for new socks for Tyson since the last time we picked up our laundry it came back sans two pair of his socks. Oh well, we’ve had pretty good luck with our laundry so can't complain about the sock monster getting hungry just this once. There aren’t really self-service laundromats in SE Asia where you go wash and dry your own clothes. Instead you look for signs outside shops and I’m talking like a souvenir shops that says laundry or maybe just the person inside see’s you walking by with a bag and says ‘laundry here please’. Some places you can negotiate the price, others are somewhat firm, but we always do it by weight as it gets crazy expensive to do it by item. For example, the first time we did laundry in Bali we took it to a random tailor store and asked him how much for wash/dry, he picked up our bag and just guesstimated the weight right there and said 200,000 (Indonesian Rupiah), which is about $14 USD. Typically you can get them down a lot if you work through the process of the back and forth, but in this case we just asked for 150,000 and he took it right away. Not a bad price to pay each week for not having to do wash, dry, and fold any clothes for 6 months! The craziest thing is there is no washer/dryer anywhere nearby any of these shops from what we can see. So we’re thinking that the store owners take the laundry home then wash everything (by hand most likely). It’s kind of a mystery. Also, when you drop off your clothes you don’t get any kind of receipt so you just hope that your clothes will be there the next day when you come pick them up. Luckily we haven’t had any issues with getting our clothes back (other that the two socks).

While at the mall we were able to find two new pairs of socks for Tyson so we’re back in business. Unfortunately, shortly after that Marshall’s flip flop broke so we were now on the lookout for a new pair. We had no luck finding his size at the mall since he has ginormous feet (size 13) which is nearly impossible to find in an Asian country. We went to about 10 stores and eventually decided to give up on the search and head to Johnny Rocket’s for lunch. Once again another American restaurant that made us feel at home with deliciously fattening comfort food. After our burgers, chicken fingers, and onion rings we all went back to the hotel and had a nice long nap.

Later that afternoon we headed back to the mall to let Tyson play in their jungle gym area. We had been there several times and never noticed the drop in daycare next door. We went in to check it out and you can either bring your kid in for two or four hours and they will take them to the jungle gym play area next door and also order food from a nearby restaurant to feed your child. Score! Why did we not see this before?? Of course, Marshall and I jumped all over this opportunity and immediately planned a date night for that night after we watched him play for a while and were confident he’d be ok with them. We came back and dropped Tyson off around 3pm for a four hour session then walked out the door, looked at each other and didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We decided to walk down a street near our hotel that we had never been down before to search for flip flops for Marshall. We walked into several more stores with no luck in finding his size. Marshall was ready to give up again but then I said we should try one more store. Low and behold he finally found a pair in his size!

We walked back over the Beachwalk mall and went to the top floor restaurant that has a great view of the water and sunset that we had went to last time we were in Kuta. This time there was a wedding that took over a big section of the restaurant. It was a couple from France and all of their bridesmaids and groomsmen were dressed in traditional Balinese outfits. Even the guys had full on makeup. They did the whole ceremony (about 10 minutes) at the restaurant and we were sitting at the table about 5 feet from the wedding party so it felt like we were at the wedding. It was a little bizarre but hey, there was an awesome sunset in the background to enjoy and live music thanks to the wedding party! After dinner and the beautiful sunset it was time to pick up Tyson. The daycare was on the same floor of the mall as the restaurant so we just had to walk a few doors over to pick him up. As soon as he saw us walk in the door he was so excited and was running full speed toward us saying “Mama, Dada!” with a huge smile on his face. It was one of those moments as a parent when your eyes instantly well up with tears of pure happiness. We all had lots of hugs and kisses, said goodbye to the staff, then headed back to the hotel to wind down for bed time.

The next day we headed straight to the beach again after breakfast. This time we saw a man playing with his pet monkey on a leash in the water. The monkey would dive under the waves and swim around in the water. Such a crazy sight to see. Tyson kept running over toward the monkey but we made sure he just waved at the monkey from a nice distance. Once we parked ourselves on the beach we made lots of sandcastles with Tyson, which he likes to destroy immediately after building. After he got his fill of beach time in for the day we hit up Starbucks on our way back to the hotel. We decided to spend the afternoon playing by the pool and doing some ‘lessons’ with Tyson. We’re teaching him random things as we travel, like body parts, animals/sounds, etc. It’s crazy we’re actually running out of body parts to teach him. He knows everything we call out and is able to point right at it. We’re excited to get him back in a structured learning environment when we get back to the states, but for now we’re confident he’s learning plenty in our travels.

That afternoon I went to a salon inside the mall to finally get my hair done after four months of being on the road. It was in desperate need of a trim and some highlights. I ended up having an Indonesian man do my hair. I was very nervous that my hair would get butchered, but after 3 hours of watching in silence (he barely spoke English) I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.

On our last day in Kuta we ate breakfast at the hotel and walked over to the beach again to play in the sand. It’s been part of our daily routine in Kuta to play on the beach first thing in the morning since it’s the coolest time of the day and the least crowded. On the way back from the beach we stopped at a shop to drop off our laundry (again). It should be ready in the morning shortly before we check out and head to our next stop. Well, let’s hope.

That afternoon Marshall and I decided we’d like to take advantage of the mall’s daycare and have another date night. Hey, we gotta take it when we can get it on the road. We dropped Tyson off and walked down to the beach. We found a couple of beach chairs to sit on while we had a nice chat about plans for once we get back home. It’s always fun to talk about the future and right now our options are wide open. We’ll see how it all shakes out in two months. Once our stomachs started growling we headed back to the restaurant we ate at on our late date night. The sunsets are just amazing there. When it was time to pick up Tyson we walked over to the daycare and this time took a video of him running toward us all excited to see Mama and Dada. So cute!

Tomorrow we are headed an hour south to our last and final town in Bali.

Next stop: Uluwatu, Bali