Bali: Day One

I'm feeling a bit lonely today.  Perhaps it's because my hubby is traveling, or because the kids are back in school.  Or maybe it's because every time I go to contact a friend in the USA, it's the middle of the night there?  Whatever the reason, I'm thinking blogging about our awesome week in Bali will snap me out of it!  :)

It's hard to believe that flying to Bali, Indonesia from Perth took less time than a flight to Sydney, Australia.  In the blink of an eye, we were in an entirely new world!

A world where the motorbikes outnumbered the cars...

And entire families fit on one motorbike. 

We saw Grandmas, mothers feeding babies, men carrying building supplies... all on motorbikes.




There are 4 million people in Bali, and I'm pretty sure they were all on the road to our hotel at the same time we were!  Or maybe I was just really ready for our first all inclusive cocktail!  :)

I was exhausted by the time we finally reached our resort in Nusa Dua.  It was only 13 Km from the airport, but with all the traffic, it took us about an hour.  Maybe skipping that enormous Starbucks, (yes, Starbucks) at the airport when we got in wasn't such a great idea.  (We don't even have a Starbucks in Perth!)

The kids were running around the resort lobby like three lunatics.  I was concerned we looked like obnoxious Americans, but if anyone asked, I would just claim to be from Australia! ;)  The boys busted straight through the beautiful Balinese dancers welcoming us in the lobby, and headed straight for the waterfall with koi fish.  I couldn't seem to corral them, so it was necessary to get our room key ASAP!

I did manage to talk McKinley into posing with the dancers.

We qualified for the special "check in lounge" where we sipped on young coconut and ginger drinks and washed up with a cool towel.  Hagen was hopping all over the place and doing gymnastics on the sofas, so I was really ready to get to our room.

Once escorted to our Deluxe Ocean View King Suite, we hit the mini-bar straight away and enjoyed our first Bali Hai beer before heading to dinner.  Ahh!

Our first dinner was a blur, but I knew by the end of the week, we would get this exorbitant buffet thing down pat.  The kids enjoyed ordering foo-foo fruity drinks, and Mark and I had mojitos.  After dinner we checked out the game room and played some air hockey before calling it a night.

We knew it was going to be a fun filled week!  More to come...