travel

A Bali Getaway

We’re in Bali for a holiday with the entire family and by entire, I mean the whole gang. The husband, the kids, my mom, my sister, my brother and sister-in-law. It’s rare that all our schedules coincided and my sister’s back from Melbourne so we decided that a family trip was in order. And seeing how it’s the first time we’re traveling with all 3 kids, it was important to maintain a 2:1 adult to kid ratio.

Can I just say that traveling with 3 kids is quite insane? To be fair, Truett and Kirsten are great travelers and they’re super quiet on plane rides but all that holiday dust gives them an adrenaline high and they’re like on speed the whole time. They seem to feed off each others’ excitement and with a baby thrown into the mix, it’s really quite a handful.

With our headcount, it made sense to rent a villa instead of regular hotel rooms. So for the first 2 nights, we settled on a 4-bedroom villa that comes with 2 private pools, a huge patio, private open-air bath areas, a maid, a cook, a driver and a security guard.

villa

The kids would be in the pool, come up for a drink, jump back into the pool, run around the villa compound, back in the pool, Kirsten would stop for a manicure, more pool time, and so on.

Quite the life.

enjoying villa life

I daresay I’m enjoying Balinese villa life with the huge space and lush greenery. In the daytime, it’s paradise.

But then nighttime comes and my inner sheltered city girl freaks the hell out. The first evening, we were chilling out at the patio playing Monopoly with the kids and I start to hear a cacophony of unknown animal sounds. I know some people find the sound of a rainforest gentle and soothing but I’m not some people. Weird animal sounds make me think that there are scary animals lying in wait to attack me. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a lizard. Which was making that annoying lizard call to its creepy lizard friends. Moments later, I spotted a second one. Then a third.

The whole time I was doling out fake Monopoly money, I kept a mental count of the number of lizards in my immediate vicinity and the available route of escape should they decide to advance.

For the record, I hate lizards, but you know what I hate more? That’s right, frogs.

The husband was getting a drink from the fridge and suddenly, he said, “babe, don’t panic but there’s a frog near the sink.” Basically, whenever the husband says “don’t panic”, whatever follows usually means that I should immediately panic. Sure enough, there was a frog. Crawling up the decorative glass backing behind the sink. I didn’t even know frogs could crawl on walls but there it was, defying gravity and looking all smug with its smug beady frog eyes.

And to all the people who claim that frogs are harmless and cute, I only have one thing to say. Pfffft. There’s a reason why God sent frogs as one of the 10 plagues to the Egyptians. I bet the Egyptians wouldn’t have minded if God sent them a bunch of furry little bunny rabbits but no, they got frogs, aight? Frogs are icky and slimy and ewww so gross.

So I hastily retired to our enclosed air-conditioned room, the one place I thought was safe. Except it wasn’t. I made the husband do a perimeter sweep of the room and sure enough, there was a baby lizard on the ceiling, which he valiantly caught.

Later today, we’ll be heading to another villa where we’ll spend the next two days. On the bright side, there’s an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. On the considerably dimmer side, I hear there are monkeys.

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14 Comments

  • Reply alexis February 18, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    i feel ya!!! i loathe lizards and frogs!!!
    it’s like i’ll make sure i look all around before i enter the toilet and the room.
    btw hope you’re having fun still (:

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:52 am

      Hahahah I have a spider sense to detect creepy crawlies in my immediate vicinity.. but other than that, it was a lot of fun!

  • Reply Daphne Maia February 18, 2013 at 1:59 pm

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! U are so cute. I’m not afraid of frogs and lizards but I am terrified of insects!
    Daphne Maia´s last post ..5 Quick Fixes for Jiggly Bits and Blood Glucose & Cholesterol Levels

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:54 am

      Oh man there are lots of insects in Bali! If you do go, must remember to bring those insect patches, I think they help a little. :)

  • Reply Momo February 18, 2013 at 4:38 pm

    Remember to share the names of the villas!

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:56 am

      This one’s called Pantai Indah Villa and the second one is Karma Kandara. Just go straight to Karma Kandara, your kids will go crazy.

  • Reply elaine February 18, 2013 at 5:27 pm

    That sounds super cool actually the villa. I hope I don’t freak you out but the thing stopping me from booking villas in South East Asia is snakes. Lizards and frogs I dislike but can deal with. Snakes will make me freeze
    elaine´s last post ..Singapore food scene getting more and more interesting

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:57 am

      Serious?!! Thankfully no snakes, I think I would scream the whole place down.

  • Reply Susan February 18, 2013 at 6:47 pm

    Don’t let the animals, insects or frogs bother your holiday. A holiday in Bali sounds divine already. So enjoy it while you can :)
    Susan´s last post ..What love means when you’re parents

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:58 am

      Yeah it was amazing! Good thing I have a personal exterminator to clear the room before I sleep. :)

  • Reply A piece of heaven February 20, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    […] forget everything I said about the first villa being paradise. We just spent the last 2 days in a villa called Karma Kandara and it is so […]

  • Reply Susanna February 20, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    Hi Daphne, can I find out what this villa is called?

    • Reply Daphne February 21, 2013 at 12:59 am

      Hey Susanna, it’s called Pantai Indah. :)

  • Reply Jayakarta Apartment November 15, 2014 at 2:47 am

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    Jayakarta Apartment´s last post ..Jayakarta Apartment

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