Monday, June 30, 2014

Mr Sweet Beach Baby

Oh my goodness! Yesterday was great.

Started the morning off with a little walk down to the beach (just me... not Joey, he was snoozing and it was 5:45am)
I have some pictures of the beach, but I have limited time right now and I don't know how to find the SD card on the computer. I'll post more later.
Also, I have to remember to take a picture of what it looks like here. If you've been to SE Asia, you probably have a good idea of what it's like... think HCMC mixed with Khaosan road in Bangkok and the partying of Phi Phi. If you haven't been to SE Asia then you need to see my pics that will come in forthcoming posts.

Getting back to the room, Joey was just waking up. He wakes up now by standing in his crib quietly. When I walked in I had just heard a little 'click' and it was him rustling with his pack 'n' play, ready for the day.
I fed him out on the balcony and let Stuart catch up on some sleep.  Then Joey and I came downstairs and I chatted with some new friends from Australia. A married couple, Annette and Kevin.  Lots of people from Australia come to Bali because the flight is little over two hours away and the weather is much nicer this time of year. In some parts of Australia it's freezing and snowing right now. Their summer is our winter and vice versa.

Had a great chat with them and found out their Christians.  They told me some awesome stories of their time as missionaries in Papua New Guinea and some inspiring moments they've experienced in their Christian walk.  Kevin even took Joey for a little walk and play while I ate some breakfast, which was an added bonus!

Stuart came down and ate breakfast after about an hour, which was fine by me because Joey and I were having such a nice morning!

Went back to the room and got organized for our morning beach outing. I think we're getting this routine down pat after 2 days.

The walk down to the beach was getting warm.  When we made our way down we bought our chairs/umbrellas for the next couple of hours (30,000 IDR. Equivalent to about 2.75 USD)  We could have sat in the sand, but the cushion chairs and the shade are great for Joey once he wakes up from his morning nap in the stroller.

I think we've been doing a pretty good job of keeping the sun away from Joey.  Whenever we take the stroller out, I cover it with a sarong so the sunlight doesn't get in, and we've been using SPF 60 for babies all over him before we leave the house.  He seems to be doing great so far. Also, we don't go out at all in the heat of the day.  How we avoid this (or at least, have so far): the outdoor pool at our hotel is totally shaded and Joey loves it!

Had a little relax at the beach while Joey napped.  He barely napped though in the morning, so Stuart and I played with him for a while after that and then took him home because we felt it was getting a little too warm.

Back at the hotel we were feeling a little sweaty, so we put Joey into his swim diaper and went for a long swim with him in the pool. It was so sweet and he was happy the whole time!

He had a nice long snooze after that and the minute he went down I went foraging for food and found an awesome warung (street stall) to buy some mie goreng (noodles/vegetables/chicken).  It was the cheapest I've seen it since we arrived, and for 45, 000 IDR (about 4 USD) I got two servings and lots of steamed vegetables and rice.  I watched the pregnant woman and her mom cooking and it was a nice picture to see.

Stuart and I ate and then I went for a long walk on the beach. (Something Stuart and I can't do with Joey because it's hard to push the stroller on the beach and we can't put him in the carrier on the beach because of lack of shade).
It was super nice until I got lost going back on the main road and was misinformed which way to go by a local.... I should've expected as much with the language barrier. But, eventually I found my way back to my two boys who were happily playing out on the second floor hotel deck.

We played in the room for a long time because it seemed Joey was getting a bit of a cold and I figured we should slow down a little and take it easy with some AC for longer.

A couple of hours later we ventured out to Seminyak. We're in Kuta and Seminyak is a few km away.  It's next to impossible to get Joey to be happy (and safe) in a taxi, as they don't have seat belts and he can't sit in a car seat.  So, we decided to walk.

It was a good thing we did, because Joey fell asleep on the way!

Stuart and I had an amazing time, just the two of us at a beachside restaurant sitting out on cloth bean bag chairs with a small wooden table and a candle in front of us, with strawberry smoothies in hand watching natures show.  On the screen tonight: the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen.  An Indonesian guy played guitar softly in the background and sang some popular 'western' songs.  It was a perfect evening.

Joey woke up just as we were leaving the second restaurant we went to (because it looked like they had dessert) and I carried him all the way home while he looked excitedly at all the lights and motorbikes and locals cooed over him, blowing kisses and giving high fives, yelling 'Hi, Baby!!!' as we walked by. Some stopped to hold him (a regular occurance!).  The locals absolutely LOVE Joey because he's the only white baby around here! A lot of them even know him by name and yell out 'Hi, Joey!' It's so fun. Everywhere we go, we get stopped every few steps by a curious local wanting to pinch his cheeks.

 When we got home we all showered (including Mr. Joey). I fed him, and he promptly fell asleep.
I quickly stepped out to get Stuart and I some Magnum Bars from the convenience store beside us (everyone does it!) and we watched (don't judge) Battlestar Galactica. That's right. Stuart finally convinced me. And even though I only lasted about 1/2 hour of the 1.5 hour episode before my eyes began to close, I really was enjoying it... but was so tired!

                                               A couple pictures of the locals loving Joey




The last picture is Joey crying after we took the toy from the 2nd picture away from him. The dude in the second picture told us that when we come back to that part of the beach (probably tonight) that he'll give Joey one of those toys, but a dye free one. I think they're little coconuts smoothed and pained on a string. Never before has Joey been so sad to have a toy taken away. What a tragedy!

Time in the pool:

BEACH BABY says Bye Bye for today!









Sunday, June 29, 2014

Drab to Fab!


There's no two ways about it - our first half day in Bali (yesterday) was a steep learning curve.

We arrived completely exhausted:
And were a little grumpy, because this had been our changing table for the last two days with no baby wipes:

And this had been our bed:


We weren't really able to do a whole heck of a lot that first half day except get take out food and eat it on the bed while Joey had a nap... then play around in the room (much needed playtime for Joe).

Dinner last night was a total bust. Even though the food was AMAZING - it was hard work with Joey. We didn't bring our high chair to dinner with us. Frankly, I was too tired to think of anything like that and Stu's never had to, so he didn't either. No high chair and no toys = cranky Joey.  He was impossible with glimmering moments of adorable as we scarfed down our food (me standing the entire time).
The chicken satay with peanut sauce, and super thin crust aussie pizza were good grab and go foods that we didn't have to worry about cutlery for.

Arriving back at the hotel after our meal and take out hazelnut/oreo gelato (which was hastily scarfed down while bouncing Joey) He promptly went to sleep... and so did I.
I honestly have no idea what happened or the events leading up to me passing out on the bed. All I remember is waking up at 4 am with a sore neck. It must have been from flopping on the bed face first.

New Beginnings:

This morning started for me at 4 am. I couldn't fall back asleep because of mega jet lag, so I spent about an hour in the lobby before deciding that I needed coffeeeee in a serious way.
All of the roads, including the main backpacker drag, were completely pitch black. NO light. And there were motorbike guys coming up to me every 2 minutes asking if I needed a ride somewhere. But that's normal. Everyone is a taxi driver. however, even though I knew I didn't really need to worry, I felt it would be safer to try to find something REALLY near to our hotel.
Nothing was open except this 24 hour outdoor bar, and I would've walked past it in a hurry if not for the sweet looking girl waitressing the empty bar. Since she was a girl and the place had no people in it but her, I felt like it was a good place to park it and read my book for a little while and enjoy a latte.

When the sun finally came up I went down to see the beach for the first time. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo magical. Like, the nicest beach with the craziest waves and blue and sand as far as the eye can see.  I did some writing there for a few minutes and came back to my two boys playing with the hotel safe, one on the verge of tears.  (I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Stuart).

We played in the lobby for part of the morning, went and had a SUCCESSFUL breakfast as a family with our portable high chair (an absolute life saver. We would die without it at meal times and it has been such an amazing thing to have.)

After that we headed to the beach and Joey fell asleep on the way, leaving us ample time to walk down the beach with him in the stroller, covered by a sarong, and even about 45 minutes of R and R time at the beach.

We came home after an awesome morning, showered, played, and went out for ANOTHER successful meal as a fam.  The waitresses were in love with Joey and distracted him with peak-a-boo while we ate. It was really nice for us and he was super happy and social.

We came back to the room and Joey snoozed while I went for a long walk to get us some more gelato.  It all pretty much melted by the time I got back to the hotel because of how far away it was, but Joey was up anyway at that point and ready to parrrrty.

Blah, I'm getting really tired, so I'll say the rest in point form:

-Down to the beach to watch sunset/beautiful
-HORRIFIC time at restaurant because Joey needed to fall asleep desperately and service was non existent
-finally home and really tired

It was all in all a GREAT day, though. If every day could be like today we'd be laughing! Here's to a great Bali adventure!




Saturday, June 28, 2014

2.5 Days of Travel

After traveling with Joey on several occasions, the only conclusion I can draw is this:
babies are completely unpredictable.

One day they could be a wonderful traveler, the next, an absolute... difficult sweetie.
Scratch that...
one MOMENT they could be a wonderful traveler, and the next, totally difficult.

Day 1, Vancouver to Narita, Japan:

Airport was a fun experience. All the people in our waiting area were crazy about Joey, so he hammed it up big time and had quite an audience taking pictures of him, watching him, holding him, and laughing with us.  He crawled all around and chased me and his plush ducky, occasionally stopping to make sure everyone was watching and clapping for them.

I thought, "wow! what an angel! we can so do this trip. It's gonna be way easier than I thought."

We had a big area at the front of the plane and a spot for a bassinet, so I thought we were coasting....
Joey was happy enough for about the first hour or so.  I fed him, we played on the ground, looked out the window, looked at the people behind us.

Then it was nap time...

Then it wasn't nap time...

10 month old's, and bassinets don't mix.

I won't go in too much detail about the rest of the journey to Narita, but I will say this: there was no nap in the 9 hour flight, nor was there sleep in the 3 hours that followed.  

Also, I forgot to bring wipes in the carry-on backpack, which meant we were wipeless for nearly three days... which meant wiping with toilet paper or wet paper towel. Yowza.  Not fun.

About flying Air Japan:
Super nice plane.
Good meals and good service.

Noteworthy experience at Narita Airport:

Getting our visa in the worlds most stale smelling smokey room I've ever been in.
Spotted a no smoking sign.

Hotel Experience, Narita Japan:

We found our shuttle right away that would take us to our Narita hotel.
Really nice inside (Express Hotel, Narita)
Room smelled of stale smoke, but was roomier than most of the other places I'd looked at and we didn't have to pay extra for the shuttle.  Nice enough. Good bed. Good pillows. Nice bath.

Dealing with Time Change, Day 1:Joey went down with a flood of tears from being so overtired while Stuart and I sat in the bathroom and waited for him to settle.  We both went to sleep around 7 o'clock local time and I'm glad we did because Joey was ready for the day at 3am.  I walked with him through the hotel lobby for an hour and then played with him on the ground for an hour.
Stuart was up after that and he went down to the lobby on the computer while I put Joey down and had a long bath and read. It was actually really relaxing.
Adjusting well.

What We Ate:Because Joey needed to go to sleep so desperately when we arrived at the hotel, we decided that one of us would venture out and come back with take out.  There were no restaurants around our hotel within walking distance, and our hotel restaurant was pricey, so I went across the street to a small market and got us some cupa soup and cheese buns which we ate in the cramped bathroom. It was actually really fun... maybe because we were so over tired.

Impressions of the short time we were in Narita:
SO green and lush.
SUCH crazy traffic and driving.

Day 2: Narita to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
Left for the airport bright and early because there was no real place for Joey to crawl around at the hotel and we decided it would be better at the airport for him. Also, breakfast at our hotel was 20 USD per person, so we thought finding a place at the airport would work better.

At the airport, Joey was a little angel. He had one minor meltdown at McDonald's while we ate our breakfast, but for the most part he was a happy guy.

The Flight;

I think Joey was way over tired and needed to catch up on sleep in a serious way, so he slept on me for about FIVE hours of our flight! It was amazing! He was heavenly! The only problem was that it was super uncomfortable for me and I couldn't move out of awkward sitting positions. But I'll take that over whining any day of the week.
When he woke up he was happy and easy for the rest of the flight. A totally different baby.

Notes about Flying Malaysia Air:

Amazing! Not as nice of a plane as Air Japan, but they had good food, good service, and free wine!

Our Hotel:
We got a voucher from Malaysia Air for a hotel because they changed our flight.  It was awesome. We got a free shuttle to our hotel (Empress Hotel).  The room was really nice and spacious. Joey could even fit in the bathroom to sleep!! (in his pack 'n' play) while we enjoyed our dinner!
It was a little crazy and loud, but great.

Dealing with Time Change, Day 3:
Joey fell asleep around 7:30 pm.  We attempted to go to a restaurant, but Joey was super cranky so when we got our first dish, we decided to eat the rest of it back at the hotel room.
Stuart and I went to sleep around 8:30.
We woke up several times in the night because of all the noise. (not Joey, he was out like a light).
Up at 5am. (Same with Joey and Stuart)

What We Ate:
Spicy Chicken in Garlic
Beef with Spring onions and green beans
fried rice
(street restaurant. All delish)

Breakfast buffet at the hotel! Pancakes that tasted like corn bread (not sure they have the 'western' recipe down pat, but still good!) Dragon fruit, and watermelon. (SO AMAZING!)

Impressions of KL:
As we already knew, driving was crazy. WAY crazier than Japan. I thought we were going to get in an accident about a thousand times. Lots of honking and speeding.
In the middle of the night there was SO much noise. People love to blare music in KL. Like, I don't mean old peoples version of middle of the night, I mean until 3am and THEN they have a 5am SUPER loud call to prayer. Do these people ever sleep!?!?

Day 3, Kuala Lumpur to Bali:
Home stretch! Joey did amazing on the flight.  Slept and then was super happy on the plane when he woke up.  Won't say too much about this because it was once again an Malaysia Air flight, so not much new to report.


Will write about Bali tomorrow, likely during Joey's nap and try to incorporate some pictures as well.