Bali… beautiful Bali.

Paul arrived earliest of all the travellers. He hiked his way past the touts trying to get him into their cars and cabs and flagged down a taxi just outside the airport gates. Eventually they made their way through the crazy traffic to Legian, one of the three towns in the Kuta/Legian/Seminyak tourist trap triumvirate. He got the keys to the rooms that they would be staying at their first night and then headed back out to the airport to pick up the stragglers. Unfortunately, Paul waited alone, as Kristen’s flight was delayed until just before the 2:30 am arrival of Tracey and Dale.

After some hugs, kisses and stunned conversation Paul led Kristen and the travel drunk Dale and Tracey to the hotel. Then, without giving them time to get their heads on straight, Paul and Kristen promptly hit D/T with the news that we were pregnant! Talk about timing! It was pretty awesome to see their faces as they took in the news, and wonderful that they were still excited and able to celebrate even after almost 24 hours without sleep.

One of the Billion Temples in Bali

Champion Parents, running on no sleep!

The next day we tooled around the beach in Kuta, wandered around the tourist shops and booked a tour to Komodo by boat. The day was spent acclimatizing to the heat, the food, the time difference and the feeling of being somewhere new. It was great for us to witness how exciting everything is for the first time traveller. I am pretty sure at one point Tracey even said “wow, look! A bridge.”

We travelled the next day up to Pemuteran on the North coast of Bali. To get there we crossed over the central ridge, and stopped at a coffee farm. It was super low pressure (which was great) and they let us try the coffee, tea, hot chocolate and other goodies that they produced at the farm. We got to see the famous Luwak (civet cat… actually a type of weasel and a close relative of the mongoose) that eats the ripe coffee berries and digests the bean, leaving behind the world’s most expensive coffee. If you are into the kind of thing.

Pemuteran was relaxed. So few tourists were there that we were practically the only people in our hotel for the first couple of nights. We had great service at a pretty snazzy price for a decent clean bungalow and access to a pool and internet but we did have to  put up with crowing roosters every morning which was a problem that followed us around for the next few weeks.

First Snorkel outting and Loving it!

This is Kristen`s Happy Snorkel Face

Paul`s art shot!

Pemuteran’s beach was just so so and the water was a little garbage-full. However the life underwater was spectacular. We took Dale and Tracey on their first snorkelling adventure to Palau Menjangan (one of the premier diving sites in Bali).  We got to see Lionfish, trevally, cowfish, aggressive triggerfish and an incredible variety of corals and brightly coloured reef fish. They were blown away by the colour and diversity, and we were pretty proud of their pluckiness. It’s not often someone gets into the water for only the first or second time and is so unperturbed by a steep drop off and the immensity of the dark ocean. They did great and we came away with huge smiles. And sunburns. Dale especially learned not to underestimate the power of the equatorial sun and was quick to slap on sunscreen after broiling the back of his legs.

Not our boat, but truthfully you wouldnt be able to say for sure it wasnt!

Civet Cat, looking shifty