Bali to Butlins: In Bali: March 12

So we made it through the 3 flights lasting 1.5 days that landed us in Bali... the first night here we went to bed at 8 pm with the kids and we were all awake again by 2am! Although Martin and I could have fallen asleep again the kids bodies and brains were sure it was morning. I couldn't find the lavender, was wishing I had borrowed Mira's melatonin, couldn't get the television to work with multiple remotes and satellite set up so we sat on the porch for a few hours and headed to the market here in Ubud at 5am. The streets were packed with motorbikes and scooters, women carrying large loads home from market atop their heads and the market was swarming with buyers and sellers of mostly fruits I had never heard of. Small fruits were being torn open for us to try and different men and women of Bali were interrupting each other with the next offering to us hoping for a sale. We spent about 5 dollars (45,000 rupiah) and came home with days worth of fruit including a couple of coconuts which were first handed to us with straws to drink the water and then hacked open and flesh removed from the shell for us.

The boys have been amazing! We told them there is no fighting in Bali and we expect the same from them. So far so good, Silas is missing his friends but mostly is just into the present moment as there is so much to take in. This is the most beautiful place I have ever been. The people here are very kind and there are offerings of flowers placed on banana leaf left everywhere in the streets on the sidewalks, temple doorways, the steps to our accommodation, really just everywhere.

The most incredible thing has been the monkey forest where we walked among pathways literally surrounded by monkeys. We entered with bananas purchased at the enterance but very quickly learned to keep them in our bag and only offer one at a time to a lone monkey. As soon as any monkeys spotted a banana they were at our feet, trying to climb our legs and grab them, each of us even had one or two jump onto our backs unexpectedly!

Tomorrow we will head to the coast, a place called Lovina. Love to family and friends and thanks for checking in with us xx Cathy