The first few days in Bali were honestly a blur. I can't believe we've been here over two weeks already! From the time we landed we have been on the go. When researching what to do when moving to Bali most forums and people I spoke to said to get temporary accommodation first and then look around when we arrive.
Simple enough right?
I booked us into a little villa in an area we were told had a nice community of families with young children for the first 15 days. It wasn't long before we realised that we'd chosen the worst time to arrive in Bali, as prices of villas were unreasonably high due to the demand by expats and tourists. What we researched to be a reasonable price for a villa was laughable by the locals during high season because they had plenty of expats who would pay top dollar and not negotiate, especially because we were looking for a monthly rental and owners wanted to rent places for a year at least. We were also smack bang in one of the most expensive areas of course! So we lowered our standards and hired a car to drive us to different areas around Bali in search of a villa.
Driving in Bali...it takes time. It's a good practise in patience and mindfulness, especially when you have two toddlers. A and M were incredible during all the villa hunting, not complaining too much strapped to car seats or to our carriers. We kept them close, very close.
We did try to find some part of the day to let them play (and walk through the odd rice paddy). Like when we looked around Sanur (ended up being out of our budget, but actually the best for young children), we took them to Peek a Boo.
Peek a Boo is an indoor soft play area, which has lots of toys, an undercover play structure and a little cafe. A did find it hard to leave the construction site he'd set up, but with the promise of a return trip he sullenly agreed to leave with us.
In Ubud, we went to Titi Batu for lunch, which was delicious. They had a nice little sand pit attached to a long treehouse-like structure where A was greeted by the most delightful little boy. Again A was loath to leave, but did anyway. Ubud was nice, but I was just not sure about being so far from the beach. I loved the idea of taking the boys down to the beach to run and play in nature. Little people really, really need space to run and shout and get messy...it seemed far less possible in Ubud.
In Canggu, we were right next to a place called The Garden. A went a few times to play in the Kids Club, while we continued our search. M and Chris spent some quality time in the playgroup too, giving me a bit of time to look online for places uninterrupted. We also frequented a little cafe called La Casita, which had a playground A and M loved with a sandpit, pulley and play kitchen; among other things the boys were less interested in. We heard about a place called ParkLife, which had just been opened too and because the boys had been so good, we spent quite a bit of time there. Tamora Gallery was good, while Chris worked,
the boys and I had fun in the little playground and then we got to watch a free magic show.
When they were stuck at home with me, while Chris worked we did the following, which I'll talk about in more detail later:
Made playdough
Painted
Played with Duplo, PlayMags, puzzles
Drew
Did Art and Craft
Danced
Ran up and down the gang
Made friends with the neighbours
Sang
Did water play and sensory play
Went for walks
Read
Watched Netflix (times when I needed to look for more places to view or just needed a break)
Honestly, I think had we been okay to leave our children somewhere and hop on some scooters we might have found a place faster or more easily. However, Chris would not come around to the whole riding a scooter idea (much to his mum's relief I'm sure) and I'm not sure we would have felt that confident to ride in those early days or leave our children with anyone. Driving around in a car in Bali traffic was time consuming and frustrating, but as with most things regarding our family Chris came to the rescue and found us a little villa (within budget yay!!) not too far from our temporary accommodation and even closer to the beach! We'll be here for the next few weeks.
And so the adventure continues...
Commentaires