Friday 16 August

It’s 8.20pm, and we’ve just collapsed on the couch after a big day of exploring in the heat.

Last night there was some sort of celebration, which must’ve been right next door to us, and at 10.30pm when we were all tucked up in our own beds (Jessie in her cot, which hasn’t been happening a lot since we go to Bali), and some incredibly loud sounds started up… I won’t lie, I thought it was bombs! It scared the crap out of me. But no, it was just fireworks really really close by. Jessie didn’t care what it was, all she cared was that it was loud and scary and so she let out a huge wail and back in bed with us it was. So we all slept in this morning, and meandered our way to brekkie lateish (for us anyway). It was already pretty warm out, but we thought we’d quickly have breakfast, and go out exploring the streets before the heat got too extreme. The villas provide an outbound shuttle to wherever you’d like to go (within reason), and you just have to find your own way back… pretty awesome! So we took advantage of that, and got dropped off at Seminyak Square – firstly heading into a pharmacy and stocking up in Korean face masks, as Nivea men’s deodorant which cost around $1.00, and after that we wandered the streets around the area for a while – I’m absolutely loving the vibe here… the gorgeous boutique shops, mixed in with fun looking restaurants and cafes, temples, and greenery. Now that we’ve sussed out where some of the interesting shops are, we will make a plan to come back another day and look properly.

It got almost unbearably hot though, so before heading home to our pool, we made a quick stop for a pint of Bintang each and an ice cream for Jessie – her first one, in fact, and they were very cute… a Japanese style vendor, and they were quite cartoon looking. She wasn’t sure at first but then devoured it – always go for vanilla hah!!

I booked dinner tonight via First Table, which a friend who is also in Bali at the moment, told me is now available. So we decided to go to Laca Laca Mexican Cantina, which is rated pretty highly in Seminyak. We jumped in our shuttle to get there, but we spent about 30 mins in traffic and only got about halfway before jumping out and walking the rest of the way – that was an experience… the drivers here seem to have their system and it works okay, other than the congestion, but I’m not a fan of walking the streets, which often don’t have footpaths, with the thought of tourists on scooters possibly coming up behind you – on our way there we saw a tourist laying on the ground, waiting for an ambulance (good luck in the traffic), who had clearly had a scooter related accident, and we’ve seen a couple of others with intense knee scrapes. It’s not for me… I’d go on the back with a local, but I wouldn’t be trying it on my own. So now we are trying to time things to hit the traffic sweet spots – that basically means that after 3pm we need to walk… not ideal for dinner, but we will figure it out.

Laca Laca was awesome – a really cute place, with fun decor. The food was really good and they had a kids menu, which is always appreciated. The 50% off from First Table made it a pretty cheap night out. It’s so interesting going out with our little blonde, blue eyed babe… everyone wants to talk to her. Tonight it was a really nice Korean man who brought over his seven month old to chat… major language barrier, so we gathered was that he came from Seoul, but so sweet. Even the shuttle driver on the way to the restaurant was so taken with her – don’t come at me for this, but he put her on his lap and let her pretend to drive while we were stuck in traffic. She LOVED it.

We’re definitely living for our breaks from parenting each day – afternoon nap, and bedtime… we are absolutely loving the time with Jessie and showing her all of these new things, but it’s definitely super exhausting as well. The best part for me is not having to cook or clean! So I love the breaks, and tonight we’re reading and I’m using one of my new face masks (I talked Craig into trying a charcoal nose strip, which I enjoyed too much).

Until tomorrow – Independence Day 🇮🇩

Laus ❤