Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Our day began at Katamaran Resort in Senggigi, Lombok. Andi was on the mend this morning. Tired, he said, but his gut was in much better shape than it had been two days ago. He continued to take the antibiotics prescribed to him at the hospital on Monday, and had been able to keep down last night’s dinner.

Previously, we’d purchased tickets to travel from Lombok to Bali today, and Andi thought he’d be able to go ahead with the trip. We had to scrap our plan of visiting the island of Gili Air while we were in Lombok, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. At least we could continue traveling to Bali today as planned.

I began packing our bags early this morning, pausing only to have breakfast at The Sail Restaurant on the resort property when Tory, Aden, and Andi were ready to eat. Today was a buffet-style breakfast again with similar food offerings as yesterday. All the restaurant servers rushed over to see Andi when he walked into the restaurant, and asked him how he was feeling. “Go eat breakfast so you can get strong!” they all said with a big smile.

The restaurant chef came out of the kitchen to personally greet Andi as well, and said he wanted to prepare Andi a special breakfast. “Oh, that’s not necessary,” Andi said. “I can just eat from the buffet.”The chef was adamant though, insisting he prepare special food for Andi. “You need to be strong!” he said to Andi, lifting his arm to make his biceps curl.

Soon enough, our favorite server named Dwi brought over a plate of grilled chicken, white rice, and a plate of sliced watermelon for Andi. “I feel bad, but I can’t eat all this,” Andi said to us after the server walked away. “Will you help me eat some of this chicken?” he pleaded with us. Tory and Aden obliged. “My stomach is still not feeling the greatest,” Andi said. “I would have been happy with a plate of fruit.”

The restaurant staff had the best of intentions in taking care of Andi, and we really appreciated it. The level of care and concern they’ve shown our family through this ordeal has been really touching.

Before we left the restaurant, we took a photo with our favorite server, Dwi. There’s always a few people we meet during our travels that we’ll always remember, and Dwi is one of those people. We’ll carry with us memories of her warm personality and big, bright smile.

I finished packing our bags after breakfast, and then we carried them to the front desk of the resort. Andi arranged for Hassan, the hotel driver who took him home from the hospital yesterday, to shuttle us to the Bangsal ferry terminal. The 30-minute drive was enjoyable as we drove along the coastline in a luxury car — much nicer than the private taxis we’d been taking around Lombok.

Andi purchased four tickets on the Blue Water Express fast boat from Bangsal, Lombok to PadangBai port in Bali. We arrived at the terminal hut, checked in, and then waited about an hour inside one of the local warungs (typical Indonesian restaurant). It was humid and noisy, and the rest of the restaurant was filled with backpackers also catching the ferry to Bali. “We’re not at Katamaran anymore,” I whispered to Andi, feeling a bit of culture-shock.

The Blue Water Express ferry is a fast boat service that shuttles passengers across the 90-minute water passage between Lombok and Bali islands. All four of us took motion sickness pills expecting a bumpy boat ride. I really hoped it wasn’t too bumpy for Andi’s sake.

“That wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be,” Andi said when we arrived to the Bali port. I agreed; it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. All four of us hunkered down in our seats and watched downloaded Netflix episodes on our phone while we endured the bumpy boat ride. I felt a little nauseous at points, so I tried not to look out the window. Andi said he saw a dolphin jump next to his window.

In Bali, Andi arranged for a private driver recommended by our airbnb to pick us up at the ferry port. Kadak was his name; he was there waiting for us when we unloaded from the fast boat. Andi, Tory, Aden, and I lugged our backpacks through a dusty, dirt parking lot behind Kadak until we arrived at his waiting van.

Everyone warned us about the terrible traffic in Bali. We noticed it immediately as Kadak drove from the port to the city of Ubud. It took us almost two hours to go 27 km (16 miles). As the crow flies, it wasn’t very many miles but the sheer number of cars and motorbikes traveling on narrow one-lane, curvy roads made travel very slow.

As we crawled along at a slow pace, we chatted with Kadak about Bali, its people, and the island’s customs. In a few days, it is the Balinese holiday of Nyepi, so everyone is abuzz about it. Nyepi is also known as “Silent Day” when all of Bali shuts down for 24 hours. Even the airport is closed! There is no transportation, entertainment, work, or even lights permitted on Nyepi. Tourists and non-Hindu people aren’t required to participate in the Balinese holiday, but we all need to have a plan for the day because everything will be closed.

Andi asked Kadak to drive us somewhere to eat for lunch in Ubud before arriving at our rented airbnb. Kadak made several recommendations of local Indonesian warungs, but Andi said his stomach was still feeling sensitive and though more of a Western-style restaurant would be better suited for our family. Andi picked a place called Simply Social located in heart of central Ubud because we also wanted to see the city where we’d just arrived.

We finally reached the restaurant around 3:00pm and were all starving since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Tory and Aden each ordered milkshakes. Aden had chicken wings for his meal, and Tory ordered a cheeseburger. I ordered Pad Thai and a Coca-Cola Zero, and Andi had a roasted chicken platter.

Prior to traveling to Indonesia, Tory was especially worried that the food would be too ethnic for her liking. Fortunately, there’s been a plethora of Western-style restaurants in both Lombok and Bali. Juice, smoothies, and milkshakes are common on every menu, as well as Coca-Cola, Coke Zero, and Sprite. At minimum, most place serve french fries, burgers, and pizza.

Overall, dining out in Indonesia has been generally inexpensive and convenient for us; much easier to order out than try to cobble together the ingredients and supplies to cook for ourselves. One thing Andi and I like is that the wait staff always repeats our order back to us. No one seems phased by special menu requests (ex: no cheese, sauce on the side, etc.) and every server always starts off by asking if there’s any allergies or special requests they should know about. It’s been easy to get exactly the food we order with very few mistakes — that never happens when traveling in a foreign country!

Someone in Australia gave us the tip to check the ice served in Indonesia — if the ice cube has hole in it, it’s OK to drink because it was produced in a commercial facility. If the ice doesn’t have a hole in the center, don’t drink it. Generally speaking, I would say Indonesians know tourists can’t drink the water and the Western-style restaurants serve filtered or bottled water & ice. Even airbnbs and hotels have bottled water sitting next to the sink for teeth brushing.

After lunch, we decided to walk around central Ubud for a little while. Last month, Andi promised Aden $8 for completing a really challenging hike in Tasmania and Aden has obsessively talked about cashing in his payment on Jibbitz for his Crocs. It just so happened there was a Crocs store in downtown Ubud. Andi surprised Aden by navigating us there so Aden could finally get his shoe accessory.

The only problem was, this was a Crocs store with an Asian flair. The Jibbitz were kind of weird, but Aden found one he liked. Almost all the Crocs sold in the store had a huge platform sole.

The four of us continued walking around central Ubud, taking in all the chaos. There were so many tourists everywhere, incense sticks burning, Balinese cultural temples, horns honking, and scooters zipping in and out. We were struck by how different Bali is from Lombok — same country, only 90 minutes apart, but a completely different vibe. Part of this is because Lombok is predominately Muslim and Bali is mostly Hindu. Also, Bali is such a popular tourist destination. As we walked along the sidewalk, I overheard people speaking dozens of different languages. People say Lombok is like Bali was 20 years ago.

We walked by a large fairgrounds with food tents, music, and a big stage. There were hundreds of scooters parked inside and an announcer broadcasting the judging of some sort of competition. There were several ogoh-ogoh figures on display being prepared for the upcoming parade. The night before the Nyepi holiday, the ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded through the streets to represent evil spirits of the world.

How would you find your scooter in this craziness? Seriously!

Andi messaged Kadak when we’d finished walking around. He circled around to pick us up, and drive us to our rented airbnb on the north side of the city of Ubud. In Kadak’s vehicle, we asked him about the offerings displayed on his dashboard. He said he prepares a new offering of flowers and leaves every morning, asking his God to protect both himself and other drivers on the roadway.

As we drove, we also saw many stone statues and monuments of Hindu gods & goddesses. The people of Bali are predominately Hindu, and believe in the balance of both good and evil spirits.

Andi rented us a three bedroom, three bathroom airbnb located in north Ubud. This house was situated amongst fields of rice paddies, and I appreciated it was away from the noisy hustle and bustle of town. It had a beautiful backyard garden with a swimming pool.

The owner of the house, Koman, showed us around the house’s amenities. “You know about geckos?” she asked. “Some guests call me and are afraid of the geckos they see inside the house, but don’t worry. They won’t hurt you!” she said with a laugh.

Only the bedrooms of this house are air-conditioned, so I had a feeling we’d see lots of critters while staying at this property. As darkness fell, several big bugs flew into the house from the open doors which had Tory on high alert.