Bali 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in Bali

Woke up at 6am in preparations for our trip to Bali, a flight at 925am on SQ. We had to beat the weekday traffic so leaving early was the strategy. Our bags were mostly packed and with a toddler in tow, we needed a 28″ minimum and a smaller 25″ for the 5 days trip.

Baby K was nursing a cough that developed over the weekend (with fever on Monday and Tuesday) and was snoozing all the way till we were about to leave the house. Once carried he wouldn’t go back to sleep.

On the car, we chose the PIE route and had slow traffic till Toa Payoh, thankfully. Managed to check in by 8ish but was disappointed to find out that I had forgotten to order the post weaning meal when I called in to reserve bassinet seats. We managed to arrange for the one on the return at the separate SIA sales counter near the check in counters.

Weren’t much time left after I purchased some syringes at Guardian pharmacy for feeding baby K his meds and mommy bought bread from the cafe and we cleared immigrations. Wanted to have some coffee at the newly opened Ya Kun while baby K munched on his bread but the queue was horrendously slow that we gave up and proceeded to boarding.

Boarding the plane was done rather quickly and we settled down after placing all the carryon bags at the overhead compartment, luckily space was available. As the plane took off, baby K fell asleep, having not gotten enough of it since feeling unwell the last few days. Parents rest time with the rare moments of watching a movie on board a plane since baby K’s birth. It was short lived though as baby K woke up 1hr later.

He wasn’t feeling well and had showed signs of throwing up. Wonder if he was beginning to able to feel air sickness. The journey was otherwise pretty smooth and he only showed uneasiness as the plane descended in altitude and pain in his ears (and he was being stubborn and not wanting to drink any water).

We arrived at a large modern airport to our surprise as we didn’t remember it the last time we came here. There was a small nursery room where we changed out baby K. The luggage was really slow at arriving as we had to wait for about 40mins before finally picking it up (clearing immigrations was like 5mins).

After exiting the hall, we were trying to identify our airport transfer driver but couldn’t find my names amongst the hordes of white cards. Had to make a call to Royal Santrian while they call the driver. In the meantime we just stayed around and take photos of the airport.

The driver came shortly after with my name and showed us to the car park where he parked the vehicle. From then it was pretty much 5 stars treatment with the cold Aqua and cold towels to the luggage handling. Upon arrival at the entrance after 20mins on the road, we were given a chance to participate in a Balinese ritual and blessing before entering the resort. It was interesting and fun to see baby K with a flower on his ear. Checked in was done at a sofa and we were shown how the welcome drink was made.

The staff then showed us to our huge villa and all the amenities there were. I was in awe by the size and the number of beds where we could just sit around and chill (am not the frequent resort tourist so was easily awed). Baby K was just walking around enjoying the new environment.

After resting for a bit and feeding baby K some milk, we went to the recept to ask for directions to the nearest supermarket. We were told that there was a resort shuttle that could bring us to the local Hardys mall and back for free.

We boarded the same vehicle as earlier airport transfer and was sent to the local supermarket just 10mins drive away. We told the driver that we would probably take 30mins and he would pick us up again. The building was huge and the supermarket was just a portion of it. There was a section for meat and seafood but we settled for frozen salmon. Bought some milk too and left.

We also got ourselves some lunch over at the fast food My Dea Fried Chicken counter within the same building (didn’t checked out the 2nd floor where I suspected there might be a food court). My Nasi Goreng wasn’t exactly fast. There was an indoor game arcade where I brought baby K to pass time waiting for the food.

The driver was already there when we exited the building and we were sent back to the resort. Had our fast food lunch and I brought baby K out to the beach in an attempt to get him to nap.

At the beach, there were some huge lounge beds where baby K and I chill and watched the activities going about in the sea. He couldn’t nap and worse still, was climbing around. After sitting around for half an hour, I then brought him nearer to the waters. As there was a breakwater far away, the waves coming in were very gentle. The only issue was that the sand was extremely soft and I kept getting my feet sink into the sand.

For a while, I strolled close to the waters and as baby K still didn’t sleep, I started walking back to the villa. Soon he fell asleep, probably the sounds of trickling water from all the pool villas made him sleepy. No matter what it was a good thing, left him on the day bed and went to wash off the sand on my feet, weird that I couldn’t find any washing point at the entrance to the resort (which there were, I realized later in the next few days).

Mommy was taking a bath and had an issue with hot water as it never seemed to be heated up. Called the resort staff and when she turned up to check, the hot water came. It took really long (which we realized also later that during the initial introduction we were mistaken to believe that the right tap was for hot water but in fact it was vice versa).

The awesome staff at the resort then brought over a small cake and a large roses arrangement to the room. They couldn’t sing a birthday song since baby K was sleeping but it was a nice gesture. They had to leave in a fog when the fogging of mosquitoes took place at that time of the day.

Baby K slept till 7ish (with me beside him as he woke up half way) and we left for dinner at the resort hotel with our portable steamer with food cooked for baby K. There weren’t anybody at the restaurant when we arrived and we chose to be seated inside the aircon area to avoid mosquitoes. Baby K was given a high chair and throughout dinner, he was slightly fussy. Thankfully for the good service of the staff, they were keeping him entertained while we ate.

Food was ok and price was as expected of a resort restaurant but wasn’t really very expensive comparative to Singapore standard. At the end of dinner, the staff switched off the lights and came back with another birthday cake! This time with a birthday song as well! It was a lovely sight as baby K clapped along with the tune!

After dinner we went back to the room under a blanket of stars and only could wish to just watch them twinkle out on the day beds but didn’t as we didn’t want to risk getting bitten by mosquitoes.

Back at the room, bathed baby K at the huge tub (hot water was topped up manually with boiling water) and washing of the bottles and cutlery began. The tap water was slightly salty and we had to drink from bottled water ( which was free and there were 10, so were all the drinks in the minibar). After all the washing was done, we got off to bed, with a lot of light switches to turn off.