RTW - week 22 - (farewell, Bali)

No visit to Bali would be complete without a visit to the rice fields of Tegallalang. We hit the road nice and early one morning just as the sun was rising to avoid the crowds and the heat.

It had rained pretty hard the night before, and as we arrived the sun was just starting to burn off the remaining mist. It made for a pretty magical morning, albeit slippery as both myself and Lily slipped (at different times of course) and wore muddy bums for the rest of the day.

As we made our way back to our car, we discovered that the lights had been left on by accident and that it would not start – whoops! Bryan took off asking the locals for jumper cables but kept coming back empty handed.

Since most cars in these countries are manual (the ONE time we get upgraded to an automatic!) they don’t bother with cables since you can just push start your car to get it going.

Despite this fact, all the locals came together to help us.

One sped off on a moped to try to find a mechanic, the others were trying to push start our car (might as well try right?!) and the last of them were keeping the kids occupied and happy.

When the mechanics did arrive to fix the car, they even hesitated being paid and Bryan had to force them to take a tip! These people are incredibly generous and kind.

We drove up to the town of Amed where there is a small coral reef. The plan was only to spend the day, but when we saw that we could get a small beach bungalow with made to order breakfast for $25 we decided to spend the night and embrace the moment.

It was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip!

The water is crystal clear and calm. The kids, and us, all spent 2 days wading in and watching all the colourful fish, even tempting Charlie in with her tiny little goggles to see the parrot fish as big as her.

She latches on to our back, water wings and all, and we swim out with her. When she is ready, she slides off and put her head down in the water before climbing back on as we swim to the next stop.

I have to say, watching her “snorkel” is probably one of the cutest things ever.

Bali is a special island, and if you make it here, get off the beaten path! There is no question that the land is beautiful, but we all agreed that it was the people that made it what it is.