Thursday, January 23rd

Today was a bit of a R&R day for us. We got up late, had a lazy breakfast, and headed back to the room for a bit of pool time and then spent a creativity-filled afternoon in the room. Naomi used the curtained bed as her "art den", and I enjoyed the warm humid afternoon out on our patio with the sounds of the fountain in our swimming pool while reading, writing, and thinking.

At 6:00 we headed over to Bali Sari Spa, and I dropped Naomi off for another hour and a half of getting pampered. I spent the time strolling through downtown Kuta, scouting out a restaurant for dinner and practicing my (limited) Bahasa Indonesian on the somewhat surprised locals. Each time their accented "G'day, mate" was answered with a "selamat malam", I got quizzical looks and a torrent of Indonesian that I couldn't really respond to. But it got smiles, and gave me a chance to practice. I'll look into some serious language learning tools when we get back home, but for now I've got the two great resources of a wife who speaks the language, and a ton of apps for my phone with basic words and phrases. It feels like I'm learning slowly, but I already know more Indonesian than I do Japanese, after nine months living there.

Dinner was at a small place called "de Bali Cafe" which served some great mie goreng and satay, and some just OK soto ayam. We headed back home after dinner and called it a night early. Vacation is great when it really is all about just relaxing and enjoying each other and lots of free time.

Indonesia Trip Days