September 21, 2025
Our first full day in Bali after our late-night arrival. We had no idea what the hotel or surrounding area looked like since we arrived in the dark. The boys are so used to moving around and waking up in a new place with little idea of how they got there it does not bother them at all.
Our room has a nice balcony with distant views of Mount Agung, an active volcano that is part of the Pacific Ring Of Fire. We know all about this from Octonauts! In Sidemen we are in the mountains, not near the beach. The hotel has a nice pool down the hill from our room but for a later time. We headed to breakfast up the hill from our room near reception.
Breakfast was OK with three options, American, Indonesian, or Continental (variety of bread-based products with some yogurt). Sadly, the coffee was not great so after we ventured down the road to a nice coffee shop called Citrus & Vine. They had great coffee, along with some pastries to keep the boys snacked up during home school. The boys were acting like crazy people in the shop while we ordered, Ollie throwing Lenny a glare while stepping over him in victory at one point.
Once we got back, we knocked out home school and were keen to begin exploring. Ollie wrote a letter to Mihai to continue their talk on geopolitics, as well as the Hoboken Mayoral race, from our time in Romania.
While investigating all the things that our hotel offers, we came across motorbike rentals for ~5 USD a day! Maybe our giant e-bike in Hoboken gave us both the same level of overconfidence but Kayleen and I quickly agreed we should get them for our full time in Bali.
A stop at the front desk and they said they we have them here for us in 30 minutes but the helmets were here so we could try them on now. While fitting Lenny for his helmet he told the woman at the front desk, “1,2,3,4 I’m four so probably size 4!”
The motorbikes arrived, they are called Scoopys, and we were ready to take off. There was no paper to sign, the woman at the front desk just said, ‘There’s no insurance so just be careful!”
We took a warm up spin down the road which eventually comes to a dead end. After the warm up we headed back the other way in search of lunch. During our trip the phone holder ejected my phone after going over a bump. It survived and Ollie became the navigator for the rest of our time, holding the phone and telling me when turns were coming. He took his job very seriously and did great. We had a quick lunch and continued on our Scoopys.
We needed to get to a grocery store for a snack reload and high-quality conditioner to manage the boys hair. To get there we had to drive on the main road for a bit. We quickly learned the best policy was just follow one of the many locals on their motorbikes. There are countless times were driving on the wrong side of the road and weaving around cars and small dump trucks was required. The road is filled with dump trucks going to the volcano to get building material. We safely made it to the store and got everything we needed while also coming across a handful of weird products.
We made it back to the hotel with confidence on our Scoopys after our first big ride. Kayleen and Lenny headed to get a pedicure while Ollie and I went to the pool. There were a bunch of people relaxing around the pool, no other kids, so I was glad both boys were not there. Ollie had a much better chance of being quiet without Lenny around to battle.
We had a really nice swimming lesson, practicing using his arms more and turning his head to breath on the side. He was into it and a lot of the people sitting by the pool clearly enjoyed watching him learn, though he had no idea they were watching. On our way back to the room he found a flower he was adamant about giving to Kayleen.
We walked down the road to dinner and found out that a few of the nice restaurants have a rule about no kids being there after 7PM. Not a bad idea to keep it classy but a bummer for us on this night. We made a reservation for later in the week with a seating time of 5:30.
We ended up a little further down the road at D’padi’s where we had a nice meal and enjoyed their coconut face planters. The boys and I all wore white shirts and I told them if they didn’t get their shirts dirty, they would win 100,000 Indonesia rupiahs. Ollie was out pretty quickly but Lenny ate meticulously and Kayleen gave him a few napkin tucking assists. He made it all the way back to our room completely clean and happily claimed his prize before bed.
