September 26, 2025
We were meant to go white water rafting today but after the nightmare traffic and Kyle and Lens illnesses, we cancelled in favor of having a chill day with a more local adventure. After breakfast, we started the day with some pool time. The kids were excited to play sharks and minnows with Kyle and Ollie goes, “We’re gonna go hard on him, right Lenny??”
Whenever the kids see an offering to a god on the ground or around Bali, they yell “Offering!!” and point to it being sure not to disturb it. It reminds me of Lenny in South Africa yelling “township!” whenever he saw one.
After homeschool back at our room, we went to lunch at the restaurant next door where Kyle took the kids yesterday. The wait staff recognized them and asked Lenny if he felt better. We practiced sight words before lunch came and learned a new strategy for Len to instead focus on 4-8 words at a time. Mood dependent, this strategy seems to be working better than the previous one.
We had a bit of quiet time back at the room to make sure everyone’s stomachs were ready for one last scoopy adventure. The Gembleng waterfall was a 25 minute, adventurous scoopy ride away. The first half was super adventurous as there was road work being done so we’d have to pass traffic in the opposite lane if we ever wanted to advance. Kyle and I would wait for another motorbike to make the first move to pass cars before making any advances as the road was often twisty and we didn’t have full view of oncoming traffic. Motorbike riding in Bali is not for the faint of heart. At one point, we were passing cars on a sand shoulder just a few feet away from a steep drop off into a river 15 feet below. The back half of the ride was on quiet backroads and far more enjoyable.
We parked our motorbikes at the base of the waterfall and we were off. We read that it was fewer than 300 steps to the top but it felt like more since the steps were 1.5-2X as steep as typical stairs. Len needed a helping hand to get up most of them but was a real trooper. There were also a few stop offs along the way to check out some of the natural pools.
At the top, the boys had milkshakes to cool down but Len’s eyes are still bigger than his stomach because he mostly stuck to water, likely for the best. We were lucky to then approach the natural pool at the top when no other visitors were there. Given how busy the parking lots and earlier pools were, we figured we’d be in a line for a bit. Kyle and the boys enjoyed a quick dip while I abstained not wanting a soggy bottom for the scoopy ride home.
Len usually comes across as pretty rough and tumble, but every so often his age and innocence shine through — like when we saw a mother hen with her chicks on the road and he exclaimed, “Awww, baby chickies! So cute! Cheep cheep, chickies!” He then spent half of the ride home petitioning me to get him a pet chicken when we got home to Hoboken.
I tried to give the kids a snack in the room but the potato chips we bought were surprisingly coated in caramel and they weren’t interested. Most of the typically sweet snacks we’ve had in southeast Asia so far have had some sneaky sugar added. We got ready quickly then went back to Asri Dining by Samanvaya, a restaurant down the road, for dinner. Kyle wasn’t feeling well the first night we went so he was keen to give it another go. Plus the hummus with roasted chickpeas was a favorite of the kids. We were all happy to see pavlova on the dessert menu but the strawberry pavlova in Vernon, France still reigns supreme!
