In all of the times that we've been to Bali, not once did we go to Nusa Dua. Nusa Dua is the very south part of the island with all of the very high end hotels and resorts. We pride ourselves in being hippy dippy Ubud people ;) In fact, Eben kept telling me how it was so weird that we were going to Bali and not to Ubud.
And then, Zeric was asked to attend the Bali Democracy Forum and was staying at the Nusa Dua Grant Hyatt.
Thinking that we might not get another chance to see what that was all about, the kids and I jumped on a plane to Bali Thursday after school. Of course the plane was late, but Jaffa had her Harry Potter book, Eben had the ipad, and the terminal has a Starbucks.
When we got to Nusa Dua, we saw that that whole part of the island is like a gated community. Given that there were a number of heads of state including Indonesia's own SBY, there were a lot of beautiful Balinese decorations..
..and a lot of security. (These are Zeric's pictures, thankfully the kids and I only saw the froo froo.)
We got to the Grand Hyatt at night, and the room was beautiful.
The kids had a daybed all to themselves, and we had pancakes from room service before going to sleep. The next morning we went exploring and the grounds were soooo lovely.
We had breakfast, and then headed to the pool and the beach. There were two lagoon pools, one with a water slide. We had heard about the kids' club, but Jaffa and Eben were just so happy playing at the pool and at the beach. Somewhere in there Eben mentioned that he could live at this hotel for a year, no problem. Didn't hear much about wanting to go to Ubud...
That was Friday. Before we had gotten then, I thought that we would probably go out exploring for a good part of the day. Some friends had said that they really just hang by the pool when they go to Nusa Dua, but I thought we wouldn't be able to just hang out. I was wrong. I now understand the inertia that keeps your body from getting out of the lounge chair. that inertia stuck with me well into day two of being back in Jakarta, it was that powerful.
Saturday, we had a bunch of friends join us.. and Zeric got out at noon so we had a really nice afternoon together. Jaffa's friend Cempaka came down from Ubud, so that was really nice. They had missed each other.
hmmmmm.. part of the reason I wasn't moving very fast
Zeric had mentioned that he saw a giant chess board.. and we found it! Eben and I played most of a game, until we decided it was a draw. It was super fun to walk around on the chess board. (Of course, there were HP references..)
There was also a hot Jacuzzi right next to a cold pool. Grown-ups and kids alike went back and forth from one to the other, with screams when jumping into the cold!
Cempaka and her zen
We had heard about the Nusa Dua festival going on, so we headed over on Saturday night to check it out. We saw a Senegalese musician on his electric kora.. that was great!
We also saw a group of aboriginal dancers.. that was pretty great too. The kids were falling asleep, so we headed back...
The next morning, before we headed to the airport, we decided to feed the fish one last time. There were lots and lots of huge Koi, but also lots of smaller ones too. The breakfast people had been given the kids big bags of bread upon request for fish-feeding and every time anyone got near any of the pools, they all rushed up with mouths wide open.
What happened this time was a little different.. we ended up feeding the fish AND the heron. Only, the heron was smart.. he didn't eat the bread.. he waited until the fish came up for the bread, and then grabbed the one that was just the size of the breakfast we wanted!
We had a great time in Nusa Dua, and then we were happy to be home again.. just in time to get homework done and have the afternoon to snuggle the dogs.
We're glad we had a chance to enjoy the weekend there!
(and I successfully kept my mind away from labor practices and the waste of running such a place)
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