Our last night in Bali, we hired a babysitter and went out for dinner at the hotel. Every night, they have a Balinese night market, giant buffet, and cultural performance. Typically it is held outside in this cool terraced area at the hotel, but since it was off-and-on raining all afternoon, it was moved to the Watercourt restaurant. Because we have been living at Hyatt hotels instead of a house this year, we were presented with special butterfly VIP pins and were shown to a very comfortable cushioned booth right in the middle to best view the stage area.
The buffet spread was overwhelming! There was a ton of meat, which made Austin very happy, but also a good array of salads, including the traditional Indonesian salad Gado-Gado with peanut sauce, of which I ate way too much. There were different rice and noodle dishes as well and potatoes, which I had not eaten in quite a long time! Austin liked having pork, since that is hard to find on Java, and I enjoyed eating gelato and other yummy desserts. Austin ordered a lime squash to drink- sparkling water, lime and lemon juice, and simple syrup on the side to sweeten it. I got a lime mint coconut freeze. YUM! We overheard the couple at the table next to us discussing whether it was safe to eat the veggies. So we started up a conversation with them,
Barong- he hit the lamp with his tail
They were Australian and had just arrived that afternoon. They had friends warn them to be wary of eating the fruits and vegetables because of the risk of intestinal illness. We assured them that the hotel food was safe and that they should not eat the fresh veggies or fruits from food stalls or street vendors, and that usually ice and water were safe at the tourist places. They seemed relieved and we had a fun time telling them about our trip and giving them suggestions on places to go.
I think she might be the villain?
After we ate way too much delicious Indonesian food, it was on to the performance. Austin really does love me as evidenced by the fact that he let our date night be overtaken by a gamelan performance. I knew I wanted to see gamelan, but we didn't want Landon to have another late night so this was perfect! I was bummed we weren't in the original location because the gamelan players were super squished and I could not see all the instruments. The dancers adapted well to the different setting- but at first did not come over on our side of the stage (they entered and exited on the part of the stage furthest away from us.)
The gamelan might sound like noisy noise to some, but it is very complicated and each player must come in at exactly the right time and play in the exact rhythm. Every one works together to make this really rice multi-dimensional sound.
Scary fingers guy
The dance of the day was the Barong dance. The Barong is a mythical lion creature that is said to protect the villages of Bali. It is friendly and nice. There was an antagonist in the dance that sent two beautiful girls to dance for the Barong (in human form) and a monkey to make them fight over the girls and eventually kill themselves with their own swords. It was a little gruesome, but interesting nonetheless. One thing I wanted to note about the women's costumes in Balinese dance is that they typically have a long piece of fabric that comes down in front, goes in between their feet, and then flows along behind. As part of the dance, they have to manage this pieces of fabric that could very easily trip them up. Also, men in the dances seem to want to capture them by this long train of cloth, so in this dance she had to flick the fabric around very fast to avoid capture! That's talent!
The Barong itself reminds me of the dragon dances in other Asian cultures, except it only has two people running it- the head and the tail. One cool thing that the lion did was clap its jaws together loudly and very fast. I'm sad I did not get a good video that part.
Here are my video clips:
I'm sorry that I did not catch what all the different people were in the play. We left the explanation paper in Bali and I did not find anything that exactly matched what we saw in my online searches.
My carry-on bag for international flights is my diaper backpack. I set aside some room for diapers, wipes, snacks, and an extra outfit for my toddler, and use the remaining space to bring a few things for myself on board. Here are my favorite essentials to bring on a LONG flight: - Individually wrapped (or a small package) of antibacterial hand wipes. I picked this up by reading other travel blogs. I wipe down every surface around our seat that my toddler to conceivably touch or lick. For super long flights, a little peace of mind goes a long way. - Ibuprofen, homeopathic motion sickness meds and dramamine : headaches happen. Occasionally with turbulence I get motion sick. I start with the homeopathic motion sickness meds and if they don't work, dramamine will do the trick! - Children's tylenol and Peace and Calming essential oil: These are for my son for his ears (tylenol) and to help him fall asleep after the initial excitement wears off from being on an airplane.
I finally finished enough pages to put my quiet book together! Landon already had a store bought Bible quiet book, so I focused on a Book of Mormon/Church History/LDS general theme. For materials I used a heavy weight Pellon for the pages. It is much easier to work with vs. felt, and lasts a long time. I used a combination of stiff and soft felt for everything that goes on the page. I would have used all stiff felt, but Hancock Fabrics did not have all the colors of stiff felt that I wanted. Instead of stitching on the lettering, I wrote on the Pellon with sharpie. SO much easier. I used many different blogs for ideas, and tweaked the designs here and there to make it work for me. Here are the pages: The first page I did was Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life found in 1 Nephi 8. The iron rod is a silver ribbon, and Nephi can move along it. The fruit snaps on and off and the tree and Lehi's hand. The great and spacious building is off to the left. I got this template from h
Somebody is four months old... Pensive Looking through Owen's four month pictures, it is pretty clear that his personality and happiness has really come out in the last month! I love my Owen boy! He coos and talks in the deepest baby voice I have ever heard, and I swear he says "Ma!" when he really needs to get my attention. As his head grows, the hair on his head has been thinning, especially on the sides, but the top is still as epic as ever and he receives compliments and comments about his hair everywhere we go. It has turned an interested auburn brown color and continues to lighten as he gets older. Even as it grows longer and longer, it still does not lie flat, and his shadow definitely looks like a troll doll now! His cheeks are still pleasantly plump, although his belly has gotten more toned as he develops the abs to sit up for longer periods of time. He has super wide shoulders and is very solidly put together. Owen's eyes are amazing! They are a me
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