Traveling around

Nusa Dua Parasail Fright

Our last day in Bali was Friday, December 23.  We took the red eye flight out at 1am on Friday night/Saturday morning.  This put us back at Kansai International Airport in Osaka at around 12:30 in the afternoon on December 24, Christmas Eve. On our last day John said we needed to go to the beach because we’d been in Bali for nearly a week and still hadn’t seen the beach!  From my research, it seemed like Nusa Dua on Bali’s south end was a nice place to go.  I would have liked to have seen the famous surfing beaches, or the small secluded beaches that require a hundred steps to get to, but we just didn’t have the time…

Green Bike Tour & Cat-pooccino

Day 5 Bali, Thursday, December 22.  So far:  Kecak Fire Dance.  Totem Escape Room.  Bali Treetop.  Waterbom.  Today is the Green Bike Tour.  It’s hard to say what the best activity was in Bali, but my vote is for the Green Bike Tour.  Our friends in Japan that have 4 kids recommended this outing to us.  It was an all day event.  The Green Bike Tour company sent a van to pick us up at 7:30 am.  Breakfast was included in the tour, but I was afraid it might not be much for our hungry crew so I got up early and made peanut butter toast and jelly toast and glasses of water for everyone.  Just a step above prison…

Waterbom Bali

The agenda on Wednesday, December 21 is Waterbom.  This is a large water park that claims to be the largest (or best?) in Asia and #2 in the world.  I’m not sure according to whose rating system this is measured but it was a good one.  Waterbom is in Kuta, the happening area with the shopping, eating, nightlife and all around lively end of town.  I would say Kuta is the “Waikiki” of Bali.  After another morning visit to Cafe Moonlight we asked Yoga to drive us to Waterbom.  It is pretty pricey to go to this water park, so it is really aimed at tourists.  When we asked Yoga, who is in his early-mid 20’s, if he’d ever been…

Bali Treetop Adventure

I’m back to Bali again.  It’s past the new year but I’m going back in time.  On Tuesday, December 20, we ate breakfast at our neighborhood hangout, Cafe Moonlight, and headed out.  This time a young man named Yoga (pronounced Yo-gur) drove us to Bedugul.  It really isn’t that far but the traffic is as bad as Los Angeles at rush hour (all those crazy scooters clogging up the streets!) and so we spent a lot of time in the car today.  I had three things on my wish list for today.  One was to go to Taman Ayun Temple.  Then I wanted to take the kids to an adventure park called Bali Treetop.  Lastly, I wanted to see the…

Merii Kurisumasu and Akemashite Omedetou

Merii Kurisumasu!  Merry Christmas from Japan!  Akemashite Omedetou!  Happy New Year!  The 2016 holiday season is upon us.  Here are a few snapshots of our holiday in the East.Merry Christmas from Minoh!  This is Yuzuru, our Minoh City mascot, all lit up for the holiday.  This display is right outside of the Minoh Train Station.  He looks pretty cute. Merry Christmas from Bali!  The tree at left is on display in the reception area of a fancy hotel somewhere in the north part of Bali near Ubud.  We were taken here for lunch after our bike tour across the interior.  The tree at right is on display at a restaurant called Matahari in Jimbaran Beach.  The restaurant sits on the…

Changing Our Style – Bali Part 2

Monday, December 19 is officially the start of the kids’ winter break.  Everyone wanted to lay low today so we booked our driver for an excursion tomorrow and spent the day in Seminyak Square.  Our villa is nicely located about a 15 minute walk to the lively “downtown” area.  We are far enough away that it is very quiet, but close enough for a quick walk to eat and shop.  We just discovered the concept of the “escape room” games while we were in KL but didn’t have enough time to try it while there. So when we discovered an escape room game in Seminyak we added it to our to-do list.  The place we found is called Totem Room…

Holiday in Bali – Part 1

On Saturday, December 17 we got up early in the morning and made the trek to Kansai International Airport.  John learned from our Thanksgiving trip to KL that he wasn’t going to take any advice from me on what time we should leave for the airport.  He led the charge and we left an hour and a half earlier than before.  We had already dropped the cats off at the pet hotel on Friday night so we didn’t have to worry about them.  We flew Garuda Indonesia Airlines and landed at Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport, the most beautiful airport I’ve ever seen, in the evening. This was our first time flying on a nice Asian airline and I think…

Petronas Pewter & Hard Rock Caves

Our last full day in Malaysia is Saturday, November 26. After the long and exhausting day we had yesterday we all decided to sleep in. But then we kind of had to rush around for the rest of the day to fit in everything. I don’t think we got back to the apartment from our adventure at Inside Scoop until around 10:30pm. We all needed to pull the covers up over our eyes when the sun came up.  This photo is sadly the only one I took of our 3-bedroom apartment at the Nomad Bangsar Serviced Residences.  It was a good value for the rate and in a safe area. When we were all up and dressed we decided to…

In the Waterfall in the Jungle

Here we are, cooling off IN the waterfall! Our second day in Malaysia, Friday, November 25, was the best adventure ever.   While searching through Trip Advisor for off-the-beaten-path activities, I found Open Sky Unlimited (openskyunlimited.com), the outfit that we hired to take us into the Malay jungle.  Amos, our amazing guide, started this company when he realized that working in a bank was not for him.  Now he and his buddy lead guests on challenging hikes in the jungle.  But it’s not just a hike.  He picked us up at our apartment lobby at 6am, drove us an hour to a small colonial town locally known as KKB (Kuala Kubu Baru), took us to a restaurant for an amazing…

Thanksgiving Malaysia-Style

It’s our Thanksgiving/Fall trimester break.  Who knew we’d have several days off around Thanksgiving just like in America?  We thought a lot about what to do/where to go.  John really wanted to go to Hong Kong.  He also wants to go to Seoul, South Korea.  I started researching Hong Kong but I just couldn’t put together a travel plan that I wanted to move forward with.  A very good friend of mine from my graduate school and television days is from Malaysia and I’d heard lots of stories about Kuala Lumpur and her family back there.  I started to look into Malaysia and it looked like a great place to bring the kids.  There are so many things to interest…