The last two days, technically 1.5 days, were spent without plans, mostly on the beach or in our rooms, kids club. I intentionally scheduled the free days last so we end our holidays with full relaxation. The location couldn’t have been better. Iddlic beach with good weather.
Our last full day was spent with another slow morning. I finished gym almost 10am. Then spent sometime putting together my note from BLP and Sarah’s blog on how to plan in a nested fashion, set up my goals for 2023, and felt very accomplished just doing that.
Then I took the family to Kempinsky, the hotel next to ours, for lunch. The hotel is newer, good landscape, amenities, but not as good view from the beach as ours.
The food was even more expensive than ours. Girls had pizza with grandma, and I had this squash salad as I wasn’t hungry due to late breakfast.
Then it was beach time for the rest of our afternoon. My very beach appropriate outfit, all bought in Bali.
Girls played in the water slide for a while before joining us by the sands. Both read on kindle for a long time.
For dinner, husband took me to a local cantina across the hotel. It’s very local, only locals would go there. I would never tried there myself but husband is very grounded hahahah and would try anything.
Last half day started with a family photo session, complementary from the hotel. It was fun to have the short and efficient photo shoot. Will share when I get the pictures.
Takeaway of this trip:
I need to confess that Bali was my last choice when planning for December vacation. We came here in 2017 and were not impressed. I know many of my colleagues go Bali very often, I wasn’t sure I was convinced by its attractiveness. But it’s rainy season so other places that I want to go are a bit risky. So I chose Bali across three locations all accessible to the beach. 10 days later, I get why Bali is so attractive.
1. It’s easy. Getting there is easy, moving around is easy, infrastructure is built for tourists and English is spoken everywhere, unlike Jakarta.
2. It has a large variety of activities. We explored a bit and felt we could go much deeper next time. Water sports, beach, culture, temples, cuisines, shopping. It has all.
3. I like that we had a mix of activities and locations to explore this time. time flied by so quickly as there was a lot of novelty.
4. It was great that mom joined us. she and the girls stayed in one room while hubby and I stayed in anther. So we had quiet evening and mornings. It felt much less stressful.
5. I realized that Sofia will soon outgrow kids clubs. Next time we will do more sport activities.
That’s a wrap. What a wonderful start of the year. I feel energized but not really ready to get back to work. Do you feel the same?
Our New Journey 
It HAS been hard to ease back into work routines this week; Monday was a holiday and I have just been showing myself a lot of grace as I work through e-mail backlogs and lingering tasks. The good thing? I work in academia, so there is a VERY long break for most faculty/staff over Christmas and since classes don’t start until next week, there is a slow trickle of work to start the new year which allows me to sort of…ease in.
But getting back to work/normal routines after a holiday is always a struggle for me.
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I am glad you had such a wonderful vacation and that Bali exceeded your expectations! I only know of one couple that has been there – they went for their honeymoon and I think they stayed in one of those huts that is suspended above the ocean? It looks like a beautiful, dreamy location but dang it is a LONG flight from us.
I was very ready to get back to work and a normal schedule, but that normal schedule has been interrupted this week by all the snow we’ve gotten! We have spent a lot of time with our kids over the holidays, and it was great, but the toddler is very very very tiring. He’s adorable and I love him, but it is honestly far easier to go to work than to be home with the kids at their ages!! But I might feel differently if my kids were different ages. I think I am going to love the stage you are in! I think 4+ is the sweet spot for me.
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