When Mike asked me last October where I wanted to wake up on my birthday in 2026, I decided I wanted to be in Bali. I told Mike that I wanted him to do his research and tell me the things he wanted to do in Indonesia. I shared that I wanted to plan the trip and I would include anything he wanted to do. However, he couldn’t add new things to our itinerary later. His only requests were to see the orangutans in Borneo and the Komodo dragons in Komodo National Park. And he has been extremely respectful of not adding other activities. I have no idea how many hours I invested in researching and planning this trip. I do know that much of the time that Mike was the President of the Pickleball League on the MSC Seaside cruise ship during our 19-night transatlantic cruise in November I was working on Indonesia plans. I must admit AI was very helpful in the process! As soon as I realized that a significant part of our trip would include excellent nature opportunities, I reached out to Sarah to see if she wanted to join us and we are thrilled she said yes! My goal for the last month of our time in Indonesia was to have the space and time to live life without being rushed to do the things we enjoyed each day.
During my research, the tiny island of Gili Air popped onto my radar. Based on what I read, I was completely drawn to the island. But then I had a dilemma. I had anticipated that the last month of our time in Indonesia would be in Bali. Now that I knew about Gili Air, how on earth was I going to figure out how to split the time between Bali and Gili Air?? And should we spend our time in Gili Air or Bali first? It’s hard on me to be constantly moving. I wanted to find a place in Bali that we could spend 16 consecutive nights and have access to all of the things we would want and need within walking distance. We loved our apartment in Bali with our private yard and tiny pool. It was convenient to massage spas, excellent restaurants, the beach, a decent grocery store, and a fantastic gym. The decision to do Gili Air last was the best decision.
We were up at 6 am on travel day. The driver picked us up at 7:30 am and took us to the port to catch our 3-hour boat ride from Bali to Gili Air on the Blue Water Express. We shared French toast and pancakes at the small restaurant at the port before boarding the boat at 9:00 am. There were two quick stops – one at a different port in Bali and one in Gili Trawangan. I spent the time on the boat reading the seven applicants’ essays for the scholarship we fund in mom’s honor at Owen-Withee high school. It’s always such a difficult decision. Mike and I agreed on the essay that we felt aligned the most with mom’s serving spirit. When we arrived at Gili Air we walked five minutes from the harbor to our new home where we were welcomed with fresh juice drinks. We unpacked and Mike found the PERFECT place for us to eat lunch. It was a Greek restaurant, named Santorini’s. It was our marriage anniversary, and the day we married, we had our private ceremony in Santorini Greece! For lunch, we ate authentic Greek salads and chicken souvlaki pitas. It was delicious! The restaurant is on the beach and is lovely. We have eaten Greek salads there almost every day. We walked to Warun Sunny’s and signed up for a traditional Indonesian cooking class. We went to The Gym to tour it and get prices. We walked the three-mile perimeter of the island, taking our time (which took us two hours). Mike tried to find a magnifying snorkel mask, but we are told there are none (need to go to Bali). I didn’t even think about it, since I don’t really like snorkeling and Mike snorkeled a lot at Komodo National Park. I wish we had thought of it and bought him a mask in Bali to bring to Gili Air. He told me towards the end of our time in Gili Air that he’s glad he didn’t have a snorkel mask, or he would have spent time snorkeling rather than doing what he did. We ate dinner at Scallywags and had delicious fresh grilled tuna, mashed potatoes, salad, and fruit smoothies. The power went out (which is common on the island – the power comes via under water cables from Lombok), so Sukar had candles for our room when we returned after dark. Thankfully the power came on shortly after we got back from dinner, so we had air conditioning to sleep. The patio door doesn’t have a screen, and I prefer not to sleep with insects, geckos, and the Asian Water Monitor lizards (which can get to be up to six feet long with the tail. I saw one that was at least five times the size of the one in the photo below and I thought it was a baby Komodo dragon!).
We are really happy with the accommodation we selected, Relax Villas Gili Air. There are four individual villas and a lovely, shared pool (which Mike has used every day to cool off) and beautiful landscaping. The staff is incredible! We are so grateful for the tremendous experience we have had because of the staff at Relax Villas Gili Air. We appreciate all the things we learned from them. Mike enjoyed teaching Sukar English and learning Indonesian from him and Dairi. Hadi, Dairi, Sukar, and Puji have taken amazing care of us and ensure we have everything we want and need every second of the day! I am a side sleeper and my hips hurt when I sleep on hard mattresses. Dairi asked me how I slept the first night and I told him my situation. He made a heavenly cloud on my side of the bed by folding two duvets in thirds and putting them on top of the mattress. My hips did not hurt the remaining 15 nights! Our $49 USD (includes taxes) per night room includes breakfast. We can eat as much as we want, all prepared fresh – eggs, omelets, fresh fruit, toast, yogurt and granola, fresh juice, pancakes, French toast, fresh ginger tea, coffee. One morning Hadi brought us snake fruit to try. Every day after we eat breakfast, I tell myself I won’t eat as much the next day because I am stuffed but I keep ordering the same thing every day! Good thing the island is only 3 miles around the perimeter and we walk everywhere! You can get anywhere on the island within a 30-minute walk. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island (except for the garbage truck, which we only see occasionally – the garbage is transferred from the truck to a boat and taken to the larger nearby island of Lombok). People walk, ride pedal bicycles, electric scooters or use horse and carriage taxis. The main roads do get a bit challenging to navigate as the horse and carts go fast and take up a lot of space. Indonesia is a left-hand drive. You must watch out for the little kids that live on the island…many of them start driving their own scooters at four years old and they are little hellions on the roads! I have seen some zipping along at about 30 mph.
Gili Air is a place to relax and enjoy the beach, snorkel, scuba dive and surf (for advanced surfers only). When I was researching Gili Air, I knew there were a handful of good restaurants. We were both surprised to find that 90% of the perimeter of the island is filled with excellent restaurants, bars, spas and shops. The island is more developed than I anticipated as there are also plenty of excellent restaurants, bars, spas and shops on the interior of the island. Three of the resorts have outdoor movie areas where they show movies each night. The research I did said that “cash is king” on the island. Many businesses do accept credit cards with a 2 – 3.5% fee. There are times, however, when you absolutely need cash. A lot of new construction is taking place. The island was first settled in the 1970s with coconut plantations. Tourism started in the late 1980s. Much of the development has happened over the past 20 years. Most of the tourists come from Australia (since it is one of the closest places for them to vacation…depending where in Australia it’s still a 6-hour flight) and Western Europe (we talked with people from England, Ireland, Hungary, Poland and France). Many of the locals we talked with in Bali and Gili Air self-taught themselves English by talking with Australians. It cracks me up every time a local speaks with us in English and they have an Aussie accident! We talked with Perry and Kristina, from Perth Australia, who were also staying three nights at Relax Villas. They were having beers and wine at the shared pool and asked us to join them, so we did. Good thing they had an early morning departure, or we could have easily drank too much and stayed up later than ideal. (The Aussies have a reputation on the island for enjoying their adult beverages.) The island reminds us a little of Key West. The island has something for everyone from extremely inexpensive stays to very affordable comfort and luxury. Part of me wants to come back with a goal of seeing how inexpensive I could stay in Gili Air. There are homestays for $18 USD per night and you can easily feed yourself on less than $10 USD per day. You can spend all of your time in the tourist areas or venture inland and walk or bike through neighborhoods and cow pastures to gain an understanding of the local culture. Walking along the beach at night, feeling the breeze and listening to the sound of the waves was something I looked forward to every day. In Mike’s words “Gili Air is one of the coolest places ever”.
I clearly remember the news footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. And years ago, I watched the 2012 movie The Impossible, which was the real story of María Belón and her family who survived the tsunami. Since Indonesia is positioned on the Ring of Fire, I have been very mindful of where we should go if there is a tsunami. The island is small. There are no hills. There are no strong, tall building structures. I asked Dairi, “where do we go if there is a tsunami?”. His answer was “heaven” (got it – enough said!). The August 2018 Lombok (which is a 10-minute boat ride from Gili Air) earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 and caused catastrophic damage to North Lombok and also caused damage to nearby Bali. The earthquake caused up to 563 deaths and injured hundreds more. The Gili Islands (there are three – Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan) escaped the worst of the damage. However, there was significant structural damage to property and wounded many. Many people commute from Lombok to the Gili Islands for work. Many of these employees were severely affected by the earthquake losing family members and homes.
One of the things I wanted to do on Gili Air was ride bicycle around the island every day (and I did except for one day). The villa rented me a bike for $2 USD per day. One of my favorite things was my morning joy ride (before it got too hot) exploring the island, listening to the songbirds singing and saying good morning to the cows. There are only a few main roads and even they aren’t fully paved. The perimeter of the island has inviting places to sit and enjoy the scenery, along with signs with cute quips on them. Riding bike around the perimeter of the island along the beaches is hard work in some sections as it is sandy and I often needed to walk the bike. There are many dirt paths that lead to the interior of the island that go through local neighborhoods. I got lost many times and surprised families by unintentionally showing up at their doorstep! They were kind and understanding as I turned around and tried another path. The paths are sometimes narrow, lined with foliage, and have plenty of tree roots and potholes. My average speed was typically under 5 mph. I loved to stop and look at beautiful flowers and watch momma chickens teach their tiny babies how to scratch the ground to find insects to eat. I would arrive home drenched. It is impossible to do anything here without sweating. It’s been humid like Florida in August every day. And the feels like temperature has been around 102 degrees. Since Indonesia is close to the equator, the sunrise and sunset is about the same time year-round (around 6:00 am and 6:00 pm). The weather is also consistent, except there is a dry season and a wet season. May is when the dry season starts and we are told it is less humid. We fortunately haven’t had a lot of rain, however, when we have had rain many of the roads are like lakes and it’s impossible to walk on the road without getting your feet wet. I am grateful the bike I used had large fenders. I was able to navigate all the “lakes” without getting wet or muddy.
The locals have simple lives. They don’t make a lot of money – around $200 USD per month. Their homes are minimal. They do not have air conditioning. I saw a mother giving her son a bath in a wash basin in their yard. The chickens run wild and the cows are tied in open pastures. I went past the school often. The students all meet outside for a morning song with movements. I would see boys of all ages outside with a teacher with bamboo brooms sweeping the school courtyard to get rid of leaves and any garbage (in general the island is very clean). The school does not have a cafeteria. Children bring money and buy their food at various stands near the school. We heard lots of laughing during the outdoor soccer and volleyball games we watched (not sure how they can play soccer barefoot, but they do!). Cats rule the island (no dogs here) and they are happy, and healthy. It is a Muslim island with one mosque, where you can hear the call to prayer five times a day. Newborns are held in their parents’ arms while they drive the rest of the family on the same scooter. People in the tourist industry typically speak three languages, Sasak (the local language), Bahasa Indonesian (the National language in Indonesia) and English. There are many laundry service companies on the island, who do laundry for tourists and businesses (I doubt that many hotels do their own laundry). The horses and carts are necessary for transporting the deliveries that come via boat from Lombok, to haul anything large that someone can’t carry on their scooter and transport tourists with their luggage to their hotels. There are local vendors who sell their goods to the local businesses.
The island has excellent spa services and we have been enjoying 90-minute massages two to three times a week with Yaya (she is probably 20 years old, about 5 feet tall and likely weighs 80 pounds) who has the strongest hands for such a teeny person. She works my knots in a way that hurts but is good. Mike opts for medium to soft pressure from either Nia or Warni. With the tip, the massages cost $21 USD each. It’s been forever since we had manicures and pedicures, so we made sure to take advantage of the services at Blue Lotus, with a view of the beach. It wasn’t anything to write home about…they cut and filed our nails, trimmed our cuticles and it cost about the same as in the US. The States definitely has Indonesia beat on the experience and value for the money of manis/pedis!
Several holistic studios have yoga, meditation, workshops and special events. I want to do it all! However, I also want to have time to complete my daily workouts which have included running or walking the perimeter of the island or lifting weights and using cardio equipment at the air conditioned The Gym (a six-minute walk from our villa). As I move into the next decade of my life, I want to release and let go of everything that no longer serves me. I had a private session with Sherri at Casa Magick – Holistic Healing Sanctuary. Sherri is from South Africa and she and her husband have built a lovely business for holistic retreats. It was a two-hour session in a calming space. The intent of our session was to release trauma that is stored in my body. At the start of our session Sherri asked me to describe what I was feeling. She asked me to picture my future self and how I want to feel. She asked me to think of a past situation when I felt the way I desire to feel in the future. She used this information to guide our session. Sherri described all the various body sensations I may feel during the breathwork portion and explained that I may scream or cry. She encouraged me to let my body do whatever it wanted to do. We started with a Mama Cacao Ceremony. (This is a guided communal ritual where participants drink raw, minimally processed ceremonial cacao and then move through practices such as meditation, breathwork, chanting, sound healing, or ecstatic dance. The cacao is prepared as a thick, bitter drink made from ground cacao beans, water, and spices. The term “Mama Cacao” refers to the spirit of cacao, honored in Mesoamerican cultures as a feminine, heart‑centered energy associated with nourishment, intuition, and emotional healing. This aligns with the historical belief that cacao was a sacred plant used for spiritual and medicinal purposes.) I like dark chocolate, so the cacao tasted fine to me. It took me a couple of sips to get used to the chalky texture. She asked me to select two angel cards, which we looked at later. I laid down and started the guided breathing (two fast breaths in through the mouth and one fast breath out through the mouth) that was in rhythm to loud music that she played. She would touch me in places and encouraged me to push out the negative and to let it all go. I felt a lot of tingling in my arms and my jaw was tight. She told me my angels and guides were with me. She asked me to think about Little Sandy. That’s when a 20-minute ugly cry started. We ended the session with guiding love into my body, giving Little Sandy, current day Sandy and future Sandy love. We looked at the two cards (Warrior Woman – have you answered your deepest calling? And Keepers of the Earth – you are not alone. Ancient ancestors stand beside you.) that I selected and she read the definitions from the book. She explained there is nothing for me to “fix”. I need to eliminate the stored negative energy to make room for new positive energy and forgiveness is what makes room. She reminded me over and over that I am not alone and that I do not have to figure life out alone. She told me to write a letter of forgiveness to forgive myself, anyone and anything in the world that I need to forgive to make space for new (which I did and found this exercise to be extremely helpful… it is an ongoing process…I have been adding more to my forgiveness letters as things come up). She told me to go to the beach and cover myself in sand and go into the ocean to clear the energy from our session. She sent me a message the next two mornings to see how I was feeling. I didn’t sleep great and had a light headache both nights/days. She said it’s likely because of the work I did in our session and it could also be because of the full moon.
I also went to a group “transcendental breathwork – a journey beyond self judgement workshop” at Flowers & Fire seaside. Emily was our instructor. There were 11 of us for a two-hour session. We picked a card from her Shadow and Light deck. Mine was Perfection (striving) card #13. We partnered with the person next to us to get our bodies ready to open. My partner was Isabelle from the Netherlands. We shared our self judgements with each other, along with what we think someone who loves us unconditionally would say to us if we shared this information with them. Emily described transcendental breathwork (a style of conscious, rhythmic breathing designed to shift you into an expanded state of awareness—like meditation, but often faster and more intense. It uses continuous, intentional breathing patterns to quiet the thinking mind, release stored tension, and create a sense of clarity, emotional openness, and inner spaciousness) and what to expect regarding pain we may feel in our body and that we may scream or cry. Just like my session with Sherri, the breathing was in rhythm to loud music. However, the breathing in this session was a deep chest breath through the mouth and an immediate exhale through the mouth with no pause between inhale and exhale. It cuts off the carbon dioxide in your body so you can’t do this if you have certain health conditions. We laid flat on our backs. During the session, my jaw was tight and hurt, and both of my arms became completely numb. After the session we talked about holding trauma and negative emotions in our body and how those things cause disease and pain. My neck issues are likely due to my rigid thinking, inability to be flexible and trying to control too much. My shoulder pain is likely from carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders because I think I’m responsible for things I’m not responsible for. I have work to do! I enjoyed the session. The most impactful part of the session was talking to a young man (maybe 30?) from France who searched me out after the workshop. We each introduced ourselves (our name, where we are from, where we live now and how we are feeling) at the beginning of the workshop and I had shared that my husband and I travel full-time. Mr. France (I forgot his first name) wanted to talk with me regarding the comments I had made at the start of the session about how I was feeling. I was a little groggy after our session and he talked really fast so I wasn’t able to remember everything from the conversation. I’m pretty sure he said that he and his girlfriend recently started traveling full time. He asked me a lot of questions (it was obvious he could tell from my comments at the beginning of the session that I have control issues). I shared that I am continuing to grow every day and it is getting easier for me than it was during the first year of traveling full-time. He shared his perspective about our desire as Westerners to always control everything (um, yes – guilty!!). He asked if I had been to India and I said no. He shared with me that he spent three months in India and that is when it all clicked for him, he said, “fuck it” and gave up trying to control things and life got easier for him. He said Westerners are so individualistic. In India the culture is much different. I have been scared to go to India for several reasons. Mike has wanted me to go there with him since he went there for work in 2011. Within the past two months, two people have told me I need to visit India. I guess the Universe is trying to tell me something! I experienced headaches for three days following the workshop. I started integrating the things I learned right away. Mike didn’t like the smell of our clothes when they came back from getting washed from the laundry service. Normally I would feel bad about that, which would end up impacting my shoulder issues. I told myself that I had no control over how the laundry smelled, even though I picked the business based on the good Google reviews I read. I told Mike we could take all the laundry to another business and have it rewashed and then I released thinking about it any further (in the past I would have continued to feel bad about it, as well as feel like I was somehow responsible for it). Going forward the trick is to live in a way that doesn’t store stress in my neck and shoulders.
I took advantage of a Chakra Balancing Meditation at Flowers and Fire Seaside. (Chakras are understood as energy centers in the body that influence physical, emotional, and spiritual well‑being. They come from ancient Indian spiritual traditions, especially yoga and Tantra, and are often used today in meditation, breathwork, sound healing, and holistic wellness practices.) It was relaxing and peaceful. My neck and shoulders are improving. I’m sure the massages are also helping.
Everywhere around the perimeter of the island invites you to chill with a fresh juice or adult cocktail to listen to the waves, enjoy the sun glistening off the water, and watch life on the water. Many restaurants have BBQ with open air grills where they cook fresh seafood that you can pick yourself from their beautiful displays. Some of our favorite places to eat or watch sunset on the island are:
- I Am Bagus Sport Bar – where Mike can drink Guiness and eat chicken wings with Frank’s hot sauce. I like the burger and fish n chips. The homemade fries are delicious. They have Island Brewing Kolsch which is a beer I like.
- Sidibou Bar and Restaurant
- Mama’s Pizza – OMG! So good. Mike had the imported parma ham and I had the vegan queen and asked them to add double mozzarella (which I made clear to the server that I wasn’t a vegan so the kitchen didn’t get confused – 😂!)
- Gili Coffee Roasters – great desserts
- Maison Bliss No. 17 – we are not coffee drinkers but want to start drinking black coffee since it’s supposed to be good for us. We are easing our way into it by drinking coffee cappuccinos and lattes.
- Chupitos – classic margheritas, fajitas, chicken tostada and chicken quesadilla
- Damonte Gelato – the dark chocolate is fabulous, and we both had it a couple of times!
- Krishnas Sunset – healthy mocktails
- Shark Bites – good beer selection and people watching on the main street
- Italy Pizza & Cucina – we had veggie and bolognese pasta and shared a caramel brownie. Because it was supposed to rain later, we took two sandwiches to go to eat at home for dinner (the sandwiches were on pizza dough). Unfortunately, we traumatized Sukar when we shared our sandwiches with him. Muslims don’t eat pork (my sandwich was ham) and since Mike set his tuna sandwich that he cut off for Sukar on top of mine, Sukar didn’t eat either (their food can’t even touch pork).
- Why Not Bar – which is owned by a local man (many businesses are owned by Australians, Italians, or the French). Mike had fresh parrot fish and asked them to filet and debone it before grilling it as fish is normally grilled and served fully intact. I had chicken nasi goreng.
- Makan La Vie – a French restaurant where we had delicious steaks, mashed potatoes, chocolate lava cake with Earl Grey tea ice cream (who knew!) and a bottle of Indonesian Merlot wine
- Kopi Susu – which means Coffee Milk – we call Mike’s mom SuSu so now we are going to call her milk 😂, where we continued to work on acquiring a taste for coffee, Mike had a cappuccino and I had a latte with soy milk
- Life Kitchen Dumpling Bar – delicious chicken, beef, shrimp and veggie steamed dumplings
- Mowie’s – the Moroccan hummus chicken bowl is incredible!
- Papaya’s – the citrus fizz drink was perfect to quench our thirsts, and the tuna poke bowl and pesto ravioli were good
- Roti Manis – chocolate mousse cake is delicious!
- Warung Sunny’s cooking class with Chef Hero and his male assistant Sandy (he spells his name the same as me). We paid $20 each which included the class and the meal (we were able to take leftovers home to Dairi and Sukar, which they could eat – no pork!)
I was able to catch up with my friend, Sara from Orlando, for a couple of hours one morning (she was a sweetheart for staying up late her time so we could chat!). One night we watched the Disney+ movie Orangutan (which was fun to watch after being in Borneo) and the Amazon Melania movie. We had our month end office day on the first, which we did from Scallywags. It was pouring down rain after we arrived, so we were there from 11 to 3:00. I didn’t like the Greek salad I ordered so I didn’t eat it. They took it off our bill and I ate nachos (which weren’t great, but I was hungry) instead. We ended up walking to Kaktus in the rain to buy a pair of birthday earrings from my sweet 2nd mom (Mike’s mom). Thanks to Dairi, I learned there is a popcorn stand that opens in the evenings which has tasty fresh popcorn (sweet or salty). We had our laundry washed by G’wash Laundry twice – $5 USD a time. Mike spent time working on our upcoming trip to Ireland with the family to celebrate SuSu’s 80th birthday. We hung out by the pool one afternoon drinking a couple of Bintang Radlers (which are only 2% alcohol and 16 grams of sugar – basically like drinking Schweppes Lemon Soda). Part of my intention for this time at Gili Air was to get a lot of reading done. It hasn’t happened for me. However, Mike has made a lot of progress with his reading. Mike’s favorite sport is hockey and his team, Tampa Bay Lightning, were in the playoffs. He’s been able to watch all seven of the 1st round playoff games live on our Amazon Firestick. With the 12-hour time change from the eastern time in the US, the games have been starting at 6 or 7:00 am here. Unfortunately, they lost to the Canadiens and are not moving forward in the playoffs. He is very sad.
My birthday was one of my all-time favorites! I went for a bike ride around the island from 6:30 – 8 am. We ate our delicious breakfast at the villa. I wore the new birthday earrings (suns) bought in Gili Air – a gift from my sweet 2nd mom (Mike’s mom). We went to Mason Bliss No. 17 for a mocha-cino and iced violette soy latte with the superfood Ube. Brian from Sarasota called to wish me happy birthday so we chatted with him. We walked to the harbor and bought a fast boat ticket to Gili Meno. It was a 7-minute ride to the island to the west. We walked the 3-mile perimeter of the island, stopping at Bask for lunch. We tried Albens apple and apple mango ciders (which were surprisingly good and very refreshing on a feels like of 102 degree day). I had a crab salad appetizer and broccoli salad and Mike had ceviche while enjoying the amazing view. A local man has made it his mission to save the sea turtles (he has several tanks of baby turtles that he has rescued) and we visited the sanctuary and made a donation. There is a small lake on the interior of the island that we checked out. We took the 5:10 fast boat back to Gili Air and headed to Papaya’s to watch sunset on the beach while eating dinner. Mike picked out two live lobsters that the restaurant grilled on their open-air BBQ. We had papaya salad, veggies, mashed potatoes and French gratin dauphinois potatoes. The power went out on the island for about 90 minutes, and we got to see a spectacular display of stars in the night sky. We tried to get the perfect dessert and ended up walking all over the island (Ruby’s, the French steakhouse, and Mama’s Pizza). We settled on brownies with ice cream and glasses of red wine at Sidibou, which worked out great because we could hear the waves of the ocean and we enjoyed the live music. We walked over 13 miles, and it was a perfect day from beginning to end.
On Saturday, we got up to watch the sun rise on our last morning at Gili Air. We walked to Maison Bliss No. 17 for coffee drinks. The owner told us they open at 6:00, however when we arrived at 6:30 one of the employees was still sleeping on the restaurant furniture. We got our drinks around 7:00. We ate our last amazing breakfast at Relax Villas Gili Air. It was sad leaving Dairi, Sukar and Puji. We left the villas at 10:50 and walked with our bags to check in at Blue Water Express for our boat ride back to Bali. We left 15 minutes early at 11:50. The last 30 minutes of the ride were rough, and a few passengers needed to use the provided sick bags. Our “grandson” (he likes to call Mike grandpa) picked us up at the port and took us to the Holiday Inn Express Baruna in Kuta (close to the airport) where we stayed for two nights. He was our driver when we left Bali to go to Gili Air and he had given Mike his WhatsApp number. We walked to the Wharf restaurant for an early dinner (cheeseburger for Mike and Mie Goreng for me). We unpacked and went to the hotel gym to do our workouts. On Sunday, after eating the buffet at the hotel for breakfast and experimenting with the coffee machine, I went to Anggita Spa for a 60-minute shoulder and neck massage and a 45-minute facial. We did a 4-mile beach run/walk. The beach was very busy with local families who come to watch sunset and fly kites. We went to Warung Dony and rented lounge chairs on the beach and enjoyed big bottles of Bintang beers for sunset. We ate dinner at Envy (me for a burger) and Palm (Mike for nasi goreng) with shared chocolate mousse cake and cheesecake.
During our breakfast at the hotel on Monday, we got brave and drank the coffee black. We paid $28 so we could keep the room until 6 pm since we didn’t need to leave for the airport until 7:30 pm. We both did workouts in the gym, and we had plenty of time to enjoy one more 90-minute massage. We had salads at the hotel restaurant, packed and checked out of our room. We walked to the Wharf to eat dinner before taking the 7:30 pm hotel airport shuttle. Check-in, security and immigration were all easy. We hung out in the Garuda Indonesia airline lounge until our flight to Sydney Australia left at 11:30 pm. We had a 2-hour layover in Sydney. Our flight to Los Angeles was on time and we were fortunate to get upgraded to extra room seats. We had plenty of time in Los Angeles to pick up our bags from baggage and drop them off at the designated area. It felt great to walk outside to terminal 2 after our 13-hour flight. We ate Jersey Mike’s subs before boarding our 8:40 am flight from LAX to Indianapolis. After landing in Indianapolis at 3:30 pm we collected our bags, ate lunch and hung out until our friends, Isa and Jason, got off work and picked us up at the airport. The four of us went to “church” aka St. Joseph Brewery (it is in a renovated church). We stopped at a grocery store on our two-hour drive home to get food for our 15-night visit in Indiana. We are always grateful for the hospitality our amazing friends bestow on us every May for our Indy 500 festivities together. After our 34-hour travel stint was completed, the comfortable and familiar bed was appreciated even more than ever as I had an accumulative three hours of sleep and Mike had an accumulative seven hours of sleep during the previous 48 hours.
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