My Visit to Bali - Part 2

Once we got to the hotel, things got a lot more interesting than when we were at the villa. The hotel my mom and dad rented was a five-star hotel, so I had high expectations. It was on the beach and had swimming pools, which was a great start. I noticed that the beach had a lot of animals, so I planned to grab my net and hopefully catch something. The room my parents booked was pretty big, so our hotel stay was off to a great start. In fact, this hotel is probably better than the Bali zoo hotel.

We had a dinner in a beach-side restaurant on our way to the hotel. The beach is called Jimbaran. The restaurant is literally on the beach! When the tide was high, I was so sure that your feet would be underwater!

By morning, we were all ready to start fresh. I threw on my swimming trunks and headed to the pool right outside our room. Unfortunately, Dad didn’t want me swimming in the sunny spots, so I was a bit limited in where I could go. He didn’t want me to get sunburn. But honestly, the pool wasn’t bad at all. I knew there was another one by the beach, so I decided to check it out. It was pretty much the same as the one by our room, just a little higher up and closer to the beach.

After spending a few nights at the hotel, my dad and I decided to check out a beach mall at night. It was close enough to walk to, so we made our way there. The walk was a bit long, but totally worth it once we got to the mall. It had fountains, cool shops, restaurants—everything. We ended up having dinner at a steakhouse, and it was really good. After eating, we thought we’d explore a bit, so we headed up to the second floor, where we found a Lego store. I’d been thinking about picking up something from Bali, so I figured a Lego set would make a great souvenir. After wandering around the store with my dad, I finally decided on a Lego Technic monster truck. But just as we were about to head out, we realized it was raining. Since we didn’t have an umbrella, we decided to wait it out. It felt like it took forever for the rain to stop!

A few days later, we decided to go explore a bit more. We headed to a Balinese lake, Danau Besakih, to have some fun and grab lunch. When we got there, the lake was huge, and they had boat rides, so we figured we'd rent a boat and cruise around. As we started picking up speed, it felt like we were on a rollercoaster! After we got back to the dock, we decided to check out around the lake, so we walked around for a bit. We even saw a drone flying around. Oh yeah, and there was this really cool Balinese temple by the lake too.

As we were walking down the path, we spotted a bird keeper offering people the chance to take photos with birds. My parents thought it’d be fun to get a photo of me, so we decided to stop by. I picked a bird to take a photo with and put on this special glove to hold it. The glove was huge and kind of heavy, and holding that big owl I picked didn’t exactly make it easier! After Mom snapped the photo, we paid the bird keeper and moved on. Honestly, after that experience, I’ll definitely think twice about which bird I choose next time! I chose the biggest bird. Sure, it was cool and all, but the talons were so sharp! They are definitely heavy too!

After we left the lake, we jumped back in our rental car and started exploring the area. It was getting late, so we started looking for a place to have dinner. We found a restaurant on a cliff that looked pretty promising, so we drove there. By the time we arrived, the sun was setting, so we rushed to get a table. We ordered some food, and it was so nice to eat while watching the beach at night. Afterward, we headed back to our room and crashed for the night. The next day, our Bali vacation was winding down, so we packed up and got ready to head home.

The next day, we left the hotel and dropped off our rental car in the airport. When we arrived at our gate, we spotted some souvenir shops, so I decided to grab a cute little turtle keychain. While we were waiting, the gate agent started announcing a bunch of delays, so we ended up waiting much longer than expected. To keep myself entertained, I bought a Hot Wheels Godzilla monster truck toy. But the wait just kept dragging on, and everyone started getting annoyed because our 'early flight' was turning into a late-night one. Apparently, the plane we were supposed to be on was coming from far away, so it was taking forever for it to get here.

The plane finally showed up around 6:00 PM, and we were so ready to get on. After what felt like an eternity, we finally boarded, and we had to wait for almost two hours for the flight to arrive back in our home city, but the real wait was just beginning. The drive home felt like it took forever, and I kept thinking how much easier it would be if our place wasn’t a solid hour away from the airport. By the time we hit the freeway, I was exhausted, but of course, that's when we got stuck in a ridiculous traffic jam. It felt like we weren’t going anywhere for ages. Honestly, I don’t even know what was worse—the long flight or that never-ending drive.

By the time we finally got home, we were both tired and sleepy, and we arrived home late, at 9:30 PM. Honestly, we were so tired that we slept shortly after we arrived. And just like that, my vacation came to an end.