WaterBom!

Bali, Indonesia -- January 12-13 -- Day 2-3

For our first full day in Bali, we did the obvious thing: we sought out the “best water park in Asia,” WaterBom! Given the oppressive summer heat, this was, in fact, an excellent choice. However, having already been to what we believed to be the world’s best, Wild Wadi in Dubai, we tried not to get up our hopes up.

Lucky for us, Claire, the youngest, was coincidentally too ill to attend school but well enough for a day at the water park. Yipee. Almost exactly between Dex and Kylie’s age, she was the perfect companion.

Claire and Wednesday... or Olivia

Playdough food creations...

...Courtesy Clair, Dex and Kylie

Amy and Jeff’s driver, Kadek, conveniently drove us the few miles to the park, and then waited the six hours until we were done. Driving in Bali can be quite nerve racking, so It was only recently that Jeff felt confident enough to brave the roads. Much like India or other countries in Southeast Asia, pretty much anything goes when driving. Need to drive against traffic for a while? No problem. Ironically though, due to the lack of strict traffic rules, drivers tend to be surprisingly attentive, continually adjusting and reacting to what others are doing. There are a few notable conventions here in Bali presumably for safety, 1) honk whenever passing another vehicle and 2) flash lights before proceeding straight through an intersection -- “Watch out, I’m coming through!”

In any event, the traffic on the small, two lane roads was bad enough that the 6.5 mile ride took almost an hour. Jeff explained that road improvements are the responsibility of the different small neighborhoods in each town. As a result, any serious road improvements require the agreement and coordination of scores or hundreds of different groups, hence the poor roads and lack of improvements.

Flooded rice paddies

The park was a ton of fun. Though it was missing the variety of Wild Wadi and, in particular, the very cool, water-jet-powered transit channels that would actually push you up inclines to various rides, we spent the entire day slipping and sliding our way down slides and tubes. When we tired of that, we would hop in the lazy river and floated around the tree lined circuit on giant orange tubes. We tried numerous times to abandon them and just swim or float along, but the park “police” would scold us until we grabbed onto a tube again.

When we were finally back at the house, we were treated to an excellent veggie Lasagna that Amy had cooked. Kylie has been interested in trying out vegetarianism since we took our cooking class way back in Vietnam.  We had discussed the environmental and health impact of eating meat, particularly beef.  Despite this, chicken has continued to feature prominently on our plates in Vietnam and Cambodia. Often in India and almost always in the mountains of Nepal, we ate vegetarian meals. Our visit with the Hagins, however, has given us a perfect opportunity to try it again. Madelyn, the oldest, is even switching to a vegan diet, but was disappointed to realize that the mozzarella in the caprese salad didn't qualify.

The original plan for Friday was to visit the Monkey Forest in Ubud and maybe check out some of the beautiful terraced rice fields on the other side of the island. However, with the beautiful pool, adorable puppies -- Wednesday and Oliva -- and Wilbur the cow just outside, there was little motivation to leave the house.

Wilbur

We did, however, have the opportunity to visit the Green School, which was the main reason the Hagin's had decided to make Bali their home this year. The school offers classes from pre-K through high school and the curriculum emphasizes environmentalism and independent study with a good dose of fun and creativity. The school buildings are totally unique with every structure made entirely of bamboo!

The auditorium

Classrooms

Students come from all over the world though classes are taught in English. Many students also have the opportunity to travel during the school year as did Madelyn with a trip to Morrocco just a few months ago. We were very impressed; the Green School is definitely one of a kind.