The Terrific3 travel blog

This morning, we had a cooking class we schedule through Airbnb experiences with Made. We had taken 2 cooking classes in Thailand which were amazing, so definitely had expectations.

We were picked up after 8am and taken to the market by a driver who wasn’t super engaged or involved. There was another driver with another cooking group there who was telling his customers about all the spices, and I was eavesdropping and a little jealous. After the sort of useless market tour, we were taken to the Balinese compound where they did the classes. And there were almost 25 other people! We were given snacks and orange juice and a 20 minute talk about Indonesian culture. I enjoyed it except for the fact that my kids did not and were bored and ready to start the activity.

Finally around 1030am, we went to the kitchen. Some more introduction to spices etc and then finally we started cooking. It was more collaborative and you had a partner you alternated with, but it was super organized, coordinated by staff, and well done. At the end, the food was put together buffer style and we all ate together. S only had rice; he refused to even try anything else except the black sticky rice dessert, which he complained was too crispy. Z ate and tried everything—and ate a plate full of Indonesian food. It’s so interesting how this trip has sent my two kids flavor wise into 2 directions—Z trying much more food and spice, and S refusing anything but pizza and pasta (and the occasional hummus). The Indonesian meal was quite good for what it was; though I’ll have to say, I would rather have Indian or Thai food any day. To me, it’s just tastier! I know when we get home, we’ll be cooking lots of Thai. For Indonesian food, we may make the tempeh, but even the peanut sauce wasn’t super healthy—they deep fry the peanuts in Bali vs roast them in Thailand.

We were brought back to our villa, the kids got in the pool, were being too wild, and I had to ask both to get out and start packing as we leave Ubud tomorrow. We had dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant.

When we got home, in getting ready for bed, I discovered the maids had changed my sheets and there were bloody spots on them as well as black skid marks. Under the sheets was a mattress cover with blood too, but in a different location. It was so disgusting—I went to the front desk staff and let him know and of course, he didn’t understand me so I had to show him photos and he kept saying they changed sheets today. Yes, to dirty sheets, and please change them again. I’m very torn about how to rate them on my Airbnb review—we had lots of issues on check in, now the bloody sheets, the key broke a couple days ago; the staff has been very kind and attentive though and the location is great, and I like that the place is owned by a local Balinese man. I guess I’ll just have to leave a mixed review.

Tomorrow we are off to Sanur. I’m ready for the beach. I’ve been in communication with the surf school for the kids. The whole reason we picked Sanur was that they said they had lessons there, but this week it was apparently too windy so they couldn’t, so it’s possible my kids would have to travel an hour each way to take surf lessons. Neither kid wants to do it that (nor do I), so we’ll see if the weather shifts. Communication with the surf school has also been confusing and full of misunderstanding. I’m so used to traveling in central or South America and speaking Spanish, or a place like Italy where I can improvise, or India where I can speak the language, that the communication frustration is not common in my travels. I’m very much looking forward to being in England in a week! I’m kind of exhausted from always having to explain myself; however, it gives me much more empathy for my non English speaking patients!