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I thought Bali was very interesting because there were lots of different foods to try. My favorite was chicken satay. I kept having it every day and it was so good but never quite as tasty as the satay we had in Chinatown in Bangkok Thailand. Even though I wasn’t very excited about the sights they were amazing and interesting in their own way. On the way out of Tanah Lot we came across two old women selling sticky rice things. I didn’t know what they were but of course my dad made my try them. My parents liked them but I really didn’t that much. Another food I enjoyed was roasted corn on the cob from Mt Batur. It was roasted over coals, buttered and salted. It was the best corn I’d ever had.
There were a few sights I did like. Like Ulu Watu. It was very interesting because there were wild monkeys everywhere. You had to be very careful because the monkeys would steal anything that caught their eye. The temple on the cliff was beautiful. Tanah Lot was another fun temple because I had fun floating flowers down the stream while my parents looked at the sights. One of the other highlights for me was Tirtagangga, a water temple that had pools, fountains, and lakes. Part of the time I was skipping along stepping stones in one of the pools. The rest of the time I was swimming in the freezing cold pools that had lots of fish.
Shopping was great. I had a lot of fun picking out dresses. There were so many exotic dresses there that I could look at and beg my mother to buy for me. I really had a great time, except the fact that it was very hot.
One of my favorite parts to the trip was that almost every hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool. I got to swim in them almost every day. I liked them all but my favorite was in a small hotel in Jogjakarta where there was a long, rectangular pool that I got to swim in in the rain. Normally in Seattle it would be far to cold to swim in the rain. But in Bali it was always hot enough. On the last day in Jogja, before we went to the airport, my father and I went to an arcade with lots of video games. I had a great time there. I’d never actually been to an arcade before. We went to the bird market and I really didn’t enjoy it because there seemed to be so many animals that seemed to be suffering. They were all in small little cages. It smelled bad and it was so hot so I recommend that if you like animals you should not go to the bird market.
One of the places that I went with my family was Waterbom Park. It was a water park with slides. My favorite ride was the Macaroni Tube. You climbed a tower to a waterslide, got on an inner tube, and go down the slide. At first you were in the open but suddenly you went into a tunnel. It was very scary the first time I went but after it became my favorite. At the end you’d splash into a pool. A couple days later we went to Treetops Adventure park – a ropes course. I got in a harness that had pulleys and hooks. Then I walked over to the practice area and slid down a mini zip line, landing on a net at the end. When I was done practicing I went on the real course, starting with level two. It was very scary at the beginning with long zip lines and walking very high up in the trees. But I was always attached with my harness. I made it to level four, the highest I was allowed. Then we left and went to a little shop to have lunch. I felt something sticky and gooey on my leg. I pulled up my skirt and looked to see what it was. At first I thought it was a slug. But when I tried to pull it off it stuck there. It was biting my leg, it was a leech. It was small and harmless but still disgusting.
On the way home at the airport I was looking at my dad’s backpack and suddenly something green moved. I realized it was a gecko that had hitched a ride on the pack. I told my dad and he shook it off gently. I scared him into a corner so he wouldn’t get stepped on and then he scurried up the wall to safety. Apparently, he wanted to go to America!
Maia Coen (age 10)