The day started like any other on the weekend. The kids were up a good hour before my wife and I, doing their usual back and forth of playing and fighting in equal amounts. There was little stress to be had, that had come the day before, and so today was instead filled with the slow hurriedness of last minute checks, packing those things that can’t be packed until the day and trying to keep a 6 and 4 year old entertained when something completely new and unfathomable was about to befall them.
We were going to take them to Bali.
Now if I had my way this moment wasn’t going to be due for a good few more years yet. The boy is the youngest of the two and will likely scarce remember most of the moments that he’ll experience here that aren’t captured in photographs, videos and the handful of trinkets I’m sure that will be picked up along the way. Our girl, who seemingly has a razor sharp memory for very specific things (TV being prime among them, as well as every K-Pop Demon Hunters song) will definitely remember more but I fear that so much of it will be lost to the blurry years of childhood. But this was something I didn’t want to deny them as it wasn’t just us going.
The trip was the brainchild of my sister-in-law. A simple WhatsApp message many months ago about going to Bali, the date being suspiciously close to her birthday, asking who would be in. A quick round of looking at flights, checking my Qantas points and seeing the available options at the preferred resort showed it wouldn’t be the hardest thing for us to do. My reservations about travelling with kids this young still stood but we had had precious few occasions to travel with the wider family so I figured why not, let’s roll the dice. Now here we are packed and ready to go with the airport in our sights.
Our kids are good travellers in cars for the most part having survived multiple car trips to faraway places as well as a camping trip earlier this year. I wasn’t too worried about how the flights would go, especially considering how excited they were for them. This, of course, tempted fate and our initial flight ended up being delayed an hour with half of that being spent on the tarmac in my least favourite aircraft of all time (the Dash-8, AKA the Bone Rattler). But once we were up and away their annoyance at the realities of air travel in this modern age melted away as they gawked at the scenery that was passing them by in the window.
That delay meant we didn’t have as much of a wait in Sydney as we might’ve otherwise had which in hindsight was actually a great thing. It was enough time to change terminals, grab a quick bite to eat and then get to the gate where we started looking for my other sister-in-law who was travelling with her fiancé and soon to be 1 year old. As other girl-dads can attest there’s nothing quite like a baby to keep kids at my daughter’s age entertained so she was heartbroken when we couldn’t track her down. Instead she busied herself with doing improvised gymnastics on the seats at the gate, something her brother was more than happy to imitate.
We finally met my sister-in-law just before the plane was ready to depart and, they being with small child, were quickly whisked away to be boarded quickly so they didn’t hold everyone else up. We were in the last group and so there was much cajoling done as the kids watched family after family board before us. Still I wasn’t exactly in a rush to get from one slightly uncomfortable chair to another, smaller and even more uncomfortable one.
Being a family of 4 we were seated in the middle, taking up an entire row. The kids quickly settled into their various programs on the far-too-small screens on the back of the seats, forgetting that they had their tablets with them that, in my humble opinion, would’ve provided a far better experience. I stupidly decided to try and watch a couple movies from the unusually meagre selection that they had on the plane to only have both of them take almost twice their run time to watch. You see, dear reader, young children are an interactive experience at all times whether you want it or not. So it was that almost every 5 minutes there was some kind of interruption that demanded my attention. I still got through them both (Ballerina and We Live In Time if you’re curious) but I can’t say that my experience of them was how the directors had intended it. Still, they helped the time pass.
Our flight was due to arrive late at night, 8:30PM local which was 11:30PM home. With our kids being in bed almost on the dot at 7:00PM every night this presented something of a challenge. We wanted them to sleep, they needed to sleep, but getting that done in the cramped confines of aisle 29 of the Airbus A330-200 was a challenging affair. Feet kicks were traded, pillows stuffed unwillingly into places and angry glances were shot. Both of them got some rest but nowhere near enough for the trials we were about to face.
That being said though the transit through immigration, customs and then to our pre-booked transfer to the resort was pretty smooth. We managed to tag back up with the sister-in-law and the war stories we traded kept our spirits up. Our driver was a friendly enough chap but shuffling tourists around late at night is definitely not something everyone aspires to do for long. Check-in at the resort went smoothly too and the kids renewed energy for everything they were experiencing ensured that we weren’t dragging 2 limp children across the floor. No instead they got a free ride with the bellhop and our luggage which they of course enjoyed thoroughly.
Straight to bed was the order of the night and we got there, just. That overtired energy that kids get when they’re beyond the pale is a hard thing to overcome especially when their dopamine receptors are in overdrive with all the new things that are occurring around them. But, thankfully, they went to bed with only a modicum of a fight. Fingers crossed that they get enough rest to be ready for tomorrow.
Which is going to be the real test in the end. We got here in one piece, the family unit surviving for another day, but that’s only half the battle really. Tomorrow brings with it even more possibility for the kids and, just like two sides of the coin, more challenges. I told my wife that I wasn’t really feeling excited for this trip at all until we were in the car, transferring to the resort, so I have hope. We’ll soon see if that’s unfounded or not.
