There were no direct flights from Sandakan to Denpasar, so we flew via KL again which meant a day of travel. Thankfully the kids are pretty awesome at all this now so it wasn’t a tricky day. There was minimal amount of winge, and mostly a lot of helping, carrying, walking and finding out information (oh, and needing the loo at totally inappropriate times like when nearing the end of the queue for immigration!). But before we knew it, we’d arrived in Indonesia!

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We’d arranged a driver to pick us up, so it was an easy transition to our Airbnb, which we were grateful for as it was quite late when we arrived.

We’re staying in a lovely, quiet set of homestays (think independent hotel rooms with a pool but no reception or restaurant or anything), just behind a main road on the coast of Kuta Utara.

We went straight to bed once we’d unpacked (although the kids were tempted by the pool at 10:30pm!), as we were all pretty tired from the travelling as well as all the Bornean adventuring.

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We couldn’t ignore our hungry tummies for too long in the morning, so headed down the street in search of somewhere for brunch. We chose a place called Watercress and it was an excellent decision.

Hunger satiated, we headed further down the street to find the beach and check out the local area. The streets were manic, full of cars and scooters beeping and winding their way through the traffic – often driving on the pavement to keep moving. It was very hot and noisy, but so interesting to see how restaurants, laundrettes, temples, corner shops and all sorts mingle together in the same space. We reached the beach to find it pretty empty and most local people only just setting up their stalls ready to sell their wares. We wandered along the sand, enjoying the refreshing waves on our feet.

As we hadn’t left that morning with any of our swim/beach stuff, and we’d promised the kids a chilled morning by the pool we headed back to our room for a few hours.

The “chilled morning” finally ended at 4pm when we thought it might be time to get something done! Martin took our post-jungle clothes to a nearby launderette and booked us all a Balinese massage in our rooms.

The hour-long massages were incredible, and cost us only £10 each… might be having some more of them! Straight from the massage we headed out for dinner at a restaurant under 5 minutes walk away. It was all delicious, but Sylvie was so tired she couldn’t even manage her half of the pudding, so we didn’t linger but went straight back to bed!

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First port of call the next morning was to get some more cash out of the ATM (far fewer contactless payments here) and get breakfast. The exchange rate from GBP to Indonesian rupees is about 1:20,000 at the moment, so we are dealing with high numbers. The kids found it amazing that they were millionaires!!

Breakfast was another winner of pancakes, smoothie bowl, feta avocado toast and a big Bali breakfast – all washed down with smoothies and fresh fruit juices.

We had discovered that the Grab app also works here in Indonesia, so we caught a Grab taxi to the Turtle Conservation and Education Centre (about 16km away on the southeasterly peninsula of Bali). This turned out to be so much more than we’d hoped for, as you can “adopt” a baby turtle and release it into the ocean!

We spoke to one of the conservationists working and learned about the way things operated there – from rescuing and rehabilitating turtles, to carefully hatching eggs and baby turtles being released back into the ocean. They also re-release the adult turtles once they’ve passed all the health checks and ensure they are in the best possible position to survive in the wild.

There are three types of turtles that inhabit the seas around Bali – Green, Olive Ridley and Hawksbill. The ones we held and released were green turtles, the same as when we were in Borneo.

After viewing some of the older turtles in their temporary holding “pens”, we were very excited to learn that we were allowed to hold tiny baby hatchlings that had just been born that morning!

We then went to arrange our turtle adoption papers. The kids were given a coconut shell bowl and allowed to chose their turtle and name them.

Once we were back at the conservation centre we couldn’t help ourselves – we had to see the babies again! We learned that the reason they keep the newborn hatchlings out of the water at first is because some of them emerge from the egg with their placenta still attached. Predators in the sea can smell this, so it makes them more vulnerable. By allowing the placenta to dry out before release, it gives the turtles a greater chance of survival.

After the wonderful turtle encounter, we grabbed a Grab to a different beach – Sanur – on the opposite side of Bali.

A dunk in the ocean and a snack-stop later, we did a bit of shopping and Kate introduced Sylvie to the art of bargaining… and of saying “no thank you” firmly!! Then it was back to our Airbnb (through rush hour traffic!), a family game of ball in the pool, showers, supper and bag repacking. No one felt like getting dressed and heading out for food, so the Grab app delivery service for a takeaway was a lifesaver – plus we got burgers that were so delicious they rivalled Fergburger in New Zealand!

So that’s it for the first bit of Bali for us – tomorrow we are heading to East Nusa (Flores), several islands east. We go in search of Komodo dragons and manta rays!