Our flight to Bali from Queensland wasn’t without drama. We arrived at the airport in the evening nice and early only to find out we’d been given the wrong flight times and check in was about to close. To make things worse the flight was overbooked so there were no seats remaining for us. We were facing an overnight stay in a Cairns airport hotel when our luck changed. The plane had a last minute fault so the airline had to swap to another aircraft which incidentally had more seats… space for us, yay!

After an uneventful flight and a night in a Denpasar airport hotel we headed inland to Ubud, the spiritual and artistic capital of Bali. Whatever!… The guest house had a pool directly outside our veranda so that’s all Baby Barrett cared about 😆

The next morning was an early visit to Monkey Forest Temple to avoid the heat of the day. The temple is in a dark atmospheric forest on the edge of town and the temple stone work is covered in damp moss and adorned with the hanging roots of banyan trees. Perfect for BB to play out his Indiana Jones fantasy… however some may doubt who wanted to be Indy (Dad?).

BB was born in the Chinese year of the monkey so Dad was super keen to show him his first monkey. That wasn’t difficult as there were monkeys hiding in every corner, some real and others not.


The afternoon was spent of course… splashing around in the guest house pool.

The next day was a visit out of town to another temple. This time in a steep hidden valley surrounded by lush rice paddies. A scene of tranquility deep in the valley away from the frantic beeping motorbike and lorry filled roads above. The serenity wasn’t even wasted on Mum and Dad who aren’t amongst the most spiritual people to have visited the temple!

That afternoon after more time in the pool BB decided that he needed a new outfit to fit his location – Bintang Yogi Pants Barrett?

Now by this time BB had settled in to Ubud and was schmoozing with the locals. The guest house owners who instantly fell under his blue eyed spell gave him a Balinese name… Wayan Bule Barrett (First born, light skin). He was also a hit with the local ladies. Every time Mum and Dad took him to a cafe or restaurant there was a queue of beauties wanting to whisk him away for cuddles. Also a result for Mum and Dad who got to eat in peace for a change.

Feeling suitably ‘spiritualised’ we left Ubud and headed south. Mum had to do a little bit of work and we needed to find a hotel with high speed internet access….and a pool of course.