My Garuda flight left Perth a couple of minutes early on Sunday 20th June, and was almost full. The extra flight which Garuda had put on to cope with the school holidays/peak season demand left at 7am with only about 30 passengers.The plane was a smaller 737-400, with 3 rows each side of the aisle, and being seated near the front, it was a long walk back to the toilets. No complaints about the brekky, and no problems having an early scotch and dry to celebrate being on our way to paradise.
I thought I had the rush for the VOA under control by being seated in Row 9, but our plane disgorged us into buses on the tarmac, which meant my plan was threatened. However, kerry and I managed to be the last passengers onto the first bus, and therefore, the first off at the terminal.
In 7 trips to Bali, this is the first time that I've been 1st in the queue for immigration, and as it happened, 1st again for the VOA. Had the US$25 ready, so no wait at all. Ours was the only plane at that time, but another plane landed shortly after, and I could see the queue becoming increasingly longer as we headed off to get our bags.
After checking our luggage for the chalked "X" - none,(so they hadn't discovered the 2 casks of wine after all), we went to the customs aisle. The officer seemed very suspicious of my roll on hand luggage, and checked that, and also our Duty Free bags - no problems there. However, he wanted to inspect the cardboard box which was packed with school stationery items for my friend's village school.Most of the items were bought from Crazy Clarks, Red Dot and that type of store, and bought over a 12 month period. He asked how much many of the items cost, and then said "So, maybe $1000 australian worth here?" Well, I had to laugh at that, but then his next question was" Where is your letter?" So I showed him the Garuda letter allowing me an extra 10kgs, and he seemed satisfied with that, although I don't think it was that particular letter he was actually referring to. Kerry & I were then kept waiting for a further 5 minutes or so whilst he and his colleague discused goodness knows what in Indonesian, before waving us almost angrily through.I had the distinct feeling that he wanted to be given a "present" too, but I was only going to do so, if he asked for one.
This being Kerry's first trip to Bali, I had warned her of possible problems, and even had the $A10 ready if our wine casks were found! So, even with the customs delay, we were out of the terminal and in to Elvys's transport much more quickly than I had expected to be.
My husband and daughter were flying into Bali on the 28th June, and their flight was delayed 7 hours, which they were advised was due to bad weather in Denpasar. But as anyone who was in Bali on that Sunday knows, the day was clear and sunny, so who knows what the real problem was!
Our return flight to Perth on the Friday 9th July was delayed by one hour, which meant that when we arrived, a plane from the UK & Singapore had also just landed, so there were lengthy queues in the Red Lane. It took us over an hour to clear Perth customs in the end, but everything I had bought was fine, including the food products, shell/sand & wood shadow boxes and my other wooden items. I did notice that a lot of hacky sacks (full of seeds), banana leaf and hide products were being confiscated that night.
The customs officer commented that if this Garuda night flight didn't clear the runway in Bali, it would sink without trace because of all the heavy wood & stone items on it!! Gives you food for thought eh.
The plane was very full, lots of sick kids on board and families with as much hand luggage as us - a roll on cabin bag each, and a backpack or other bag as well, probably weighed another 40-45 kgs in total. When the plane took off, the pilot seemed to be on full throttle from the start, so I guess he must've had some idea of the full weight on board!I'd like to think so anyway.
More on our excess luggage later.