This ended up being longer than I thought, I hope I don't make you start yawning (...)
Wow, what an experience my last trip was. This JBR is a tad late, I actually returned from Bali on the 8th of November, but due to a reason you will find later, I didn't want to write about my awesome trip until it was actually finished, which believe it or not, it still isn't finished one month on .........
My mate and I departed for Bali on the 26th October. We had an awesome flight, paid Qantas, but flew Jetstar. We arrived in Bali and we were at our accommodation 1 and a half hours after we landed, which was pretty good we thought. We stayed at Melasti Beach Resort (MBR) which we found great. Clean room, good breakfast, friendly staff, heaps of other tourists to mix with, pool right outside out door, what more could one ask for.
While we were there we met some other BTF members, Trevor and Carole were lovely, and we went to S&S which was great to sit and chat with some other forumites about what they had been doing.
I shopped, shopped, shopped oh and did I say shopped. I bought so many things that I didn't really know what I was going to do when it came to paying for excess luggage, as I had so much I thought it might cost me around US$300+ I just decided to be game and risk it, as the shopping was fantastic.
I visited Ubud, a monkey forest, walked the beaches, visited many restaurants and all in all, it was great fun.
When we had to leave it was quite sad, as I love the Balinese people and the happiness they portray. We decided arriving at the airport early was a good idea to get a good seat and hopefully get away with a bit of luggage. After waiting an hour for the desks to open we were told that our flight was not going to be taking off and we would be staying another night. They had no idea when we would be departing, but the information would be sent to our hotel that Jetstar was putting us up in. So of to the Bali Dynasty which was a 5 star resort, the room we were in was not that great and I actually preferred the MBR which is strangely enough only 3 star, but each to their own I guess.
We got the information that our flight would depart 23 hours late and that we wouldn't be charged for excess luggage, man what a relief that was, although you may find out how funny this is a bit later. So most of the females were up early to do some more shopping, we weren't being charged any excess so why not spend our money we had saved to pay at the airport for excess on other things. So man did we shop. It's amazing how much more you can buy, even if you don't need it when there is no limit on what you can take home in weight.
So on the plane we got, when we got to Sydney we had to try and get a flight to Christchurch which was lucky it was only 2 hours after we arrived. Yay we are on our way home. Here comes the bit why I haven't posted a JBR until now........
On our arrival we headed towards baggage claim to pickup our luggage, well hello it is nowhere to be seen, we are told it will be sent to us asap. So three days later 3 bags turned up which were my friends luggage, my two were still to come they said.
It is now 31 days later and my luggage is nowhere to be seen, all the extra shopping I did was for nothing and all my Christmas shopping won't be wrapped and opened for Christmas.
My travel agent is trying to get a refund for meals that we paid for on the flight which Jetstar told us we would get in a letter given to us at the hotel in Bali. We paid Qantas so tried them, they said it is Jetstars problem and Jetstar are still saying it is Qantas' problem. We were also told that we would get a $100 voucher for travel on Jetstar, we have been told the voucher is only valid for domestic travel within Australia and only valid for travel in the next 6 months. Living in NZ that doesn't help us much and they won't let us gift it to anyone and we both have to fly to get the voucher.
Since I returned Jetstars delayed baggage department have been sooooo unhelpful, they are based in another country and don't speak good or correct English, so it is hard to get any information out of them. I am now dealing with the lost luggage office via email only. I have been told that I need to now get quotes for all items lost, I don't know anyone that would like to shop at this time of year, let alone try and get quotes for underwear, toothbrush, hairbrush, Nike shoes, orthotic shoe inners etc..... along with all the Xmas presents, oh what fun I've been having.
Anyway the result of my trip - It was absolutely fabulous, had a wonderful time, am still smiling and I want to go back, especially because I have no material things to show for my trip.
Thanks for reading, I hope you didn't fall asleep halfway through.