I will try to make this intersting for all!! Set off finally on 16th Sept from Melbourne, flying Garuda for the first time. We were a group of 10 ranging in age from 13 yrs to 45yrs. 4 of the group were first timers to Bali and I had been bending their ears off for months on how wonderful Bali is:0)
Arrived at the airport about 6.45am, so plentyo ftime we thought haha
Line to check in was long and not moving overly quickly, so we jumped on the end all full of excitement. Sent hubby and son off to get US $ for VOA. We got over half way along and a power failure:0( Waited about 45 mins to an hour then hooray power, this time the line seemed to be checking in much more quickly. Got to second in line and another power failure, this time only for about 15 - 30 minutes. Finally we were checking in and there was a problem with the ticketing. The lady behinfd the counter didn't seem to be very clued in and just kept looking concerned!! She then called the supervisor over who explained that the tickets were booked as Miss ... but issued as Ms... which meant the sysytem and the gods couldn't align. Supervisor wasn't much help but eventually sorted this out. At this stage everyone was hungry and getting quite annoyed so hubby and I sent them off to find something to eat and said to stay together.
Well after an hour!!! and being told the flight would be slightly delayed we set off to find the group and go through to customs. That's where the next fun begins!! We get to customs lines are huge, luckliy hubby has flown business class and grabbed one of the staff and told them we needed to check through as flight was soon. LUCKY!!! We set off through Duty Free to check flight boarding and IT WAS NOW!! Daughter had gone to toilet had to go and tell her to make it a fast pee and we ran through to get on the flight. I was at that time thinking what has happened to my relaxing holiday. But the beautiful island of Bali was awaiting so I just laughed what else can you do.
I would fly Garuda again, service was great and staff very friendly. Unfortunately we had the group of Aussies behind us who really give us all a bad name, loud obnoxious and out of control kids with no courtesy for other travellers. I am sure we have all had them at some stage but still I just laughed and thought of beautiful Bali. Arrived finally and paid our VOA and picked a line to jump on - this guy ahd to be the slowest person on all of the airport all the other lines moved 3 times as fast!! Anyway staright through customs with a wave and a smile and out to the waiting crowds. The look on the faces of the new travellers was priceless:0) We had arranged for Connie & Made to meet us (recommended by Debbie on the forum) and headed off to the cars. Connie had bought two vans and a luggage car which was great as we weren't squashed. Off to the BGH we went. Breathing in the wonderful smells of Bali and watching the sights go by and feeling the heat after a cold Melbourne. Arrived at the BGH to the smiling staff and greetings, had to re-arrange a couple of room placements which meant hubby and I weren't next to 13 yr old & 2 16 yr olds but on the same floor just around the corner. It wasn't too much of a hassle and they were fine. Others were one floor up and all next to each other. Off to the pool bar for drinks and swim, the youngers went hard on the cocktails and felt it later but us oldies held up the fort and lasted the distance. Went off for first shopping and making our way to Poppies1 to eat at Fat Yogis only to find it has been replaced by a new eatery. Seemed to take forever to get there as we stopped at everyones to look or buy. We ate at Secret Garden in Poppies1 food was fine and at a good price, service was good. Daughters 2 & 3 felt unwell not sure if was the fact that they hadn't eaten much all day or the heat or maybe the cocktails could have been the culprit!!! We headed back to the BGH for a swim and bed as it had been a long day stopping at Mataharis supermarket to stock up on supplies and dream of the smiling Made's amazing banana pancakes and omelettes that awaited us in the morning.