I love bali but this trip chose to explore more of Indonesia. Booked Jet* Darwin - Denpasar 20th March. I checked in early and decided to have a drink with mate at the Airport Hotel. Against my better judgement we had a second and when I got back to the
Terminal had this sinking feeling when I looked up at departure screen BALI BOARDING......now I am normally very organised when departing airports so for a few minutes i had a vision of missing my flight. Anyway customs were waiting for me and took my sunscreen. I also forgot to fill out immigration departure sheet. I know I am a nakal sedikit. ( little bit naughty).
Phewww.....on the plane. Had a very smooth flight over. Think the only bump was landing in Denpasar. No other arrivals so the airport was very quiet. Out in 5 minutes with only hand luggage. I normally stay in Sanur or Ubud but I had to return to the airport at 6.30am to catch flight to Yogyakarta. Kuta was closer so stayed at Suriwathi Hotel. Didn't see much of it but looked nice and reasonably priced.
For some reason this trip, 3 out of 4 plane flights involved raised blood pressure and a certain amount of running.
Ok its 6.15am Saturday 21st and my 6am driver turns up to take me back to airport. I am flying Mandala Airlines to Yogjakarta. The flight time on my printed invoice says DEPART 0720. So even though the driver is late we still get to airport at 6.35. I go through baggage screening with 2 bags and casually stroll towards a Mandala checkin counter which as my aging eyes focus says....JOGYAKARTA CLOSED.
There is another line at next counter going to Jakarta. I say 'permisi permisi'. This was one of the raised blood pressure moments. I show the lady my invoice. She has a frown on her face which I assume is international for 'not good'. Lucky she can type at 100 words per minute so quickly allocates me a seat and firmly points in the direction I must go. Her frown encourages me to run. I pay the 25000 rupiah departure tax when leaving Indonesia internally and I'm on the move again. Onto the tarmac dodging the vehicles and I make it up the stairs. Don't receive any 'we've been waiting for you' looks. I think this was because we were ½ hour early.
Now I am still scratching my head. It's ok to leave early if everybody is accounted for?
Perhaps bule (tourist) doesn't count?.......hmmmmmm.......Anyway I have my seat belt fastened. Down the runway and lift off at 0650. Yippeee! I'm off to Java for the first time.
Mandala planes are great. They have new fleet and I would recommend booking with them. I actually went to their website and they had promotion at the time. I paid 600,000 Rupiah return. But I had to ring up Indonesia and pay using credit card so cost an extra $15 on phone bill. Just remember their departure times are flexible.....haha.
The flight to Yogyakarta in the morning is beautiful. If you look outside the windows you can see many mountains and Volcanos. Some have gas leaking from them. I loved this flight. It was only an hour but I already had this wonderful sense of excitement building.
More coming.........