Hello everyone,
The last report for me, and I'd like to firstly say thank you to everyone who has shared our vacation (vicariously) and left such lovely comments. I'm very touched, and most appreciative!
Our last day in beautiful Bali dawned, and I woke up excited... strange I know... but I love going home after a great holiday, and this trip had been a real wowser for us all.
A very light breakfast, some final packing, and an hour spent trying to connect to the internet followed, and then it was time to go.
We called and asked for a couple of porters to come and help with our luggage. We also asked for trolleys, and when I mentioned which room numbers, the porters exclaimed knowingly, and after a few chuckles and some rather irreverant sounding comments, they arranged the supply of some big heavy duty luggage trolleys and a team of porters!
It was quite a sight!! So much so that Mum felt it necessary to duck into a corner as the masses of luggage caused open mouthed gapes of astonishment from the Novotel staff and our fellow guests.
Once again our belongings caused traffic jams around the Novotel lobby.
Nyoman arrived on time with his usual van and we greeted him warmly, asking after his health (which suffered from the previous three days of wedding celebrations), and offering final gifts and thanks for all his help.... then he told us the news.
Our box car / ute with shed on the back, vehicle wasn't coming... and instead we were getting another van to help with our luggage. OOooppss!!!
I don't know how they managed it... you definitely couldn't have fit anything else into either van, but they managed to fit all 7 suitcases, three giant duffel bags, 4 backpacks, carry on bags, two wood panels, two helicopters, Master 2's roll on suitcase, a box of toys and a stroller, plus 9 people including the drivers into them. Very well done!
I think the lobby at the Novotel groaned with relief as we rolled out!
The trip to the airport was uneventful... though I did suggest to Dewa the driver of the second van (and company owner) that a race to the airport might liven things up. He laughed and slowed down! :(
As we arrived at Denpasar airport you could feel the mood in the van drop... Master 14, Master 2 and Hubby were not at all happy about leaving, in fact the misery was coming off them in waves! However, the porters at the airport were very pleased to see us being unloaded!
You should have seen them swarm, offering their services, and helpfully gesturing to various items of luggage.
That being said, their expressions quickly dropped when they realised we were going to 'go it alone' and had sent Master 14 for a cluster of trolleys!
So, we said our farewells to Nyoman and Dewa, thanked them for everything, and asked them to please take the box of toys and the stroller to distribute around their village. They in turn thanked us for being their guests, made us promise to return, and agreed to take the toys etc, with them.
It was a very thankful moment! :)
Then we loaded up our 4 trolleys, and headed into the airport.
I won't go into detail about the fun and games we played trying to check in, but suffice to say that we ended up tearing suitcases apart in the middle of the airport, tossing items from one case into another, toothbrushes and shoes flying though the air, a crowd formed around the edge of our group thinking we were holding some strange packing competition... until finally we had all luggage weighed and checked in.
Noone can ever say that we do things the boring way!
So as per our original plan, we headed for the Dewa Lounge, shuffled to the end of the airport, shuffled into the lounge, flopped, and spent the next two hours relaxing, nibbling and shopping (yes, yes I know... we will never learn!!).
Then we get the call for our flight.... okay, first call, not a problem, we started to get ourselves all organised, and sent Master 14 off to locate the shoppers amongst us. The call goes out in the lounge again... no problem, lets start shuffling for the exit....
Then the Manager came up, mentioned that the flight was boarding early, we were needed at the boarding gate NOW, and that Gate 1 was at the opposite end of the airport!!!
Oh dear... now our boarding passes didn't have gate numbers listed, and the boards had originally shown the flight departing from Gate 3, so we were not prepared for the long walk, and it was starting to look possible that we'd miss the flight!
Ooops.
We grabbed the many carry on bags (and my painting which we are going to smuggle on board!), herded all members of our party together, and began a very fast shuffle up the length and breadth of the departure lounge.
Unsurprisingly, we were the last to arrive, the only people left at the boarding gate to go through security, the last to board, and completely unobstructed getting onto the plane, to our seats (which I had shifted earlier that day from the front hot seats, to the rear of the plane which was mostly empty) and getting stowed away.
I might be that little bit late everytime from now on!!
The flight (which departed on time at 15:50), was uneventful, a teensy bit of turbulence, but a great tailwind which got us into Perth a bit early.
Master 2 once again slept through most of the journey... thank you drowsy cold medicine!! (used strictly to help keep his sinuses and ears open for the flight!)
Then as we were half an hour out the Captain spoke...
*crackle* "This is the Captain Bumbum speaking.." *crackle* "I am sorry, there has been a problem..." *crackle.. long pause, wheels broken???* "with the..." *loonnngg pause, visions of engines falling off... crackle* "airport.. very busy" *crackle* "we will have to...." *crackle, pause.. go back to Bali? Land at Jandakot?* "hold where we are, and land at 7:25pm."
Oh... is that all?? You could feel the tension level amongst the passengers drop!
So we land, 5 minutes early, plane skids sideways and brakes very hard, but otherwise it was all pretty uneventful and we disembark.
It is at this point that I remind Auntie that we had arranged a wheelchair for her.
She claimed there had been a miraculous recovery, and then proceeded to shuffle as fast as she could out of the airplane.
We were the last to leave. By a long way.
So we shuffle through the airport, make it past immigration, get through Duty Free, and enter the customs area. Hahahahaha...
They took one look at us, ushered us through a different door, and rallied the troops. We had 8 attendants going through our MANY items to declare. It was a riot!
Casualties were... 1 drum (rawhide is a no-no), one set of photo frames (seeds), and as expected one of my wooden wall panels needs to be treated for bora's, at a cost of $30 I am hoping to receive my bora free panel back within a few weeks.
Then, as the very much last group to exit from our plane, (though still only 40 minutes from landing), we made it through and exited the airport.
We were home.
It was cold!!!!!
I want to go back to Bali!
Saving has started, planning already.. have to get back to warm wonderful fantastic best ever Bali NOW!
Thanks everyone for reading.
Have a great day!
xxx
BaliDaze