Ok - holiday over (cue tears) Time to go home, Hit the Road Jack, Sayonara, all over Red Rover, time to join the real world etc etc.
As mentioned before, we were lucky enough that the Puri Sading (had no other forward bookings and) offered us to have as late a check out as we would like. Well terimah kasih! I can recall from previous trips that a late check out negotiation could get quite heated, with no result, so thank you very much - looking like the holiday ending as well as it had started!
So at 10pm we call a Bluebird from reception. Newbies, I think Bluebird taxis are the only way to go - and don't be fooled by the taxis that do have a 'blue bird' lit up on their roofs, if it does not say "Bluebird Taxi" on a banner across the front of the taxi windscreen, then it is not a genuine Bluebird. Yes they are all taxis, and really it is only a few cents, but they may take advantage of you if you let them, and no doubt that meter will tick over a little faster. Actually that reminds me of an incident many years back when we had little kids (where did that time go?) and we had a fabulous meal at Jimbaran Bay and we caught a Bluebird back to the Dynasty (which was the in place to go when you had kids because of the fabulous kids club - which they still have I believe, although the prices have risen by way more than CPI methinks). Anyway, after we had been dropped off at the Dynasty - holy guacamole! the hubby says to me (actually he said something else but the forum won't let me say that), you've left my camera in the cab (always the woman's fault)! Well - back then, and hopefully this would still happen now, that camera was personally returned to us by the driver the next day - no dramas! I am still a fan of Bluebird cabs today.
Puri Sading (Ari - thank you, you were great) calls us a Bluebird cab for our trip to the airport. Although we are leaving, there is still one more thing we are looking forward to. This time last year we saw the building of the new ByPass Road and thought that with 'Bali time' this huge project would never be ready for the APEC Leadership Summit meeting in October 2013 as everyone was telling it would be. So when we landed over Sanur and saw that 'wow' european style figure 8 road over the mangroves we thought - yeahhh they did it! We mentioned to our Bluebird driver that we hadn't yet been on the new ByPass. Well he was terribly proud of this new road too and drove along at around 20km per hour - the... whole... length - so that we could have a good look - we didn't have the heart to tell him to go faster. I thought it a good idea that there was a completely separate lane (with a concrete barrier) for motorbikes. We arrived at the airport in good time, even with the 2km at snail's pace.
We have been to our share of airports around the world, but this was the first time, when entering for the first check point, we were firmly directed to two lines - one for ladies (to the left please!) and one for ‘boys' (to the right). Anyone got any ideas why they do this?
Anyway, when meeting up with my 'boy' after this first xray checkpoint, I saw the wavy roof of the Departure area and it was how I imagined it would look (so modern and generic unfortunately). The check-in process was very quick and painless, but on reading reviews of the airport I know this is not always the case, and sometimes the first women and boy lines can stretch right out the front door and take ages. The airport does have good free WiFi and I used it to google reviews of the airport as, once we were through, I wanted to know if there was more than one toilet, as that line (for the women, don't know about the boys) was snaking out the door. Sadly no, I would need to hold on. We were also hoping to have a last Bintang at the airport as we did have a few hours to kill there. Again, could only find one place open to sell beer, and there was a long line and no where to sit, so we didn't. (this was actually a good thing, because then I didn't need a loo break before boarding!).
We eventually found a spot on the floor to sit and spent the time with some quality people-watching and reminiscing about the trip. We thought it hilarious that each loudspeaker announcement seemed - to our ears - to start with "Happy-en; Happy-en".
The process to board was abit of a fiasco. Over the loudspeakers they called a Sydney flight to proceed to Gate 10, and then 15 minutes later they called the Adelaide flight to go to Gate 10 as well ("Happy-en; Happy-en - all passengers travelling to Adelaide please proceed to Gate 10"). So there were two groups of people waiting at Gate 10 (no seating, just a congregation of people in the middle of the terminal). At that point there was another checkpoint - where everyone's hand luggage was searched (note: no bottled water allowed, and I also saw they were looking for large creams/shampoos etc and I saw some confiscated). And then there was a body pat down of everyone - total overkill we thought. And chaos with trying to get the Sydney people through first, with the Adelaide people waiting. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had got on the wrong plane.
I can imagine when the airport is (ever) finished it will be good - but for now it is lacking in facilities and there is a fair bit of chaos. I would arrive early, and also bring some food for the wait.
We did have a great flight home with Virgin to Adelaide; surprisingly the plane was not full (albeit it was still school holidays in Adelaide) and we each scored 3 seats to have a good snooze. Funny that when we got to Adelaide, we were 20 minutes delayed after we had landed and docked as the Adelaide ground crew couldn't get the air bridge to align with the plane - so not only in Bali do these things happen! And at least we had an air bridge.
The AUS exchange rate for our stay was between 10,500 to 10,770 (fantastico!)
Re money - one of the best tips I have ever been given (and I don't think I've seen mentioned), and which would be useful to Newbies, is how to tell the difference between the high denomination notes, especially in the dark, say at the end of a taxi ride at night. The 50,000rp and 100,000rp notes have a metallic strip down the centre which glints at night - no more counting those zeroes! I often wonder why the 10,000 and 100,000 notes are so similar in colour and the cynic in me says it's to confuse the tourist so they can hand over the wrong one, but I hope that I'd be wrong. However there are some tourists who deserve to be ripped off. We saw a couple in a Circle K who had no clue about the money. Now some mini-mart shops can scam the unwary - sometimes only 1K per transaction but that can add up (tried it on me many times, and in many ingenious ways) and these two had signs on their heads 'please rip me off' because they just proffered a full wallet to the cashier indicating 'please help yourself'. Seriously! We didn't stay around to witness any possible rip off - if I had and saw something untoward, I would have probably caused a scene. Better to let people make, and learn from, their own mistakes. Like keeping mouths shut when walking past a tout who has an excited couple who have just won a 'scratchie' offering some free fabulous prize.
Tip No 2: We always, of course, present any articles with any bit of wood for inspection at Customs on our return and I duly presented my 2 metre table runner (wooden - I think- slim slats interspersed with material and bound with material) bought at Hardy's for 125,000rp. I've bought plenty of these over the years, also placemats (I'm thinking you are saying, yes I know the ones, I have one too) and have never had an issue. But, on this occasion, the customs officer sharply tapped the runner, and lo and behold, there popped out a tiny miniscule little bug, just one mind you, but enough that I had to surrender that mat. Next time, because I of course have to go back to Bali now to specifically purchase another table runner (it's good to look for the positive in every situation) I will do the thorough ‘tap hard for bugs' check, and probably also fumigate it myself with fly spray before the trip back home.
So that was the only thing to challenge the promised Happy En-ding, except for the fact that it was again forecast to be 41 (hot and dry) degrees in Adelaide for the coming week - how much I prefer the 30 (hot and humid, feels like 35) degrees in Bali!
Thank you for sharing my journey with me, until next time.....
Cheers
Corrie (formerly known as Korrie)