Another year, another wonderful trip to Bali. I'm writing my JBR to 1) prolong the memory of my holiday and
2) contribute something to the forum which I get so much from.
This trip I am travelling with my sister (let's call her Hoppy) and my 10 year old Daughter Emily on her very first trip to Bali.
Day 1 - Sunday
The 8 minute Taxi ride from my home to the airport is uneventful, except for the huge traffic jam getting into the departures area at Melbourne Airport. How on earth there can be this many people awake at 7am on a dark, cold Sunday morning in Winter in Melbourne I do not know.
Its not even the first day of the Queens birthday long weekend - its half over, so that doesn't explain it either.
We usually fly with a low cost carrier due to their cheap sales, however this time Garuda had a good fare for around $600 for me and about $500 for Emily, which were competitive for the dates we needed and obviously include all the things you have to pay extra for on the low cost carriers. The extra luggage allowance is the biggest drawcard and means we can shop without fear of excess charges.
Our potential flight dates were limited in order to minimise the time Emily missed from school - we have taken advantage of the Queen's Birthday holiday plus a Curriculum Day which was thoughtfully allocated the day after the public holiday, meaning only 4 missed days of school for an 8 day holiday.
Garuda check in was virtually empty. No line at all. We walked right to the front, weighed our bags and had our boarding passes in no time. The queue at Customs and Immigration was only about a 5 minute wait, and we are in the gate lounge well before our 8.30 boarding time. We amuse ourselves by people watching - the grey haired lady dressed entirely in purple who is playing the Ukelele (please don't let her sit next to me) and the middle aged hippy covered in tatts who seems high on energy drinks and who wants to talk to everyone (also please don't sit next to me).
We wait and wait. And wait. Boarding time comes and goes. No announcements. Departure time comes and goes, no announcement. Really, would it kill them to let you know what the hold up was? The only action at the gate entrance is the antique dot matrix printer going full tilt for about 20 minutes printing reams of paper which must include a full background check and credit report of every passenger on this flight - because it cannot simply be a passenger list. I swear it's about 600 pages deep. No idea why that is necessary. Its still printing when we finally board and we leave about 40 minutes late.
We start practicing our 'salamat pagi's' on our way to our seats. We are offered newspapers, orange juice, a small amenity pack of socks and eye masks and have pillows and blankets already on our seats. Emily and I have the 2 seats with a window, and Hoppy is a couple of rows in front in the middle section of 4 seats. This seemed fine to me, until I find out later that the middle aged hippy (mentioned above) is also in this row, and did not shut up for the entire flight. The words 'Noise Cancelling Headphones' were used in our conversation about this much later.
Our seats are fine, except for the fact that Emily's entertainment system somehow got stuck and could not be resuscitated. The flight attendant gave it one half hearted attempt and then forgot about it. As any parent would know, keeping a child entertained on a 6 hour flight is kind of essential - they don't generally read or sleep for 6 hours. Rather than causing a fuss, I swapped seats with her so she had my entertainment and I had none. I will just have to buy dvd's of the movies I planned to watch on the flight and watch them later. Annoying but no great loss.
Emily's kids meal arrived before everyone elses, and looked and tasted nice. A penne Bolognese, a weird attempt at cheesecake (soft white cake on the bottom instead of biscuit crumbs), and some cheese and crackers. Mine was a chicken curry which was just fine.
Having somehow made up the time we lost in our late departure, we arrive about 1.30 local time and are all told to wait for the fleet of Buses which arrive promptly to drive us from the plane to the terminal.
The distance from the base of the plane to the entrance of the airport was no more than 30 metres which we all could have walked. A number of airport staff were riding around on push bikes so I'm sure the risk of being run over by a large vehicle was minimal. Instead it was a 10 second bus trip. Whatever. I'm sure it gives some politician's nephew an important job as a bus driver.
Visa on arrival was reasonably quick and the staff seemed a little chirpier than I remember. However there is a huge line for Customs and Immigration which probably takes 45 mins to get through. VIP Service would have been a good idea on this occasion.
I have to employ every trick up my sleeve to keep Emily from collapsing in a heap in this line after a delayed departure, long flight and now a long wait in line. Again we start people watching... the Japanese tourist dressed for winter in New York with scarf and tights, the lady with such a bouffant hairstyle you could hide a small Chihuahua in it.... small things do amuse small minds.
By the time we get thru this line, our flight number is no longer on any of the baggage carousels, so we have to run from one carousel to another to find our luggage. Another line up to get through the x-ray machine and hand our quarantine card to a man who simply does not care that we are bringing food in. Out to the arrivals area to an absolute sea of probably 300 local drivers holding cards with names on them.
How you would find your name quickly is a mystery to me, and I'm thankful that our friend and driver Kadek calls out Emily's name. It gets her attention because she knows no one in Bali, and has been looking forward to meeting Kadek. We rush through the last gasp mini duty free store and greet Kadek. He had almost given up waiting for us and we couldn't send him a text to advise of the delay.