Virgin Bali travelers me or from now on "The Boss", wifey and 15yo daughter (only on a good day) left the land of the long white cloud on Friday morning, rain and 5 degrees what a great morning to be leaving. Left Auckland at 6.45am on VA and stopped over for 2 hours in Brisbane, 6 1/2 hours later arrived with every other traveler in Bali. Learnt a lot about every type of person over the next 2 hours on the conga line that went half way back to Oz, but the air conditioned airport was fine and apart from rude people that can't wait like a million other people we managed to get through to meet our driver fan club out the front. It is such a funny thing to see all these little white bits of paper with honest attempts to spell peoples names, but our lovely female driver that we got onto from these forums was there in the front row. Now I have no idea why you would ever want to pay to go to a theme park when you can go for a drive in Bali, but our driver was like a surgeon the way she got us to our hotel. Booked in to our huge 2 bedroom apartment above the pool and went and had our 1st Bintang, so cold and so refreshing. Now this is when I learnt that I am "The Boss" and also that I have now developed erectile dysfunction since leaving NZ, cause every man that sees me wants me to buy "special pills" to help with my new found shortcoming, and a bonus is I can watch any CD I want afterwards.After working out this is going to be normal for a while we had a quick tea, I now know how the "normal" millionaire feels when he is spending money and at the moment I have worked out that if I hand over 10000 I am going to get change for a Bintang. I am a little lost after that so going to have a wallet full of "little" notes to go home with. So rather than worry about it after a big time bed was like heaven and no pills were going to help me do anything but zzzzzzzz.
Day 2 and wifey 15yo and "the boss" were off to explore and "not" buy anything, we that's the advice, but when Aladdin opens the treasure trove Wifey and 15yo are in for the prize, so 3 hours later, blisters on feet, we are tradeo marked "Bintang" "Adidas" and "Nike" owners now. The millions are getting cut back to all other notes, I think I need a bigger wallet, ahh "Boss just for you special Saturday price" this is an easy fix in Bali.
Did sunset on beach with our new "friend" with beanbags and the coldest "Bintangs" in Bali, well that's what he said, but he was pleasant and for 2 bucks I ain't really picky. Obviously my new "problem" stands out cause I am now being offered different variety of remedies now. Wifey and 15yo have ugly toes, but a lady was keen to fix them on the beach and if I ever loose my watch I will be fine in Bali, but why do you need to know the time anyway?
So a quick tea after sunset and there is a special moment I will cover in a later post, then off to bed for more zzzzzz.
Day 3
Joined by other daughter "son in law" in waiting and 5yo grand daughter for the week from Perth. Family reunion at hotel breakfast and catch-up before deciding to go to Kuta. Now 6 people so discuss 2 taxis and where to meet, so out the door and what do you know, people know you wanting a ride and they can take us all. Now again I have seen peoples posts about $5 bucks here and $8 bucks there, but when we found out our price $5 btw, how can you even quibble about any price under $20. Get a taxi in NZ or Oz and you ain't gunna have a thrill ride like in Bali for under $20. Anyway I digress so we got out in Kuta and I found a new owner for all those other multi coloured notes in my new wallet and I even gave the guy an extra couple of bucks cause I just couldn't do that trip for a fiver. Anyway 3 hours of shopping, have more "Bintang" shorts and wifey and daughters are eyeing up haw to send parcel home already. The Boss decides we need to slow down on purchasing all the tops and shorts in Bali so onto the phone to our driver and book a trip for tomorrow, 5 minutes later and we are sorted. So after a long day and a evening of mourning after the Warriors lost, so much for my new shirt, must sell that when I get home, was a small dinner and off to bed with a movie, which has some special rays cause within 2 minutes it was tat ta day 3 and sleep before our venture on Monday.