Bali Oct 2017
This will be a long winded roundabout kinda report.
I do like to tell the story in such a way that we can look back and laugh rather than just dot point on tours and tucker.
Here we go then.
It has been almost two and a half years since we last visited Bali. We used to do four, five or six trips in a year. Some long, some short.
Life gets in the way sometimes though and you've just gotta roll with the changes.
I got a little bit crook and it kinda snuck up and took over our lives. Many of you will have had the black dog either close or within barking distance in your life and family. .....so it needs no explanation.
We have a Thursday night social group that are pretty close mates and spend a fair bit of time together. It's a large group so we always have a special event on the horizon that we know we will celebrate well.
This time the lovely Penny was turning fifty and in her quiet manner said 'here's the date.....be in Bali '
Miss Penny is not to be trifled with.....so we are off to Bali. 😊
Not having worked for nearly three years left us living from Rae's business and that meant tightening up a little to make the trip. Rae found some cheap Air Asia flights and got us heading in the right direction. ...up there. ....no flight back as yet. Not that it bothered us......we've done it plenty of times that way. Just set search parameters on a few sites and wait for the right flight to appear. In the mean time we needed somewhere to stay.
A few years back...when things were gooderer 😊 we bought into the Karma/Odyssey group to use the travel club more so than the timeshare. Having nine children all at or coming up to travelling age...as well as ourselves expecting to be in a different place....we got involved and started looking to travel the world. Didn't happen........still will though. Just a bit later is all.
So anyway, out of the blue one evening.....or is it out of the black at night?. ..anyway...we get a phone call on Rae's phone that stated ‘possible spam'. She was two tequilas in and decided to have some fun with whichever poor bugger was going to try to fix our microsoft problem this evening.
Turns out to be Odyssey 😊
They had a seven night $99 deal going for a number of properties, so we asked about Sanur. Yep, was the answer. .......the next piece of the puzzle fell into place.
About two weeks before our trip we thought that we should consider tracking down our return flights. There are usually plenty of cheap options but mostly at crap flight times. Traveling without the kids we didn't fancy being out of bed for a 7.30am flight home. Batik Air had an 8.30pm flight that would see us home to Mandurah by 2am. That was perfect as Rae had work at 7.30 and I had to roll over at about the same time 😂 They also offered everything we needed including meal and luggage at the right price. ....no add ons required. We will fly them again.
We were now all booked and excited at long last. Now came the planning ...or non-planning as the case may be...for total relaxation.
Being a bloke I planned for me first. 'Rae.....we have 7 nights.....I believe we could fit in about ten shags'
In a flash she replied 'five'
It was on.....by the time we had finished negotiations I had happily accepted 'one....maybe'
The door was still ajar.....and that was better than expected.
It was time to go to Bali.
Getting to the airport seemed very straightforward ...after all....five of our nine children now drive and we've done a fair whack of taxi work for them over the years.
So we drove ourselves to my parents place in Perth 😊 and they dropped us to the airport.
Mongrel bloody kids.
The Air Asia evening flight is great if you need to work that day and want to be in Bali when you wake up. We checked the Ngurah Rai flight schedule and realised that there are four large flights from China landing within minutes of this flight. All at around midnight.
This meant being ready to walk at a pretty bloody good clip once we arrived to save a bit of queue time.
We sat on the tarmac in Perth refuelling for an extra twenty minutes after our scheduled take off time.
Oh well. ...time to brush up on my swearing in Mandarin.
Turns out....it's not really a problem. The dudes from China all have to follow another dude from China with a big stick that has either a green duck or a purple dragon or a picachu or some other bloody thing hanging from it. They seem quite mesmerised by it and all sway along in time together. Just pick the gaps and head on through. I pirouetted through those gaps like Chris Judd on the outer wing of the MCG........just managed to stop myself hitting the immigration bloke fair on the tit with me passport.
Rae will no doubt confirm the above 😊
The next little delay was entirely my fault.
We had taken an esky full of small goods up to give to a few mates that live up there. Don and Ron have both helped me in ways that I cannot ever fully thank them for. They have both, in their own ways, guided me towards a dream that I harbour and have never backed away from their faith in me.
This was just a small thank you.
Turns out....the 20kgs in the esky was about 23kgs. My scales at home are out a bit........so I've been lying to the Doc as well 😊 . It was offered to me to take the extra weight out of my check in luggage and put it in to my hand luggage at no cost......or pay $22 per kg and leave it in the esky.??????
There are now three ice bricks in the bin at the airport.
So there we are in Bali at the baggage carousel.....patiently awaiting the arrival of said esky. Waiting. ....waiting. ...waiting. My much smarter than me wife finally said 'didn't you tape the esky back up with tape that said fragile?'
Hmmmmm........so off I wander to fragile goods to grab my esky.
Next time I ask to borrow tape I'm sure this will be forefront in my mind.
Next....declared goods. For those that are wondering. Yes.....you can take in your cheeses, salami's, biscuits etc.....in personal use quantities....just declare it.
I had said to Rae quite confidently 'leave the talking to me.....I'll tell them it's gluten free and I'm on a Mediterranean diet'.........yes...she thought that was as stupid as you are thinking right now.
So the customs officer has two hand motions available to him......the wave through....and the ‘open up'. I got the open up one. No problem. .....gluten free Mediterranean remember. First question 'how long you stay in Bali?' Just seven days is my reply. He proceeds to open the esky.....looks at me.......looks back at the esky .......looks back at me. Head begins shaking from side to side as his next question arrives. 'Who is this all for please sir?' naturally I reply with my well rehearsed truth. 'It's all for me.....I have special diet'
It suddenly dawned on me as we both now stared into the esky. ........20 kgs of tucker.....seven days. I knew what was coming next...'so...sir.....you will eat all of this in seven days?'
His grin was as dopey as mine by this stage......we both thought I was an idiot. 'Ummmmm....maybe share small amount with my friend'
He was almost laughing now 'good thinking sir......please enjoy your holiday'......and the hand wave that we all desire sent us on our way.
Tomorrow. ....the bit about Bali 😉
CBE
Cracker 😉