13 months ago after returning from yet again another 15 fantastic days in beautiful Bali we, husband Doug and me Chris, decided that we would go again in Feb this year. However our son Brenton and his fiancée Amy were going back in June, so we said that we would go with them. So after saving to go, sadly and unfortunately Doug could not get time off work so we bought a caravan instead! But hey that is another story. So it was to be that we had to wait out the full 12 months before we flew to paradise. And as you all will know it was a long wait!
After finding Julie, a fantastic travel agent, via John (oldmate)from the BTF we booked for 15 days for an amazing $1,000. This included airfares, taxes, breakfast, free trip to Kintamani and some discount vouchers. On Saturday the 17th Feb we departed from Perth for 2 weeks of bliss to our favourite place. Flew Garuda with no problems. I Sat next to a really nice Balinese who now lives in Perth with his Singaporean wife. He was going back to visit his family.
Arrived on time and went through all the usual airport procedures with no hassles bar one. For the first time ever we only took one suitcase as we decided beforehand we would buy a Bali #7 bag. So we had all our clothes packed into one hand luggage bag that we had put through as baggage and in our suitcase we had one of those egg crate foam mattress overlays literally stuffed in along with a dozen boxes of UHT milk for our Balinese friend's daughter Tania and both of our wet packs. Customs decided that they wanted to see the milk! OMG, what a job we had trying to get to it as it was really jammed in between the layers of the overlay which I might add was for a king size bed!. We had fun trying to explain to them what it was for but I think they eventually got it. I bought it because I had shoulder surgery in August and at last year's holiday I had found the mattress just a bit too hard so thought that the overlay would be great to relieve any pressure on my shoulder.
Caught a Taxi for 50,000Rp to the GVC. All the staff were really pleased to see us again and it was hugs all around. We had requested the same room as last year and were very happy when we were told it was available. As we walked down to 'our' room we sang 'Hey it's good to be back home again'. The renovations were still underway but 'out of sight' by a rattan screen.
It was great to be back in our 'second' home.
Part 2 still to come.... school fees and our very unusual wierd gift!