The weather on our departure day (5 Sept) was damn cold, with hail - so the plan of wearing shorts and a t-shirt to Bali was replaced with jeans and socks/shoes!
We (hubby and I on our 12th trip to Bali) had booked our Jet Star flights many moons ago, prior to Air Asia coming on the scene into Perth. Arrived early to the airport with about 8kg in excess of our allowance, was getting a bit worried as they seemed to be weighing hand luggage too at check-in. But when we got to the counter, the staff didn't bat an eye lid, so neither did we! (5kg of the excess was for a laptop we donated, so we could explain some of it, if we had to).
The flight left one hour late, as it had to be transferred from the domestic to international terminal, but we sat in the Q Club and had a few extra refreshments. The aircraft was quite full and an uneventful + 3 hour flight.
We had pre-arranged VIP VOA with Hadi, but he emailed me that it had been cancelled a few days before, so I knew what to expect....we raced off the plane and headed for the expected lines - well, they were the worst I have ever experienced on arrival into Bali. All booths were open, but the lines snaked past the end of the arrival hall and we waited and waited and waited..........it took almost 2 hours to get processed and not a happy experience - there must be a better way of doing this! I know I am on holidays and have plenty of time, but when it takes almost as long as the flight to get here, to get my passport stamped, there is something not quite right.
The yellow swine flu papers were collected and not read, so that was quick - not sure why we had to fill them in, but that caused no additional delay to the proceedings.
Luggage was waiting for us and we grabbed two porters and straight through customs. I don't declare any food items, as we had some favourite goodies from home, like bacon and sausages from our local German deli.
By now it was late afternoon/evening and Made, our driver was waiting to pick us up with a cold Bintang and Mix Max in hand, we quickly recovered from the VOA experience and were on our way. Wow it was lovely and warm and defrosted the old bones from a wet Perth.
Grabbed a new SIM card on route to the airport and arrived at the Courtyard Hotel in Legian. It reminded me of the Beach Melati Apartments and I understand that the same guys developed both places. We were shown to a ground floor pool-side room that was clean, comfortable bed, a small mini fridge and indoor bathroom. We didn't need anything more for our one-night stay; it's a nice small complex and handy location. We had some drinks at the bar and I packed up two small backpacks and we left the rest of our luggage at the villa we were staying for the rest of our holiday. (Packed lightly, as we were heading to Gili T for a few nights and didn't want our entire luggage with us).
We had an early start the next day with an 8.30am Merpati flight to Lombok, so wandered out for a quick pizza dinner at Café Marzano and in bed for a good sleep - travel days always seem to take it out of you, even if you spend it sitting for most of it, or standing in a line at the airport!
More to followw...........