Day 22 - Travel to Bali Indonesia

Eye's opened up at about 7:00 AM today and it didn't take long for the realization that we were leaving to become clear. The clothes that we had washed the night before were mostly dry. The ones that were not had a short encounter with the hair drier that was present in the bathroom of our apartment. I had a quick shower and then grabbed all of the items out of the bathroom, including the two suction-cup hooks that I brought along with me. We use these to hang our shower scrubbies in the actual shower so they are there when you jump in and can just be hung back so they can dry until the next time. Best not to forget them. I already left one in a trip I did to Calgary the week before we came here.

We also did a bit of repacking to make sure all of our items made it back into the suitcases. Why is it that your stuff seems to get bigger as you travel? And then you realize there is more clean laundry on the table that you have not yet stowed. Sigh. Takes a few attempts to find a place where it will fit. There. 

Next we had breakfast with items that we had purchased from Woolies. Yogurt, grapes, granola, pineapple, raspberries, and an apple-thing I bought Laureen instead of a cinnamon-bun. Breakfast completed. We also made sure that we grabbed everything from the safe. Had a small situation in England on the trip that we did to Africa. If you are interested, you can check that day out HERE. Safe empty. Check.

Then we weighed our luggage just to be sure that we are good. Mine was 43 pounds, and Laureen's came in at 50. Hmmmm.  We might want to do a little weight distribution so we don't have a problem. That's when we realized that we did have a little issue. Apparently, the airline that we are travelling on to Bali has a weight limit of 20 Kilo's (44 lbs.). Hmmmm. There was a little discussion about how to handle this and we decided to drive to the airport (because we had lots of time), find where we need to drop the car, and at the same time run into the terminal to see what we can do about our luggage.

We checked out of our room at 10:10 AM and made our way to the airport. Once again we are reminded how much they love their roundabouts here. We made it to the airport in about 20 minutes and were able to locate the car return with no issues. Then we stopped at the terminal and Laureen jumped out and went in to see if she could find someone. I was left in the car, getting the evil eye from an attendant outside the terminal. He eventually had me roll down the window and said, "Hey mate. I realize that there is nobody here, but I can't have you stopped here for too long". I explained what we were doing, and he said he would give me some more time.  Laureen appeared, and needed to take the suitcases in the terminal, so we could have them weighed and then figure out how much extra we owed them. Once we had the bags freed from the back, I had to move to awaiting area a little ways away. No worries mate. 

Laureen texted me that she was done, and I came back to the terminal, loaded our bags back in the car (we can't check in until 3 hours before our 7:00 PM flight), and drove to the same waiting area for her to describe to me what we had to do. Essentially, we paid an extra $31 AUS dollars for the extra weight that we had and we're all good. That was worth the trip to the airport by itself. The car needs to be returned for 3:00 PM, so we decided to go for a drive to a beach that we had passed, just 25 minutes north of Cairns called Ellis Beach. 

It was hot out, but the drive and the pictures were worth it! 

From there we drove to Palm Cove and we drove along the water until we got to a place we had been before - it was one of the places that we went to on our city tour of Cairns. It had a large jetty/pier that we walked out on and Steve had noted that he would like to bring his caravan there. Steve: you will love the place - we drove down the whole street and even had lunch down there at Pete's Place. Laureen had a cheese burger and I had the Barramundi and chips. It was very good. We then went for a walk and took a few more pictures of this stunning location. 

Won't Risk the Swim

Vinegar In Case of a Sting

From there we stopped at a shopping centre that had a Reject Store that we could walk through.  I picked up a special something for a special someone. After this, we decided to go and return the car a little early and just wait it out at the airport.

Returning the car was a breeze. We basically parked it on the row for our rental company and took the key into the building. Done.

Then we made our way to the International Terminal. The way it read in the brochure, it sounded like a pedway. Instead, it was and outdoor covered walkway. Did I mention that it was hot? We are going to be hot and sticky for this entire journey. 

Arrived at the airport early. Early enough that nobody else was there.

The Deserted Cairns International Departures Terminal.

We sat for a few hours until the checkin folks arrived, and then made our way through that process and the security checkpoint. More waiting. Eventually we got on our plane and sat in an exit row this time (yeah!). We thought we had the seat next to us as an empty, but some bloke showed up and sat there.  I think he was crooked-eye Larry's brother, crooked-eyed Joe. The guy was a little weird kinda saying stuff under his breath and stuff like that. Thankfully, he slept for most of the way to Bali.

The flight was uneventful really. And it even seemed pretty short for a four and a half hour flight. I guess when you just recently did a 15.5 hour one, most other ones will seem short by comparison. 

We arrived in Bali and walked down a set of stairs onto the tarmac where a bus was waiting to take us to the customs area. The work we put in that few days before was well worth it as we basically breezed right through customs, hardly having to talk to anyone. Then we made our way out of the arrivals area to a sea of people holding signs. I managed to spot Laureen's full name on one of them and we met our guide. His name is Kawi. We also have a driver who we will have for our entire stay as well, but I forget his name at the present time. I'll make sure to add it for tomorrow's post.

Kawi walked us outside and hailed our car. He showed up in just a few minutes, and we loaded our suitcases and then hopped in the back. It's night time here, so it's hard to describe what we saw, because we didn't really see that much in the dark. We talked a bit about Canada to Kawi and he was asking alot of questions about the snow and our winter. "Tomorrow", he said, "we'll talk about Bali". That sounds good to us.

We arrived at our hotel and in it's name it has the word 'palace'. And Kawi and our driver dropped us off. The lobby was closed (they close at 11), but the security folks took us to our villa, number 15. It even has our name over the front door (I'll get a photo of that tomorrow). The place is pretty nice.

Private Pool

Outdoor Bathtub

That's it for now as it's 1:15 AM (or 3:15 AM Cairns time) and I'm exhausted. It's time for bed.  The first tour doesn't start until 1:00 PM tomorrow, so we have time to sleep in (and sleep in we will).

Curt & Laureen in Bali, Indonesia.