So what's not to love?
I haven't had a decent break since June last year. Took a couple of weeks off earlier in the year to write some essays for an immunisation course, but that's work, not play.
My decision to go to Bali was in the spur of the moment. But my spur of the moment plan had to happen before someone else had their holidays and another someone else had their baby. Timing is of the essence & I need the distraction, the relaxation & the mind chill out.
Exercise the body, mind & spirit.
It will be more exy than I planned, not realising it is high season accommodation/wise damn it. But I'm going! I researched my accomodation online & decided to spend 8 nights in Sanur & 3 nights in Ubud.
I'm the first to admit that I've been off track with my health. With two dodgy knees now, slowing me down it's more of an effort to do things. Of course if I weighed 60kg instead of ** kg (Really? You thought I'd tell you my weight? Then I would have to kill you...) my knees would no doubt be more co-operative & I would have a better exercise tolerance. But these last few months I discovered I have an annoying 'all in' or 'all out' attitude - I don't have a happy medium. I need to find it:
I was a bit 'all out' getting my arse into gear getting ready for my trip. 2 nights before I left I decided to get all my ducks in a row, only to find that one had flown the coop! Where the hell was my passport? It wasn't in my travel wallet where I expected it to be. Help! I upended my already untidy house looking in all the most likely spots. Oooh! I found a singlet top I've been looking for for ages in my cabin bag. I thought it must have been in there since my Bali trip from June last year. No - I bought new matching luggage since then, so it's been in there since Nov 2012! It's a miracle! I eventually found my passport on top of the crystal cabinet. Phew! That could have been disastrous!
Arrival day: Day 1
So you'd think I'd have oodles of time to pack & get ready today. My flight leaves at 1715. I do have to drop the dogs off to the petsitter in Pakenham. As it turned out, I ran out of time & had to drive to the airport straight from there. I had a list. I checked off items on the list. When I got to Bali I discovered several items didn't make it on the list in the first place, so they got forgotten.
There's always something. This time it was several things..oh well!
So I dropped my boys off & took off to the airport. I left booking car parking until just before I left - I was taking no chances with the threat of volcanic ash cloud hovering. Long term parking at the airport was on special for $7 a day. Cool!
So I have driven to the airport - the entrance to the long term car park wouldn't accept my credit card until I got out of my car and gave the ticket meter a good talking to. This was not the only machine I had problems with. Jetstar had self-service check-in. Scan flight booking barcode - simple. Scan your passport - not happening. A Jetstar staff member came over & scanned my passport in a different slot & voilá it worked. She decided I was mentally challenged (shut up!) so printed my luggage labels and showed me how to send my suitcase off in the chute. The whole process took less than 10mins. It was 2:30pm - I had some time to kill.
I was hungry, so bought some lunch, had a wander around the shops, filled in my customs card & went through the international sliding doors. There was a small queue for X-raying of hand luggage & no queue at all to go through customs! So it took 10mins tops.
I wanted to buy some duty free perfume but didn't know what I wanted. I sampled all the brands of Chanel Chance & then went online to check for perfume notes & sillage. Fail! A shop assistant tried to help - one of the perfumes she sprayed on a card smelled like cardboard. She sprayed it on my wrist & it still smelled like cardboard. I tried many - perfumes & 2 assistants, but decided I wasn't forking out over $100 if I don't know how the perfume smells on dry down, so I bought nothing. I also decided not to buy any Baileys duty free - I'm going to detox from Pepsi Max & drink water. Well, that's the plan! Then I walked past the 1Above booth selling treated water that reduces jetlag - it replaces your electrolytes & thins the blood so I bought some & some tablets to put in the bottle for the return trip (they won't let you take water into the departure lounge or the plane in Bali).
Gate 20 is a long long walk to the ends of the earth. Another 40 mins to wait before boarding. It was naïve to expect a less than full plane (a 787). I had a window seat. The other 2 passengers were already seated & bravely elected to crouch on their seats rather than get out to let me in. Ambitious & flattering, but they still scored my arse in their faces as I took a deep breath in to skinny me up as I squished past.
Not a lady-like introduction. My thigh oozed under the armrest a little BUT I didn't need a seat belt extension. Woohoo! My fellow passenger was travelling with his adult daughter - they live in the next suburb to me! We chatted for a while and about 30 mins later I was brought my meal. If you booked the flight online with Jetstar the meal was included. My neighbours hadn't so they didn't get one. Odd. For airline food, it was pretty good.
The flight took 5:15 but my knees & hips were not happy in the cramped conditions. I elected not to rush in to the aisle the minute the seatbelt sign turned off. I waited until most of the other passengers had disembarked. We must have arrived at the gate furthest from civilisation because I was trekking for ever! I paid the tourist visa in Rupiah then realised I wouldn't have enough for my taxi fare. Bugger.
By the time I paid my visa, went through customs & went to the baggage area, the carousel was still crowded with early plane exiters & very little luggage was doing the circuit. It took another 15-20 mins to get my bag, 15 mins to change some more money & the same again in the queue for the taxi kiosk.
It took around 30 mins to get to Sanur & my hotel. I was buggered. I forgot to email the hotel last week to check if they received my booking. They had. However they were sorry to inform me that there were no more superior rooms left. Instead I would have to be upgraded to a super deluxe room - about 4 metres from the pool. Tragic! And my bathroom has a bath! Marble & shaped like half an egg. Yes!
By now it is 1am so I only unpacked the essentials & tried to connect to the free wifi. I was informed that if only get reception from my terrace, but happy to report it works fine from the middle of my bed.
I pulled the mosquito net around me to settle to sleep & realised I didn't pack my Tropical Strength Rid. In fact it didn't make the list.
Supermarket shopping tomorrow. I need a SIM card too.
This hotel is very quiet. Bliss!
Nighty-nite.