Monday- Our day started at 4am QLD time, it sucks getting up this time of the day but isn’t so bad when you’re heading off on holiday.    I think we got the slowest taxi driver in Townsville that showed up to take us to the airport and he wanted to talk about ‘fishing’ that was thrilling as you can imagine. (especially so early in the morning )

Anyway got to the airport eventually & I think I was still asleep. Robbie was a bit more awake than me.  The dude at virgin checkin  said our bags would be forwarded all the way to Bali but still we weren’t convinced. Oh well if they lose our cases we will just have to buy new stuff when we get there, we aren’t taking a lot anyway so we can bring more stuff back that way !

So we had a $25 morning coffee & tea and headed through security to wait for departure, me being me had to have one more ‘wee’ before boarding nothing odd about that & Robbie went to buy a paper. All was good I did what I had to and headed out as our flight was being called and I saw Robbie about to buy his paper & next thing I know I slipped  & fell flat on my arse ,oh the embarrassment was not graceful at all !  I don’t know how he did it but Robbie was at my side in a flash helping me up the poor thing looked so worried. No harm done except to my pride but think I scared the wits out of Robbie, I felt worse for him than me.

We got to Brissy no dramas little late due to all the rain but still with plenty of time to kill we must have looked like the ‘Clampets’ as this kind old dude came to talk to us to see if we were ok. Robbie actually knew were we had to go but we humoured the old fella he took us to the departure area, God bless him.

We headed on through filling in all the departure info and then off to the immigration lady who was up for  a chat  about the weather she wasn’t happy about the rain anyway we were through yee  haa !!!!!!  Another step closer but we had decisions to make then, what duty free booze to get. As any world traveller knows this is a very important part of any journey! We thought we would eat first so as we were heading to the food &   low and behold Robbie runs into a mate on his way to work in the Solomon’s &  he was up for a chat. I am thinking go away we need to eat and get the booze as we didn’t have  a lot of time . Don’t despair though we managed it one big bottle of Wild Turkey and one of Bundy!

So time to depart (exciting) Amazingly our seats weren’t too bad &  Robbie being the sweetie he is gave me the window. OK 6 hours and we will be in Bali. The  Aircrew were waiting on paper work so plane was 20 minutes late leaving so they gave us free paytv yahoo!!!!!, something for free on Virgin Airlines ‘wonders will never cease’ !  But  the joy was short lived  poor Robbie’s screen  didn’t work , mine worked most of the time so I shared with Robbie not that there was anything much on. Virgin flight crews technical expertise was limited to banging the screen to make it work… dahhhhhhhh  didn’t make a jot of difference and they really didn’t care either.

Given we got up so early we tried to sleep I managed better than Robbie I can sleep any where.

We ate our twisties and chips and bought a couple of drinks but we were really good Rob only had 2 rums I think and I had one Jimmy ( it’s true) Stop laughing !  Wasn’t much to see out the window it was pretty cloudy then finally I see ocean and an island yahoo we are nearly there. I was getting excited and apprehensive at what we would encounter was really worried, would our suitcases make it ?

So here we are Bali. Time to get off the plane and we are  immediately ushered onto a bus , no one speaking where are we going? Visions of Midnight Express flash through my brain !!!!! The bus took us to main terminal about 3 mins away then we are hearded out &  immediately ushered to buy a visa but all is good Robbie had made sure we had our $25 each in American $ so buying visa no drama. Next stop immigration ( scary ) very intimidating high counters and we had to line up . We picked the wrong line and it  took ages to get through, 4 other planes landed in the time we were in the line . I am so short I looked like Dickie Knee peering over the top of the counter.

Got though immigration no drama’s ( made sure not to crack any boogie board jokes ) then had to find out if our bags made it. We went to the carousal that was signed for our flight kept looking, looking, looking, no bags this was worrisome then little man told us we (& all others from our plane) were at the wrong carousal and that our bags came out 2 down after some confusion we found our bags yippee ! Checked to make sure locks were in place and time to go through customs, Breath , remembering bags have been out of our sight for 8 hours we know nothing naughty is inside  but still Shapelle reckons she had stuff planted in her  boogie board case . Yeah right by her family !!!!! Couldn’t believe the amount of people that didn’t have locks on their bags OMG are they crazy ?

Why is it you feel guilty going through customs try not to look too casual or too stressed ahhhh I hate that bit ! Anyway no dramas time to go full force into the airport scramble and get a cab.

Robbie knew that the taxi off was to the right of the exit so he went to line up while I watched the bags. I had porters coming from every direction trying to take the bags but I stood my ground. Anyone that helps you wants to be paid so you have to remain on the alert.

Anyway one guy did his best to take our bags to the cab but I out wrestled him.

I could not believe how many cabs and people were buzzing all over the place holy doley this place is busy as ! 🙂   So we set off on our first taxi ride in Bali.  OMG , they drive wherever they want there is some order in that they drive in the left lane of sorts but that  is about it. Seems tooting is enough to make other cars aware you are there and no-one crashes.  The majority of vehicles are motor bikes seriously they are riding 6 a breast or more and sometimes up to 4 people on a bike  and the taxi just drives through the lot of them no dramas, it’s all good, everyone knows were they are going and some how it just works. I could never ever, ever drive in Bali. Even the footpath isn’t off limits motor bikes often scoot down them to navigate around the traffic so learnt to be always mindful of that when walking on the path if you hear  a toot behind you, you better look or you make get mowed down by a motor bike.

We seemed to be in the taxi for ages but that may be down to there was just so much to see. I think we only travelled about 5 kms and taxi was so cheap only about $3 in our terms I think. The traffic was amazing I think it was even more full on than when we went to Bangkok 🙂  But no-one gets stressed or annoyed they just go with the flow that’s about all you can do.  We got to hotel and found out we had been upgraded to a junior suite! Well we were pretty happy about that until we saw it.   It was huge but the bedroom had no windows, it was wall to wall mirrors and the biggest bed I have ever seen. It actually felt like a porno set, LOL!  Also the room didn’t have a safe in it which was something that we wanted so we could keep our valuables locked up and handy. Couldn’t live for 2 weeks in a room with no windows and would just be way to scary seeing myself at every angle as soon as I opened my eyes in all those mirrors. Hehehehe  . It also went out on to a living area that although huge was to be shared with another couple. So no deal there for us we like our own space.

We went back to reception and politely asked if we could have another room ( the one we ordered) and they said it hadn’t been made up yet but if we didn’t mind waiting they would do it immediately. So we went over to the bar for a complimentary drink.

The next room was great or so we thought. There seemed to be a problem with the aircon which wasn’t quiet noticeable at first as it was quiet cold and it had the safe we wanted.  The problem was the aircon although cooling the room was also filling it with moist air so the bed was soggy and our clothes were starting to get wet too. I was thinking it was probably some weird arse tropical climate type thing and convinced Robbie that we should just wait and see that maybe that’s just what it is like in the  Bali climate  but Robbie had enough sense to know it wasn’t right so he spoke to the reception and requested another room which was immediately sorted out for us. The staff were so apologetic and helpful and wishing to rectify things.

The 3rd room was magic , large, clean , huge king size bed, safe and an aircon that worked like a charm. No further issue with the room we were very happy with that room . Clean sheets and towels every day too bonus !

After we had settled in on our first night although tired went for a wander around Kuta. Wow what an eye opener that was, kids that looked about 3 trying to sell us bracelets, mothers begging, traffic that did not stop, Robbie got offered Viagra, speed about 4 times in about 10 steps.

We had heard about the skill of the money changers to rip of tourists when they changed their Aussie dollars to Bali Rupee and Robbie went to change some money and there was an Aussie family there already changing their cash and he saw how skilled the money changer was confusing them into thinking they had been given the correct amount .  We didn’t use that dude after that and used it as a good lesson to be vigilant when changing money.

We went and had dinner at a small restaurant on Poppy’s Lane and it was yummy and with drinks and food cost us about $8 for two of us. Amazing !