It has been a long time coming and many canceled trips and postponed villa rentals, but today is finally the day we are going to Bali to spend 2 weeks. Can’t believe it is finally here. Of course, first we have to contend with JetStar, the notorious low-cost airline. Notorious in that it has a really bad reputation, and this flight from Melbourne to Densapar in particular happens to be late a lot. We’ve been watching the performance for a week or so, and it all seems to be on time….except we end up getting an email last night (last night!!!) telling us the flight will be 2 hours delayed. How do they know that the night before? Sigh.

Well, nothing to do about it, and even though if they are correct it means we don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn (5am) to get to the airport in time for a 10am flight, we are still going with our original plans. We don’t trust them…because of all the negative comments and reviews…and we’d rather be cooling our feet at the airport rather than hanging around the ship. So, up at 5am it is. Actually it is more like 4am when they begin maneuvers to get into the harbor and the cavitation and the machinery starts to whine. Ack. We can snooze on the plane if we want.

We’re doing express walk off, so we get up, have our coffee, get ready, grab our bags and head out of the cabin at 6am to hit the Crown Grill breakfast which is open today (it was not on the Melbourne turn around previously). Breakfast complete, we weigh the options of just hanging out in the atrium vs. the Elite lounge in the casino until they start calling for disembarkation, but once we get down to deck 6, we see they are already letting passengers off. Sweet. We’re out of here. Not that we aren’t sad to go, it has been a fabulous cruise. But we’re just so excited to be going to Bali, and it’s a travel day, we’d rather be moving than cooling our heels (oh, ho ho ho….just wait!).

In the taxi line, we end up being put together with 2 other couples going to the airport so that we can split a van. Works for us. But here’s the bizarre thing: the other couples are both American! Where the hell have they been? And are we the only 6? Coz it was all Aussie every time Simon ever asked, except the weird Americans who live in Berlin but are working in Australia? Huh? Anyhow. Just bizarre.

Off the airport we go, careening down the highways (to which Ed even says, has anyone told this guy we aren’t in a hurry?), finally, blessedly, safely at the airport, we find our check in stall and send our luggage away, with now…..5 hours to hang around. Joy! Ah well, Priority lounge, here we come. Through security, to the lounge, we hang out for our allotted 3 hours. Although the flight board says now that the flight is delayed until 1:30. Jeez….another 90 minutes???? But it also says go to gate. Um….what? I dutifully head down to the gate to see what’s up – which is exactly nothing. The gate is actually cordoned off and you can’t get near it. Ok – back to the lounge, passing these really cute bear statues – which at least is a bonus for my little reconnaissance excursion.

Sadly, though, because I had talked to the ladies at the lounge desk about the delay, when I came back the one lady checked our time and made sure we knew we had to leave in 3 hours. I was hoping to somehow get around that, since we are settled here, but obviously I wasn’t surreptitious enough, so a little before 11 we packed up and headed to the other lounge in the terminal (thank heavens for having 2 passes!). This club was just opening up, so we had the place all to ourselves. It was great. We hung out in the corner with plugs for our electronics, a great salad and garlic chicken for lunch as well as fruit and of course, beer and wine. It’s that time after all – and we know we aren’t getting on that plane before 1:30 at the earliest, so….might as well drink up!

We pack up our stuff about 12:30 and head tot he gate, where the crowds have descended, but there is no activity. Oh, bummer! Strategically positioned in front of the line by the jetway, we proceed to hang out…and hang out….and hang out. Sigh. At least the people watching is good – the vast majority of this flight are young (meaning 20’s) people in big groups. Can anyone say Kuta Beach? Party all night? Oh to be young and stupid again….NOT! The crew and flight deck board, which makes us happy and finally after an interminable wait, we can board too, a little after 1:30. No zones, no announcements, we all just walk up and get on the plane. Works for us! We’ve got a middle row, with no one in between us, and I double checked with the gate agent who confirmed the seat is still empty. At least we’ll be flying comfortably!

Finally, the darn plane is boarded and we are off. It is a really smooth flight, we had pre-ordered food which comes with out a hitch. Pay for drinks. Fine. Read, blog and generally while away the 5 hour flight happily, landing 3 hours late. We’ve been communicating with out Villa host who has a driver who will pick us up, so they know we are late. What we didn’t bargain for though was the Immigration process! OMG. It was horrific. First you had to get your Visa on Arrival – you could either do it online previously, or just pay the fee at the airport. We just paid at the airport, which caused a couple of minutes of standing in line. No biggie. But then Immigration. Every window was open – probably 30 or more – but there were so many people! Just too many to handle! It was brutal. It took us almost 2 hours to get through that line. Yikes! Our poor driver!!!

No problems once we were there. We sped right through. Our bags, of course, were already on the conveyor, so we grabbed them and hoofed it to customs, showing our e-customs declaration (thank heavens the Gate Agent in Melbourne told us about that – we’d have been more delayed by filling it out when we got to Bali!), were waved through customs and finally out into the lobby where our sweet driver, Nengah was there waiting. Phew.

Safely ensconced in his car, we head out into the most brutal Friday evening traffic you’ve ever seen! It is after 6 pm and this place is jumping. Plus, let’s face it, it’s Bali! There are scooters and trucks and vans and passenger cars and no traffic lights where people want to turn right so they have to rely on the courtesy of the oncoming traffic. If we thought immigration was brutal…this takes the cake! On top of which we had asked Nengah if we could stop at an ATM, not having a chance at the airport, so now he’s searching for an ATM for us. Fortunately there are tons, but the first one doesn’t work (the buttons won’t push), the 2nd one is under maintenance, but blessedly the 3rd one does the trick. Now we’re back on the road in the horrific traffic with Nengah, who is the best, most courteous driver in the world. Just a dream. Even though we know he’s used to this – he does this for a living for heaven’s sake – it’s still scary out here!

It ends up taking us 2 hours to get to Ubud. Which is insane – but – it is what it is! On the way, Nengah offers to stop at a stall he recommends for the best fresh fruit, or to eat because “it is getting late,” or to stop at a Circle K for us to pick up supplies. He is so nice. But, honestly, we just want to get to the villa and then we can figure it out from there.

Which eventually he does, depositing us safely in the little soi (all broken up by construction) that is to be our home for the next 2 weeks. Made, our host, greets us, carries our bags up the flight of steps to the villa as we dutifully follow, getting our first glimpse of the open air patio and great pool we will be putting to use on a daily basis! Everything is exactly as pictured and described on the website. We’re just so happy to be here!

Made gives us the grand tour, explaining we’ll have a cleaner come every other day and the pool guy every 3 days. He also apologizes for the construction but says they aren’t really working too much and they won’t be noisy. Sweet. As he is leaving he tells us to use the footpath on the right instead of the road, which will be easier even though there are stairs. Ok. We’ll do that!

Once we finish our explorations of the facilities we venture out into the night. The pitch black night. And can’t find that damn footpath to save our soul. There is a path with stairs, but at the top it looks like someone’s parking area with scooters there. We’re not sure we can go there so we navigate the steep and muddy torn up road to get up to J. Bisma, the secondary road from which our soi branches. Here we have a plethora of choices for food, shopping, drinking. Everything is just steps away.

We head to the Circle K, knowing we will stop there for supplies on the way back from dinner, then peruse some of the menus around, settling on Balifornia, an Asian and Sushi restaurant. Even though I’d love sushi, I’m not all that hungry, so I settle for fried Gyozas – which are delicious – while Ed opts for Fried Rice Pork Belly. Both are excellent, as is Bintang, the local beer (yeah, I’m going to be drinking a lot of beer these next 2 weeks; wine is slightly hard to come by here).

Hitting Circle K for supplies, we make our way back down the slippery road to our villa, stowing away our purchases and then – we’re not waiting – cooling off in the pool! Even if it is only our legs – it’s hot here – even now at 10pm – as I said earlier, that pool is going to come in handy!

Now it is time to hit the bed for a well deserved sleep after an excruciatingly long (and somewhat frustrating) day. Tomorrow, let the adventure begin!