Up bright and early today – for no reason other than we don’t want to rush.  The packing is all virtually done, but we’d rather twiddle our thumbs waiting for our ride than be rushing around trying to make sure we didn’t forget something.  Actually, it is a lovely relaxed morning.  Up, coffee, watch the two geckos play above the kitchen cabinets.  Eat the last of the banana bread, shower, zip the suitcases and hang out on the porch.  Finish the toast, more coffee, water, a last yogurt drink and here comes the pool guy. 

And then here comes Made the cleaner.  And then Made the owner.  Everybody is here early to get the place ready for their next guests.  Nengah, our driver, appears shortly after and we say goodbye to everyone, wishing them well.  And we are off to the airport, driving past these wildly big statues that are everywhere in traffic circle intersections.

We also drive right through Sanur, a neighborhood closer to the airport where we think we may stay when we are here next, in 2025.  Yes, we have plans to return – we have booked a cruise leaving from Bali in 2025, so we’ll spend a week here first and are looking in this area.  It will be a change of pace, more residential, a suburb of Densapar really, but it is closer to the airport and the port, so it might make sense.  We wish we could come back sooner, but….well…you never know how plans can change!

Nengah gets us to the airport in no time.  We check in without any issues.  Although the girl checking us in is new, and doesn’t really understand that we booked our seats to leave one in the middle empty.  She asks us if we want to sit together, to which we ask her if the middle seat has anyone in it.  She doesn’t really understand the question and keeps asking about putting us together.  Finally, as it turns out, she can’t because it will cost extra or something.  So we just tell her to keep us where we are. 

Finally checked in and bags dropped, we head off to the gates.  There is no club here in the International terminal, weird as that is, so we actually have to stop at a restaurant and pay (OMG, no! Pay????) for drinks before the flight.  Whatever will we do?  LOL.  Well, we’ll get rid of most of our last bits of cash, which is a good thing and just relax and hang out until it is time to board our quick little flight to Singapore.

Good thing we didn’t listen to the check in girl – because the seat between us ends up being empty.  Phew!  We would have been so irritated if we had moved and had someone next to us!  It is a lovely, smooth and quick, comfy flight with weird food – I had chicken and mashed potatoes which were just, well weird. It was good, but weird. Ed had the Laksa, which was seafood with noodles and spicy – which was why I did not have the Laksa.  He said it was very good.  Hey, it was food.

Arriving on time, we head to passport control where I made it through the automated system just fine, but Ed was turned away with some error.  He had to go to the officer booth and stand there and watch while they kept looking at his passport and saying there was a problem with it.  What? We’ll never know.  They asked if he had used the automated terminals before, to which he said no.  They asked if he had a problem entering Singapore previously. Again, no.  Sigh.  This place!  We’ll never know what it was, but after an interminable time, they finally let him through and told him he could use the automated system now.  Sigh.

Ok, that almost-crisis handled, we grab our bags and head out to get a taxi to the Village Katong.  That goes really smoothly and we are checking into the hotel within 15 minutes.  At least some things work well here!  We get our package with our “village dollars” – 30 Singapore dollars to spend at Village partners, go up to our room, on the top floor overlooking Marine Parade with the balcony doors that don’t open, so we can’t use the balcony – but at least we have the view.  Otherwise, it is a great room, fully equipped with a kettle, coffee and fridge.  It is perfect for us for one night – or more really. It is very comfy and serviceable. 

After settling in, we hit the street, exploring the mall attached to the hotel and a few of the Village “partners.”  We didn’t think we’d want to eat here – the only options are an Italian place and the Wine Mansion.  But turns out the Wine Mansion has a really good menu, so we decide to go out and wander a bit, then come back and have dinner here with our 30 dollar discount. 

Out on East Coast road, we wander the street perusing all the bars and restaurants here.  You can have anything and everything you want, along with drinks at a plethora of places.  We love the Lazy Sloth, but end up at The Way, because they have wine – and turns out a great happy hour for beer – a pint of Hoegaarden for 8.80.  Perfect.  When the beer comes though, oh my, the glass!  That’s one big beer!

Surprisingly enough, it is only a pint, but in that glass? It looks like a giant!  We have a great time riffing on that glass, and laughing our immigration tension away, sitting here on the street, sipping our drinks and watching the traffic and the people pass by.  Ok, we might could like this place again…..

Drinks finished, we go back to the hotel first to pre-arrange a taxi for tomorrow morning, then downstairs to the Wine Mansion where we have good drinks and way too much food with a huge portion of perfectly done Fish and Chips and a Pulled Pork Quesadilla with parmesan cheese of all things.  Odd, but terribly tasty.  It’s a lovely dinner, that ends up costing us only 35 Singapore dollars which is like 26 USD. 

It would have been perfect if not for the two women sitting behind us who were so loud, you’d think they were trying to have a conversation in a concert hall while the Rolling Stones were playing.  I swear. They were awful.  They were so bad in fact, that a group of ladies who sat down next to us asked to move to be away from them.  I really don’t blame them. We were finished, so we were leaving – but I’d not sit there and just begin my meal with those two behind me.  The ladies who moved were adorable, and we were chatting about the loud-mouths with them as they left for their other table.  Then, as we were getting the check, a 3^rd loudmouth showed up. Oh heavens!  I looked at the other ladies’ table and they were looking too and then made a “horror” face at me!  Too funny.

Needless to say we skeedaddled as soon as we could get that check – and escaped into the peacefulness of our room. We had beer and wine up there anyway, so we didn’t need to stay and have more.  Plus we wanted to get to bed relatively early so we could be up and out early tomorrow too. Our looooooong flight to SFO leaves at 10, and we need to be in the taxi by 7:45, meaning breakfast at 7.  So, an early quiet night in the room was perfect for us. And that was exactly what we did!  Good last night abroad (loud-mouths notwithstanding).