CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

April 26, 2023 — After almost exactly three months (or 90 days) in Australia, it was time to go. I’d packed up my things the night before and laid out everything I might need in anticipation of a 4:00am wake-up. I was just gathering a few things together at the last minute when my phone rang. I don’t generally answer my phone for any numbers that call me because they’re usually telemarketers. If it’s important, they leave a message. This one did.

It was the airport shuttle service that I’d tried to book the day before and received an email indicating that they couldn’t accommodate me on my travel date. I booked an Uber yesterday because of it and could no longer cancel it. In fact, my driver was on the way. But the shuttle service called and said that they were waiting outside for me! I checked later and found that they’d sent another email after the first that said that they read the date wrong and that they would, in fact, be able to pick me up. I sure wish they’d just read the date correctly in the first place, since the shuttle was $20.00 and Uber was $35.00. But oh, well. I called the shuttle driver back and told him I wasn’t needing it after all, and we hung up. I made a mental note to get in touch with the service to have my money refunded.

By 4:30am, I was ready to go and was, in fact, in the Uber heading to the airport. I called Mom to let her know I was on my way, something we’d remembered that I would be able to do even though I had no data left. I might not have been able to text, but I could still call internationally! I’d been so nervous to take an Uber so early in the morning and especially having never taken one myself before. Thankfully, I really didn’t have anything to worry about and I was deposited at the airport safe and sound. I got on the wifi and texted to let my family know I’d made it, then began the process of checking in, going through security, and heading to the gate to wait.

Check-in took a little while to open, as I was there quite early. My flight wasn’t supposed to take off until 8:00am meaning that check-in only opened at 5:00am. I was one of the first in the queue, though, and made it through very quickly. Happily, they weighed my luggage and said that the weight was fine! I know that it must have been over the limit, but I guess they were alright to accept it. I do wonder if it’s because the flight wasn’t very full — there were several open seats available. It was really excellent to not have to pay overage fees!

After I went through check-in, I headed to security. Everything went just dandy, except, for the first time ever, my bag got pulled for extra checks because something had triggered something.

After a round of trial and error, they figured that it must be my little packing cube with all the coins and my laundry powder inside. I watched them open it, remove the coins, and stare at the white powder packed in two resealable sandwich bags with wary, confused eyes. They looked at me. I looked back at them, smile on my face, as they asked, with furrowed brows, “Laundry powder?”

“Yes, laundry powder,” I told them. The woman turned to the gentleman and confirmed this, telling him that she could smell it.

I think they were incredibly relieved to find that I wasn’t trying to smuggle drugs out the country.

I got my stuff packed away again after they gave me the go-ahead and made my way to my gate, where I picked up a coffee and a muffin from the little cafe nearby. I found a table with plug sockets and sat down there to charge some things and to work on the blog while I waited for the call to board.

I munched on my muffin, sipped at my coffee, and the minutes ticked by.

And then, shortly before we would have been called to board, we were told via announcement that our flight was delayed due to mechanical issues. We had several more announcements of that nature, as our boarding time was pushed back again and again. Finally, we boarded shortly after nine a.m., took off around 9:30am and landed about five hours later around one p.m. The clocks went back two hours on this flight as Bali is north of the west side of Australia.

This definitely wasn’t my favourite flight of my life, as there was a gentleman in the window seat and an empty middle seat between us and he decided to stretch out across those two seats. I didn’t appreciate the slight encroachment or the fact that he just got to use that space. I suppose I could have said something, but it was a five hour flight and I would have if he’d gotten one millimetre closer.

Even with that, it was a fairly pleasant flight. I decided to get lunch on board since the plane had been so delayed in taking off and got myself a ham and cheese toastie (so Australian), a Solo Lemonade (also, so Australian), and a small pack of Pringles (it was a meal deal). I munched and watched We’re the Millers and Murder Mystery (the first one), which I’d thankfully had the forethought to download along with several other things the previous night so that I’d have some entertainment through the fairly long flight.

When we landed at Ngurah Rai in Denpasar, we disembarked onto the tarmac. They had a bus waiting to take us to the terminal and we all crammed on, not looking each other in the eye in that famed dissociation tactic among strangers.

In the arrivals area, we cleared customs and immigration. That was a bit of an ordeal. I knew about the visa-on-arrival that was available for Canadian citizens (among others) but wasn’t sure whether they would need cash or card. I spent a good five minutes digging through my bag before I got up to the counter, and at least three more minutes at the counter digging through my front pocket trying to locate my envelope of Indonesian cash. Eventually I pulled everything in the pocket out, and sifted through three months of brochures and visitor booklets and other paraphernalia. I looked like a lunatic.

When I finally was able to hand the cash over (and I heard after I made it through the line that you were, in fact, able to pay with card), I took the visa and the receipt and my bag and moved off to the side as quickly as possible to stuff all the contents back in. Then I headed to customs. The officer took a look at my documents, asked how long I’d be in the country, where I was staying, and fixed my visa into my passport. I was overjoyed.

My first visa/stamp in my new passport! I love getting those. It’s such an amazing memento of the places that you visit. You get to point at it, go “I went there. I did that.” I was devastated when the passport I took to Europe, through Belgium, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, and France again had to be replaced because of the memories that wouldn’t be gracing the pages of my passport anymore. (I still have it, even though I can’t use it.) The passport I have now, at least, will last for ten years, so there’s plenty of time yet before I have to retire it. Thank God.

Through customs, I did some basic stuff to get myself set up for the next three weeks. I needed more Indonesian cash. I’d brought 1,500,000IDR (Indonesian rupiah) with me (about $105.00CAD) but the people I’d talked to and internet advice all said that you’d need more since it’s primarily cash. I also planned on doing excursions that required cash payment. I exchanged my Australian bills for Indonesian rupiah and then went to get a SIM card since I saw that stall next. I went with XL Axiata and bought 44GB of data for the three weeks I was there. Looking back, I could have gone with less since I didn’t even use half of that. That said, I had good, reliable wifi practically everywhere I went. Seriously, it was better than Australia. One thing to note, though, is that when I looked at more of the kiosks later, Telkomsel (another provider in Indonesia) was offering 50GB for the same price as I’d paid for 44GB. Make sure to look at them all before you buy.

With that done, I got out some cash from the ATMs, hoping that they’d work (I’d heard that they may not, and I was also worried that they might not be able to dispense the amount of cash I needed). They did, and thankfully there were guys adding more cash to the machines as I stood there. I took out 5,200,000IDR (about $520.00CAD) at that time, and I also wound up taking out another 2,600,000IDR in Gili Air and then 1,000,000IDR more in Ubud. With the amount I already had, that brought me to a drum total of about 10,300,000IDR, or roughly $1,000CAD for the three weeks I was there. I also used my credit card on occasion, and spent about $200.00 on that. Follow along with the rest of the Indonesia posts to see how I spent all of this.

From there, I headed out to meet my driver who was taking me to Serangan. I actually arranged this through my accommodation, Serangan Turtle Island Homestay, for 200,000IDR. It was a lot easier than trying to wade through the airport offers for transportation since I’d heard about potential rip-off prices. This was $20.00CAD, he had a sign, and he found me practically immediately after I walked out the main doors.

We drove from the airport to Serangan, which took a while since the roads were so busy. Apparently, Ramadan was happening at the same time, which is a major Muslim holiday and created an influx of visitors to Bali. When we got to Serangan, I met Kadek, the owner. Her son, Jourdy, had picked me up and they were both so kind in helping me get settled, explaining things around the hostel, before leaving me to settle in further.

I flopped onto the bed and would have laid there happily for a hundred years. But I was hungry.

Jourdy had given me some recommendations as we drove through the village and I thought I might be able to find one of them again, so I set off for a little walkabout. I didn’t have any luck by myself, since I couldn’t pick one of the ones he’d suggested out, so I headed back to the hostel to ask them what they recommended — and what I should have, because I had no idea where to start.

Kadek was so kind and let me try some of what she’d made, as they were just plating up their dinner when I found them in their kitchen. She told me what I might like (which I managed to mostly forget) and where to go (which I managed to find). I stood for a minute outside of the restaurant (or “warung”, as they’re called in Indonesian) and tried to figure out how it worked. The ladies working there were so nice and helped me figure out what to get (I remembered “grilled fish” and “grilled prawns”). I even got to literally pick my fish fresh from the cooler. They suggested rice to go with it and I also got a chilled bottle of water. I went and sat down on the boat — yes, the boat — and they brought it out.

It was delicious. So incredibly good. And when I went to pay, I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. I even did the conversion with Google because I wasn’t sure that that point how the conversion worked. It was $11.50 for everything I got. Incredible. And fresh.

I called Mom and Dad on the way back to rave about dinner and the prices, tell them about my flight and other things, and then spent the rest of the evening chilling and detoxing. Eventually, I showered, brushed my teeth with bottled water (you can’t drink the water in Indonesia and it’s recommended you don’t even brush your teeth with it) and then climbed into bed and went to sleep.

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