Chasing the Sun to Bali, A Very Long Story

That was without a doubt the worst travel experience of my life! And not through any fault of the airlines. My long trip from just outside of Seattle, WA, USA to Sanur, Bali, Indonesia started on August 10 at 5am and ended August 12 at 2am. I lost an entire day in there due to time travel (aka: time zones), but it was still 26 hours in airports and planes. Demasiado!

The packing…

Yes… I’m going to whinge about packing yet again. Bear with me. It’s one thing to pack up everything into a couple of suitcases. It’s an entirely different experience packing only the most necessary items because most Southeast Asian airlines only allow 20kg for checked and 7kg for carry-on. This trip, I have absolutely nothing to wear if it gets cold, so I better not end up in the mountains or up north for the winter. I also left all my cooking supplies at home. I’m at the mercy of whatever items my rental units have on offer. This could get interesting.

At the very least, I spent about a week packing and organizing. Thanks, In-Laws for letting me store some stuff at your place! I definitely need those warm clothes for when I’m back in Seattle. My first flight is at 10am, so I wake up at 5am to eat breakfast (tacos!) and pack those last-minute items (toothbrush and shoulder-support pillow). My father-in-law was kind enough to get up all early to drive me to the airport. He’s so nice.

Ten minutes after leaving the house, I get a notification that my flight is delayed by an hour. Sigh. Do we turn around or continue to the airport? Well, Seattle traffic is notoriously horrendous, and I did not want my FIL to get stuck in that on the way back, so we kept going. SeaTac Airport has several wonderful lounges that I can hang out at. Check-in was easy-peasy, and off to the lounge I went (they had congee!).

Who is touching my leg?

Anytime one of my flights is delayed, I’m always worried that it will continue to get more and more delayed until I’m forced to miss my connecting flight. Not to worry with this one as the delay did not extend further than that initial hour. We all packed onto the massive plane and prepared for a 16-hour flight. You heard me right… 16 hours! That is crazy! Nobody should be on a plane for so long. What was I thinking!?!

So we start taking off, and the old lady sitting next to me starts panicking and grabs my thigh really hard. She doesn’t speak much English, but I try to reassure her that this is totally normal and we are not all about to die in a fiery death-ball. She calmed down after we leveled out. I was surprised that everything (including announcements) was in English. Movie time! I feel like I can watch 16 hours of movies. That’s doable, right?

Turbulence! That poor old lady next to me did not like all the turbulence. She would grab my leg every time we went through a patch. One of which was particularly long with the seatbelt sign coming on, services suspended, and bathrooms off limits. Once that was over, attendants came around with all the special meals. That’s me with my gluten-free option. It was so good and came with metal utensils. How fancy is that!

Are we there yet?

Let me tell you, 16 hours is a long freaking time in a chair. Everything started to hurt by hour seven. My back. My neck. My legs. My butt full-on fell asleep. After a while, there is just no way to get comfortable. I tried to get up and walk around as much as possible, but that is hard with all the turbulence and services happening. They fed us one more meal before we finally landed.

That poor old lady sitting next to me was consoling me by the end as she could tell I was in a lot of pain. I’m also starting to feel ill. Will this ever end!?! After landing, I’m surprised to find that we have to go through security again. They probably want all the stolen metal utensils back. Makes sense. At least I didn’t have to pour out my water bottle.

The Singapore airport is massive and gorgeous, but is also carpeted like a Las Vegas casino. It’s kind of hard to roll luggage over carpet. Weird. At least they have a ton of moving walkways (travelator!) to speed me along. They also have trains, but I couldn’t figure out which one I was supposed to take even though everything is in English. My brain is mush at this point.

To the lounge

I finally figure out which train to take to get to my connecting terminal. Lucky for me, there is a lounge I can use with my fancy travel credit card (that I will soon be getting rid of because they raised the annual fee to US$800! Nope.) The lounge is absolutely amazing with all kinds of things to eat, but my poor belly is having none of it. I settle for some tea and hope for the best. The lounge is expecting an enormous rush, so I only get guest status for an hour. Then they kick me out.

I could go to a different lounge, but my plane to Bali starts boarding in 30 minutes, so I might as well head to the gate. I’m almost to the gate when I realize that I’m going to have to go through security yet again. What is going on? How much security is needed around here? At the moment, the security line is only open for people heading to Bangkok, so all of us Bali folks are waiting in the hallway.

Time to be sick in the bathroom. Food poisoning? Motion sickness? Who knows? All I know is that it is not pleasant, and I feel like death. I fill up my water bottle at the filling station and wait with everyone else. Of course, I soon make instant friends with a couple from Oregon, USA. We’re neighbors! We all just want to get through security and find a place to sit down.

No cutting

One of my new friends decides to see if security will let him through because it’s a bit confusing and it would suck to be on this side of security as our plane takes off without us. No luck. Security sends him back in line. Finally, they start letting us Bali peeps through. This time though, they make me pour out my water. So weird. Luckily, there is a water bottle filling station right after security.

We all load onto the plane, and I immediately fall asleep. The flight is less than three hours, but we still get a full meal with metal utensils. So fancy! Go Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately, I’m too sick to eat, but my delicious gluten-free meal did not go to waste. I gave it to my new Oregon friends, who just so happen to be sitting right in front of me. They said it was wonderful. Time for more sleep.

After landing in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, I was immediately happy that I had filled out all my paperwork ahead of time. The airport is massive and a bit confusing, but if you have all your info online, you get to skip all the lines. Everything is automated. No humans looking at passports (no stamp either). Just a video screen that you look into until the doors open for you. They know who you are, where you have been, and where you are going.

Can I stay for 60 days?

This concerned me a bit because I applied for a 60-day visa, but without a stamp in my passport, I’m not sure I got it. Regular visas in Indonesia are only 30-days. Time to get my checked bag. And I wait… and wait… and wait… for over an hour! I have a tracker in my bag so I know it’s here. Plus, I’m waiting at baggage claim with loads of other people from my flight. I just really hope that my shuttle driver doesn’t leave without me. It’s 1:30 in the morning, so he might.

Finally, my luggage arrives in one piece, and it’s off to customs. The health form and customs declaration are all online now. You get a QR code, and an agent scans it in order for you to clear customs. So easy! However, it would be difficult to travel without a smartphone these days. I saw several people get sent to a different line because they didn’t have their QR codes.

Now, to find an ATM because I have to pay the shuttle driver in Indonesian cash moneys. No worries there. And lucky for me, my shuttle driver did not ditch me, and off to Sanur we went. Sanur is only about a 30-min drive from Denpasar, but those are some windy back-roads. I have no idea what route he took, and I wish I had turned on a GPS tracker just to see the crazy route later, but we drove down a lot of back alleys that would only fit one vehicle. That did not help my stomach at all.

Arrived!

The manager of the building I’m staying in said that he would leave the gate open and the key in my door. Here’s the problem. They are putting in a swimming pool that currently exists as a big hole in the courtyard. He stayed up for me because he didn’t want me to fall into the hole. Instead, he took me around back to avoid any potential death by hole. That was very nice of him, as it is now after 2:00 in the morning (my plane landed at midnight). Sorry!

I’m so tired and sick and in pain. I don’t think that I can do that again. Now I’ll just have to live here so that I don’t have to deal with the flight back to the States. At least I don’t have to worry about breakfast as it is included with my stay. I’ll tell you all about it later (so amazingly delicious! Oh, and the Balinese coffee is divine!). Now, to sleep and deal with all the jet lag. Oh, and I did get an email saying I could stay in Indonesia for 60-days so that’s good. It’s an adventure!