Bali – the beginning

After six months in the planning and waiting we left for Denpassar just over two weeks ago. I don’t mind getting up early when it involves holiday travel so 6.30am on a public holiday Monday was okay with me.

After a pretty uneventful flight we landed. I haven’t travelled overseas for ten years so was a tad apprehensive about what awaited. After leaving here in winter we arrived in warm weather so the warmer layers came off straight away while we waited for immigration etc to just get out of the airport. Without taking jeans etc off it was still hot but this we had to endure for a little while yet.

We arrived at the hotel and couldn’t get into our room straight away so immediately ordered some drinks. The Surfer and I had a Bintang (the first of many throughout the trip – especially handy after we ran out of duty free alcohol).

We finally checked in and changed straight into our bathers for a swim in the very warm pool. I say that because the next hotel we stayed in didn’t have a very warm pool. It wasn’t freezing but it was noticeably cooler.

Leaving the sanctuary of the hotel later, we were hit with one of the busiest parts of Tuban/Kuta. It took me back nearly 20 years ago to when I was India so it wasn’t quite so out there a feeling for me as it could have been. It still took me a couple of days to acclimatise to the weather and the different culture. And the money, the money. One of our dollars buys about 7000 rupiah which is just really hard to get your head around at the beginning. I changed $50 Australian and it got me about 350,000 rupiah and throughout the whole trip I kept getting 100,000 and 10,000 notes mixed up which was rather embarrassing.

I must say that I wasn’t as hassled by people wanting to sell me stuff as I thought I might have been except for when I walked onto the beach from the hotel. I’m saving that story for another day though.