Bali the First: Getting There

We went to Bali for 11 days at the end of July. This wasn't a product of long term planning, I just thought wouldn't it be neat if it were possible to...and then two weeks later we went. There were some scheduling issues to work out with Lee's job, but basically they swapped two weeks of work and vacation around in his schedule and gave us the OK. This was the first international vacation we've ever taken, our first time in the Southern Hemisphere, and with the full page tourist visa, a good step forward in filling our passports. Bali is an island in Indonesia. It is mostly Hindu, whereas the rest of Indonesia is mostly Muslim. It is not a first world country, and was an interesting experience in ways mostly good but some bad.


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We had a 6.5 hour nonstop flight from Kansai International airport outside Osaka to Bali, after taking the train to Osaka from Kanazawa the night before. We had a flight early enough that taking the train the same day was not possible. While in Osaka airport, we decided to change money as I'd read that you cannot do so in Tulamben, the city we'd be staying at for the first leg of our journey (this information later proved untrue). The exchange rate is US$1 ~= RP10000, except at Kansai airport where they feel they should earn an extra ~25%. Lee is holding 1.5 million Rupiah, the Indonesian currency and feeling cool under the influence of too many zeros on money. We also found interesting hotel literature in the nightstand - we checked for a Bible just to see if they had them in hotels here here, and found one in Japanese, right next to a book of Buddhist teachings. So international travelers in Osaka can expect to find dueling religions inside the night stands which we thought was kind of neat.


In the morning, we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch our flight. Kansai airport is well designed. It's a man-made island off the coast housing a train station as well as the airport, plus several more-expensive-than-ours hotels. The train station is in the center of the complex, with the hotel off on one side and the airport on the other. It's very simple to walk across to catch your flight, only about 2 minutes between the rails and the baggage pickup or ticket counters. Definitely a very smooth and well-thought-out complex. The food areas were large and diverse and we ate at a Subway as I'd been craving a turkey sub for quite some time. I managed to get turkey in Japan! This is a major feat. We had to take a picture of the inside of the terminal because we realized it's shaped like an airplane wing. You can see it somewhat in the picture.

The flight itself was uneventful. The airport in Denpasar, however, surely let us know we were no longer in Japan, with temples and statues and scenery galore. It also had long and painful lines. We had a line for our visas and baggage and waited more than 90 minutes total, then walked past the customs guy who, thankfully, appeared to be asleep at his machine. The money changers at this airport were competing against one another, and give much better rates than in Osaka. The luggage was being guarded by a bunch of locals who were angling for tips. As we were somewhat fatigued from the flight and not quick enough, one of them grabbed our bag for us and was trying to direct us to his favorite money changer and taxi service. He managed to beg for a fairly large tip, simply because we weren't expecting it and seriously, who ever expects a grown man to be begging, whining, and pleading with you? That and we haven't had to tip anyone in a year since it is unthinkable in Japan. We did manage to find our driver and head over to our first hotel in Tulamben, which was about a three hour drive away, without further problems aside from a few minor aneurysms caused by rapid acclimitization to Balinese driving techniques and the G-forces involved in such, about which Lee will post in detail later.


One disappointing thing about the drive to the hotel was that by the time we were on our way, the sun had set, so we were unable to see the countryside. We stopped at a lovely restaurant on a waterlily covered bay/lake for dinner, but couldn't enjoy the view as much as we would have liked. We were so happy to have rice that wasn't short grain sticky Japanese rice and flavorful, spicy food! The villas we were staying at for the first part of the trip were booked for the first night, so we stayed in a new villa down the road that had just opened for business. Sadly, the camera fell out of the bag in the car so we don't have pictures of that first one, but it was very nice with a comfortable bed and an amazing view. Fishing boats left from that beach every morning and if you woke up to watch the sunrise at 6:30, you could also watch the fishing boats come back in around 7. That first sunrise was excellent.

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