March 20, 2010; 2:08 am. The Carlsons have saved our pennies, so Asia (Bali and Singapore) are the next destinations in the adventure series.
That's right. Our plane to Bali LEAVES at 2 am. Seattle-->Taiwan-->Bali. Door-to-door (Seattle to Sanur, Bali): 27.5 hours. Ouch. Find me something to lay on so I can get off my butt. Only remarkable point in the flight was dinner (or was it breakfast?) in the Tapei Airport. I had some Udon Noodle Chicken Curry. Off the charts... If you need proof, take a look at my shirt. I think I'm wearing half of it. Slurp! Anyway, we crossed the date line, so we arrived a day later (March 21) in Bali at 5:30 PM. The arrival queue at the airport was a complete disaster. Patiently, we stand in "line" to get our visas. Line is a loosely coined term here. It was a mob of people, and after only 10 minutes and after talking to two different airport employees, we figured out where to stand to get a visa. Have your visa? Great. Now stand in a MUCH longer "line." One in which apparently doesn't move for 5 minutes at a time. This is due to both slow immigration officers and people cutting. Terri uses her adept social tactics at keeping me from going off on an Iranian woman who thinks she so coy and CUTTING RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. OK, I'm over it. 60 minutes later in this sweatbox, we're finally out. Really not complaining here. I love all the disorganization and mayhem that comes with travel. But only later.
A thirty minute cab-ride later, we check into our hotel: Swastika Bungalows. Uhhh, yeah. That's not a typo. Swastika. So the story goes, the literal translation of swastika from Sanksrit is, "to be with goodness." We didn't see any Nazi symbols, so I guess we'll stay. Our room is an ornate bungalow, right in the middle of a tropical jungle. Very cool. You know what isn't cool? The 5 foot, 6 inch doorway into the bathroom. It took all of about 10 minutes for me to smash my head into the doorframe. Once again, Terri intervenes to prevent me bodily farm, hanging my luggage tag from the doorframe. It's two days later as I write this, and my head still hurts when I take a shower. Which by the way, I need to about 4 times a day. IT IS HOT in Bali. Really hot. I'd say the temp. is somewhere around 90-95 degrees, but the humidity is stifling. I cannot stop sweating. My first day in Bali, I drank about 8 liters of water.
We met up with our group from GAP Adventures. Our tour leader is Koni, from Switzerland. We are 12 members strong, hailing from Canada, Sweden, Germany, and the UK. Terri and I are the lone US citizens. My undiagnosed paranoia dictates that the rest of them are scheming against us already.... Actually, everyone is quite nice.
Tonight's dinner was near the hotel, at Retro Restaurant. I had the red snapper and an avocado juice shake. Yeah, that's right: Avocado Juice. Mixed with a few swirls of chocolate syrup, it went down quite well. Terri had the Nasi Campur, a plate of mixed Indonesian foods: Chicken Satay, steak, some veggies mixed with seafood, curry, and a hint of coconut milk. The all-star tonight was the steak. They apparently marinate in coconut milk, and it was suprisingly amazing. I'll be looking for more of that. Time for bed. Jet lag. Big time.
No comments:
Post a Comment