Jillian's Travels

Bali, Part 5

Day 11, January 8

Last night’s sleep was not a great one. The heat was a major factor for me. I slept in my bathing suit but still was hot and uncomfortable. So I was pretty tired throughout the day.

We got a driver through the people at our place and he took us to the Hindu Uluwatu Temple. It is set on the coast line of the Indian Ocean and is just breathtaking. We walked around a little bit and then were ready for food.

Our driver took us to a little place off the road serving traditional food. It was a self serve thing and not really what I expected but we were there and it was so hot so I made a plate.

Then we went back to our place and pretty much relaxed the rest of the day. The heat and humidity were really taking its toll on us today. We were saying how we understand now why all the Balinese workers are lounging when we arrive at places.

I decided the take my computer and sit outside on the beds they have. I was working on my blog and then kept drifting to sleep.

After we lounged around a little bit more, we went back to the Cashew Tree for dinner. I got another refresher juice and this time the Balinese Chicken Curry.

After we ate, we hung out at the restaurant and booked our flight for the Philippines for tomorrow. We ended the night back at our place. We had another roach incident but Taryn saved the day, again.

Day 12, January 9

My sister and I woke up early to try and catch the sunrise but it was hidden behind the mountains. It was still a serene and pretty morning because no one was up yet and the ocean was really calm.

After that, we decided to go down to the ocean to get some pictures since we didn’t last time.

Then it was back to shower and pack up to check out. We got a driver to take us to get breakfast at the Cashew Tree and then on to the airport.

We had to check out of our room at 11am and our flight wasn’t until 9:05pm so we had a lot of time to kill at the airport. I updated the blog, my sister read and Taryn played on her phone.

Bali Wrap Up:

• Some common questions they ask are: where are you going or what are you doing? They always want to know what’s on your agenda. Also are you married? And then of course, why not?
• The Balinese people are very kind and generous. They take the time to really greet you and say hello.
• Instead of slowing down when driving around curves, they just honk.
• None of us got Bali Belly
• I love Bali!

It was finally around the time when we could check-in. So my sister and I went over to the Citilink airline check-in counter while Taryn went to her’s at Lion Air. I handed the lady my phone that had the itinerary and my passport so she could print out our boarding passes and she said you have the wrong date. Your flight isn’t until tomorrow night, the 10th and today is the 9th. I immediately panicked. I had booked the wrong date. I went over to see what date Taryn’s was and she had the correct date. In the confusion of booking the flights and trying to map everything out for the coming days, I clicked on the wrong link with the wrong date.

The lady told us to go back outside to customer service to see about getting on tonight’s flight. So we did and luckily Citilink was able to get us on a flight that night to Jakarta (for an additional fee) to hopefully make our connecting flight. The only problem was that now our connecting flight was also for the wrong date. So once we landed, we’d have to grab our bags and run to the airlines that was operating our connecting flight and hope they’d be able to get us on.

We go back in and over to the check-in counter to drop off our bags. Taryn was all squared away with hers, so we had to separate at that point to head to each of our gates. We board ours no problem.

The pilot came on as we were nearing landing and tells us that the weather in Jakarta is bad so we need to circle in the air for about 20-30 minutes until he gets the ok to land. He comes back on about 20 minutes later and says we are still waiting. Finally we get the ok to land about 45 minutes after our scheduled arrival. We then have to sit and wait on the gate because it is raining and for some reason we can’t get any closer. They then decide since the gate was not ready, they just unload us near the gate and shuttle us over to near baggage claim. It was pouring down rain at the moment so they, one by one, escorted us with an umbrella to the shuttle.

We finally get to baggage claim and wait for about 30 minutes. At that point I was pretty sure we were going to miss our connecting flight because we still needed to see about getting our flight changed.

We get our bags, search for and finally find the shuttle to take us to the international departures, run to the Cebu Pacific (our next airline) check-in counter and are told “ma’am, it is a very sophisticated system” and therefore they cannot get us on the same flight Taryn will be on and the next one out won’t be until 24 hours from now which is the one we already have booked.

So it’s the Payne Sisters in Jakarta for 24 hours. We find the Jakarta Airport Hotel and book a night and pay a little extra for late check out so we only have to wait at the airport for about 6.5 hours instead of 12.

We were so, so, so hungry at this point but just about everything was closed so we split a granola bar and went to sleep.

Day 13, January 10

We woke up the next morning and went in search of some breakfast. It was still slim pickings so we ended up at, of all places, KFC. I got the pancakes with a side of rice. My sister tried to get pancakes as well and she was told no they just had waffles. Apparently KFC only cooks so many pancakes per morning at this airport. So she got the waffles with a side of fries and we split some chicken.

We went back to our room and feasted. We lounged around the rest of the day before showering and packing our stuff back up. At this point we’re thinking the Philippines better be worth all this hassle. But I guess this is what is to be expected when traveling this much for 2 months.

I will give an update on the flight once we land in Manila, Philippines. We are headed back down to the airport now to wait the last 6.5 hours before boarding our flight.

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