November 29, 2005

Yesterday we flew from Sydney to Depensar Bali on a six hour flight on Garuda Airlines. To my surprise, mostly because of my preconceived ideas about Indonesia and its ability to run an airline, the flight was really good and the service fantastic. Our pilot sounded like Mr. Rork from the old Fantasy Island television show. Jodi and I had some pretty good laughs whenever he would use the intercom.
When we landed I told Jodi that I suspect we are going to learn many things in the next 24 hours because of the new culture and how to operate within it. My first lesson started at the baggage carousel. I had seen my bag come around as Jodi and I were picking up our bicycles, so I hurriedly approached the others side to grab my bag and in my haste I drew the attention of the Porters. I thought they were customs agents and because I was in such a hurry I had drawn their attention and I was going to spend my afternoon showing and explaining the contents of my bag. They asked if I had any more and I said “only my wife’s bag which is similar to mine but green instead of blue”. They began milling around looking for the bag but it was nowhere in site so they gave up on me for other tourists. Eventually I saw a sign indicating the rates for porters and noticed that all the guys I thought were customs were in fact porters so I let out a big sigh of relief. I then grabbed my bag and brought it to Jodi to include with our other things.
Outside the airport we were introduced instantly to the bartering culture of Indonesia. Everyone who saw us would approach and say “I have mini van let me take you to a hotel” and they would just follow us trying to get us in their vehicles. In Sydney, Michael told us this would happen and how to deal with it but once there it all seemed so difficult. Eventually Jodi and I found a guy to take us to Kuta where we would look for accommodations. His first price was $20USD and Jodi said “No Way! How about $5USD.” He then came back with $15USD and she said “$8USD”, we finally settled on $10USD that we later learned was a rip off since Kuta was only 3km from the airport. Once in Kuta we found a nice place for $20USD per night and the manager said he would store our bicycle boxes until we come back in 21 days. It seemed like a pretty good deal; hopefully our boxes are still there when we return.
Today I awoke from a horrible nights sleep because of a cold. Realizing that neither of us cared for Kuta and if we stayed there much longer we might get stuck because of my cold and the potential of both of us being down from sickness, we decided to ride from Kuta to Ubud so we could get out of Bali’s Little America and onto more peaceful surroundings. Unlike our ride in New Zealand things went really well. We were a little lost at times but we eventually found our way to Ubud in about 4 hours. We found a really nice accommodation for $25 USD per night that included a king size bed, air conditioning and a room large enough for us to store our bikes. Once inside I took a nap until evening and then we both had a dinner of vegetable curry over rice. Jodi burned her arms pretty badly so we agreed to spend several days here so she could keep them out of the sun and heal a bit before we ride more.