Round Australia: Bali Special

Bali Special

Well this is an unusual blog because it covers off 6 days. For those back home, you may remember ^th / 31^st. we had kept it secret and expected to surprise her at breakfast, what could go wrong? We well there was certainly surprises, but it was on us. Tia texted us the morning we were to fly out to say that she had changed her flights and was returning with Lesley and Rebecca. Ha, you can imagine the fluster that caused! We told her we were on our way tonight and would see her then to work it out.

Our Niece Jessica

Sweet heart stuffed and mounted

we had plans of being through Darwin before October, but we enjoyed the North West so much that when we got to Barn Hill, we realised that we could be in Darwin when Tia was in Bali, so we booked tickets. We considered when we would go and decided that we would go for 6 days, that way we would catch up with Lesley

The crew in Bali

Cultural dancing

and stay on until Tia and Sam left on the 30

That afternoon, we caught up with our lovely Niece, the trainee doctor, Jessica. I know I covered some of this in an earlier blog so I wont dwell on it. But we had a lovely coffee and catch up. We flew into Bali and although we used the new terminal, they don’t wave the bridges yet so we had to go down the stairs, but instead of going on the

At cutural dancing

Tia and me

bus, they brought a car out to us and drove us in, all very flash. We caught up with Tia and sat down to go over the options. We decided in the end that Tia was going to stay on with us and we organised flights etc.

Tia and Maureen

At the silver works

The following day we went off on a cultural tour and is covered in day 88 blog. The following day, Lesley, Sam and Rebecca were flying home at midnight. We (when I ^thsay We, it is the royal We, I spent a lot of it in the pool or on my Gopher) spent the day doing last minute shopping, worrying about excess baggage and all that stuff. When we booked our tickets, we decided to book a mobility scooter from Bali Mobility and when we got to Darwin, we tried to get on their web site with no success.

Tia and Sam

We used the e-mail address we used earlier

At the temple

in the year and asked to have one delivered on the 25. We heard no more so we gave up on it, only to have them ring us on the 26^th to ask where we were yesterday when they tried to deliver it. Well after a little discussion, it turned out they had sent us 2 e-mails but we did not get them until we logged on in Bali, something we had noticed last time, anyway they delivered a mini Beast to the hotel and I was set for the next few days. I could drive

Yes you have to hug me again

Lunch

along the foreshore and out on the streets so I could get around, they are a godsend, as I would not have done half the stuff I did.

We saw Lesley, Sam and Rebecca off at 9pm and went for a swim. The weather here is quite mild, I think the 3 -4 weeks of 40+ days had acclimatised us to the heat and Bali seemed mild, although the Perthites said it was hot, coming from the cold and wet. Prior to them leaving, we had spent the afternoon at the pool and Maureen had scouted along the ^th and Tia’s the 29^th. They stood or chairs and we sang happy birthday. From there, it was a race back to the hotel to get them ready for their flight.

Staff from Bali Rich

One of our pools

beach earlier and noticed a wedding. They said it was scheduled for 4 in the afternoon, perfect with our plans of going to Hard Rock Café for dinner. Well Maureen and Lesley meandered down there and got a couple of cocktails and settled in to watch the wedding, 4 came then went, then 4:30 the groomsmen rolled up and at 5 the bride came along! Well the ladies staggered back to the hotel and we all

Hard Rock

Wedding watching

changed for dinner. We had booked in to the Hard Rock Café and it was a great night, just after we finished dinner, there was a commotion in the kitchen and the staff all came out and over to our table, banging on pots and pans. Lesley had queued them up for the girl’s birthdays, Maureen’s on the 28

It was great to have Tia for the next few days, apart from seeing her after so long, she and Maureen

wedding on the beach

More cultural dancing

could go off shopping and I could stay home and swim or wander around in the mini Beast. For the birthdays, they were a little different. For Maureen’s we started off in the pool at about 6:30 and started talking to some other couples there and at 9:30 we got chucked out by the staff! We adjourned to our room and had room service. For Tia’s, we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp. They again came out and sang happy

Night out on the tiles

Giving Tia lift home, no wheel barrows

birthday. Both nights were great and enjoyed by all. One day we were there, we went to High Tea at Biku’s and it was lovely. Old fashioned tea pots and cups and a range of finger food. We also looked at the hotel next door as we are coming back in the middle of next year with the Crooks and the rooms are perfect with no steps etc.

High Tea

Food for high tea

The flight home was uneventful, or at least so we thought. The plane landed and the door opened and in walked 2 Federal Police officers. A passenger had been asked to belt up a child but she said no, the steward said yes and it went down hill fast from there. They were escorted off the plane and got a stern talking to from the police and made to apologise, fair enough.