Day 0... Bags are packed and we are ready to fly! We get a call at 9am, it's tanny telling us the flight is delayed till 8pm so we leave at 1. Mel is the best driving us to the airport and everyone is there waiting to check in. 15 bags and 16 bodies later we head to customs and wait in the terminal. Once we board, at 8pm we wait a further 1.5 hours on the Tarmac for technical difficulties... Just awesome words for the fear of flying passenger! Flight is 6 hours slept for 2 kids were so good on plane and we land!
Walking of the plane is something I won't forget. The heat hits you in the face as well as a smell of sweaty smoky bodies. There is a room filled with passengers waiting for our delayed plane looking cranky! We pay our visa and enter customs where you are greeted by a huge sign stating drug offences are punishable by death penalty! A stark reminder of what we have watched on the news with other Aussie travelers. Customs is little more than a conveyor belt and guard, no intimidation as I had imagined.
We walk out and are greeted by 3 smiling very willing drivers, they have been at the airport 4 hours so are happy to take our bags and get us to the villa. In the car there are no child restraints and not many belts but lots of good aircon! The city is still alive and driving the half hour through the villagers you wonder if anyone sleeps! Many roadside homes have some kind of store connected to it that cannot be locked so is guarded by male members of the family. They sit there all night in pairs smoking and talking. It's a beautiful drive with the driver beeping at intervals to worship his god, trees bridges and temples must be acknowledged by the Hindu also to warn the hundreds of scooter riders that we are around a bend. The house is on a cliff on a huge piece of privately owned land. It has many paths leading to balis surfing Mecca, a reef break quite dangerous for surfers but they go anyway. You pay a fee of five thousand rupiah to help upgrade the rubble road as you pass the little old lady gate keeper. The house is amazing but we are too tired to explore. Kids rooms adjoin ours and we are off to bed!