But here goes anyway......
Tuesday 14th May
A beautiful clear day at KMIA airport to board the early flight to OR Tambo saw me arrive at 08:15, a mad dash outside the terminal to double clutch a few cigarettes before heading for international departures. Why does it seem that flying anywhere involves mad scrambles followed by long, boring waits? Oh well it gave me the opportunity to connect with some colleagues (fellow travelers) and head to the lounge where quite a few beers slid down the throat. My kind of day, cigarettes and beer at 09:00 in the morning.
Fortunately our boarding call whispered in an almost unintelligible language which certainly saved me from missing the Air Singapore flight to....you guessed it....Singapore, the first leg of the journey.
We went wheels up soon after with me crammed between a group of rather large and intimidating nurses from Groote Schuur on their way to the east on some conference of their own. I felt like Oliver from the famous Charles Dickens story, sitting in fear of having my ear twisted and being marched off to the headmaster.
The 10 and a half hour flight was interminable, may have been because of my fear of the nurses or not having a smoke, I'm not sure which was worse. Imagine a grown man saying "please nurse, may I have some more beer" and waiting for the "Mooore?"Wednesday 15th May
We landed at about 07:30 Singapore time, with our Bali flight on Air Malaysia due to leave at 11:30... more hurry up and wait. Naturally my first port of call was a smoking room. Uuuuhhhh, it was enough to make me consider quitting. You didn't need to light a smoke, just stand there and you can have 50 cigarettes in two minutes for free. Groping my way through the smog for the door I got out as soon as I could.
Nothing more to do but sit and people watch, forget shopping, things are twice the price of what you can buy the same stuff for in SA. Two beers, one coke and a whiskey & soda left me R400 lighter in the pocket. R12 to the Singapore dollar Eish. I forced myself to enjoy people watching
At the checking in counter I tried to stay away from big intimidating nurses, with the hopes of getting a seat amongst normal people, it seemed to work and on boarding the aircraft found myself between 2 rather pretty Aussie lasses off to Bali on a surfing holiday. A pity the flight was only 2 1/2 hours.
The descent over Bali was awesome, a true island paradise from the air. With a smooth tire squeek we touched down and on exciting the aircraft we came to earth with a huge bump. The heat and humidity was unbelievable, back to reality, the wheels of well oiled corporate organization kicked into high gear. No customs lines or formalities for us. We were met by an official in uniform, asked to follow closely behind him and off we went through the diplomatic gate. The nice man (all officials in strange lands should be considered nice if they crack a hint of a smile) collected all our passports, told us to wait in a lounge and disappeared. He returned 5 minutes later and lead us out of the airport where our luggage was already being loaded into the resort van. He shook everyone's hand wished us a pleasant stay and disappeared again. "Hey!!! what about our passports?" "Don't worry was the only response".
We were lead to the parking lot where a whole fleet of the most beautiful old VW convertibles where waiting to whisk us off to the Grand Hyatt resort on the south coast of Bali complete with a police escort.
A beautifully carved statue somewhere between the airport and the hotel
The usual hoard of bikes waiting for our cavalcade to pass by
The trip took about 30 minutes, I would hate to have seen what it would have taken without the escort what with the mayhem of motorbikes, minibuses and small cars all jockeying for lanes.
On arrival at the hotel, things continued to amaze. Our passports where handed to us, complete with visas, entry stamps and customs clearances. What amazing organization, must have been what the Guptas felt like at Waterkloof.
The view from the reception area
