5/15/10 (cairns)

Cairns – Darwin – Bali (Legian)

Today was our fly day. We were going from Cairns to Darwin and then heading to Bali. It was more expensive to fly from Cairns to Bali with most flights going back to Brisbane first. We booked two separate flights. Our flight to Darwin was quick and we gave ourselves plenty of time to get our luggage before going to check into our Bali flight. It was a five hour wait before we could board for our Bali flight. The airport miraculously had free internet so we were set. I even got to talk to a good friend via facebook. When it was almost time for us to board we were told they were having engine issues and there would be a small delay. The delay ended up lasting an extra two hours so we spent a good deal of time getting to know the Darwin airport. We finally boarded the flight and it was smooth sail to Bali.

When we arrived in Bali it was about 10pm and everyone was just happy to get out of the airport.  As we were walking to get our bags there were about 15 porters pulling everyone’s bags out of the conveyor belt. They had all the bags nicely lined up for people to come pick them up. As we went to grab our bags two porters approached us to help with our bags. We nicely declined but they were very insistent and almost took our bags away from us. We were in a bit of a daze as to what was going on or what to do. We were just surprised by their persistence. We passed through customs without anyone asking to check our bags or ask for our outbound ticket. We were warned by the airlines and travel centers that we needed to have an outbound ticket or we may be prevented from entering Bali. We reluctantly bought our ticket to Kuala Lumpur and were disappointed to find out we really didn’t need to.

As we walked outside the humidity hit us like a brick. Even though it was late in the evening it was still very humid. We hadn’t arranged for someone to come pick us up and it took some figuring out on how to get to the hotel. We were a bit on guard after our experience with the airport porters. We finally figured out how to hire a taxi to take us to the hotel. During our drive we caught our first glimpse of Bali. There were motorcycles zooming in and out between cars. I admitted to Jon later that I was trying to remember key landmarks that we passed in case something happened to us or we were taken to a different hotel. What can I say? I was a bit paranoid and it was very late at night. Jon was a bit worried that we hadn’t heard back from the hotel confirming our reservation but I figured they were just a bit slow in getting back to us. On the other hand we did just email the hotel the day before. When we arrived at the hotel they told us they were all booked for the night but recommended we go to their sister hotel just a few minutes away. We checked into the hotel and crashed for the night. We were just happy they had air conditioning for $30/night.