INDONESIA: FROM BALI TO CALIFORNIA AND REFLECTIONS ON THE TRIP

 July 14, 2023

Our guide and driver picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the Denpasar International Airport, also known as the Ngurah Rai International Airport. It looks very Balinese in its architecture.

I think this statue by the airport must be Ngurah Rai, a Indonesian Lieutenant Colonel who has been named a National Hero for his role in the Indonesian War for Independence against the Dutch after World War II. He died in the Battle of Margarana and appears on the 50,000 Indonesian rupiah bill.

The airport is very busy, serving over 25 million passengers a year. I love all the Balinese touches. 

We were dropped off at the airport 3.5 hours ahead of our flight time. I wish our guide could have been that conscious of time the previous day. Passport control took a while, but not that long.

I still had 700,000 rupiah (about $45 USD) in my purse to use up, and there was shopping aplenty.

I bought a nice pearl ring the sales clerk said was from Lombok, one of the islands in the Indonesian archipelago. We also bought some dried rambutan and some chocolate, all for the cash in my wallet.

Bob wanted gelato (who am I to argue with that?), and we were able to find some, but since I now had only 60¢ left in the local currency, we had to put it on a credit card, but it was worth it.

At the last minute, our gate was changed and we had to haul ourselves and our luggage up a long flight of stairs to our new deparature area. I had heard rattling and squeaking in Bob's lungs when we were lying in bed that morning, a carry-over from his illness in Surabaya, and he was coughing and struggling to rush up the stairs. We were finally boarded and seated and had an empty seat next to us, always a wonderful surprise.

Good-bye Bali, good-bye Indonesia.

Who would be stepping on the plane right there or grabbing that white fin? Not I.

After about 2 1/2 hours in the air, we landed in Singapore for a layover and spent another 3 1/2 hours kicking around the airport, but hey, what a glamorous airport.

It even has GOLD wings for people who want to pose for a photo in front of them.

From there it was "just" 16 hours of flying time to LAX, then another couple of hours in a shuttle service to get home.

It has taken me six months to make my way through all of our destinations and posts. What a journey--both traveling and blogging!  At the end of our trips we like to generate a list of a few things we especially want to remember. This trip had some of our travel highs and some of our travel lows, so that's how I am going to record them this time. So, starting with the lows and in no particular order within each of the two categories (and noting there are far more highs than lows), here we go.

LOWS:

- Bob getting sick in Surabaya and being stuck in our hotel for three days, causing us to miss our trip to Sulawesi.

- Two very poor guides--one in Surabaya and one in Bali.

- The pointless drive to a seaside temple in Bali that we couldn't see at all because it was dark and that wasted over five hours of our limited time.

- The food on the boat during our trip to Komodo. It turned us off in general on Indonesian food.

- The unrelenting heat and humidity. This was the most physically demanding trip we have ever taken, and it took its toll on us.

- The traffic in Bali. Probably the most congested traffic we've ever experienced.

- An aggressive shopkeeper in the food market in Surabaya who tried to steal Judy's straw hat.

- Pulling bloodsuckers off our skin in Tangkahan (Judy).

HIGHS:

- Elephant feeding and washing in Tangkahan.

- The meal served from rocks in the river and decorated with flowers in Tangkahan after our elephant experience and a hike.

- The orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo. It was such a charge to see them in the wild.

- Tracking Komodo dragons along the pathways on two different islands in Komodo National Park, an experience we could never have imagined having.

- The best snorkeling of our lives off Komodo Island.

- Two of the best guides we've ever had, one in Gunung Leuser Park in Sumatra and one on the boat in Komodo.

- Learning how rubber is harvested in Gunung Leuser.

- Watching a gibbon steal food from the orangutan feeding station in Camp Leakey.

- Attila, an orangutan lounging on the sidewalk in Camp Leakey.

- Getting up close to a Great Argus bird in Gunung Leuser, which looks like a peacock, and hearing its loud, obnoxious call.

- Spending two days on the Sekonyer River on a klotok boat.

- The rhythm of the klotok motor and the phrases we paired with it. ("Tanjung Puting Tanjung Puting" or "I am hungry I am hungry" or "I think I can I think I can")

- The green snake coiled up on a branch at the lodge we stayed in in Borneo (Bob).

- The beauty of the islands around Flores.

- The kindness and helpfulness of the hotel staff in Surabaya when Bob got sick and the medical services that were provided.

- The Ubud Monkey Forest in Bali.

- The enormous, delicious buffet breakfast we had on our last day in Bali/Indonesia.

- The Botanical Garden in Singapore, and especially the orchid greenhouse.

- Monitor lizards in the water in the Botanical Garden in Singapore.

- Eating at the Old Airport Road Hawker Centre in Singapore with its dozens of food stalls.

- Some great hotels in Surabaya, Gunung Leuser, and Bali.

- Bob's favorite souvenir: a carving of a Komodo dragon purchased on a small island near the island of Flores.

- A spectacular sunset seen from our boat near Kalong Island where we had parked to watch the bats leave the mangrove forest at dusk.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Bob would love to return to Indonesia to visit Sulawesi, the island we missed because of his illness, but I am not sure we could face the heat and humidity. Then again, Malaysia is just east of Indonesia, and we haven't been there yet . . .