I left my house at 7:30 AM on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, on my way to Dulles airport. My neighbor gave me a ride to Metro which I took to the end of the Silver line (Reston). Then I took the Washington Flyer Bus to the airport. It took me just over 2 hours from my house to finally get to Dulles.
My flight left on time at 12:15 PM. It was about 14 hours in the air but United’s economy class wasn’t too bad as it was only about half full. In fact I had 3 seats to myself!. We arrived at Narita, Tokyo about 20 minutes early. I spent my time waiting for my connecting flight to Jakarta in the KAL lounge. This lounge was disappointing as it wasn’t nearly on par with the ANA lounge at Narita which I had the fortune to be able to use the last time here. Anyway, I got my ANA connecting flight to Narita which left about 20 minutes late. I thought it odd that we had to take a bus to get to the plane (plane was out on the tarmac) as ANA is a Japanese airline and this flight is also a jumbo jet 787. It was also raining at the time which made this process a bit more onerous.
The flight to Jakarta was just about full which was disappointing to me after the first flight. Still the nearly 8 hour trip went without incident and we arrived in Jakarta at about 12:35 AM, about 40 minutes late. After immigration, baggage and customs, I had the information desk call my airport hotel diver to get picked up. I got to the hotel, Orchardz, about 2 AM. Although I got practically no sleep on either of my flights, I still only managed 3 hours of sleep that night.
So after a rather originally breakfast buffet, I left the hotel on Thursday morning for my flight to Bali. It was on Lion Air which is a low cost Indonesian airline. This flight was full and arrived in Bali just a few minutes late. From the airport I took a taxi to my hotel in Ubud. This taxi ride took well over an hour which about 15 minutes was due to the driver. He was nice but his phone wasn’t working so he couldn’t call for directions. There are so many hotels in the Ubud area that it is almost unbelievable. Fortunately, after many stops asking for directions, we finally arrived at the guesthouse, Nyoman Sandi. Although this place was very highly rated in TripAdvisor, when we arrived it looked nothing like the pictures. it appeared to be just a rather worn house. But that is only what appears on the road. When you walk back the path you come to the actually guesthouse. Actually, it is very nice and lives up to its ratings. Here is my balcony over the ‘jungle’; the table waiting my breakfast…
On Friday morning I walked around more of the town and bought a local sim card asvwll as a data card for my cell phone. Now I have maps and Google again!. At lunch I met up with Made, a local guide/driver who came highly recommended to me. We stopped for chicken sate (satay) which was quite good. Then we went to many of the small local villages that specialize in one or another toy of art, like painting, woodcarving, silver & gold design, etc. The wood carvings were especially nice. I like the Hibiscus wood that was used in some of the carvings as this wood Is very unusual as it has two different colors running in veins throughout. If these colors are properly incorporated in the design, it makes for a spectacular piece.
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