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25 May - Gili Air to Kuta
Today it is time to leave Gili Air. We were all up fairly early out of habit and each of us spent a bit of time chilling either on the Internet (which of course hadn't worked the night before due to the power outage) or reading while we attempted to hold off on having breakfast as long as we could.
Ended up having breakfast at about 9:30pm, then checked out around 10:30am and headed down towards to pier/Harbour to get what should be an 11am boat. But the boat didn't end up showing up til after 11:30 in the end.
From there it was a short hop to Gili T where we picked up and dropped off some extra people, then on to Padang Bai back on Bali. It was a two hour trip. Had a bit of a scare along the way when all of a sudden the boat did a sharp turn and came to a stop. Turns out we had hit a bit of wood which got caught in the engine or rudder or something, the crew eventually managed to get it out and we continued on our
way. It was a fairly decent fast boat anyway.
Back at Penang Bai we had time for a bathroom and snack stop before hopping into a mini bus with other people to get back to Kuta. The trip was a bit cosy, every seat was taken up, and it was about a two hour trip.
So it was after 3pm by the time we got back to our hotel in Kuta. We checked in and Cristina and I headed straight out for some shopping and to grab some food. Browsed through some street markets and small shops before stumbling across a cafe and grabbed some food from their snack menu. Slightly larger than anticipated but the food was fairly decent.
Then it was a few more shops on the way back to the hotel, before shower and change and a bit of downtime. The three of us met Gede downstairs at 7:30 for our final tour dinner.
As a small group, we decided to head down to the night food market to get some local (and super cheap) food. I got chicken kebabs and, you guessed it, rice and a beer.
After dinner we headed
back to the hotel where Cristina turned in and the three of us stayed downstairs for a drink. Gede's wife showed up and she joined us briefly too before they headed back to Denpasar. Gant and I headed off for a quick walk into the main part of Kuta so at least I could say I had seen it. Strolled past the memorial wall for the Bali bombings in 2002 and all of the clubs/pubs/bars/restaurants before looping back via the beach.
26 and 27 May - Kuta to Canberra
After breakfast with Cristina and Grant I headed off to do some shopping. Headed straight to discovery mall and had to wait half an hour for it to open. Browsed lots of shops and bought some clothes, along with DVDs and a couple of small souvenirs.
Got back to the hotel around 12:30 after grabbing lunch on the way home and had hoped to get in a final swim. But there were stacks of kids in the pool being noisy so I headed out to grab a few other last minute things in the area round the hotel.
Around 2pm I got back and the pool was empty so it was chill/pool time. It was quite overcast by this time so when it got a little chilly I hopped out. Looking at the sky, I thought it might rain so headed back up to the room to shower etc. while in the shower, it started pouring. I cold hear it inside the bathroom it was that heavy! Torrential rain again. Went for probably a good hour, then continued but significantly lighter after that time.
At 4pm I checked out and left my bag downstairs while I went for a final stroll and to grab an early dinner. My transfer wasn't due til 6:30pm but I had only paid extra to keep the room til 4pm as it saved me extra money. So went for a walk and grabbed a final local (ish) dinner of chicken and rice. I still had a bit of time to kill back at the hotel so headed to the bar downstairs to grab a final small Bintang. Grant ended up also appearing so hung around til my transfer showed up early at 6pm.
At the airport early so check in wasn't open. Eventually checked in, noting my bag had increased nearly 5kg since arriving, then through immigration and security. Grabbed a drink while waiting for the flight which was due to depart just after 10pm. Very full flight, and it was a direct to Sydney.
Only five and a half hour trip through and I did manage to nap, thankfully there was an empty seat between myself and the guy who was by the window. Into Sydney slightly late due to traffic, and then they had truly with the aero bridge which meant we didn't really start getting off the plane til nearly 7am.
This meant that I was getting worried about making my 9:15am bus to Sydney, just knowing what the lines can be like getting through Customs/ quarantine. But straight through the auto passport check with SmartGate which cut down a massive amount of queuing, bag was already on the carousel and then straight into the next line, as I had declared food and wooden articles.
A quick check of both by bio security and I was through by about 7:30am. This left me enough time to grab a quick Maccas brekky and run to the bathroom before heading out onto the bus where I had hoped to grab the earlier bus at 8:15am. Someone was on my side as that worked for me, meaning I arrived back into Canberra at 11:30am and was home by midday.
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