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Published: February 1st 2017
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Nasi lemak. Yum! Despite there being no noise from OUTSIDE the room, sleep was a bit impossible for me last night. Not so Sam! She has an amazing ability to fall asleep instantly (this was obvious, both visually and audibly....) and then be just as instantly wake and having a conversation. The monorail rumbled to life at 5.30am and at 6 was the call to prayer from the next door mosque. Luckily, it wasn't a long one. Sam was back to sleep the very second it finished. We went down to breakfast not too optimistic about the offerings, as we vaguely remembered it being curry based, and my blog said I had dhal, so I wondered why I'd thought this was the best choice! Pleasantly surprised. Delicious nasi lemak, roti, American pancakes, chicken nuggets (didn't have those), porridge, pineapple and watermelon and a decent cup of tea. Pointless white bread, even by my flexible standards. Hard boiled eggs. It was great! A mixture of Chinese and Indian guests and one lone farang. The Indians were v v friendly. We had a view of the monorail coming in and out of the station below.
Then back to the station to get on a bus
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Monorail station to the low cost terminal, bleary eyed and everything feeling much heavier than yesterday, including our heads. We waited for the second bus so that we wouldn't have to sit at the back, 12 ringgits for 50 minutes, no traffic on the roads as it is s public holiday (we think!) and didn't recognise the terminal at all. That's because it's new. Spanking new, lots of shops on one level, very smarty pants! We'd printed off our bag tags but mine wouldn't scan so they had to print one off anyway, so it actually wasted quite a lot of time. Green tea latte while waiting. We thought we'd open the snacks we bought last night at 7/11, pseudo cheesy ritz and prawn cocktail snacks. The ritz were kinda sweet, but we soldiered on. The prawn things had a super nasty aftertaste. Threw them away and bought Pringles. Lesson learnt. That extra 20p makes all the difference!
Then came the epic fail on the water front. We went through passport control, then what we thought was security, although I did wonder why we didn't have to take out our tablets etc. Bought water in the noodle restaurant and decanted into our
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Pokemonesque Happy New Year! bottles. Walked towards the gate, security check number 2, no water allowed. Crap, we thought. Emptied very recently filled bottles into blue wheelie bins when no one was looking. Others had done the same, throwing out unused bottles or knocking it back like Prohibition was about to start. Went through, waterless, bought 4 cups of water for 2 ringgits each, walked towards the gate, then just at the last minute there was a freakin drinking fountain. Free water! Double crap!!! Sad faces. Used the loos for the umpteenth time as we were sloshing with all the drinking we'd done! Plane delayed one hour. More sad faces.....
Still so happy to be in Malaysia again. We played Get To The Front Of The Queue First with a Malay couple, all smiley, everyone we meet is happy to help and speak just to say hello with no agenda. We won, then had the scanning problem, then saw them in the queue to pay as their hand luggage was too heavy. Not quite as smiley after that.....
So I was not particularly looking forward to Bali airport, but actually we were through in record time, and the visa on arrival payment
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No shortage of trolleys..... is not in operation, free for up to 30 days, saved us some dosh. Then for some currency. I managed to extractsomeI had done research in how to get an official taxi. One website said turn left after arrivals, the other said turn right. we went left. Guess what? It was right. We realise don't we'd come too far, and followed by a train of unofficial touts (taxi, Madam? Where you go? Can I help you. You looking for someone?) we did a 180 back to the terminal and Sam spotted the official counter under a green and white Ignat sign. We bought a voucher for 170,000 and were given to driver 54, followed him to his official cab and were at the hotel in 15 mins.
Now for the room!
Madam, we put 2 beds together, one big bed.
No thank you, we definitely need 2 beds, like we asked.
OK , madam, you go look at room, if not OK we seperate.
It is not OK, please seperate now!
OK.
Huge room, 4th floor, £29 a night with breakfast and a lovely pool of it ever stops raining long enough to
go in it!
Feeling queasy again, a spot of googling identified the probable cause as taking doxycycline on an empty stomach. The solution was to fill said stomach with Bintang and nasi goreng, which worked perfectly. Sam was encouraged by the white wine. There was some live music from Eddie, Bali's answer to Neil Diamond and Johnny Cash. He was great, despite not being too familiar with the lyrics, bless him, especially to Rocket Man. After he finished his set and we had relocated inside to escape the TORRENTIAL rain he sat and chatted with us. There was a group of chatty/mad as a box of frogs (one of them) French ladies from another hotel. It was a really nice evening.
Tomorrow the forecast is for rain again. Not doing so well with the weather. Nails and shopping it is, then.
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