Tues Sept 24--Thurs. Sept26.…Homeward Bound Adventures

Tuesday had us packing our bags and the miracle of all miracles was that both of us got everything in each of our one main suitcase even with all the stuff we seemed to accumulate….they are heavy, mind you, but they are in one bag!

And since we did get it all in and we seemed to have room left…..we went a did a bit more shopping on our way to drop the car!

Did I mention we started with 648 km on the odometer (a brand new car) and we took it back with 2638km!!!! 

Jane and Andrew’s son joined us for dinner of pizza on our last night.  Lori hadn’t seen him for a long time   We were early to bed because we were getting up at 4:30 for Andrew to drive us to the airport.

Andrew, Lori and Jane

By about by about 5:30 we had our first two boarding passes for the Perth to Singapore flight and the Singapore to Beijing flight and most important to me was the promise that  we didn’t have to pick up our luggage in Beijing... that it would go right through to Vancouver.  I can’t seem to figure out the pattern to when you have to get your luggage if you’re on a 2nd flight and quickly check it through to Canada.  I had to get my luggage in Houston Texas on my way back from Peru, same when I got to Montreal last year where I changed planes on the way back from Europe.  This time it’s supposed to go right through to YVR despite the 12 hour layover in Beijing.  We will see!

We traveled Singapore Airlines to Singapore and then again to Beijing…..Lori is really excited because it is rated the best.  It was…comfy seats, great breakfast, drinks, lots of smiles and hospitality.  

Some of the amenities at the Singapore Airport

Butterfly Garden

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I have been looking forward to the airport….again rated number 1 for the 25th year.  It is very big and homey….there are lots of stores, free movies, free wifi (that works), plug-ins and desks for charging, TVs with comfortable chairs grouped around, playgrounds, a big slide (that we didn’t see that Lori wanted to try), large chairs that give free massages to tired calves and feet, and by far the most uniqe thing is a butterfly garden! 

Yes, a 2 story garden with a waterfall and a path, lots of flowers and lots of butterflies that will sometimes lite on your hand.  Oh and a geocache! Placed with permission from the airport authority.  But as I had it on a watch list we knew that it was missing, which this one is every once in a while... we came prepared with a replacement!  It just happened to have our signatures on it!!

As we still had about 4 hours, we caught a cab and had him drive us to a couple of other caches near the airport so we got to see a tiny bit of the city. I am very impressed with what I saw and I really would like to come back and spend a bit more time. Very clean looking with lots of blooming bougainvillea in the centre island of the major roads.  Our taxi driver thought we were a bit nuts I think, but we were having a good time.

Our flight to Beijing was again on Singapore airlines ……which served a great dinner along with Magnum ice cream bars for dessert!  We caught a bit of sleep on this flight because by this time it was late evening and we got into Beijing airport at 12 midnight.

Dessert tune...Lori's favourite!

We headed to the bathrooms first as did everyone else on the flight only to find out that the water is shut off….we have no idea whether something was broken or it is always off at night.  We made our way out of customs….we had a mission to accomplish in the city..  There is a fast train into Beijing, but it doesn’t run at night nor do the city shuttles…..so that left taxis.  After spending about an hour in line for a cab we were on our way…..the driver knew Tienanmen but we would have to guide him to the second cache (both victuals, meaning we only have to have a picture taken at each site).

Rickshaw cache

Tienanmen  Square cache

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

Again  the driver, who didn’t speak any English,  thought we were a little strange;  at 3am in the morning the streets are pretty well deserted so it was a pretty quick drive,,,,,but there are police/military with flashing lights at every corner and at  the Square there was even more.  I took Lori’s picture (I have this one) and we were off to the next one….a bronze statue of a rickshaw and driver/puller,  that you have to get a picture of yourself in the rickshaw ( I don’t have this one)  Then we were speeding back to the airport. 

The airport was pretty empty when we got there, not much open….they have an hourly bed and shower hotel but it was full.  So we found ourselves a couple of stretch-out benches and slept for a couple of hours….we still had about 8 hours to put in by this time.  The gate that we would get our boarding pass didn’t open for our flight until 9.…so we got breakfast or was it lunch or supper….we had lot track by this time.  We finally figured out the “Free airport wifi”  that you had to get a secret password for.  Anyway we made it through our little adventure in Beijing in the middle of the night and we are now on a flight home….just going over the International Date Line as I am writing to relive Thursday again.  We just figured out that we have been up for about 38 hours with very little sleep. 

We are flying China Air and they have served us a good lunch and I can smell breakfast coming soon.  We have 4 hours left

Pam’s  Final Thoughts

I have had a fabulous 8 weeks of adventure….spent time with Curtis and Natasha, loved going back to Melbourne, I can see why Curt likes it so much here.  My home exchange with Joan was wonderful, the location and the accommodation  and met lots of her friendly family and friends…..  When Lori joined me we went to Tasmania, the Great Ocean Road again (I’d like to do that road again), the Grampians, Bellarat.  Then our trip into the Red Centre….Alice Springs and Uluru…the camping under the stars.  Then Darwin with the camping trip to Kakadu and Litchfield parks, the watering holes and the crocodiles.  Bali with its crowded roads and the nice hotel we had Ubud with the hotel with running feet in the roof.  Perth, enjoying the hospitality of Jane and Andrew, the road trip to the Wave Rock. The geocaching along the way, including the original quest of the 2,000,000th cache (now Lori is talking about the quest for the 3 millions soon to come!).  I will let Lori to give you all the statistics, because I know she kept them as we went along.  I only know that I have been on 11 airline flights  on this trip!

Lori and I have travelled together before on our little geocaching adventures (Nevada, Oregon, Utah) but never for so long.  Kudos to her for putting up with my messes and my anxiety  over the suitcases not being in Vancouver when we arrive …..they were there!  I know her family will be happy to get her back.

Lori's Final Thoughts

Wow...what an adventure.  This was a fun trip that I'm glad and thankful that Pam let me invite myself to join her on!!!  Every part of it was different, but exciting.  Sometimes TOO  exciting.....  It's also great to travel with a "mission" in mind and with someone who likes to learn about the same things as I do, especially the "trivia" stuff.  I think we did a great job for two retired "mature" ladies!  I know we surprised more than a few people with some of our antics...

Pam has mentioned all the great sights we saw, and has done a great job with the blog.  Here are a few "numbers" to sum it all up:

1 000 000 000......flies swatted in the Outback

45,675....km added to the Lo-dometer

800+.....photos to edit

165.....caches found and signed (more for Pam)

52......days of travel

44....hours continuous from Andrew and Jane's house in Perth to our house

18.....different beds

12.....number of flights (11 for Pam)

5.....countries visited

5....Australian states visited

3.....pairs of glasses lost/broken (all Lori)

2......exhausted but happy friends

1......lost bank card

0.....mosquitoes, snakes, accidents, or regrets!!

Thanks Pam!   And thanks to everyone who read the blog and kept us going with emails and support.  We already have thrown around some ideas for "next time...!"

Incoming Flight,,,it'e not raining?

Our Happy Welcoming Committee!! Lori wanted signs!(sorry it's blurry)

 

 Home after 40 hours of traveling time!

Saturday Sept 21.- Mon Sept. 23 Exploring Perth, the Pinnacles and Freemantle

Saturday was sunny and warm so we headed to downtown Perth.  We wandered through a park that was connected with the old court house (an earth cache was here) and chatted to some fellow Canadians who were taking pictures.  She was an exchange teacher from Calgary teaching in Sydney and her husband was taking the year off (from teachng).  We went to Hay St Mall and Murray St. Mall and did some shopping.

Hay Street

Then off to Kings Park, a beautiful park, where 2 caches lead us to a really great viewing tower shaped like a DNA strand and a treetop walk on a bridge that is about 800m long that also looks out over the Swan River and the south side of the city on once side and into the park on the other side. Then over to the University grounds for another earth cache.   And then back to the house where Jane had a scrumptious dinner made for us.

Kings Park

It was the semi-finals for the Aussie Rules championship, and Fremantle (just down the road) was one of the teams, vs. Sydney.  Freo dominated, and they are off to the Grand Finals next week in Melbourne.  One player is from Vancouver! Everything here is now a “purple haze” in support of the team.  First time in their 19-year history that they have reached the finals…a bit better record than the Canucks!

Sunday we headed north about 2 hours to a park that had limestone pinnacles ……you guessed it an earth cache.  Along the way the scenery  was farmland, forest, scrub land, white white sand dunes and beautiful Indian Ocean views. There were many many warning signs about kangaroos, emus and echidnas!  It was windy and rained off and on all the whole day and on the way back to Perth  too.  Andrew and Jane had gone to a wedding today and so we stopped at McDonalds on the way home to use the wifi to get the blog  posted and then headed home to add the pictures. We don’t have any wifi at the house so we have had to go there when we needed to use our own machines

Pinnacles with the Indian Ocean in the background

Rainbow over the sandune

Saturday night and Sunday night the wind has been howling.  The weather reports said the winds reached 100kph overnight. 

Monday we planned to cook dinner for Andrew and Jane…..so after we did a load of wash we went in search  of a nearby the grocery store.  Lori has brought along the spices to make her specialty…..Marla’s Maple Pork…..very yummy, with potatoes and veggies and Tiramisu mousse cake for dessert. 

We then headed to Freemantle, the oldest area of the Perth area.  We found some caches (and didn’t find some) and wandered the streets.  In Freemantle the university of Notre Dame, has acquired  and renovated  a lot of the old buildings…..the campus is 2 or three streets square and it was a pleasant walk despite the wind.

Freemantle

Freemantle

Because of the weather…..the wind, and the on and off rain we didn’t stay out for long, we came back to the house to get dinner ready.  It turned out really well and Andrew and Jane enjoyed it. 

Tuesday will be a get ready for travel home day.  The car needs to go back and we have a bit more shopping to do and of course getting packed.  Our plane leaves at 7:40am on Wednesday morning so we will have to get up and get to the airport by about 5:30.  This will be a marathon trip home……we fly 6 hours to Singapore and spend 6 hours (and find a cache) and then on to Beijing on another 6-hour flight.  We land there at midnight and we leave at noon.  During that 12 hours we want to leave the airport and do a couple of caches, get back about 3 hours before we take off.

 We should be landing in Vancouver at 8am on Thursday morning.  Lori  figures that by the time we leave Andrew and Jane’s house and arrive at our houses it will be well over 40 hours of travel time!!!!!   And that’s if everything is on time!!!

Our Perth home

Tues Sept 17- Fri. Sept 20  Western Australia Road Trip

As we flew into Perth on Tues. evening the landscape below looked like a patchwork of green ….this was nothing like I thought Western Australia to be.  I thought it would be more brown and burnt….but I forget this is spring and they have just come out of a very wet winter.  The temperature was a shock….both of us wearing shorts or capris, flip-flops, and no-sleeve tops... and now jackets.  We had just come from hot and humid for the last 2 weeks and now we were back to getting prepared for Vancouver winter weather.
 
We were met by Andrew, an Australian who had spent a year at Lori’s school years ago on a teacher exchange.  He and his wife Jane have graciously invited us to spend our last days in Australia at their house.  Jane had a wonderful dinner of lasagna and salad and a scrumptious brownie with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.  We chatted for while and then they went off to bed as both had to get up in the morning to go to school  By the way Jane is a secondary Teacher Librarian!

In the morning Lori and I set off on the bus into Perth to rent a car for the next 7 days.  (By the way on the way into town our bus broke down….what is it with us and buses!!) We were back at the house by 12 loading our weekend bags into a little Toyoto Corolla.  Our destination for the first night was Hayden and the Wave Rock.  Now you may not have heard of the wave rock; neither had I until we decided to come to Perth and I started to look for the Earthcaches.   Hyden is about 300km east of Perth.  

As usual we tried to follow Marsha’s directions out of town…..but she lead us in a kind of round about way so we turned her off and followed our noses.  The landscape is nothing like I expected…..there were forests, green green fields of wheat, yellow fields of canola…..hills.  We found a couple of caches along the way….one in a pet cemetery….actually the largest dog cemetery according to Guiness World Records!

Canola fields

We arrived in Hyden just before 6, just as it was getting dark….I don’t like driving any later because Lori’s got me anxious about hitting a kangaroo.  And we did see a car at the side of the road today…..all windows gone and the front kind of mangled….looks like it hit a roo.  We pulled into the Wave Rock Motel….one of our more expensive accommodation choices on this trip but there is not much around to choose from. We ate dinner in our room of the buns, meat and cheese and potato chips and raw veggies.  Then went in search of their wifi in their lobby.  We published the blog, downloaded pictures and did our geocaching stuff while waiting for Lori’s date with Wayne on face time….which sadly didn’t happen….technical problems.

Thursday we checked out of the hotel and headed for the Wave…..I will let the pictures show you why I wanted to come!!!

After we left the area we started to head south….zig zagging through quaint “tidy” towns…..Kondinin, Kulin, Dumbleyung, Katanning, Cranbrook, Mt  Barker and spending the night in Denmark….over 400 km.

Felt like we were at home!

Denmark was our destination because of…what else, a cache, that made the “Cache of the Week” from the world wide caches….This one was a puzzle to solve at the site.  After going in the wrong direction for nearly a kilometer, we started back, and bush-whacked through the Australian forest to finally zero in on the cache.  There was a square, metal post in the ground, and we knew we had to get into it somehow.  Nearby was a little "toolkit," but we did not know what tools we needed, nor what each one was for.  We were a little worried about darkness, so we had to get going in a hurry.  In the end, we had to use a plunger to pull out a "button," a magnet to pull out a screw and plate, a handle to crank the gears....and presto!  A little head popped out the top.  We could see the cache in behind the eyes, but couldn't find a tool to help us....turns out we just needed to pull out the plate with our fingers!  A very inventive cache that was fun to do, and worthy of its award!

A cache?

Lori aka McGyver solves the puzzle!

This is spring in Western Australia…..we had been told to watch out for the widflowers blooming now but were not prepared for the amazing colours that we saw…….the red red soil, the blue sky, the many shades of springtime greens, the brilliant yellows of the canola fields and the many colours of wildflowers…..yellows, purples, oranges, reds, pinks.

We found a little motel with a great restaurant but no wifi!  W e wandered about the town and found a couple of caches.  Very cute little town.

Friday we were on the road by 8am and headed along the coast west.  The road is inland so you get very few glimpses of the ocean.  The drive is through a rain forest much like ours but with different trees and bushes.  Much of the forest is way taller and bushier than what I thought it would be. 

We stopped at the next town, Warpole, and stopped in at the information centre in search of wifi….which wasn’t open yet but guess what….there was a cache.  The gentleman at the info centre was very helpful telling us about the Tingling tree,  a tree that is only found in their area (from the whole world) and told us about a place where we could see the Giant Hollow Tingling tree that was in a picture in their office.  They didn’t have wifi though.

The Giant Tingling Tree

We went back a couple of kilometres to go a little off road on a little one way road…..we went about a kilometer and Lori said we just went past a view point that had a cache.  Now I’m not good at backing down a road, driving on the other side of the car so Lori took over!!!!  We found that cache and went on in search of the Giant Tingling tree which was a little hike in.  And Lori kept on driving on the little dirt road and then continued back on the paved road……and she continued on to Perth!!!

She's driving!

We stopped in Pemberton at the info center, again in search of wifi….didn’t find that but found a room full of computers with free access to seniors (over 50)!  There were about 15 computers the ones designated for seniors had the bigger screens!  We had lunch in this town too and after a little problem getting out town….the new navigator (me) pointed us in the wrong direction until I read the signs that were telling us distances to the wrong towns!

Large screens for seniors!

 

Torrents of rain......

 

a few minutes later sunshine

 

Wild Emus

We were headed for Cape Leeuwin, which is the most southwesterly corner of Australia, where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean meet.   Andrew brought Lori down here on one of her visits to Perth and she remembers the sign that was there (but couldn’t remember the lighthouse)  and has told me about it.  Of course there was a cache there too, now our furthest from home cache, at 15,052 km.

Where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean

Then off we went…..we had decided to head back to Perth instead of spending another night away.  It was about 4pm when we left and it would be getting dark soon (remember the kangaroos) ….We passed through Margaret River region, a very well known wine area, and continued up the freeway to Perth, arriving about 8pm.  Our (new) little car had 680 km when we left just over 48 hours prior....now it's at 2050!  More to come...

Thurs Sept 12 to Tues Sept 16 …..Relaxing in Bali

Bali……crazy traffic, busy, happy helpful people, hot, beautiful

Bali airport….we were there…..a little bit longer than necessary because both of us read the sign that said “visa on arrival” and got into  a very long line for a half hour with our $25 US  in our hot little hands only to be told we need to buy the visa in another line (thankfully short) then come back.  Which we did then got back into the first line which was just as long as it was before because at least 2 other flights had gotten in!!! so another half hour in line.  Luckily we did not have any illicit drugs with us…(see pic)  We made it through all the while wondering if our luggage would still be there…..yes it was, but attached to 2 very helpful porters who wanted to carry our luggage and get us a cab….for a fee of course.  We managed to shake them and find a cab ( we were told by a lady in the Darwin airport only to get Bluebird cabs because they have meters other cabs wing it and say what they want.)  We got one through a, “taxi broker” with a fixed price  100,000 rupiah .….now before you faint that is about $10, 10,000 IDR is about $1.  So you can imagine how many types of bills there are….very crazy.

We had arrived at 8:30pm Bali time and left the airport at about 10:00pm.  The taxi ride was chaotic….cars all over the place and a million scooters zipping in and out of the cars going where ever they darn well pleased…..it was a combination of Lima Peru traffic and China traffic….totally crazy.  I really haven’t noticed a lot of traffic lights either…..so really chaotic

 

There was another little kid in front of the Mom

We got to our hotel….the Fontana, and said wow! After sleeping on the ground, in tents and in busy backpackers hostels  what a treat!   The staff is so helpful and friendly, the room is really nice with a balcony over the pool.  The check in girl said all the things in the fridge are free so use them they will be replenished each day….2 bottles of water, 2 cartons of juice, 2 pops, a package of nuts and to Lori’s delight a Kit Kat chocolate bar!!! So we eat them. Oh and it includes breakfast…..a beautiful hot buffet of Indonesian and North American food (eggs, bacon) and another buffet with toast, buns, cereal, yogurt and fruit and crepes…..very yummy all of it.  Best on the table:  chocolate croissants!!

Friday, our first full day in Bali, we hired a taxi driver to take us around…meaning taking us to places we want to get caches.  We went to a little restaurant (not to eat but to get a cache) with the most amazing view, the staff knew where it was so you just had to ask.  Then we went to Uluwatu, a temple perched on a cliff  with a view of the surf. Monkeys are supposed to be real pests here stealing sunglasses, food , anything that they can get there hands on….we saw the monkeys but they didn’t bother us, it must have been too hot for them too.  Next we made our way to Kuta Beach to find a cache at a little hotel, that again the staff knew about and would tell you where it was or let you search for it.  Then on to the beach do another earth cache.  Kuta beach is ranked one of the top beaches in the world…..surf, sand, sun, and even trees for shade.  But we were by this time sooo hot and tired from the humidity that all we could think about was the pool!

View from Uluwatu

Kuta Beach

All this took about 5 hours……the area is a small area to drive but the traffic is so congested you don’t go far..  We got back to the hotel about 3:00

After a dip in the pool and reading for awhile in the lounge chairs., we had dinner at the hotel.  The restaurant is Italian, serves pizzas and pasta……we each had a different prawns dish. The jumbo prawns were almost the size of lobsters!  Then worked on the blog.

Saturday was a relax day….all we did was sit around the pool and when we got hot we hopped into the pool for a swim……very refreshing and relaxing.   For dinner we decided to explore a little and got a cab and went to Kuta Beach area…Poppy Lane 2.…where it is like a street market with booths of stuff and street food.  But we ended up in a mall and had fish and chips.  Then dodged traffic to get across the street to the  beach and then walked back up the market street  to find a cab.  

 

Lori at play

Pam in her new swimsuit taken with her new camera!

Sunday  night we had booked  a hotel in Ubud, which is about 30kms from the city.  I got a taxi which took us to a puzzle cache that Lori had solved and then on to Ubud. Ubud is the town made famous by the book and movie Eat Pray Love …..was probably a nice sleepy town  in the hills but is now a busy touristy area.for all those who loved the book.  ( I couldn’t get into it….I’ve downloaded it again and will try to read it)  The trip took us about 2 hours to get there because of traffic even on a Sunday.

Our hotel is the Uma Sari, a place recommended by friends of Lori’s…..we checked in an we off on a hike on the Campuhan  trail, a trail on the ridge between 2 rivers….very scenic and beautiful.  Looking down into the valleys on either side you see lush jungle and rice paddies….just every shade of green.  The trail was quite busy, and lots of local highschoolers were along it.  Lori thinks this is the trail Julia Roberts was cycling along in the movie.  Hollywood, though…..she was cycling down to the beach, which is a LONG cycle from here in reality.  Two kms into it is a community hall with a library a meeting place, art gallery, a restaurant and a cache…..it was up stairs in the building as we were coming down 4 German students were looking around for something and we pointed upstairs.  We stopped here for a drink and Lori face timed her mom…we relaxed for about an hour and then started back….a very beautiful hike, but hot and humid.  Thank goodness the sun was not shining .

The Campuhan Trail

 

Community Hall pool

 

We're not the only crazy cachers!!!!

A great day ….and then disaster struck!!!!  I (Pam) needed some more Indonesian rupiah from an ATM….so I picked one that looked reputable that was attached to a bank…..and guess what….the machine ate my card, no money just a receipt that said “your card is retained”  This is Sunday so the bank was closed.  Grrrrrrr….I should have gone to the one that Lori went to in the Circle K store!!!!!


We got back to the hotel with the emergency number that was on the machine for the manager of the hotel to call for us but of course it couldn’t go through. So we  found a nearby restaurant and had an early dinner then walked the streets looking at shops.  Outside the Starbucks (yes they have a Starbucks!) a fellow was selling tickets for Balinese dance preformances…..they seem to be only on Sunday nights  so we were lucky enough to choose the right day for a stay.  We chose one that had a man’s chanting chorus and a fire dance performance.  $8.  But we bought the tickets at about 6 and performance wasn’t until 7:30 so we found the market and wandered around and bought stuff.  

Fish Spa

 

Fire Dancer

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The performance was wonderful….very colourful with a chorus of male chanters that sat around the dancers and their story.  At the end there was a fellow who came out and walked on hot coals!

First thing on Monday morning we went over to the bank to see if we could get them to retreive my card….after much talking they finally said they could get it back in 3 days!!! We were leaving in a couple of hours…..so now I am without a card and when I did get back to our original hotel and phoned the credit union I am now without access to my bank accounts online…..I’ll have to think of some back up for my next trip!

We then caught a cab to  do a bit of business.  Now catching a cab in Indonesia is not like catching a cab in Vancouver.  You either go on the meter for short distance or get one by the hour for long distances…..We refused the first 2 people because we thought they were too high but by the time we walked a about 100 meters more the next guy had lowered his price…..they must have phoned ahead to tell him.  So off we went to find a cache by a small temple by a rice field and then to the Elephant Cave park and then had him drive us back to town.   Our last cache was at a school for handicapped kids…set up by someone from the Netherlands.  Their motto is……………, because they run a little restaurant too.  We were pointed in the direction of the cache, had our lunch and one of the young volunteers that run the programs came and talked to us and told us about some of their work.

Dance class

Rice fields

We still had a couple of hours before we had to be back at the hotel to get the shuttle back to Kuta Beach, so we wandered through some stores and then back up to the hotel to try unsuccessfully to get on the wifi and read. We were picked up at 3:30  (right on schedule) and when picking up and dropping on people then catching a cab back to the Fontana Hotel took us about 2 hours.   We had another nice dinner in the restaurant and then got  ready for our massage appointment at 8:00 (you have to have a massage while you are in Bali!).   After nine oclock the little snack bar downstairs has their bakery stuff on for half price so we had a bit of desert (yummy mango cheesecake)

The people of Bali have made out little trip very pleasant.  They are so gentle and kind…..even amidst the traffic chaos, everyone is calm and courteous, you just work your way in to an opening and go when it’s your turn.  People generally referred to us a Miss Lori and Miss Pam, always with a huge smile on their faces.  Every place we ate at, they worked so hard to pay attention to detail, and they were enthusiastic in answering all our questions.  There is some kind of building going up next to where we were.  The construction work is just beginning, and we watched as the people toiled with no real equipment.  Backbreaking, hot work…..but every time we went by on our way to our room, they waved up at us and smiled in greeting.  We took quite a few photos….our construction friends would be appalled at the conditions on the jobsite:  flip-flops, no hats, one little cement mixer that they make the cement in and pass to the guys up on the pillars (with no safety equipment whatsoever) bucket by bucket.  Digging the trench for the bottom fittings with a pickaxe; you would have to see it to believe it.  Our hotel was so nicely finished, but you had to wonder how structurally sound it was, after watching next door for 5 days!!

We were also lucky to escape the mosquito season.  We saw very few, but one fellow we met at the fire dance (from LA) was quite badly bitten.  Maybe those Mozzie-Q pills Pam brought really DID work!!

Even though we were here for only 4 (functional) days, we were on the go and did more than we thought we would.  But there’s so much more to do, and it really is quite a big island, so this was really our reconnaissance mission.  Can’t wait to come back!

Ar the airport

So today, Tuesday, we say goodbye to Bali….we had time to have a little last minute sit around the pool after breakfast and then left for the airport….early but zipped right along through check in, baggage check (they tagged my bag as heavy….oh oh)  and leave the airport tax ($15  that we learned about this morning….they are building a beautiful new airport….think it’s going to that) then a depart the country  stop,  then…wait…..no security?…..that is right at the boarding gate at this airport……but we got through this one no problem….just lost my water which they let me on coming to Bali (same airlines)….like I say every stop is different, every flight is different! ( this one we get food!!)

……On to Perth!