Day 01 - Wednesday 28th September 2022

I am due to fly out of Sydney for Bali on Jetstar. There had been lots of problems with Jetstar lately with delays and cancellations. For weeks, there have been media reports about Jetstar passengers being stranded in places like Bali, Japan and Hawaii. So I was nervous about how I'd fare today.

The Silver Service taxi that I'd booked for 1pm arrived on time and so that was a good start. We reached the international terminal by 1:45pm.

Jetstar's check-in was at counter K was quite a long walk. When I got there, there were plenty of people who had arrived before me even though it was three hours before the flight was due to leave.

I'd booked to travel business class and so I had expected a short queue. Although there were only three or four family groups in front of me, the queue moved very slowly. It took about 45 minutes before I got the counter. One family group took almost 30 minutes - heaven knows what their problem was.

Then again, I was relieved that I hadn't booked economy because that queue was very long and very slow.

Luckily there was only a short wait at security and so I reached the Qantas business lounge at about 3pm. It was crowded and so I struggled to find somewhere to sit. Also the choice of food was poor. I had been planning to have lunch there but had to settle for a couple if bread rolls and a glass of wine.

Boarding time was set for 4pm. I was dreading a long wait but it was OK because they started boarding at about 4:20pm. They started with business class and I was the first person onto the plane apart from a bloke in a wheelchair.

I was settling into my seat when a woman approached me to ask if I'd mind swapping seats with her husband. They had put him in a window seat several rows back. I was happy to swap so I could get the view. They were very grateful.

It turned out that I was sitting next to a family from Roseville Chase whose kids were going to Castlecove Public School. When I told them I'd attended that school (many years ago) they were quite impressed. We had lots of other things in common.

The plane left 20 minutes late - which was must better than last night's flight which was almost four hours late. Things were going well. Quite a relief.

The flight initially headed south along the coast before heading inland and westward towards Bali. The sun was still setting and so I was able to get some views of the sea and land below before were rose through the clouds.

The meal, which was described as "lunch", was very good. The main course was salmon with rice - all washed down with a glass or two of shiraz.

Initially I started reading a book I'd downloaded onto my iPad but after a while I decided to watch a movie instead. The first option on Jetstar's list was Elvis and so this was ideal because I'd been keen to see this film. I enjoyed the film and it finished just as were coming in to land at Denpassar airport.

Although we had left 20 minutes late, the pilot had caught up time so that we landed on time.

The terminal building at Denpassar airport seemed to be much bigger that the previous time I'd been here and so this meant there was a lot of walking.

The first stop was a queue for a health check about Covid. The key document they needed was the international Covid vaccination certificate.

Next we needed to line up to pay for a visa. Then we walked to the carousel to pick up our luggage. Finally we had to queue for custom's clearance. Luckily I had gone online in Sydney to fill out the declaration and so I only needed to show them the QR code.

Outside the terminal, there were plenty of people offering a taxi ride. I chose one of them and we got to the Hard Rock Hotel in about 15 minutes. I suspect I was probably overcharged but at least I got here OK.

The room was quite spacious - more than enough for one person. It had a double bed and a single bed with a trundle underneath. There was a long desk and so plenty of room for my laptop and other devices.

I hot a message from Nicky to say that she, John, Harry and Graham had also arrived and were in adjacent rooms. (They had booked with Virgin and so were on a different flight).

By the time I'd partially unpacked, it was after 1pm Sydney time (it might have been more like 2pm) and so I was keen to get to bed. However it took a while to fall asleep because I was still settling down after the various adventures today.