Our flight path to Bali was this: Pasco-Seattle-Los Angeles-Hong Kong-Bali. We left at 3PM on Sunday, and arrived in Bali at 3PM on Tuesday. Of course that also includes a 15 hour time change and moving ahead one day, so it's not as bad as it sounds!
We used frequent flier miles to fly business class on Cathay Pacific for the international legs. This made such a huge difference that I can't even adequately express it. International business class is WONDERFUL. We each had our own private seat with high walls, with a seat that had built in massage and adjustable lumbar support. Best of all, it reclined into a completely flat bed. We each had our own 15 inch TV monitor with audio visual on demand. It had hundreds of movies, tv shows, music, and games to choose from. The main flight from LAX-HKG was 14 hours long, but neither of us really noticed the length. Personally, I've had 5 hour flights that seemed longer. We each got several hours of sleep, and watched two movies, and that really made the time go by.
When we got to Hong Kong, we went to the business class lounge, where we were able to take a shower. Amazing shower cubicles! They had just been remodeled and had huge rain showerheads that came straight down from the ceiling. We had a 3 hour layover, then it was time to board our flight to Bali. We had the same type of seat as we had previously, because our plane was a 747, even though it is a less than 5 hour flight! Best of all, we were able to sit on the upper deck, which was only about half full. We had 3 crew members taking care of us, and the service was fabulous. What a way to travel!!
When we walked off the plane in Bali, the Wakatobi rep was waiting for us just as promised. She had our visas on arrival already taken care of so we just had to wait in the immigration line, which wasn't very long. While we were doing that, she went to collect our checked luggage (which was there, yay!) Then she contacted the Wakatobi Bali office to let them know we made it. They still hadn't been notified of the time of the charter flight for May 30, but they will send an email with the info in the next few days when they receive it.
The driver to Mimpi was waiting outside the airport for us, so we were quickly and easily on our way. Everything as promised! The drive to Mimpi Tulamben was about 2.5 hours. Driving in Bali is CRAZY. I would NEVER rent a car here. Basically, there are no traffic rules. There are mopeds and motorcycles everywhere, that zip all over the place, plus people walking and driving carts, etc. Here is just a quick smattering of things we saw:
A guy walking down the side of the road with his huge, gigantic pig
A kid riding down the side of the road on his bike that had no front wheel.
Bali has a reputation for being very, very scenic and beautiful, and it is extremely well deserved. The scenery along the drive was simply stunning. There is a central mountain range with 10,000 foot Mt Badung behind it. Green rice fields everywhere. In certain areas, they build them up the sides of hills for rice terraces. I got a few pictures, but when we got to the really beautiful terraces near the resort area, it was too dark to take pictures.
We got to Mimpi Tulamben about 6PM. We were welcomed with a cool fruit drink, and shown our room, which is an ocean front cottage. It's really lovely. You enter through a small courtyard garden, that has a gazebo with a lounging bed in one corner that overlooks the ocean. The main cottage has a large king bed, desk, and a loft area with another small bed. The entire bathroom is outside, but covered. It is very nice and very unique. The resort seems very quiet, which is nice.
We at dinner at the restaurant here, but after all the travel and the long car ride, I wasn't very hungry, so I just had soup. Jim had fish and liked it.
Then we went back to the room and fell in to bed exhausted, and looking forward to a good night's sleep. Remember the 15 hour time change I mentioned earlier??? Yeah, fun stuff. I was wide awake at 1AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Jim was able to get more rest. Jet lag is such great stuff. . .
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