Our driver took us on the "official" route to the international terminal - the loop around via the M5 - rather than along Qantas Drive because he said the police would be closing access to the terminal from Qantas Drive. He could have taken us to the carpark but we would have had to walk from there. That wasn't an option because Suzy couldn't walk that far with her injured ankle.
We were at the airport by about 7am. The terminal was very crowded - much much busier than I'd ever seen it before. It was hard to fight your way through the throngs just to get to the check-in counters.
Most people must have got out of bed even earlier than us because the queue at the Garuda check-in counter was very long - partly because it still hadn't opened. It was almost 8am before we finished checking in.
After passing through passport control and security checks, I went to the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) office to claim the tax on my camera lens only to find another long queue.
We tried to get into the Amex lounge but weren't allowed to because we'd already used the lounge once before this year. It probably didn't matter much because by now it was almost time to board.
The departure gate was down the escalators on the ground floor because we had to travel by bus out onto the tarmac to get to the plane. The whole experience was chaos - but at least it seemed to work. Just organised chaos.
Although every seat on the plane was taken, it was quite comfortable. Suzy had booked two seats near the window. There were only the two seats between the window and the aisle. What's more there was plenty of leg room - much more than you'd normally get in economy class.
Along the way, they served us lunch and afternoon tea. The food was quite OK and they were serving wine as well as soft drinks and coffee. When we had to contend with the long check-in earlier, I'd wished we've booked business class but in the end it wasn't a problem because the economy seats and service were quite OK.
There were queues again when we landed at Denpasar. But the main delay was waiting for our luggage. The conveyor belt didn't even start for about 30 minutes and it was about an hour before our bags appeared. I was getting anxious but they did arrive in the end.
We had to look for our driver when we left the terminal building. It was an amazing sight, there was a long line of people holding up signs. There must have been more than 100 of them. It took us a while to find our driver.
When we eventually reached our villas, we were greeted by Graham, Joan, David, Steph and Matt. Suzy and Joan had organised for the staff at the villas to prepare dinner for us. Joan had organised for the hotel staff to buy groceries and wine. Suzy and I had bought gin and whisky at the airport.
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