The smok'n trip to Bali

In spite of late crew arrival, doors were closed 3 mins before scheduled departure. We had pax boarding just 5 minutes prior to that!

Now some hours into the flight. Menu

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The menu and amenities are better than I expected. Pillow, blanket, amenity kit. J cabin full. I saw who got my 1A - well known actor, non doubt CL material. šŸ˜”

I didn't eat anything other than the arancini starters and have only had a tomato juice so far. Not feeling the greatest.

Crew doing a sterling job at sending toilet-seeking whYs backwards. šŸ˜Š
 
RooFlyer said:
In spite of late crew arrival, doors were closed 3 mins before scheduled departure. We had pax boarding just 5 minutes prior to that!

Now some hours into the flight. Menu

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View attachment 351024

The menu and amenities are better than I expected. Pillow, blanket, amenity kit. J cabin full. I saw who got my 1A - well known actor, non doubt CL material. šŸ˜”

I didn't eat anything other than the arancini starters and have only had a tomato juice so far. Not feeling the greatest.

Crew doing a sterling job at sending toilet-seeking whYs backwards. šŸ˜Š
Click to expand...
Spill!
 
RooFlyer said:
Then ADL-MEL-DPS on QF in J, revenue. When checking a month ago, I found that not only was ADL-MEL a Dash-8 (hand luggage restrictions - I was going HLO) but I was in economy!! I must have been toking on something very strong to accept that at the time. I think there was a very cheap fare and I thought it was a good idea at the time. I later changed my flight, getting J in a B737 and paying $200 change fee - which I duly declared in the travel mistakes thread
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Concerned your boogie board bag wouldn't make it on the Dash-8? ;)
 
Daver6 said:
Concerned your boogie board bag wouldn't make it on the Dash-8? ;)
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HLO, thank-you. And as for 1A, a gentleman never tells, even if I could get his name right.

So a problem emerged during the flight. I suffer from heart arrhythmia, which is usually pretty well controlled, but a few days ago my cardiologist put me onto some different medication. Stronger, but it takes about a week to 'load' into the system. So I knew Iā€™d be exposed to possible rapid heartbeat during the first few days. I had my Apple Watch monitoring it (probably over monitoring) and things were okay until the day of the flight when I realised they were really getting up towards 100 without much effort on my part.

During the flight, they were getting in the 90s when I was sitting quietly so after a lot of thought I bit the bullet and asked the FA if I could get a wheelchair on disembarkation. I just didnā€™t want to risk a long walk and the stress of going through immigration etc. possibly putting me up beyond 100 for an extended time. 100 is okay but beyond that you get into iffy levels if for extended periods.

Lovely young lady appeared with wheelchair and I was wheeled through immigration and of course got priority there ( hmmmm... thinks ... ) . No one told me you had to keep your boarding pass for immigration! Anyway, got through that okay and on through customs, no issue and then to an ATM. And the young lady took me to the last one before exit, which wasnā€™t working. But there was a very helpful Moneychanger right next to it. And I wondered whether this was my first scam of the trip. Wheelchair operator said she couldnā€™t go back where weā€™ve come from, and I donā€™t see why that would be ( all land side) so I walked back to the next ATM watching my heart rate go up but not badly so, got some money and came back and found our driver. Friends, of course couldā€™ve got the money for me, but I wanted to test out the situation with the old ticker.

Found the driver easily, and then began a one and a half hours drive to the resort up in the mountains in jungle. This was another "what were we thinking of " moment. We landed at 10 pm or 1 am departure time and weā€™re got to the hotel at midnight or 3 am departure time. The room

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Morning view

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I woke about 6 am, which wasnā€™t too bad considering, and I discovered the view and everything seem pretty good until at about 630 a the noise of a power sander or grinder started up. Not very loud, but persistent and annoying. After I showered, I joined the others at breakfast and discovered that the noise was coming from maintenance work on the pool area, just above my villa. There was a note in my room that maintenance would be there from 6am till noon, but who wouldā€™ve thought in this sort of resort, they would be using power tools at 6:30 am.

I phoned reception and enquired about a room change and very very helpful lady there said she would investigate and get back to me. Did so within 30 minutes and came back with keys for three rooms for me to look at.

More about the resort later, but for now just to say that itā€™s built over a very steep slope and there are a lot of steps. A lot of steps. Thereā€™s also a funicular for part of the way. So putting my dodgy heart rate to the test, we climbed quite a few stairs and looked at a few rooms the best of which is right next to the funicular engine.

Then, just as I agreed to that room, she said there was another one along the same level, and she showed me the one which was just perfect. Poor lady, she was so apologetic about myhaving to move and the noise from the pool, but I think I got a good result in the end. For all the money I was paying, I was certainly was not going to accept a power sander going on all morning from 6:30 am. The new room

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The view from the loo

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The main view

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But you aren't a gentleman so....

I was thinking it was going to be a late night because of that arrival time and then the drive to Ubud which actually sounds like it was quick. And I reckon the money changer broke the ATM. As far as retracing steps, yep, you can do it but I guess the wheelchair lady wasn't going to do that.

Hope that heart rate settles. Likely it was simply a long tiring day. šŸ¤ž
 
Heart rate should settle as the 'loading' medication kicks in. Arrhythmia has many variations and as you come to each variation, itā€™s a bit scary until I get through it and think ah, okay. I know that pattern now and next one wonā€™t be so concerning.

Friends have gone off looking at temples and paddy fields while I concentrate on doing as little as possible today. Atypical of me, but ya gotta read the room.

The resort is built on a narrow strip of land going down a steep slope. Reception at the top, then hotel style rooms, then restaurant, etc about the middle, and then villas heading down the slope, all separate and 4 to a level. All accessed by steps, but there is a funicular that runs for about the last 1/3 of the property. 60 steps from my villa to the restaurant.

The funicular

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Some of the bloody steps. We knew there would would be steps up-and-down the place, but I guess I got mugged by reality - thereā€™s a lot of them and theyā€™re pretty steep. The other guests that I can see are not in my age demographic. šŸ˜³

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Breakfast this morning - their seciality selection and nasi goring
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Hotel rooms above the restaurant

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iā€™m just finishing lunch and a man has appeared and is now tapping out some of the floor tiles about two tables away from me. Not the end of the world, but I mean how about doing it after lunch.

Sorry, I donā€™t I donā€™t mean to appear grumpy, Iā€™m not; after the room drama, itā€™s all sweetness, light and ( mostly) tranquility. But just an observation on the management of some of these high-end places.

Ah, restaurant guy has just walked over and suggested that worker might like to come back later šŸ˜Š
 
RooFlyer said:
Heart rate should settle as the 'loading' medication kicks in. Arrhythmia has many variations and as you come to each variation, itā€™s a bit scary until I get through it and think ah, okay. I know that pattern now and next one wonā€™t be so concerning.

Friends have gone off looking at temples and paddy fields while I concentrate on doing as little as possible today. Atypical of me, but ya gotta read the room.

The resort is built on a narrow strip of land going down a steep slope. Reception at the top, then hotel style rooms, then restaurant, etc about the middle, and then villas heading down the slope, all separate and 4 to a level. All accessed by steps, but there is a funicular that runs for about the last 1/3 of the property. 60 steps from my villa to the restaurant.

The funicular

View attachment 351081

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Some of the bloody steps. We knew there would would be steps up-and-down the place, but I guess I got mugged by reality - thereā€™s a lot of them and theyā€™re pretty steep. The other guests that I can see are not in my age demographic. šŸ˜³
Click to expand...

That funicular appears to only have a single cable. Pretty sure there was an "event" only a few months ago at a resort in Bali where it was meant to have three but only one was installed. When that single one broke, it didn't end well :(
 
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Daver6 said:
That funicular appears to only have a single cable. Pretty sure there was an "event" only a few months ago at a resort in Bali where it was meant to have three but only one was installed. When that single one broke, it didn't end well :(
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I was thinking of the same event as soon as I saw it. Maybe there are several here in Ubud. Ayuterra.
 

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