The Journeys ... The Current Trip

One month since my last diary entry. What happened since then? Well, we have arrived in Indonesia, that's what happened.

I can't even begin to run you through those last few weeks. It's all one big blur: scrambling to organize official Australian stuff, finishing up work, cleaning out and cleaning up the apartment, saying good-bye to friends...and too much alcohol. But the important thing now is, I am sitting here in Denpasar, Bali. It's 1 am, 27 degrees and probably 85% humidity...

So, let's forget the last few weeks and just focus on today. Anh helped us clean the apartment. Poor thing. She was hoping to spend a last cozy evening with us, playing some Settlers and having a chat. In reality, she was received with a bucket and then wasn't allowed to sleep until 4 am. Then in the morning, she had to wake us up, make us coffee, help us clean some more and drive us around for last-ditch shopping. Thanks Anh, you're a star.

Once we were finished, Ben and Emma drove us to the airport. And it should have been smooth sailing from there. Should have. Checking in, it turns out that with Virgin carriers, bicycle boxes extend the baggage limit by 5 kilo and don't count as a 'nominal 5 kilos' as before. Two bikes and enough gear to get us through the next two years...we were seriously over-weight. I mean, SERIOUSLY overweight. After some shuffling around and basically carrying as much as possible in carry-on, we managed to drop the excess luggage charge from 590 to 435 dollars. Thanks Pacific Blue.
Anyhow, after a teary good-bye from Ben and Emma, some 'random explosives check' (how random can it be if I get checked every single time I fly?) and a last-second sandwich, we eventually got on the plane.

Once in Denpasar (Bali), I found out that we've been robbed a few times. First by the bank in Perth (exchanging 1 AU$ to 6'000 Rupiah, while they give 7'300 here at the airport. I'm sure we'll get better rates even tomorrow when we do our real money deal.) Then, we also got ripped off by the porters. Selamat Datang indeed. But, no need to worry about money. We are in Indonesia.

WE ARE IN INDONESIA.

Tomorrow we'll organize a few things (money, plane to Maumere, etc.) and will try to get used to the humidity. The bike boxes have been wrapped, so we'll leave them like that for now and rearrange for cycling purposes in Maumere. That's were I will also complete and post a diary entry about our gear. I've started to write it up some time ago but just never had time to finish. I'll make up for that with a very detailed gear list.

For now, I will have a Bintang (Indonesian brand of beer) with Erika. We'll toast to all of you who made our stay in Australia pleasant. You know who you are. We love you and will miss you. Hope to catch up with you some when in the next two years.