Today I'm traveling to Bali. I've just spent the most wonderful time with my parents traveling through France and Spain in their campervan and another few weeks in my old hometown Zuidlaren in The Netherlands. Nine weeks I was there and it truly was wonderful.

Before going back to New Zealand I'll be in Bali for 13 full days, including my departure day on the 11th of October as my flight will leave at 22:15 and so I'll still have the full day then too.

My travel day started at 10am on the 27th of September when my parents took me to the train station in Assen. I was supposed to take the 11:05 train but saw in the morning that train had issues and so decided last minute I'd take the 10:35 train. I had to change train once and fortunately my connecting train was delayed by 15 minutes and as it turned out arrived just a minute or two after I arrived at the station in Amersfoort.

Schiphol Airport is currently experiencing significant issues to process the number of travelers, especially in the luggage and security departments, with long cues and cancelled flights as a a result. Fortunately though everything went perfectly smoothly - Qatar opened their check-in half an hour early and I could walk straight through having been granted priority check-in and boarding as a result of my frequent travels.

After Benning checked in I was redirected to a different terminal to go through security as the one I was supposed to use was overcrowded, and my cue was perfectly fine and within half an hour I entered the lounge to which I also have access as part of my 'Silver' status.

Grateful I sat down and enjoyed lunch and a coffee as I was waiting for my flight to depart...

The first leg to Doha was six hours and fifteen minutes and left at 16:15, so perfect timing to enjoy some dinner and watch a movie or two. I generally sleep quiet well in planes but for the first leg my natural rhythm would probably keep me up and to my delight I saw they the entertainment program included Topgun Maverick which I hadn't seen yet.

I was sitting on a window seat as I always choose as then I can lean against the wall if I do doze off. The plane was full, nothing like the last couple of years through Covid time in which I enjoyed rows of seats all to myself, but glad for the airliner they can make it worthwhile again.

The transit in Doha also went perfectly smoothly with little waiting time and also there I had access to the lounge where I enjoyed coffee and dinner before boarding my final flight only two hours later.

My original flight went straight back to NZ - I changed it later to include this journey in Bali, also because I'm figuring out where to go and what to do in the next stage of my life and Bali or one of the other Indonesian Islands may be an option... certainly much cheaper than staying in NZ.

More about all that later, back to the journey.

My seat selection had been lost when I changed the flight and I ended up in the middle of the middle row. Not great but aye, those seats also have to be filled and again the flight was completely loaded.

With about an hour and a half delay we departed to land in Bali about ten hours later.

It took a long time for all the luggage to arrive and after the last suitcases were presented I discovered that mine wasn't there. Bugger! Two hours had easily passed and when I arrived at the desk dealing with the issue they already had a form waiting for me with my name on it - it had never made it to Doha.

I wish they had at least told me immediately, it wouldn't have been hard to have someone standing there with my name on a sign as had happened behoor once in Amsterdam, but what to do. I filled out further details on the form and will find out tomorrow where to from here...

I had a hunch this might happen and I didn't listen to it. I could've easily packed my flip-flops and a summer dress in my hand luggage, but I didn't. Lesson learnt, as so many times before.

To be honest I wasn't in the best mood when I walked towards the exit of the airport... I hadn't slept so was really tired, hot, scruffy, and as I ordered for the first time a ride through the app Grab it gave me hassles as well. I managed in the end, I think, but was intercepted by a taxi driver who ushered me to his taxi offering to take me to my hotel for the same price, 500,000 RP.

I took the back seat - I normally would take the front seat and engage but I wasn't feeling it and knew I would probably fall asleep. Fortunately the roads were a bit quieter it being the evening and all, I was warned the traffic is pretty crazy especially in Ubud where I was heading. It was only about 45 kilometers but even now it would take an hour and a half to get there.

The driver was lovely but as expected I dozed in and out as he was traversing the still pretty thick traffic on twisty windy dark roads. He was also sleepy he said and even had to stop for a coffee to stay awake. Fortunately he got me there safely and hopefully made it back safely too!

A lovely lady checked my in and took me to my room, which was basic but perfect with a big bed, a fridge, a bathroom, and even airconditioning and a ceiling fan!

Even in the evening it was very hot so I turned on the airco, ate some snacks for dinner, and went to bed. Tomorrow I'll need to do some shopping as my dress and especially my high boots are way too hot for here, but that's then. Right now, despite the missing suitcase, I can look back on a very smooth journey and look forward to what Bali has in store for me! 🙏❤️

Geschreven door Bulkjesoppad