First few days in Bali

We arrived at Melbourne Airport with plenty of time to spare, and surprisingly, the flight left slightly ahead of time. The flight path took us above Cooper Pedy, Ayers Rock and Derby.

Heather had booked seats with legroom so I was extremely pleased to be able to stretch out. A pleasant benefit was that our seats were not outside the dunny so we didn't have to watch people entering and exiting!

Just reverting back to Melbourne Airport, there was a woman waiting for the flight who, we both agreed, looked remarkably like the sister of an infamous Australian boogy board owner. She went on board when the first class and business class passengers were called. Upon arrival in Bali we were able to observe that she came out of the first class section as we were seated at the exit row in the front of cattle class. Seems there's good money to be made from a surf shop in Bali!

BTW, Mercedes is not very tall in real life. We recognised her by her teeth!

Despite arriving quite late at night, around 10pm, the queues were massive. Fortunately we had pre-purchased our visa so could go straight to Immigration, where there must have been more than 500 people queued. We still managed to get through in about 30 minutes.

Then we collected our luggage, jumped in a taxi and headed to Legian (Rp 100,000 is approx. $AUD10). By now it's 11pm and Ayu and Nyoman welcome us to D'Kubu.

Since then we've visited most of our friends and celebrated Chandra's Balinese birthday, which occurs every 210 days. The Hindu ceremony, and the general level of celebration, seemed a little extravagant to occur every 210 days. Upon enquiring, it seems that it also marked Chandra's progress into another stage of his life following his college graduation and entering the workforce.

In terms of the ceremony, we were able to join the gathering in the family temple where a Hindu priest conducted various rituals. At one stage his female assistant went to each person and splashed holy water over their head and face before they drank the water from their hands. We were all seated on the ground, and when she got to me it seemed like I copped a bucket full. She had everyone laughing, even the priest.

While in the family temple, phones were going off with the whistling sounds advising that a message had been received. Heather was glaring at me thinking it was my phone, fortunately it wasn't. A couple of the young girls were using their iphones during proceedings. Imagine that in a Church??

Tomorrow, Monday, we're off to another temple. Seventeen on a mini bus and the ceremony os for Chandra's sister, Bella. Will explain more when I know more.