Arrival in Bali

After eleven hours on one plane and seven on another we finally arrived in Denpasar at about midnight on July 2. Apparently lots of international flights land in Bali at this time of night because the visa-on-arrival lines in the immigration area were jam packed and barely moving. It wasn’t helped by replays of the World Cup soccer match playing on the big screen TVs--I could see the immigration workers spending about half of their time watching the screen versus stamping visas. But after about an hour we finally were through and into the airport to meet our driver, Ketut who was waiting sign in hand.

The ride to Ubud took about an hour, so it was about 2 a.m. by the time we finally got to our villa on the edge of town. Ketut led us up several flights of stairs climbing a hillside from a main road, the stairway lined by Hindu statues at each landing. Dangling banyan tree feeder roots helped complete the eerie setting as we climbed. In the dark, it had the feel of scaling some dark temple at Angkor Wat.

At the top, Ketut opened the gate leading into the courtyard of the villa. After a quick tour of the place we crashed for the night, glad to be here.