Trip to Bali Indonesia - Day0

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By Chance – yes this was a destination that chose us, we were supposed to go on a bachelor trip to an unconventional place and Turkey was almost booked before US bombed Syria one day forcing us to change our plans. Eventually, with time running out, we booked trip to Bali as it was easily accessible and did not require Visa. 

So, Bali it is – we had no idea or research on the place we were going, all place names seemed weird and difficult to connect. Both of us had no time to spend on research and decide the itinerary although we were clear that we don’t want to follow the traditional one followed by travel agents.

Tripadvisor forum came to our help – they have pinned posts which make job of folks like us much easier with all wisdom already collated into easy to understand posts. I went through the list of all places and put them together in a diary – any place with good diving and atypical was marked a potential destination. After much churn, this is what the final itinerary came out as:

1.     Day1- Kuta (no idea what in Kuta and how – just booked a hotel with flight)

2.     Day2 – Nusa Lemboghan (no clear idea how to get there)

3.     Day3- Nusa Lemboghan (go to Nusa Penida or no?)

4.     Day4 - ?? – Open

5.     Day5 – Pemutaran (why are we going there – good beaches and divng maybe)

6.     Day6 – Pemutaran

7.     Day7 – Somewhere near airport (will figure out on run..)

So, lets dive into the stories of this trip –

Day 0 –

Getting to Chennai from Bangalore to take the Malindo flight to Bali. Volvo to Chennai was late by 1.5 hours and I went through several anxious moments running scenarios around the whole trip getting messed up even before it starts. Finally, with some luck, I was able to catch the bus around midnight and I fell fast asleep hoping that bus will make up lost time and take me to Chennai in time for me to catch the flight. Finally to cut long story short, I was able to get on to Malindo flight(operated by Batik air) from Chennai to Bali Denspar via Kualalumpur.  

Some tips from Day-0: 

#TravellerTips

-       If taking an overnight Volvo from Bangalore, go to starting station and don’t try to board from pick up points

-       Chennai international airport terminal hardly qualifies as an international terminal with check in process being chaotic to say the least

-       Batik Air flight is reasonably good – Good movies on touch screen, headphones are given only if you ask, feel free to use your own. Meals are reasonable with a glass of water.

Denpasar Bali international airport

-       For Indian passport holders (for most I guess), if you are staying less than a month in Indonesia, you don’t need any Visa on Arrival

-       So skip VoA queue and directly go to Immigration where they will stamp Visa exemption on passport

-       Outside the baggage area, need to pass through customs by providing the customs form. Some times they scan your luggage not sure how they chose who to review.

-       Immediately after customs,  there are ATMs and currency changers. I just withdrew from ATM

-       Next after ATMs is a counter selling SIM cards, they quoted 250k for sim card but I later bought in market for 50K IDR so avoid I guess at airport

-       Then come the taxi drivers chasing travelers (though politely) and trying to get them on board

-       Bargain!! Bargain hard – true rate from Airport to Kuta is around 60k. Quote can start from 3L (300k) but they will come around if you insist on 60k.