It was a long time since I had taken a planned Christmas vacation. I had some leave to burn that would lapse with the onset of the new year. A couple of days would be consumed by a year end trip to New Delhi for a batch get-together. Prefixing and suffixing a couple of days to the long Christmas weekend would give me five days. Air travel at short notice within the country, and that too with the vacation looming, was too expensive. Countries requiring visa too were out of the question due to paucity of time. A few days of deliberation and research led me to Bali; free visa on arrival for Indians and reasonable return fares by Malindo Air. The threat of a volcanic eruption coupled with travel advisory by many countries presented me with cheap stay options too. I would have three clear days in Bali, 23rd to 25th December, with two days for travel.
As I would be landing in Denpasar airport after nightfall, with additional time factored in for Visa on arrival, I looked around for a decent place close to airport in Kuta area. Booking.com has been a trusted guide to accommodation during my overseas travel since 2014. If minor glitches on the Trans Siberian expedition are set aside the experience with booking.com has been reasonable satisfactory. So it would be Grandma's Airport Hotel for the first night and the Artini Resort Hotel in Ubud for the next three, all for Rs 7000! I could have landed decent hostels for less than half, but I was beyond experimenting.
Further research was done on places to visit and things to do in Bali. Beach activities and nightlife don't interest me; so places of natural beauty, historical monuments and traditional shopping would be my focus. High on the list are the two volcanic mountains, Batur and Agung. Elephant caves, terraced rice fields, Monkey forest and the Goa Gajah also sounded interesting. A visit to a coffee plantation where the costliest coffee is made, the civet cat ingested special coffee bean, is also highly recommended. Besides, there are many traditional Hindu temples and furniture marts, if I have the time. I toyed with the idea of renting a car and driving around, but the need for an International Driving Permit put paid to that strain of thought. I have been told that chauffeured cars would be available at reasonable rates, which could give me the flexibility to explore more than I can on my own.
I arrived Chennai international airport well in time but was greeted by queues and queues. First it was the Malindo Air check in counter. They do not offer web check-in at Chennai. The check-in counter, therefore, is inevitable. There were people with tons of baggage and the queue moved at snail's pace. System is slow, mentioned the comely girl who checked my passport and ticket before directing me to a counter. Sachin, a Malayali, counter clerk, served with a smile and gave me an aisle seat as requested. Second came the queue for immigration. It took forever. Just three officials to serve more than a hundred passengers. Added to that, the officials engage in social rather than professional behaviour amongst themselves with scant respect for those standing endlessly in the queue. Wonder whether the higher officials ever review data on camera to put in place a mechanism to improve life for passengers. Out of the clutches of immigration and you are confronted with the CISF security queue. Even if you double the number of scanners the problem will not be solved. They are more interested in talking amongst themselves and socialising. The guy at the scanner is bored and inattentive. The throughout dramatically reduces and people continue to wait. Demonetization and it's fallout proved that we have an insatiable capacity to stand in queues and wait and wait. The airport experience is no less. And an intemperate reaction can invite a no-fly ban! So lump all this and take them in your stride.
Just after the security check was the small duty free shop that primarily vends liquor. There were excellent deals like the JW Double Black buy three get one offer for USD 125. Indonesia permits only one litre of liquor import and hence, I settled for Bacardi Oakheart rum. Should the weather in Bali keep me indoors I would not remain inactive, I rationalised! The shuffle I was forced to practice in the three queues had made me hungry. I further shuffled around the sparse departure hall and came across the express food counter that served food from many of the popular restaurants of Chennai like Anjappar, Sangeetha, etc. Set up as an automated facility that freshly seals and serves hot food, it was manned by a pleasant young man. My idly order was served in less than two minutes, as advertised at the counter. However, it was so thoroughly sealed that I had half the sambar on me before I got to eat the idlies! When I was on to the second idly I started to hiccup. I needed water immediately. Fortunately, I spied drinking water taps in close proximity. I ran to it and discovered that the taps were dry. A cleaning lady, seeing the immediate need I was in, directed me to taps at the end of the hall. The manner in which facilities are maintained in the international airport is truly shocking.
Boarding for the 7.50 am flight started at 7.30 and the aircraft finally took off nearly an hour late. The reason given was inspection of the runway. I wasn't too worried because the same aircraft would take me to Denpasar after a brief transit halt in Kuala Lumpur. The delay in Chennai meant that I would have lesser waiting time in KL.
Malindo Air is a no frills airline based out of KL. The flight to Denpasar was a code share operated by Batik Air, the Indonesian airline. Announcements were incomprehensible as the very peculiar pronunciation did not make any impact on the cranial nerve that was meant to decipher sounds. Moreover, the situation was exacerbated by the inadequate public address system. Shortly after take off I was asked my preference of meals. The options were vegetarian and Nasi Lemak, chicken rice. It was Nasi Lemak for me. The small helping was quite tasty even though it was not warm enough. Later I asked for coffee and I was served black with sugar. There is no provision for milk, said the smiling hostess. Budget airline, I remembered. And then, headsets for inflight entertainment were passed around only on demand. The next encounter with budget in flight was when I used the toilet. There was no light in the enclosure. This was the limit. When I pointed this out to another hostess I was told that the lights didn't work. Wow, that's a new definition of a budget flight. 
I had two interesting companions next to me in the flight. A mother and son. Both Myanmarese. The son, who studies in Savita Medical College in Chennai, was accompanying his mother to Yangon after a surgical procedure on her. Before take off the young man was 'interviewed' for a long time about his mother's medical condition. After meals were served and cleared he was told to present medical documents and boarding passes for airline staff to examine and record. All through, the young man maintained a smiling countenance. Sitting nearby I was vexed!
Some announcements were made as we were landing in KL, but as had happened before, I could make neither head nor tail of it. I was interested in knowing whether I should remain in the aircraft for the onward journey to Denpasar. As I was exiting my query was answered in the most amiable way by the young hostess. I was asked to contact ground staff upon disembarkation, which I did. The young girl, who I understood to be ground staff, told me that boarding would commence at 1540 hrs local time, which gave me about 45 minutes to roam around the lovely terminal.
It was 1540 hours by the time I left the lounge. It would be an understatement to say that I almost panicked. I had lost the direction from which I had started the tour of the terminal. But, I remembered the departure gate number. I attempted to run in the general direction in which I thought the gate would be. At some stage I knew I was not in the right place. I stopped and asked a security guard for direction. Further time was consumed. Panic was starting to rise. The pace quickened and heart started thumping so hard that I knew I couldn't continue much further. It is in times such a stgis that you realise how terrible your health condition is. Just then I noticed Gate 23 and I stopped, not just slowed. There was a huge queue in front of the gate and I had time. I was relieved and happy that I would not have to holiday the Christmas in the airport terminal, having missed the flight.
After the security check there was further wait before boarding. That gave me enough time to return to steady state. When I boarded I founded an elderly Chinese gentleman occupying the seat I had been allotted. The hostess requested me to sit in the seat directly in front of it as the elderly person was a wheelchair passenger. I could not believe my luck. I had a seat with more legroom, the same seat I had occupied on the journey from Chennai to KL. The fortuitous good Samaritan had a more comfortable seat.
A couple of westerners, a young girl and her partner, occupied the seats next to me. As I sat down and took out my copy of Sapiens the girl got all excited and told me that she was reading the same book too. She showed me her copy. I told her to read the sequel after she was done with Sapiens. After a few pages of the book I dozed, only to be woken up with the meal tray. I opted for chicken biriyani ahead of rice and chicken masala, my fourth meal in about eight hours. It was spicy and demanded copious quantity of water to get the fire out of the mouth. 
The flight got into Denpasar a few minutes past the scheduled 1940. The immigration check was over before I even reached the counter. It was that fast. And the clearance included a free visa on arrival. I was just asked how many days I would be staying in Bali. That's it. The baggage came a half hour later. Customs clearance required a form to be filled and handed over. At the exit I changed USD to local currency and I suddenly became a multimillionaire. I managed to find a reasonably priced taxi to take me to the Grandma's Plus Airport Hotel. Even though the distance was just two kms I had to ride over 8 km in slow moving traffic to reach the hotel. I had to wait a bit for the check in as other customers were being serviced. In a while I was allotted a comfortable and clean room. Before turning in for the night I arranged with the reception to hire a car for 10 hours for day long sightseeing. I was warned that I should not pack too many places into the agenda because the traffic snarls in Bali are notorious. I had a small experience of that while on the way to the hotel from the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment