3 Airports, 2 flights and 1 lovely hotel in Bali

So I probably should go to sleep as in Balinese time it is about midnight, although in the UK it's about 5pm.  

My journey started with an East Coast Mainline journey from Leeds to London on Tuesday evening which only took 2hrs 15, was very comfortable and allowed me to play with my Netbook as though I was an important business person (I actually used the 16 minutes free wifi to mostly go on Facebook!)

I arrived into London Kings Cross and then made the journey back to see my parents travelling to Hampton Court Station - as the crow flies this is 12 miles and took over an hour!

It was really nice to catch up with my parents and my Mum made my favourite dinner - Aubergine Stew for when I arrived back at 10pm on Tuesday evening.  I spent the next day with my parents until my Dad drove me (and my Mum came too) to Heathrow Airport which is about a half hour drive.  I was worried about checking in my bag as I was limited  20kg and had a lot to bring over for Rachel plus lots of presents from me and my Mum.  I snuck in with just a little over and got through security with my bulging clear bag of toiletries.  

There was time to kill and I was a bit hungry and so I treated myself to Yo Sushi! which was very tasty, but I just ate off the belt to save time and wished I'd had a bit more time for some Ramen or Moochi.  

I flew with Singapore Airlines who were very polite and the food was really good, they also were kind enough to feed me some red wine so that I felt a bit more relaxed and sleepy for my first ever flight by myself.  I was intrigued by the uniforms of the stewards and stewardesses - which is a  sarong kebaya in batik material I'm guessing to incorporate traditional dress.  The different colours of the different batik designs designates different levels of seniority.  I liked them much more than what you usually see on Ryan Air etc, I'm less keen on the title of the page Singapore Girl it seems a bit chauvinistic as the guys have different colour ties that designate their seniority too.

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I didn't really get to see much of Singapore Airport as I literally had time to walk off the plane through the airport, get on the "sky train" to a different terminal before I was queueing up to get on the plane to Denpaser. 

On the first leg of the flight I watched - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which I actually really enjoyed.  It was sweet and romantic, without being saccharine or flippant.  There was a great cast of actors and actresses which helped and I have to say that I really do love Dame Judi Dench.  I also love how in the film Maggie Smith brings Hobnob biscuits, Branston pickle and HP sauce with her, but they won't let her take her pickled eggs on the plane!  On the second leg of the flight I watched Ted - not really my thing - I can summarise the plot for you as follows - talking bear that swears and smokes weed + Mark Wahlberg + kidnap and rescue of bear + a bit of relationship turmoil.  Far too predictable and not enough novelty to make up for this for my liking - still it did pass the time.  I also used the online game to learn some Indonesian phrases like "dua" - two and "Mobil" - car and most impressive "supermarket" - Supermarket.  I also bought The Hunger Games before leaving Heathrow and at first glance it reminded me of Battle Royale so far 5 chapters in, there are a lot of similarities, I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.

Arriving at Bali Airport in Denpaser was fine, but it took over an hour to get through customs, immigration etc.  My friend Rachel and her gorgeous little baby boy Kiran met me at the airport gate and then we grabbed some drinks and her husband drove us all back to my hotel Sagitarius Inn which so far is lovely.  The room is a little basic, but for less than £20 per night it's perfect and has breakfast and free wifi included.  The grounds are really beautiful and I'll take some pictures when it's light as the flowers and plants are amazing.  Here are a couple of dodgy pictures of my room - sorry, but I'm very tired, better ones at a later date!

I got in, showered and then ventured down Monkey Forest Road and bought some bottled water, crazy additive only available in Bali Rhino drinks and some cheese and chocolate bread (don't know why, but it is tastier than it sounds!) - all of this was 300 000 rupiah which is about £1.93.

So now it's late and I've not had much sleep over the last few days I think I'll switch off the fan and listen to the sound of Ubud to get me to sleep.