Well, what can I say about today? My last day in Asia after nearly five months and it almost seems like a dream looking back, and in a way I'm almost quite sad to leave; not to mention nervous about going to Australia. A change in lifestyle and a way of living, surely a tasty bit of culture shock is lying in wait on the horizon...
Basically, as final days go, this one was pretty uneventful. Simon and I got up, had breakfast, checked out and said our goodbyes. I then went about the business of updating my blog, checking emails and swapping second hand books in order to slightly lighten my load. Around lunch time I decided that I'd best have a really big slap up meal and nipped into to a restaurant and chose a dish which comprised of several Indonesian specialities, a kind of mix and match, if you will. Quite frankly, it was one of the best meals I've had in the past few months. Exceptional.
By the time I left the restaurant I was stuffed and resorted to spending the afternoon lying by the pool back at my hotel, sipping beer and chatting to a couple of Americans. One thing that strikes me as very very odd here is that it's actually cheaper to buy beer from bars and cafes rather than shops. 14,500 for a large Bintang (Bali beer) in the shop. 11,000 by my pool. Now what is the sense in that?
At 7pm my lift arrived at my hotel. Having decided to have one more slice of Asian adventure I had, earlier in the day, organised for a guy with a motorbike to take me to the airport. He was pretty insistant at the time, and quite frankly I was interested to see how he'd go about transporting me, plus my baggage, to my required drop off point. Plus it was cheap. True to his word we both squeezed on to his bike with my luggage placed in between his legs and shot off into the early evening traffic. One thing that worried my was that he made us both wear a helmet. I've always been uncertain as to what this exactly means: is he a bad driver or very safety conscious? Well I made it, so there's your answer.
In the airport I passed through the safety checks and met up with Paul and Meyling, before waiting around to check in. When we finally did it was a lenghty procedure because the computer systems were down. Despite the delay I managed to check in fine, though Paul had his fair share of problems. It seemed that Jetstar, the Qantas operated airline that we were flying with, had decided to put Paul in economy and Meyling in star class, and this made him not particularly happy. He, of course, cited the fact that he wanted to sit with his wife, though I'm sure a little green eyed monster element came into it. In the end all was resolved on the plane, when for some reason Paul was also moved into Star class. Needless to say, that made both of them very happy. I, on the other hand, was less happy. I'd had to leave the departure lounge and board the plane whilst in the middle of watching Liverpool v Everton, which was a pain, and to add to the misery the plane was delayed on the tarmac, leaving me to regret having two large beers before boarding. There's nothing worse than the air steward insisting you tighten your belt when you have a full bladder. Quite uncomfortable.