I just had quite the trek getting from Berlin to Bali. A few bumps here and there, but I'm here and still in one piece so all is well.
I left Berlin at noon on Thursday, July 26, and my train ride to Frankfurt was a bit over five hours long. First challenge: the seat I had reserved didn't exist. It turns out I wasn't the only one.
Most ICEs have a great seating system, but I realized upon arriving at the train station that I was going to be on an IC, which is a bit less top-of-the-line. There simply was no seat 26 in car 8. I sat in a side seat on the train until the ticket person came, and they helped me look.
Turns out, the little pieces of paper they stick in the slots on the cabin doors had put my seat 26 in the seat 22 spot. Such was the case with several other frustrated passengers as well. Once we were seated though, I slept for a few hours.
Once I arrived in Frankfurt, I had about four hours until my flight to Singapore left, so I made my way to the check-in counter. I had thought I'd be able to check my bag in all the way to Bali, since I'd be catching up a connecting flight to Bali in Singapore.
But, since I had booked my flights on separate airlines, I was told this would not be possible — that I would have to exit in Singapore, go through customs, pick up my bag, and then head back through security. Argh! The employee even checked with her boss, and after ten minutes, they still weren't able to make it work.
So, I had to decide between risking missing my connecting flight in Singapore by checking in the bag OR give up the bottle of single malt whiskey I'd bought at JFK for Jess and Fredrik's wedding. I decided to simply give up the whiskey, which shocked all the Singapore Airlines counter folks and some people standing in line. Priorities, people!
I also had to move some clothes from my suitcase to my backpack and throw away my shower gel, deodorant, and sunscreen bottles, because they were too big for being in a carry on. Apparently, your carry-on cannot weigh more than 7 kilos. I got it down to about 8, and the employee said to just go for it.
Once I actually got on my flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, it was all fine. I ate lots of good food (which I am grateful for, since I'd only had about one Euro and change left so did not buy any food at the airport), watched two movies, and slept a bit.
Arriving in Singapore went well. My first impression of Singapore: it's more green than I'd expected. Also, I laughed when the first thing I saw when I got out of my gate was Starbucks.
I made my way to the Jetstar check in counter, which had an unbelievably long line. I had about 20 minutes to check in or risk losing my ticket. Thank goodness I hadn't tried to check in my bag in Frankfurt.
The two-and-a-half hour flight to Bali was the worst. I was getting extremely antsy from having sat for so long, and I was just itching to get to Bali and the hotel. Then there were crying babies, passengers who seemingly had never flown before (you don't lean your seat back, fill out your customs form on your tray table, or play with your iPhone during take off or landing), and just general lack of order with people almost climbing over each other to exit the aircraft.
Once we took the bus to the terminal and walked in, it got no better. I knew I needed to buy a visa to go through customs, but there were a bunch of lines with tons of people lined up and no signs explaining what people were in line for. I just assumed it was for the visa, but a few signs or explanatory notes would've helped. It also smelled like smoke in the entire terminal.
It took me a good 30+ minutes to pay for my visa, go through customs, and finally exit the airport. Of course, greeting me upon exit was a crowd of taxi drivers and hotel reps. It reminded me of Santorini.
After stopping by the ATM, I haggled with one of the taxi drivers to take me to my hotel. I'd read online that it should not really cost more than 100,000 Rupiah to get from the airport to the hotel district, but that could be several years old. The hotel itself was charging 150,000-180,000 for a hotel shuttle.
The taxi driver wanted 300,000, so I said no and walked off. I hate haggling, but he really wanted to drive me. I told him the hotel's 150,000 rate, so he countered with 200,000. I stuck with my 150,000, so he finally said okay. I still probably got gouged, but whatever. I was just eager to get to the hotel.
My room is quite nice. It's air conditioned and not too far from where the wedding will be tomorrow. All in all, it took me roughly 29 hours from the time I left Brandon's apartment in Berlin till when I checked into the hotel tonight.
The next few days will be quite an adventure, and I'm a bit unnerved by the fact that I have no idea what to expect from Sunday on. The general idea of the plan is to hang out with the happy couple, since they invited us all to spend the next few days with them hanging out here in Bali. But I'm not entirely sure about my living quarters yet, so I will be keeping CouchSurfing and these hotels in mind.
Either way, it'll be fun to spend a few days in Bali before heading to Singapore next week. More updates after the wedding tomorrow!
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