After three months of traveling in Asia, Susan and I needed a break (see Alive and Well, Just Slacking in Bali). Travel is great, but intense. Asia especially so, and it ain't like we're staying at the Four Seasons (although we aren't rock-bottom budget travelers either).
We had taken another break before, in Laos, where we checked into this grand old french colonial mansion converted into a hotel in Luang Prabang and proceeded to sleep and eat for 6 days. That was right after Mongolia, and a perfect reset before Bhutan. But we'd done a super intense week in Bhutan - great, fabulous - but really, really intense with so much to see and so much to learn. From there to Malaysia; KL and Borneo, which were interesting but far from relaxing. And the thing is, we never really fully rested.
So when we got to Sandakan in Sabah (Borneo) we were really wrestling with ourselves about next steps. On the one hand you have this feeling like "I'm in this amazing trip, I'm on vacation, I should be in a constant state of ecstasy." On the other hand "I am soooo tired." Borneo was hot, dirty, tough travelling and honestly, a little disappointing. We'd spent a small fortune for 2 days at the Rainforest Lodge, and while it was great to see Orangutans in the wild, we couldn't really get everything out of it.
In stepped Benji and Dee; two Brits 11 months into an 18 month around-the-world. By pure chance they were in the lobby of our hostel as we were heading off for dinner. Susan (ever the gregarious one) struck up a conversation and pretty soon they were saying "look, you don't have to prove anything to anyone - if you're tired, you're tired - rest." Hearing what you want to hear but feel guilty thinking is like hearing the trumpets of Gabriel. We briefly flirted with the idea of using our no-longer-Borneo time to go to Australia and road-trip the Great Ocean Road. I have family in Perth I haven't seen in 15+ years, and travelling in Australia is inherently restful (English-speaking, clean, and not corrupt).
After a quick bite we were looking for flights, playing with our calendar and talking it over. But it wasn't so easy (nor cheap). Flights from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu, from KK to Kuala Lumpur, from KL to Australia, then back, then picking up our prepaid "big ticket" leg from KL to Denpasar (Bali), plus a one way flight Perth to Melbourne so we could rent a car and drive one way... well, first of all "time splicing" is the enemy of enjoying quality travel and secondly- it was anything but restful.
Ultimately, the idea of sitting in a tropical paradise for 5 weeks with absolutely nothing to do appealed to Susan and the idea of 5 weeks of world class surf appealed to me. Bali it is.
We had planned for 2 weeks in Bali, and now would have 38 days - a superlative in it's own right among our trip-of-superlatives. Decision made, the adventure began...
First trick - getting to Kuala Lumpur from Sandakan. Not so easy, actually, as the direct flights were all booked. We could get a ticket to KK, but everything from there was full too. In the meantime I'm Skyping with my Mom to get help changing our big around-the-world ticket for our KL-Bali hop. We grabbed the last minute flight to KK, which has more flights and carriers in general. Most websites don't do tickets less than 48 hours in advance, so trying to get from A to B the next day is a daunting prospect, and there are no 24-hour 800-numbers in these parts. OK, Mom's on the case for the KL-Bali ticket, and will call during US business hours - we'll already be on our way to KL by then. "Maybe we should plan a night stay in KL... in case we don't make the connections?" I suggest. Recalling our previous KL experience, this was not on Susan's agenda. "It's a 2 hour flight and there are tons of flights leaving after we land that will make the connection - we'll be fine. I bet my changefee on it!" At this point in the narrative risk-averse Lars agrees that this could be another example of his playing it too safe, mostly because there is no point in trying to argue that a one night layover in KL is a good idea.
Up early, we were out of Sandakan before the airline ticket offices opened, and into KK. We boarded, all seemed well. Then we sat on the tarmac for an hour. Those 10:00 and 10:30am departures? Not so much. Now in Kota Kinabalu. Did Mom manage to get our KL to Bali flight for today? No idea - no wireless, no internet cafe's, nothing. Still not sure if we will be in Bali tonight or not. Turns out there are some flights on Air Asia to KL today - leaving from a "terminal" 20 minutes cab ride away. Any seats? Anyone's guess. It took a few hours, but we were on the flight to KL - but we would miss the connection to Bali... if we had it in the first place.
A rough day (I thought the point was to rest?), but we're in Kuala Lumpur. Did we miss our flight? Well, no. Turns out my Mom couldn't change the ticket. Did I mention that we left Sandakan Saturday night (Malaysia time). Haha, Continental "Round the world desk" doesn't do weekends. But, they said you can change it at the Malaysia air desk in the airport.
Malaysia airlines desk agent sends us to Northwest (which doesn't exist) we try KLM (no dice), we spend $20 and three or four hours in a fruitless attempt to call Continental international-long distance. Not only are 800-numbers not free, you can't dial them AT ALL from overseas. Here's a fun exercise for you kids at home - try locating a phone number for Continental airlines that you CAN call from Malaysia. Now try doing this over a crappy internet cafe connection inside KL International... OK, trick question, 'cause its Sunday and the only (and I mean ONLY) number is a local Malaysia number that is only staffed on weekdays. No way to call US, Japan, or any other office of Continental no matter what you are willing to pay. We're stuck.
We book a night - the nice airport hotel is full, we get the crappy one, but neither one of us can face the hour long cabride into KL proper, especially since we're only coming back here first thing.
Nine AM, Monday morning. We call Malaysia office of Continental. A very nice lady tell us - Malaysia airlines desk can help you... so we're back to where we were 20 clcok hours (and 10+ active communication-attempt hours) earlier. "OK, if they say they can't, have them call me directly, here is my number..."
Back to Malaysia airlines desk... and in 10 minutes were done. We spent ten hours because we forgot Susan's first rule of dealing with bureacracy: "If you think you are right, and the person on the phone/at the desk is an idiot... the person at the desk is probably an idiot." Yup, the dude yesterday sent us on a wild goose chase and not wanting to be the pain-in-the-ass-American customer we ran around in circles instead of asserting ourselves. Damnit!
But, finally, we were on a flight for Bali. By nightfall we would be sipping drinks with umbrellas... and man would I need it!
Cut to two weeks later.
After a brief sojourn in Kuta beach we nestled into a genuinely bad-ass villa in a quiet part of Seminyak.
We planned on a few nights, to help kickstart the relaxing, but ended up staying for the whole month. We had our own pool, a huge indoor/outdoor living room/kitchen (with TV! oh how I missed you!). I did a lot of surfing, to the point where I wore that hole in my ribs. After about a week our hotel kicked us out because they had previous bookings for "our" villa, so we went up to Ubud for three days in the unofficial art, culture, and gastronomic capital of Bali.
Ahhh, now we were relaxing...
