Day 380: Bali bound

The alarm woke us at 6.30am and we headed out for breakfast at Taipan Food Corner. The pork buns weren't ready yet, but while we waited, Zoe tucked into some of her beloved wonton noodles. When my pork bun finally came it was still cold inside, so I sent it back for a bit more steaming. As we ate, Sarah had a bit of a moment when a small jumping spider did what jumping spiders do and jumped around on the table. Sarah has always had a love-hate relationship with spiders – sometimes she loves them and wants to hold every spider she sees, other times she decides she's petrified of them and shies away from even the smallest arachnids. She was apparently in a hate phase this morning, but I made her sit still and let the spider climb onto her hand and in no time she was back in love mode again.

Back in the room we finished packing and then went downstairs to meet 'our' taxi driver, Kelvin, at 9.30am. At the airport, we checked our bags in and then sat in a coffee shop until our plane was ready. A short flight later we were back in KL, where we collected our bags, checked them back in again and then went to Nando's for lunch. We went through security but our gate wasn't open yet, so we sat out in the open area. Eventually, we filed through and onto the plane for the two-to-three-hour flight to Denpasar. 

We were met at the arrivals exit by our driver (we had chosen to fork out for someone from the resort to come and pick us up), and went looking for something to eat as it was after 9pm and we hadn't had any dinner yet, but there weren't many options, so we got in the van and headed north. Eventually we came to a McDonald's and the driver pulled off the road so we could grab some takeaway, which we then ate in the van as we continued on. All the while I was slowly inching towards hypothermia as the driver insisted on having the air con on high, with the outlets pointed right at my chest. After a few hours, the roads began to get narrower and the stray dogs more abundant and it started to feel as though we might be reaching our destination.

We finally arrived at the resort just after midnight. Grabbing our bags, we trudged around to our little villa, the gentle lapping of waves on the nearby shore the only sound. Our driver let us into what proved to be an absolutely lovely little villa – high-ceilinged, with a big bed on the ground floor and some mattresses for the girls on a little upstairs mezzanine. There was a slightly odd vegetal smell in the room, which we traced to a rather sweet grass-and-flower-petal heart that had been carefully created on the floor at the foot of our bed.