Prologue :
Early January 2004, I received an e-mail from my cousin inviting me to his wedding in Bali. He wrote that food and lodging will be provided, I just had to be in Bali on 14 February for the wedding. After getting approval for my leave, I started looking for a ticket. There are only 3 choices to fly non-stop from Singapore to Bali : Garuda, Singapore Airlines and Australian Airlines. At S$297 (US$175) including taxes and charges, Australian Airlines offered the cheapest fare, and it would be a new airline for me, so the choice was clear.

Before I start the proper report, I would like to express my gratitude towards Mr Hari Tugas, Mr Bimo Yunanto and the staffs of Angkasa Pura 1 in Bali for their hospitality during my stay in Bali.

AO7830 SIN-DPS
13 February 2004
B767-338ER
VH-OGM
ETD 7 :10 PM
Seat 5K (Business Class Cabin)

I left my office at 4.30 PM and since I didn’t want to carry all my luggage to the office, I went home first to collect it, dumped all the last minute items that I could remember then grabbed a taxi to the airport. The taxi ride to the airport took around 20+ minutes.

The taxi driver dropped me in the Terminal 1 Departure level at 5.35PM. I straight away looked at the Departure Board and found that my flight was checking in at Row 6. Security line in Row 6 was a bit chaotic since there was a group of golfers in front of me, each of them carried 2-3 bags (including the golf clubs), but the line was moving quite swiftly. Check in was a breeze, fortunately, since the golfers used a separate desk to check-in as a group.

The check-in lady was friendly, I asked her whether I can sit in the window seat as front as possible, knowing that AO planes are single-class configuration. She replied the furthest she can give me is seat 40A. When I asked whether there’s anymore window seat available up front, she went typing for a while and issued me a boarding pass with 5K seat printed on it.

The whole check-in procedure finished at around 5.45PM. I decided to went spotting in the viewing gallery for a while. Managed to take pictures of CX’s B744 and QF’s B763 which was parking at Gate C30. Wait a minute.... I looked at my boarding pass, C30 is the gate for AO7830. ‘What happened to the regular B763 in AO colour ?’, I asked myself. ‘But then, if it’s QF plane it should have 2-class configuration.’ So I kept my fingers crossed, hoping that I will get to seat in the Business Class section..

Around 6PM, I decided to enter the immigration. The line was horrendous, simply the worst among all my 7 years experience flying from Singapore. There were 6 desks opened, and all the queues entended until the glass door that separates the passengers and the non-passengers. It took me 15 minutes to pass the immigration (my worst record was less than 5 minutes). After that, I decided to grab something for dinner, since I don’t have high expectation on AO, but I was proved wrong. Dinner was fried chicken from Popeye’s. By the time I finished dinner, it’s already 6.40 PM, so I started to walk towards Gate C30. There was another security check before the boarding gate, but it was very swift. The boarding area was full to the brim, but I managed to locate an empty seat.

Boarding was commenced at 6.50PM, and started from elderly and passengers with small children. I have to praise the passengers on this flight, when Row 40 and above was called to board, there was no rush of pasengers standing up and no crowding the entrance of the jet bridge. In fact the whole boarding process was very orderly. I was boarding once the gate agent announced ‘All remaining passengers please board the plane’. The plane was VH-OGM, named ‘Bundaberg’. It was quite spotless. I was greeted by Allan Frost in door 1L. ‘Good Afternoon, do you know where your seat is ?’ ‘Yes, 5K is on the other aisle’, I replied. ‘All right, enjoy your flight then’, Allan replied.

The moment I turned into the cabin, rows of Business Class seats greeted me. I did a quick count, and yes.. there are 5 rows of seats, meaning that my seat is the last row of Business Class... hooray..... Since I only brought my camera case with me in the cabin, I put it in underneath the seat, and settle into my seat. The seat itself is not that comfortable. The most upright position is still too much recline to my liking and the back padding is a bit odd. The only comfortable position that I can get is when the seat is in fully reclined. The seat itself is electrically controlled. The seat pitch and width was very much welcome compared to the Economy Class.

Once I sat in, a flight attendant came from the Economy Class cabin, a glance at her badge, I could see her name is Yvette. She asked me wheter I need anything, but I declined. I must say that AO’s uniform is quite attractive. For both the stewards and stewardesses, they wears a long-sleeved blouse (colour similar to the AO logo, Ochre ??) and black trousers. Only Allan wore a dark khaki sports jacket. The uniform is not too formal, but it gives the image of friendliness of the cabin crew.

Passengers kept coming, and the seats kept filling up. I must say the flight is 100% full, even in the Business Class. No one was occupying the seat next to me, until the last minute when one gentleman came and sat next to me. He introduced himself as Dean. Apparently, the crew knew him, and the moment he sat down, Yvette came to him and said ‘The usual Chardonnay ?’ ‘Yeah’, Dean replied. Yvette even asked me whether I want the wine as well, but again I declined. The wine was delivered shortly by another flight attendant. Great service...

At 7.10PM, the door was closed, and Allan’s voice came from the PA system. ‘Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Allan Frost, I’m the manager of today’s flight. First of all, welcome to Australian Airlines flight 7830 to Denpasar, Bali and continuing to Sydney. As you can see, today’s flight is operated by Qantas’ plane, since our plane is undergoing maintenance in Sydney at the moment. But the cockpit and cabin crews are from Australian Airlines. Tonight’s flight time to Bali is approximately 2 hours and 2 minutes. We just closed the door, and should commence push back shortly. The cockpit crew will give you more information regarding the flight. Thank you.’ It was a nice touch when the crew explained about the airplane, since I believed there are some passengers that expecting to board an Australian plane instead a Qantas’ one.

Shortly after Allan’s announcement, the pushback started, and another annoucement came from the PA system. ‘Good afternoon, my name is.. (couldn’t catch), the first officer for this flight. We are being pushback at the moment. The flight time to Bali will be 2 hours and 2 minutes. We will be cruising at flight level 290. The weather in Bali is cloudy, but no rain is reported. On behalf of the whole crew, I do hope you will enjoy this flight.’

We taxied to Runway 02R, passing through couple of planes, mostly SQ’s. Some interesting planes were AY MD11 and an A300F with no title. The engines were spooled up the moment we entered the runway, and we took off immediately to the evening sky. I was chatting with Dean during the climb since it was too dark to take pictures anyway. He turned out to be a very friendly person to talk with. I asked him how come the crews seemed to know him well. Then he explained to me that he came to Singapore on AO7829 earlier because his 1 month Indonesian visa had expired, so he had to exit Indonesia and enter again since he had not finished his business in Bali. And it happened that the crews for both flight were the same team.

I decided to check the PTV. There were only 3 video channels, a TV serial (not sure what it was), a commercial regarding AO’s destinations and Airshow. There were around 8 audio channels as well. The only drawback was I couldn’t watch the airshow while listening to any of the audio channels, unlike the IFE in Emirates.

Once we reached FL290, the meal service started. It consisted of vegetarian lasagna, a bowl of salad, a piece of chocolate brownies and a luke warm bun with butter. Yvette came together with another FA, and surprise… they laid down table cloth (well, more like a table paper) before putting down the food tray. They did the same thing on the Economy Class as well. With the tray, they also passed a special paper cup with Australian’s logo. ‘The cup is for coffee or tea later on’, explained Yvette. Nice touch.

Since I never fancy vegetarian food, and I was still full with the Popeye’s chicken, I only ate the brownies and the bun. I didn’t taste the lasagna, but according to Dean, it was good. During the meal, Allan made a round, offering both red and white wine. I asked for a glass of Chardonnay. After that, Yvette made a round offering mineral water, which I took a glass.

The weather along the route was quite good. There were minor bumps and turbulence along, but overall it wasn’t bad. Tray clearing was a bit slow though, only couple of minutes before descend started. After my tray was cleared, I went to the toilet. At first I wanted to take a peek at the Economy Class, so I went to the toilet near the emergency exits, but all of the toilets were occupied, so I went back and used the Business Class toilet. The toilet was a normal airplane toilet, so I won’t elaborate much about this.

Once I was back to my seat, the descend was already started. It was pitch dark outside, and I could only see the wing tip beacuse of the strobe light, but judging from the Airshow, we would be landing on Runway 09. Landing on DPS is always fun, be it on daylight or during night time, since the runway is bordered by the sea at both ends. You won’t see the land until shortly before touchdown. The FO announced that we would land shortly, and requested us to store the tray tables, set the seat back upright, etc. What I could feel is that we’re decending at a steady rate, then the landing light were on, followed by the flaps, then the landing gears and then the ‘Cabin crew prepare for landing’ announcement . I could see some ship lights in the distance, as well as clusters of light, which were probably the lights of the resorts in Nusa Dua and Jimbaran area. Then the airport perimeter fence appeared, then we touched down. Reverse thrust and brakes were applied, but the plane only managed to slow down to taxi speed and exited the runway on N2 taxiway. Once we turned to the apron/taxiway (DPS paralel taxiway is actualy the apron itself), Allan was on the PA system, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just landed in Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali. Please remain seated while the plane is taxiing to the terminal. For those joining us for the flight to Sydney please deboard and collect your transit pass. For those with Bali as their final destination, we hope you enjoy the flight, and hope that you will have a good time in Bali. On behalf of the crew, we thank you for flying with Australian Airlines’

We taxied back, since the international terminal was on the side of Runway 09, passing through the cargo/general aviation apron and the domestic apron. Interesting planes were BAe 146 PK-OSP (leased by Surya Paloh, MetroTV owner and also one of the Presidential Candidates), EMB120 from Northern Teritory Regional Airline, and Air Paradise B738 (still with Transavia cheatline and PH registration). We docked at Gate 7, next to JAL’s B744 bound for NRT via CGK on Gate 8. Once the plane stopped, I and Dean stood up, and line up to deboard.

This was the first time I arrived in Bali using the international terminal. Although I transitted in DPS 4 times during my trips to Australia on 2001, I didn’t go out of the terminal building toward the arrival hall. It was a long walk from the gate to the arrival hall. I exchanged contacts with Dean in the visa on arrival section, since he needed to aply for one. Then I proceed to the immigration. At first, I went to the counter stated ‘Indonesian Passport’, but no one was there, and one officer came and asked me to queue together with the rest. The queue was long, since couple of flights arriving at the same time. Anyway, I met a relative who’s coming for the wedding as well, and he was on the same flight as me, but somehow we didn’t see each other during the whole flight. The immigration took ages, especially with couple of people who didn’t know that they have to apply for visa on arrival, and yet joined the queue. This slowed down the whole process, since the immigration officers had to explain to them that they need to go back and apply for the visa first. Once I cleared the immigration, I straight away went to the baggage belt, and found that my bag was already there. So I grabbed my bag, and exited the terminal. I saw my relative with Wayan, my uncle’s driver in Bali, and joined them.

Wayan droves us to Intercontinental Resort at Jimbaran Beach. The drive took about 15 minutes. It was my first time in Bali since 1995, so I was a bit disoriented since lot of things had changed in the past 9 yrs.

Bali Island, Indonesia : The Hotels and the Wedding
13 – 14 February 2004

My first two night in Bali, I stayed in Intercontinental Resort, a 5-star resort on Jimbaran Beach, south of the airport. It is a huge resort, partly because of this construction rule in Bali that a building could not exceed the height of a coconut tree (which approximately 3-4 story in height), so all resorts/hotels in Bali normally covered a large area, but only 4 story in height. Two exception of this rule are the Grand Bali Beach Hotel, the first luxury hotel in Bali (built in 1963) and the new control tower of the airport (built in 1993).

The room in the Intercontinental is quite standard for a 5-star hotel, the only complain that I had was the pillows were to soft, maybe that’s the reason that each (single) bed is equipped with four pillows. And of course, being a 5-star hotel, the room service prices are exhorbitant, for example a plate of fried rice costs Rp 95000 (US$11).

My parents were staying in the Royal Bali Beach Club (RBBC), just opposite the Intercontinental. It was a nice boutique hotel, with only 15 rooms, but the service is more personal, and the room-service prices is reasonable (the same plate of fried rice only costs Rp 25000/US$3 there). The room is also bigger and more equipped, with a kitchenette. I stayed in RBCC for the last 2 nights, and I prefer RBCC more compared to Intercontinental.

The wedding party was on the Valentine’s Day in Kudeta Cafe in Seminyak, north of Kuta Beach. It was an excellent place by the sea, but the wind was a bit notorious on that night. The cocktail party was held in the central garden, facing the beach. Free flow of any kind of drinks I could think of was available. Dinner was inside the main building, with all four corners of transparent glass doors. The view from the main building is marvelous, but the problem is with the glass doors, they can only be fully-opened or fully-closed. If the doors are fully-opened, the wind was gusting inside making it impossible to have a warm and cozy dinner, but if the doors are closed, it is too warm inside the building (the main building is not equipped with air-conditioning).

to be continued...