Labuan Bajo - Day 1

My association with Bali has always been fairly partial. Kuta and Seminyak is where I have spent more of my time in Bali and these two areas tend to attract a particular subset of the Australian species that are known to wear Bintang Singlets and drink beer, not that there's anything wrong with that. Easter 2019 would be an opportunity to spend some time exploring the Eastern Side of Indonesia, particularly around Labuan Bajo, famous for Komodo Island, the home of the Komodo Dragon.

Our journey would start with an after work flight out from Hong Kong to Bali. Being the Easter long weekend, flights were not cheap, including domestic transfers the cost of the flights came to approximately 10K HKD - to put this into perspective, regular non-long weekend flights to Bali from Hong Kong usually come to around 4-5K HKD. It's safe to say the airlines charge a premium over the Easter break. Everybody had the same idea flying into Denpasar, the immigration hall was FILLED. Not surprisingly, there were some officers who were amenable to some cash in hand to facilitate queue expedition. We would spend one night in the local airport hotel before jumping on a domestic flight early the next morning.

The domestic flight between Denpasar and Labuan Bajo was chartered by Lion Air. Lion Air, the airline once infamously known for having one of the worst safety records for passenger flights and more recently in the press for the recent 737 Max airline incident was reason for mild anxiety. The flight was delayed by a 40 minutes, this would be the only blemish on an otherwise smooth ride.

We arrived at Labuan Bajo domestic airport, it was sunny and warm and we had expected to be greeted by somebody holding up a sign. Turns out Max our driver had come on time, only to find out flight had been delayed retired back to his home to catch some z's. After a handful of phone calls we were soon at the hotel to meet the rest of the party. Our room was not going to be ready until after 2, so we decided to start our tour of the Islands. We were taken to the pier and introduced to Andy, who would be a tour guide for the 3 days. Majority of the sight seeing would take place via speed boat.

First stop - Kelor Island. It's the middle of the day and the sun is blazing. We hike to the top snap some pics.

We snorkel and then make our way to Menjerite and Pulau Rinca for our first encounter with the famed Komodo Dragons. Each tourist must be accompanied by a ranger, who is local with Dragon Deterrent Device; ie: a big stick. Due to the deadly nature, people aren't allowed to get very close to the Komodo Dragons and we are asked to keep a good 5 metre distance from this huge reptiles. First impressions are that the dragons are super lazy. Second impression is that it all feels very staged.

The final stop for the first day is to moor just off Kalong Island with the hope to catch a glimpse of the fruit bats leaving the island for sunset. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst and we were rained on, we did manage to sneak in some bat action however by this point we were soaked to the bone and ready to head back to the hotel. Day one finished with a delicious seafood dinner by the marina. We were actually cheated by the organisers into purchasing stall tickets. Read, this is a scam. End of the first day. I'm wiped.

All you need is love, and sunshine, oh and daily massages

Between now and the 12th of September I have a four day vacation, a four day final working week topped off by a one week transition period. I can't help but wish  I had timed my resignation a little better, but with all things it comes down to timing and lets just saying timing is not one of my strong points. Irrespective, the point of this post is not to bitch about my unfavourable annual leave situation but to celebrate the wedding of one of my favourite Hong Kong couples. The August wedding was more of a formality as the couple had previously signed the papers to be married earlier this year (it was a Chinese Fortune teller who advised that the couple be wed in the year of the Sheep, not the year of the Monkey). In any case, who doesn't like a destination wedding?

We arrived into Bali, Ngurah Rai International Airport just after 2 am and due to some skilful inception somebody had managed to convince the group that we needed KFC to be our first meal. It probably should have come to no surprise that KFC was closed and we were forced to have Mc Donalds. The same McDonalds I have eaten at in all previous Bali visits.

The crowd in the restaurant was best described as Antipodean, it was as if I had been transported to George Street Sydney, "Maccas" on a Saturday night circa 12 am. A cacophony of "OHH YEAH" and "HOWZZIT GOING" bombarded our weary ears. It would take us 40 minutes to consume the food. The hot plate was not working and they weren't able to accommodate anything with a beef patty.  We switched our order to Mc Chickens and Mc Nuggets and reluctantly gobbled down the food . We arrived in Seseh just before 4 am and promptly drifted into sleep.

Clear skies and warm weather greeted us the next morning as did the bride. There was something different about her today, she was on crutches and each step winced her with discomfort. Those crutches are new, I thought to myself. Turns out she had (re) dislocated her knee and was now confined to limited movement. How would she walk down the isle? How, indeed...

The wedding had been setup in the main villa and family and guests were assigned adjacent villas. We had a nearby villa where breakfast was provided and our days consisted of swimming, chilling, massages, and the odd 1 hour car ride into Seminyak - Who would have thought sitting in an air conditioned car be so tiring?

So back to the wedding. Due to previous destination weddings held in sweltering heat, the bride and groom decided that suit and tie for men was not going to be very comfortable for anybody; Not for the guy sweating profusely, and not for the person talking to the guy sweating profusely. A large proportion of the guests had flown in from America and Europe and were not handling the warmer temps and higher humidity. Our wardrobe consisted of shorts and warmer weather attire and boy what a difference it made. So what happened to the bride? Well, it's obvious. She was "walked" down the isle on a Balinese Palanquin manned by four Balinese ushers.

Great weekend trip in South East Asia. Managed to avoid the mosquitos. Caught up with a lot of familiar faces. However the highlight was of course the beautiful wedding, punctuated by a touching wedding video, a fireworks display, a raucous after party and two dislocated knees. That's right, she dislocated the second knee later that night during the after party.

The Ceremony - Bali

I always enjoy writing about friend's weddings. The highlights are always different and the ceremonies all unique. Each incomparable and each special in their own way. The redeeming factor of the wedding was the Groom's inability to understand the thick Balinese accent of the celebrant, mispronunciations and pardons ensued but after much faltering they finally got to the most important part "I now declare you husband and wife".

They say a picture speaks a thousand words - here's a couple thousand for you.

The Bali Six

The logistics of rounding up people from Sydney, Hong Kong and Jakarta would be the biggest challenge of this trip. To convince people to spend almost a thousand Australian Dollars, 10-12 hours on a plane with the intent to spend less than 72 hours in a single destination would require either a carrot to dangle or the coercive skills of a master salesman. Luckily enough we had a carrot, a carrot so large and orange that it was capable of commanding an army of rabbits. Or in our case five guys, the carrot was the Groom-to-be and this was his Bachelor's party, Stag-do, Buck's Trip, call it what you will. Inspired by the movie The Hangover we headed to Bali, Indonesia.

We, the Hong Kong contingent arrived in Bali Denpasar just after midnight. The hall for immigration was filled with arrivals all trying to purchase Visas and get through customs. Seeing our impatience airport security approached us and asked if we would like to purchase and "express visa" bypassing the queues and headaches. We negotiated a final price of 500 HKD for the three of us and immediately cut through the assembly of tourists.

The last time we were all together in one place would have been the wedding in 2008. It had been a long time coming and I honestly miss hanging out with these guys. What ensued was a weekend spent lazying in the villa, catching up, cracking jokes, reminiscing and of course plenty of alcohol.

Saturday night we gave the Buck his Belly Dancer outfit, a platinum wig and a list of tasks to complete by the end of the night. Tasks included, Find a woman with the same name as your fiancee, dance onto of a table in a public area, get a guy's phone number plus many, many more. Great night, plenty of stories, plenty of laughs, plenty of realisations that were no longer 18 years old. Come Sunday we were spent and could not wait to get home. Somehow managed to score an upgrade to Business Class on the flight back but that did little to alleviate the tiredness and the thought of work on Monday. Excellent weekend, cannot wait to get back to Sydney for the Wedding!