Today we woke up...with no missed calls from Wells Fargo. Shocking. Seriously. Shocking. Apparently they don't really care about holding on to their customers. At this point we are hoping they will reimburse us for some of the money we have spent trying to correct their mistake, but we highlight doubt it. Oy.
We packed up all our stuff and headed to our buffet breakfast, then out to the pool, where we spent most of the day. We had kind of timed our "time in the sun" perfectly - 3 days is a good amount for both of us. Enough to get some color, not too much to burn to a crisp. Also, 3 days is relaxing. 4 days is when things start to get boring lol. While excited for another day of relaxing poolside, it was also a bit more than our bodies could handle...anndddd we were running out of sunscreen. Not a great combination!
At noon we went downstairs and checked out of our room, making sure we knew where a change of clothes was. We then gave our bags to the concierge to look after and went back up to the pool for more time in the sun and lunch. For lunch, I ordered what looked like a BLT with meat on it. They like to put an egg on their sandwiches, so I ordered mine without it. Instead, it came without meat and the egg. So the waiter sent it back (I didn't even know this happened at the time). When it came the second time, it was the exact same sandwich. I was kind of confused and approached the waiter, who told me "Oh yea they messed up in the kitchen". Cool. I asked him if there was anything they could do since it took a super long time to get my food (Jon had already finished lunch), and asked if I could have a free drink to which he said yes. He came over a few minutes later for my drink order and I asked for a rum and coke. He left and came back 5 minutes later with a plastic cup. He then said, "I can't give you that drink. So I brought you Coke instead." HAHAHAHAHA! That is NOT the same as a rum and coke!! Jon and I had an excellent laugh about that as he downed the Coke ;-).
We continued hanging out at the pool until around 3:30 when we started to get ready to go. We got our stuff from the concierge and took turns getting ready to go. Jon used the bathroom near reception and changed his clothes. I, on the other hand, took out my shampoo and conditioner, went back up to the pool, and proceeded to wash my hair in the shower next to the pool :-p. Not sure you're supposed to do that, but oh well, it happened lol. I then changed my clothes and we went to wait for our taxi, which was leaving the hotel at 4:30.
In the meantime, I was contacted by someone on couchsurfing, Ash, asking if we'd like to do a tour of the Great Ocean Road sometime this week in Melbourne. Jon and I talked about it and decided it would be a great thing to do, would allow us to spend time with some locals, and would be something we probably wouldn't otherwise be able to do - sounds good! We told him we'd meet him tomorrow. Looking forward to exploring that part of Australia and hoping we see some wild koalas and kangaroos!
We took our taxi to the airport (during which time we both fell asleep) and arrived around 5 pm. We got to the airport only to find out that at the Bali airport you have to go through security right away, without checking your bags first. We were confused but proceeded through the line. When we got through, the guy said he needed to search our bags. He went through Jon's bag and found the bottle of Basil Hayden bourbon he'd bought duty free at the airport in Singapore. He took it out (it was about 3/4 full) and told us we couldn't bring it with us and started to throw it away!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHH NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
We tried to tell him that we wanted to check it and why couldn't we bring it to the check-in line so we could put it in our luggage and he told us there was no way to do it. As he had the bottle half in the garbage can we convinced him to let us go BACK outside of the security line (so that Jon could basically have a last glass of bourbon from the bottle)... we REALLY didn't understand where they were going with this rule...
So we went back out through security and tried to figure out what to do. On our way our, there were 2 security guards who had checked us in. While Jon went to put our bags down near some seats to contemplate the situation, I asked the guards WHY they had to take the bourbon away and what had happened. He told us there was no reason for the guard to do that and that we were allowed to bring it, we just have to take our bag directly from the security line to a "wrapping station" where they Saran wrap the bag so you can't open its contents before the flight. FINE!! If it's going to save us from having to throw out the majority of the contents of a bottle of bourbon then we'll do it!! (Also, we're pretty sure the first guards were just going to "throw it away" and retrieve it after working hours...)
The guard was SUPER nice and spoke to the security guards (different ones than the first ones we'd approached - we weren't about to play that game...) and told them what they had to do to let us through. They agreed, looked at the bottle, and gave us an "escort" to the wrapping station to wrap our bag. HUZZAH!!!!
We then checked in for our flight and checked our bags. We were even given vouchers for meals at the airport since our flight had been so delayed. Win!
Then we got to ANOTHER security checkpoint. Lose.
WHY ARE THERE TWO SECURITY CHECKPOINTS IN THE BALI AIRPORT?!?!?? Seriously. WHY.
The worst part? We thought we were done with security and forgot to move our sunscreens and aloe back to our checked bags. Awesome. Fortunately, we'd used a large majority of the sunscreens while we were in Bali. Unfortunatly, the aloe was basically a huge full bottle we've been carting around with us for the past 2 months that we only JUST used for the first time YESTERDAY (and were both looking forward to using as we're slightly sunburned from our few days at the pool).
Blahhhhhhhh. Bye bye sunscreen :(.
The good news was that our face sunscreens were a small enough size that we were allowed to keep those, which was good since they were the more full ones. Ugh. Still. Ugh. Also UGH that we didn't realize they needed to be moved. We are too "aware" as travelers to make a rookie mistake like that! FAIL!
Anyhoo - we used our vouchers for dinner (good thing too as dinner cost us about $9 instead of like $40 for two awful wraps and smoothies... We then purchased some Snickers for the plane and a water. The woman at the counter asked when our flight was and told us that we weren't allowed to bring water on the plane with us from the airport, so if we wanted to have it, we needed to drink it now.
So we just bought one small water.
We were QUITE thankful that she told us that when we got to our gate and had to go through ANOTHER security checkpoint. And they threw out all the extra liquids at that point.
SERIOUSLY INDONESIA. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE THAT WE NEED THREEEEEEEEEEE SECURITY CHECKPOINTS TO LEAVE YOUR SHORES?!?!?!??!?!?
Absolutely ABSURD!! Also - if I PURCHASE a water within your walls, WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING WITH IT?!?!??!
I can't. I seriously cannot.
We boarded our relatively empty plane about 7:30 and took off around 8:30.
I've been writing blogs for the past few hours. It's now midnight and time for me to get about 90 minutes of ZZZ's before we arrive in AUSTRALIA!!!!!
Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: figuring out how to salvage the Basil Hayden!!
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