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Another year, another visit to Asia. This year I went back to Singapore (which I enjoyed last year) and added in a visit to Indonesia (Bali and Yogyakarta).

Sorry this is all pretty wordy. But hopefully there are enough pictures. :-)

I planned the flights way back in January/February time frame since I find that usually ends up offering a reasonable number of options. I don’t think any of the original plan remained after various schedule changes and cancellations. But ultimately the flights ended up being

DCA-JFK on AA3370 connecting to HKG on CX831 and connecting on another CX flight to SIN. The initial plan was DCA-JFK-NRT-SIN on AA and then JAL F class/J class. The day before I was to leave the big monsoon hit Japan and my flight was showing as departing JFK 3 hours late (at least). That would have meant missing my connection so I called AA to see if I could switch to CX which had F space available. AA told me they couldn’t do anything and I would have to call JL. Which made no sense since I booked with AA miles. But I called JL and they said we can’t do anything since it’s booked with AA miles, you have to call them. When I explained they told me I needed to call JL the agent proactively contacted AA and explained the situation. She transferred me to the AAgent who then was able to make the change. In the end it was a lot of time on the phone but it worked out for the best. I was looking forward to trying JL F but you can’t go wrong with CX F.

I had originally booked a fifth freedom flight on QR to get from SIN to DPS. But some time over the summer I got a notice that QR had canceled the flight. Apparently they discontinued the route. So I just had Expedia issue me a refund and I booked another fifth freedom flight on KL instead. Only about US$300 for C class.

I booked a couple of domestic flights on Garuda from DPS-JOG-DPS. Once again business class on their 737-800 was not much more than economy.

The return was supposed to be DPS-SIN-NRT-IAD with the first leg on SQ and the other two on NH. The first two legs in C since no F was available on those routes and F on the long leg. After a few months I was notified that the SIN-NRT flight was changed to SIN-HND instead. That seemed like too much hassle and I didn’t want to lose my F leg from NRT. So I found a TG combo DPS-BKK-NRT that worked and was able to get UA to make the switch. I had booked before the devaluation and there was no issue with making the switch.

I took a long time to pick a hotel in Singapore and eventually selected the InterContinental. I had a free night from my Chase IHG Visa plus enough points from one of those Amex travel sweepstakes things to get 4 more night so I only paid out of pocket for one more night.

The Indonesia planning I entrusted to a travel agent since I had never been there before. I used Doyan Travel which is based near Philadelphia but the agent/owner is an Indonesia native. It wasn’t cheap but it included all my hotels, private guide/driver and some meals.

The main focus of my trip was photography and I ended up getting a lot of good pictures. I also spent a lot more time riding in the back seat of a car than I had expected. Things in Bali take a while to get to because the roads are narrow and there’s a lot of traffic.

CX 831 JFK-HKG
I took a few pictures on this flight. But you can find a billion trip reports on CX F here so I refer you to those.











My layover in HKG was relatively short but the flight to SIN was delayed by over 30 minutes due to a late arriving aircraft. So instead of getting to SIN at 00:15 it was closer to 01:00. I booked a car service in advance to get me to the hotel.

Singapore was HOT and HUMID. Even more hot and humid than I remembered. One of the nice things about the IC Singapore is that it’s connected to the Bugis Junction shopping center which is an interesting combination of old shop houses that have been roofed over with a translucent roof and air conditioned. There’s a basement collection of fast food places and bakeries along with a grocery store. There’s also a link to another shopping center across the street. All of this means you can do a little shopping and eating without going outside. The Bugis MRT is also easily reached without having to go outside.


cool fountain at the Bugis Junction mall

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The next day I took a walk over to the Arab Quarter and visited the Masjid Sultan Mosque. I wandered around the neighborhood a bit but was drenched in no time. So I headed back to the hotel.








I went out in the evening and wandered around a bit. I went down to the river and got a tip that there’s a terrace on the roof of the Esplanade theatre so I went there in time for the Marina Bay Sands light show and got some nice photos.











On my way back to the hotel I took the underground tunnel near theater and discovered that it was the place where all of the kids go to practice dancing. It’s an interesting Asian phenomenon that these sorts of big public spaces are where the kids go to dance. I saw the same thing in Taipei.



Friday I walked around some more. I went to St. Andrew’s Cathedral which has a lot of colonial history. And then to one of the little shopping malls across from the Funan Digital Life Mall. This place is mainly very high end audio equipment and a few shops selling used and new camera equipment. I can’t recall the name of the place. But it’s amazing that there are enough rich people to support all of those stores selling giant $10000 speakers and amps and CD players and turntables.








After grabbing lunch and wandering around Funan mall for a little bit I went to the Singapore Art Museum. Lots of interesting exhibits first at SAM @8Q and then the main building around the corner. The Singapore Photography Festival was going on in several venues. From the SAM I walked up to this new placed called DECK which has gallery space in several old shipping containers. And then to an old church that is also now a gallery space. It was worth seeing, but for all of the venues not as many pictures as I was expecting.

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The next morning I took a taxi to the Jurong Bird Park. Essentially it’s a zoo with only birds. I wanted to get there early before the heat of the day got too bad so I was up early and arrived there by about 9AM. The park is a good size so it’s a lot of walking. I felt bad for some of the larger birds that are kept in enclosures that are not really enough space for them. But in the end I got quite a few good photos. It’s amazing how colorful some of these tropical species are.



















































I had thought about doing the night safari park as well that evening but I didn’t have the energy for it.

On Sunday I decided to walk over to Little India. The nice thing about the IC is that it’s fairly centrally located. There are several markets and so forth in this part of town. Since Deepawali was coming up the streets were decorated and there was a special market set up as well.

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Indonesia

My flight on Monday was around 16:30 so I checked out of the hotel and left for the airport around 13:30. The taxi to the airport was fairly quick. KL uses the old terminal 1 which isn’t as nice as the other terminals. KL uses a contract lounge which was not so great. The food was sparse and not so good. Also not a lot of space. So I didn’t stay there long and instead walked to the Rainforest lounge which is on the other end of terminal and which I had access to thanks to my Priority Pass card. This lounge is right next to the gate where I needed to be. Not too much food on offer here either. But they had some nice relaxation rooms and decent free wifi.

KL 835
The aircraft arrived on time and we left pretty much on time for DPS. Since I was in business class there is a special little holding area for those pax plus elites. Ultimately the load in C was just 4. Seats were old angled lie flats with fairly poor entertainment options. Food was edible but not very good. The flight is a few hours and they fit a full meal service in. Towards the end of the flight one of the attendants came around with Delft houses. I picked a small one instead of the new brewery which was going to be too much trouble to carry. The staff was excellent and friendly though. Before we took off the purser came around and talked to each passenger about our travels. I thought it was a nice touch and very friendly.




We arrived pretty much on time around 19:15. Immigration was horrific. All of the stories I had read were true. The line at the VoA payment counters was not bad, maybe 5 minutes. But the immigration line took over an hour. I don’t understand how you build a brand new airport and then don’t bother putting in enough immigration desks and you don’t even staff all of the desks you do have.

But eventually I met my guide/driver Yerry and we were off to Ubud where I would be based for 4 nights. In Ubud I stayed at the Komaneka Rasa Sayang. My room was huge with a very large bathroom. There was a rose petal heart on my bed. I guess they were expecting a couple or something. The staff were extremely friendly. Everyone kept calling me “papa” which made me feel old. But I guess it’s just the custom.

This is where all of the time in the back seat of the van started. First visit was to an old royal temple called Pura Taman Ayun. While Indonesia is mainly a Muslim country, Bali is mostly Hindu by a wide margin. So most of the religious sites here are Hindu temples.











From there it was time for the crafts sales. One of the things I don’t like about tours is that they take you to these places that are basically tourist traps. In this case they took me first to a place with painingts. Lots of giant paintings of local scenes. If you have an enormous house I suppose this might be worthwhile. I had little interest, so didn’t stay long.

Then they took me to a family run wood carving place. I actually didn’t mind this so much. I’ve always thought wood carvers’ art was very interesting. This place had several carvers working outside and then a large store on two floors with their work. I spent quite a bit of time here and ended up buying a small mask carving for about $50. The sales guy explained all of the different kinds of wood and we chatted about how long it takes to make a piece.










Rice field

Then it was time for lunch so we headed back to downtown Ubud. I ate at the Cafe Lotus which is in a beautiful setting near a giant old temple/museum. The view was the best part of the place. The food was OK, but nothing special.











On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Monkey Forest. Every guide and the big sign at the entrance warn you to hang onto your belongings.

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The next morning we went to a traditional dance performance called Barong. They told me that the performers are all local farmers who put on the show to earn a little extra money. I don’t remember the story exactly. I think it’s sort of related to the Ramayana. There’s Hanuman (the monkey god), some pretty ladies who get kidnapped and rescued, a couple of guys who are some sort of government officials…

















Then it was back to the sales circuit with a visit to a batik store. I think some of the folks shopping there didn’t realize that the prices were in thousands of IDR judging by how much stuff they were putting in their baskets. And then to a jewelry factory and store. Some nice pieces, but mostly silver and mostly for women. So, no sale to me. :-)

After that we went to Seminyak for lunch at Potato Head which appeared to be the place where all of the pretty white people went. They have a beach club there and a big pool full of pretty people. The food was overpriced and OK. There were several layers of security to get there as well which was a bit off-putting.

We spent a few hours after that going to surfing beaches. When I was planning the trip the agent thought that this might be a good photo op for me. I was skeptical given the equipment I had with me that this would work very well, but when I took a look at the images I got some pretty good shots after all.









We finished the day at Tanah Lot temple which is on the west coast. We were here a bit too early so didn’t see sunset which is too bad.





That night I wandered around Ubud a little to find somewhere for dinner. I ended up on this little street that is up a steep hill from one of the main roads. There is a good little pizza place up there. The food was cheap and very good. I also stopped at a little cafe that had a very friendly host greeting people out front and just had a drink and some satay that was excellent.

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The next morning we drove to the mountains where I took a hike through the terraced rice fields. One interesting aspect of the rice fields is the prevalence of dragonflies. Both here and also when I was in Java there were dragonflies and butterflies everywhere. It was pretty awesome as I love butterflies and find dragonflies fascinating. I was wishing I had taken my macro lens along.










I noticed these tiny little metallic blue beetles on a tree branch. They were about the size of a ladybug.



For lunch we stopped at a horrible lunch buffet. This was the thing I disliked most about the trip. They took me to a few of these awful buffets. Overpriced, poor, room temperature food. And then to the Pura Ulun Danu Beratan temple which is usually surrounded by water. It’s featured on the 50000 IDR note. Unfortunately there hasn’t been any rain in a long time so the lake water level was down quite a bit. It’s a shame because this place looks really nice in all of the photos when it’s got water all around it.





On the drive back to Ubud, Yerry asked me if I wanted to visit a waterfall. Duh. Next to butterflies, waterfalls are my favorite thing. He warned me that it was about 1km from the road. So once we arrived at the parking area we walked for a while with Yerry pointing out the local plants including cacao trees and coffee trees. Then he left me to walk the rest of the way with Michel his son. The way to the waterfall is all downhill. The only thing I could think about on the walk down was how much it was going to hurt on the way back up. And I was right about that. But it was worth it.




These French guys stripped down to their skivvies to cavort under the water.

My last evening in Ubud I wandered around again and ended up having dinner again at the little cafe from the night before. The food was good and amazingly cheap. I wish I could remember the name of it




DQ!


infinity pool at Komaneka Rasa Sayang - view at breakfast

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Today I traveled to Yogyakarta. So we left around 11AM for the airport. And immediately ended up in a traffic jam. A big bus and big truck met on the road and couldn’t pass each other. We sat not moving for about 20 minutes until things got sorted out. The drive to the airport took about 90 minutes.

I had decided to fly Garuda Indonesia rather than one of the LCCs. Business class was only a little more than economy and GA flies new 737-800s on the route. Check in at the domestic terminal was a nightmare. There was a long line at the business class check in and only 1 agent. The agents at the economy line next door did not take anyone from our line. Eventually someone must have noticed how long the line was getting as several agents and supervisors finally arrived to help out. I was check in and then required to pay the departure tax. Which I had already paid when I bought the ticket. So I got ripped off. I was not pleased but it wasn’t worth raising too much of a ruckus over since it was about $7.

There is no real lounge, only an area in the terminal with a meager amount of food and some seating area. It was full. I sat there for a little while and then went for a walk. The domestic terminal is fairly small. There was no indication which gate would be used for our flight until a few minutes before departure.

I ended up being the only first/business class passenger on this flight. I was served a small meal. The flight was supposed to be a little over an hour. The time zone is an hour earlier on Java so you are supposed to land around the time you take off. But we ended up circling for a long time. I think there was no parking space for us as JOG is a very small airport. We eventually landed about 45 minutes late. You walk down steps and across the tarmac to get to the terminal and baggage claim. Some interesting airlines here.

Finally I got my bag after a bit of a wait and met my driver, Rocky, for the drive to Magelang. The drive took about 1.5-2 hours since it was Friday night rush hour.


DPS airport domestic terminal






Flying over Mt. Bromo


arriving at Yogyakarta airport



We finally arrived at Plataran Borobudur resort after dark. I had to wait a little while to check in because there was someone ahead of me and only one person working the desk. By that point I was pretty tired and hungry. They upgraded me to a standard pool villa which was enormous. It was really quite spectacular. There was a large outdoor living area and a private swimming pool.




Some daytime shots of my villa





I had dinner at the resort’s restaurant. There were two couples there plus me. There was a little entertainment with a woman singing accompanied by two guys playing traditional instruments. Unfortunately my “medium” burger was raw in the middle. When I mentioned this to the staff everyone was very apologetic. The chef came out to personally apologize. And they comped my meal. It was really above and beyond.

I hit the hay early as the next morning I was going to see the sunrise at Borobudur. They would pick me up at 4:30 (AM!). So I got up around 3:45 to get myself together. The drive to Borobudur was only about 5-10 minutes. There’s another hotel right next to the temple which is where you go to get a ticket for the sunrise visit. I walked with my guide (also named Rocky) to the temple and when we got there I was surprised by how many people were there. Lots of people with giant cameras.















It was very cloudy and hazy but luckily the clouds did part a bit right as the sun was coming up.










After spending a couple of hours at the temple we walked back to the hotel where they have tea and some little things to eat set up. From there we took a horse cart ride around the area and visited another little temple on the way. The cart took us back to the hotel in time for me to eat breakfast. I had planned to rest a little bit but eventually took a walk around the grounds of the resort which are very pretty.













The Rocky’s came to pick me up in the mid afternoon. We drove to this little village in the mountains and hiked from there to a small Hindu temple called Candi Selogriyo. The hike (or walk really) is about 45 minutes through more rice terraces. I had noticed some rather threatening clouds, but Rocky assured me that it never rained…but we took umbrellas with us anyway. Again there were lots of cool insects on the way. And we encountered a couple of buffaloes.
















I wish I’d gotten a better shot of this blue bee. Never seen anything like it before.

As we started the walk back to the village the sky kept getting darker. And then it started absolutely pouring rain which lasted our entire walk back to the car. The umbrellas helped a little bit, but the wind was blowing the rain sideways. The little street in town was a river by the time we got back. Luckily my shoes dried out a lot faster than I expected. I got some newspaper from the hotel restaurant which I stuffed the shoes with. Wearing technical fabric clothes helped as well since it dries so fast. On the drive back to the hotel there was a giant tree across the road but luckily there was an alternate route we managed to find with the help of some locals.

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A visit to Mt. Merapi was in the schedule from the beginning. It is an active volcano that last erupted in 2010 that is located quite near to Yogya. A few weeks before the trip I spoke to the travel agent and she mentioned that she’d heard that visiting Merapi wasn’t so pleasant now because there are lots of big trucks hauling out the volcanic ash that is used in concrete. I was fairly non-committal about seeing it but looked for some alternative places I might be interested in. She did suggest that going on Sunday might mean less industrial traffic. I found a couple of places that sounded interesting (temples on Mt. Lawu). But when I asked about those I was told that they are about 3 hours drive each way from Yogya so it might not be worth it. In the end I agreed to visit Merapi on Sunday.

This turned out to be a waste of a day for me. We drove from the Plataran to Yogyakarta in the morning. The guide mentioned this important Buddhist temple that we drove past (I can’t recall the name) that is not far from Borobudur. But we didn’t stop there. I wish I had asked more questions about stopping.

Our first stop in Yogya was the bird market. I had some trepidation about going there and asked if it was going to make me sad. Well, it was beyond sad, it was absolutely appalling. I get that it’s a traditional place, but the animal cruelty was stomach churning. I couldn’t get away from there fast enough. I think the guide didn’t quite pick up on my discomfort. But I tried to get us out of there quickly. I didn’t take a single photo.

From there we went into town to the main street for shopping. Rocky dropped us off to walk along the miles of batik shops all selling the same things. I wasn’t in the market for batik so I didn’t find it particularly interesting. I needed to stop at an ATM so we went into the shopping mall along the way so I could get some cash. We walked along for a while but I was bored. We saw Rocky drive past. He couldn’t find anywhere to park, so we just jumped in the car.

It was still fairly early but they took me to the lunch restaurant. Unfortunately the itinerary had “suggested” restaurants listed and I guess they thought those were required or something. The place they took me to had traditional decor and food. It wasn’t really the sort of stuff I am used to eating. So I was finished pretty quickly.

Then they dropped me off at the hotel - Phoenix Hotel - which is an M Gallery hotel in the Accor family of hotel brands. It’s an old colonial style place. The room was very small. The first room I had overlooked the neighborhood and came supplied with earplugs since the call to prayer is pretty loud. Unfortunately this room also smelled pretty moldy. I had a miserable night’s sleep and asked the next day to be relocated which they eventually accommodated.

The hotel does have a giant breakfast spread that was very good. And they have a nice art collection in the hallways.

They came back to pick me up in the early afternoon for the trip to Mt. Merapi. I didn’t quite know what I was in for yet. We arrived at the mountain and there’s a sort of base camp where everyone goes. You get into an old jeep with a driver who takes you to the volcano. Some of the jeeps are old US miliary jeeps. Ours was a newer Wrangler sort of jeep. But it was still old. The ride was very bouncy and dusty and smelled like gas. I had a terrible headache by the time it was all over a couple of hours later. The skies were pretty hazy which didn’t help when it came to photos. And the trucks hauling ash were still operating even though it was Sunday.




There’s a museum devoted to the last eruption at this house that was destroyed. There are lots of melted artifacts.






This is a shelter near the base of the mountain where several people died.



So this day wasn’t my favorite one of the trip. But Rocky did come and pick me up around dinner time so we grabbed a bite to eat and he drove me around town a little bit. He just graduated from the oldest university in Indonesia. Yogyakarta is a great center of education and it has several universities. So it has a young kind of vibe to it.

There’s a park in the center of town that has these funky cars you can ride around the square in.




The next day ended up being much more fun and interesting. Prambanan temple was the main thing on the agenda and we got an early start at 7AM for the drive there. I wanted to get there before the harsh midday light and and before it got too hot.



The temple was damaged by earthquakes that accompanied the last eruption of Mt. Merapi. So there are some big piles of old stones around waiting to be restored.









In the same complex as Prambanan (which is a Hindu temple) there is another old temple that is a UNESCO site called Candi Sewu. Sewu is a Buddhist temple. It takes 20 minutes or so to walk from Prambanan to Sewu. But the grounds are fairly shady so it’s not a terribly hot walk. There were no other visitors so I had the place to myself.











I could have stayed there all day pushing the shutter button. But eventually I’d had my fill and we headed back to Yogya and the Sultan’s palace. While Indonesia is a democracy, the region of Yogyakarta is a sultanate within the democracy. It’s a bit of an odd arrangement, but I gather that the sultan is benevolent and that people like him.


The sultan’s residence



Next to the palace compound there is an interesting complex that includes the royal baths and there’s a village next to that which has these cool underground tunnels and even an underground mosque that the Dutch built in the 19th century.









Since we started so early it wasn’t very late yet. They took me to this workshop that makes traditional puppets. It was cool to see the process. Here again it was a workshop and store. The puppets are beautiful and about as expensive as you would expect for something hand made like this.







After a brief stop for lunch at another recommended restaurant by the palace it was back to the hotel. When we were walking around at Prambanan I asked my guide if there was a good place to sunset photos at the temples and she suggested that there was another place on a “hill” overlooking town. So we made a plan for them to pick me up around 4:30 to go to Candi Ijo for sunset. The drive took us out south of town and then up a mountain to this little temple. We had a view of the airport and the planes taking off and landing. Unfortunately it was fairly cloudy so not the greatest sunset.








Plane taking off from JOG airport


I took them out to get something to eat on our way back to town. We got caught in a pretty big thunderstorm. As we were eating they got alerts on their phones that power had been knocked out to most of central Java by the storm. The drive back to the hotel took a while since a lot of traffic signals were out. Luckily the hotel has generators so everything there was working. The generators sounded like helicopters. At some point overnight power was restored though.

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The next morning we headed back south of the city to visit the Rencang Kencono cave complex. It’s a small cave and nearby there is a large triple waterfall called Sri Gethuk. You get to the waterfall by walking along a trail from a small village.

















On the way to the waterfall I noticed a bunch of billboards advertising some “geopark”. Having been to a geopark in Taiwan a couple of years ago this piqued my interest. So after doing some research on her phone the guide figured out what the place was. It turns out this park was inaugurated about 2 years ago and is still a work in progress. But basically it is up a mountain and has really nice views overlooking the whole area.






Here are some shots from the hotel...







batik stamp

For my last evening in Yogya I had dinner with Rocky and then he took me to this place called Taman Pelangi (the Rainbow Garden). I had asked the travel agent about this place and she didn’t think it was worthwhile. But I enjoyed the kitsch factor greatly. Lots of trademark infringement. Essentially it is one crazy guy’s labor of love. All of these characters and things made out of fabric and lit from the inside.




I was expecting a boy band to pop out.

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My flight back to Bali was supposed to leave at about 8AM. So it was an early wake up call. JOG airport was a little chaotic as far as figuring out where to go to check in. Since I was in business class Garuda has attendants who handle check in for you while you wait in the lounge. Once again they made me pay the departure tax again even though I paid it when I bought the ticket. I complained to the airline about this after the fact. They told me to provide my tax receipts and they would refund me, but that would have been too much hassle.

At the departure time there was no Garuda aircraft on the airport at all. And there was no information regarding the delay. The airport was busy and the gate area was crowded. Ultimately our plane finally showed up and we left over an hour late. I guess Garuda Indonesia means “always late”.








Mt. Merapi



I finally got to Bali after 11. Yerry and Michel were waiting for me and we headed out for the long drive to the northeast coast where I spent two nights at the Alila Manggis resort. The hotel is located right on the water in a very quiet part of the island. too quiet for me. The assistant manager introduced himself at check in and seemed to be very hands on with the operation of the property.

I had dinner at the hotel both nights. The food was pretty good and quite expensive as you might expect. The second evening I asked to eat off of the 24 hour room service menu that I had seen in the room rather than the dinner menu since it had more selection. This seemed to throw the waiter off a bit.







The next morning we set out around 10AM and visited this old royal garden called Tirta Gangga. It was very pretty with lots of cool, red dragonflies.


















After that we went to this old “pre-Hindu” village called Tenganan. It is a small village where the people practice traditional crafts. Some very interesting things here including these neat books and maps made on reed paper. But I really liked the painted wooden eggs.









I spent the afternoon at the hotel chasing pictures







And then the sunset

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Friday morning we set out around 10 AM again for the mountains. The first stop was Besakih temple. I had read online that the locals were very aggressive here and that was definitely true. It is in a great setting and very beautiful. But the attitude of the people makes it much less fun to be there.








Then we headed to Kintamani which is another active volcano. And lunch at another horrible, over-priced tourist buffet. I decided then that I would definitely put my foot down if they tried to take me to another buffet after that.








After that we went to Tirta Empul which was another royal bath.









Then we took the long drive to Nusa Dua where I stayed at the Nusa Due Beach Resort. Nusa Dua is a new-ish area full of giant resorts on the beach. Not really my cup of tea but ok for a couple of nights. The hotel had a Balinese gate out front with a water feature.








Saturday was my last day with the guide and driver. We started out with Yerry taking me to lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the ocean. The travel agent wanted to treat me to lunch after the poor time I had with the Merapi trip. It was a nice gesture. Unfrotuantely this particular restaurant while in a gorgeous setting had the worst service I have ever had. And because it has a funicular that goes down to the beach, bus tours come here and use the beach. So there were lots of Russians milling around the restaurant because only about 4 or 5 people at a time can ride the funicular. My lunch took something like 2 hours. I had planned to go down and check out the beach, but I was so over it by then that I just left.




Then we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park. This is an interesting place. They are trying to build this giant statue of Vishnu riding a Garuda. In the end it is supposed to be taller than the statue of liberty. At the moment some parts of the it are done and on display but I guess they are trying to raise funds to build the whole thing.

In addition to the statues they have some cultural performances. But otherwise there’s not much else to it.










Our last stop was the Uluwatu Temple which is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There are also a lot of monkey here. One woman’s flip flop was stolen and chewed up by one of them while we were there.










There is a little amphitheater next to the temple where the “fire dance” Kecak is performed. As with the Barong dance it is local folks who put on the show. Great sunset views during the show. Unfortunately they kept on packing more and more and more and more people in even though it was full. Frankly I think it was dangerous and certainly uncomfortable. But the show was pretty good.

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That was the end of my tour. But I stayed 3 days on my own in Seminyak just hanging out. My last evening I wandered down to the beach for sunset.


















That was the end of my trip. The next day I flew out on Thai Airways to Bangkok. Originally this was scheduled to be an A330. But we got TG’d and that was replaced with an A346. I found this out at check in when the seat on my boarding pass was different from what I had reserved. It was then that the agent mentioned it was the A340. I laughed. And asked if I could have one of the F seats. But I was told they were not available. But when we boarded the F seats were all occupied. So I don’t know if it was people who had status or if they just checked in online and managed to snag them.

The flight was relatively uneventful. I had a pair of center seats to myself. The nasty guys across the aisle were putting their dirty bare feet all over everything.




At one point he put his feet all over the video screen.

Here’s the menu. Which made me laugh. I think something got lost in translation.

I skipped the deletable imitation fruit.


I had a couple of hours to kill on the ground at BKK. After having spent so much time in Thailand over the last few years it felt weird to be at Swampy but not go into the city. My flight to NRT was originally scheduled to be the A346 so I had an F seat. But a month or two before my flight the schedule was changed to a 787. So I got downgraded to C. I was not very happy about that since it was an overnight flight. The seat next to me had been open right up until boarding but then someone came from behind me and took 11A. I am guessing that he was originally seated in one of the seats that TG blocks for “crew rest”. I don’t know why the crew doesn’t rest in the crew rest area instead of in the passenger cabin. I was not a happy camper on this flight due to losing F class and then having someone next to me. But he stayed in his seat the whole flight at least.

We arrived at NRT very early in the morning. I was the first person at transfer security so I was through the checkpoint in no time. It took me a little while to figure out where the F class lounge was. I took a shower and just relaxed for a while. The lounge has nice views over the ramp.


TG 787s depart about an hour apart.

Eventually I got tired of the lounge. There was very little in the way of food. So I headed to the gate. I had expected that we’d all be subject to secondary security screening since it was a flight to the US. But that was not the case. Boarding started a little late but I think the load was pretty light even though F class was about 7 out of 8 full. The aircraft had the newest F class product which is the ANA Square Suite. Lots of blond wood. There was plenty of storage space. The video screen is big. But the entertainment options are not so great. The construction of the walls of the suite blocks most of the windows.

Since I was so tired from all of the travel and the overnight flight I told the flight attendant that I planned to go to sleep for the first part of the flight and that I would eat when I woke up. I originally selected the steak option. But when I woke up I ended up just having the famous NH cheeseburger and some other snack type things.

The bed was very comfy. They have a nice mattress pad that they put on top of the seat. And the pillows are substantial. It was a nice way to cap off the trip.

We arrived at IAD a little early. There were no lines at all in the immigration area. I have Global Entry so it didn’t matter to me anyway. They seem to have added some sort of new kiosk system that I had not seen before. But I don’t know if they were for US citizens or how they work.

I was out the door and in a taxi within about 30 minutes of landing.

coronado22

The pictures are awesome! I'm headed to Singapore and possibly Indonesia next year, so you gave me some ideas on where to go, thanks.

Also, what kind of camera are you using? I don't think you mentioned it.

Cheers

Flyingfox

Super thus far and great pictures!

benjahman

great report and great pics! yes, what kind of camera are you using??