Evil Bug Bites, Heavenly Chicken Rice and Heading to Bali!

My left foot was now about double the size of my right foot.  Amanda was so concerned but alas, that's "normal" for me.  I clearly am no nature girl.  :)

We had no real plans today since we were heading into Bali tonight so we loitered about in the morning.  Then Jason wanted to go buy shorts since he was convinced he left his shorts in Dubai (this guy travels more than anyone I know - upside is I get gifts from around the world).  Since Jason had never had chicken rice before, we decided to try Tian Tian's at the Maxwell Food Centre- which was featured in Anthony Bourdain's show as being one of the best in Singapore.  Since V was at work and couldn't chauffeur us about, we took the subway, which was quite clean, convenient and easy to use.

  It was excruciatingly hot so we were glad the food centre was near the subway stop.  We weren't exactly sure where it was and was told people start lining up for it pretty early - and lo and behold, we saw a line forming in front of a stall with A. Bourdain's photo and we knew we had found it.  After a little wait, we were treated to 3 yummy plates of chicken rice.  (the guidebook had said service was rude, but they seemed ok...) At this point, my foot was pretty disgusting so we (or I) hobbled back home. 

We rested and then with joyful glee headed to the airport for our flight to Bali.  I had really no preconceived notions of Bali other than that it was beautiful according to all my friends who had been before.  Amanda was particularly excited because she loved the novel "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert who spent 4 months in Bali.    I was more excited about our dinner at Mozaic because the chef worked at French Laundry - a restaurant in Yountville, CA that has often been named the best restaurant in America and is one of the toughest reservations to score.  But more on that later.

Our flight to Bali was the flight from hell.  We arrived only to be informed the flight was 2 hours late - despite all the signs and online info indicating otherwise.  We had nothing to do but do some duty free shopping to pick up the alcohol needed for V's party in Bali.  (In Bali each person is limited to one bottle entering the country.  Any excess bottles will be confiscated.)  Then we passed the time with dinner (Popeye's) and then at an outdoor bar - Harry's - very nice tropical haven from the sterile airport; particularly enhanced by the light rain that started.   When we finally boarded, we were told there was an additional delay because certain passengers who checked in luggage did not get on the plane so their luggage had to be removed...The frustration was building at this point, only to be topped off by a choir of mewling, whining, crying children on board.  It was literally a cacophony of cries and tantrums for the entire 2 hour flight.  (Argghhh!)  The ride was also quite bumpy which didn't help things - and then when we landed, we were smack in a large thunderstorm so we were all drenched.  One friend had arrived on another flight 2 hours earlier and was not informed of our delay so he was waiting and wandering around the airport getting more and more mad.  There was to be 16 - 18 of us in total in Bali - each arriving on diff flights and diff times - so in the confusion we almost stranded two people at the airport and had to swing back to pick them up.   Then we had a communication problem with our driver who insisted we were going to Villa Mashti when we had booked Villa Ki - turns out it's the same place but the name had been changed ages ago but V's travel agent inexplicably used the old, outdated name.  At this point, we collectively agreed that all this bad luck meant only good things going forward (or so we hoped)...

Luckily, when we arrived at our villas (we had booked 2 adjacent villas, each with its own gardens and pool), it was like walking into a beautiful dream.  The rain had lessened to a pleasant trickle, lanterns and candles had been lit to welcome us ... it made the last few awful hours disappear...  I immediately took a nice bath while some of the others immediately cracked open the alcohol and started partying.

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Visa for Bali - You can get this on arrival for $10 USD for 7 days.  Really simple - you literally just hand this guy $10, and he gives you a visa.  They really really want tourists here i guess...