Arriving in Bali

Luckily the flight from Singapore to Bali was one of the shorter flights.

I had heard a lot of really poor experiences people have had going through Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar and was kind of apprehensive up until arrival. There were stories about corrupt officials, airport staff holding their luggage ransom for bribes, etc. And of course there are those horror stories and paranoia about accidentally becoming drug mules if someone slips something into your luggage (we've seen the movies, okay).

I have to say, I experienced none of this. We had recently discovered that US citizens no longer have to pay the Visa upon arrival at most Indonesian entry points but were told that if the officials decided to charge it there was nothing we could do about it. When passing through immigrations, I dealt with possibly the most pleasant immigrations official ever and she explained that there were only a few points in Indonesia that still charge it but that Bali was not one of them. My mother was a bit concerned when it took me twice as long to pass through immigrations as her but that was simply because the official and I were chatting away. 

Security and customs were quite fast and everyone we encountered was at the very least cordial and many were really nice and friendly. Everyone seemed really confused or in a hurry when they went through so perhaps they were just happy to deal with people who didn't look confused or rushed. Ngurah Rai is also a really beautiful airport. It was very clean and well equipped. The only cluster was where the drivers meet visitors in the arrival hall, but we still managed to find our driver within ten minutes.

The trip to Ize Seminyak Hotel was less than 30 minutes which was great because we were exhausted. Upon arriving I was thrilled to see that the hotel looked just like Google Street view. Yes, I check Google Street view. We got checked in very quickly and had a nice little upgrade thanks to my Expedia Elite membership. The room was extremely clean and welcoming and the staff was amazing. Even before our arrival, I had been communicating with a few staff members for tours and whatnot and they had been wonderful. 

We were too tired to go out so we grabbed dinner downstairs at Meja, the inhouse restaurant. Wonderful food and atmosphere.