Day 1 : Adelaide to Bali

4am : Alarm
4:30am : Taxi
5:00am : Airport
5:15am : Realising we are the only ones flying to Bali without full arm tattoos
7am : AirAsia flight.

No screens on board - just me, my headphones, and a book I don’t feel like reading.

Also somewhere over Western Australia I compiled a mental list of everything I’d forgotten to pack despite six months of planning.

8am : first serve of chicken and rice (the trip’s unofficial food sponsor).

11am : Wheels down in Bali. I was in the aisle so this caught me by surprise - and by the bump when we hit the tarmac, it also appeared to have caught the pilot somewhat by surprise as well.

11:30am : we had our first visa issue.

11:45 : First taste of being harassed by taxi drivers

1:00pm : Arrived at the resort - we’d been upgraded. There’s a cake in the fridge, balloons in the main room, and - I’m not making this up - a towel cake on the bed decorated with frangipani.

Apparently someone thinks it’s my birthday. I’m not correcting anyone.

2:00pm Second serve of chicken and rice courtesy of room service (Krissi is already monitoring my ordering habits). Swim. Quick stop at David’s for a drink with his group - then into Seminyak for a look around.

Wandered to the beach for sunset with 5,000 of our closest friends

Pro tip we learned the hard way: Bali taxis take cash only. We had none. We were saved entirely by the resort shuttle pulling up at the exact right moment - a minor miracle that prevented a full family discombobulation at 8pm on night one.

Room service again (not chicken and rice - I was overruled).

9:30pm Early night.Okumaya devam et