Day 7 – Jetting From Hanoi
Rather than the hotel breakfast on our last morning in Hanoi, I decided to head out and get the rice/mung bean/meat dish that we had eaten a few nights back. K was a little under the weather and finishing up packing, so it was a solo trip out. Ordering was a little difficult without speaking Vietnamese, but after some pointing and whatnot I was able to order both bowls with mung beans, Chinese sausage, the meat “floss,” and a fried egg. On the way back I grabbed two iced coffees to give us some more energy for the long day ahead. We ate breakfast in the room while doing the very last of our packing. I’d arranged for a ride to the airport from the same agency that had picked us up, and they arrived shortly before the scheduled time. Checkout and our transfer to the airport were very easy, and we quickly made our way through ticketing, security, and immigration.
Everything had moved so quickly and smoothly in fact, that we now faced quite a bit of time to kill. Hanoi does not have a huge airport, and the international terminal we were in was a single long wing. Our flight was departing from almost dead center, which was where the outflow from immigrations put us. Deciding that there wasn’t much else to do, we walked down to one end, and then all the way back to the far side. We were mostly just killing time, but also looking at the few shops and restaurants that occupied the land-facing side of the terminal. Near the far end of our walk, we stumbled across a familiar fast food chain, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. Deciding that a biscuit might be just the ticket, we got in line behind two Australian ladies. Now if you’ve ever been to a Popeyes, the menu consists of a pretty limited selection of fried chicken dishes, and given that this was a very small airport version, the menu was limited even further. For whatever reason, neither of the two ladies could make up their minds, and kept asking for things that didn’t exist. The very polite cashier kept trying to explain that these weren’t available, but it didn’t seem to be getting through. Finally after probably 5-10 minutes of back and forth between the three, the ladies decided that Popeyes wasn’t for them… At last, biscuit time! Our hopes were quickly dashed as they were out of biscuits, which wouldn’t have been so bad except that we had been waiting for so long just to find out that they had run short on one of the two key menu items! With broken hearts, and biscuit-less stomachs, we trudged back to the gate to wait for our flight.
We were flying Singapore Airlines, and because I don’t have status with them, we were sitting in the regular economy seats on both our flight from Hanoi to Singapore and then on from Singapore to Bali. Both flights were scheduled to be on A330-300’s, so I was surprised when a 777-200 rolled up to the gate. I quickly checked where our seats would be on the new plane through SeatGuru, and was alarmed to find that the window would be missing on my window seat! There wasn’t time to get it switched, and the seat map looked pretty full anyway, so I decided to cross my fingers and hope that the map was wrong. Upon boarding I was very happy to discover that SeatGuru was wrong again, and that there was a window next to my seat. The flight was very uneventful, and after some decent food and a few movies we touched down in Singapore.
Unfortunately, our layover was pretty short so we were unable to take advantage of the many amenities that make the Changi airport consistently rated as the best in the world by travelers. Instead we had a few minutes to stop by a store before heading over to get our taste of home in the form of the Dunkin Donuts kiosk. I got my regular iced tea (made by pouring hot tea over ice) and we each chose a salted caramel donut (very tasty). While waiting for my tea we were questioned by a group of Singaporean children who wanted to know where we were from, where we were headed, and pretty much our life story — it was pretty adorable.
Making our way over to our next gate I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Popeyes ladies from Hanoi must have been on our flight to Singapore, and were now on our flight to Bali. Luckily, we had purchased our airport fast food (Dunkin) so we didn’t have to suffer through whatever restaurant incompetence had probably occurred here. At the Singapore airport, one goes through security at the gate, so we waited a while outside of the small secure area until it got a bit closer to boarding. This time our flight was on the scheduled A330-300 and I once again had my window seat. The flight itself was again uneventful, and after some more movies and decent food, we touched down in Bali.
Clearing customs was a breeze, however it took approximately 3 weeks for our bags to start coming out on the belt, and another long while before our suitcases finally showed up. After gathering our bags we had to find the hotel driver, (which proved to be much easier than in Hanoi) as he was holding a “Mr. & Mrs. Lastname”) sign with the hotel’s logo. We followed him from the terminal to the parking garage and were on our way. It’s a long drive from DPS to Ubud, (about 90min) and was getting pretty late. For a while the three of us were talking, but then K nodded off, and the conversation lulled.
Arriving at the hotel, we were greeted and checked-in at the open-air reception desk, and our bags taken to our villa while we were filling out some paperwork. Once we wrapped up with that, we were escorted down to our home for the next few days. We had been upgraded from a regular pool villa to the “family villa” which was actually 3 villas with a shared pool and outdoor living room (pretty much our own private compound). We were in the largest of the villas, which also had the best view. Walking in we were greeted by a heart of flowers with towel swans on the bed, and a drawn bath with even more flowers. As it had already been a long day, I cleared off the bed and we quickly fell asleep.
Day 8 – Let The Relaxation Begin
We started out our relaxing Bali trip by sleeping in a bit (it had been a late night) and then getting ready and heading to breakfast. The restaurant was above the check-in area and completely open air with spectacular views over the lush hills and rice terraces. The options were limited to either continental or the “American” breakfast. I went with the American option, which featured eggs Benedict that tasted like the eggs had been poached in straight white vinegar. The overly acidic eggs actually helped the dish, as the hollandaise was kind of bland. Overall it wasn’t a bad attempt, and something that I’d stick with for the rest of our time there. The pastry basket was the highlight of the meal though, with a great selection of breads and other options.
(view from our pool)
After breakfast it was time to take advantage of our villa’s private pool. The water was refreshingly cool under the warm morning sun, and we spent the rest of the morning relaxing before getting ready for massages I’d arranged prior to our trip. We took a taxi over, but made a stop on the way to drop off laundry at a small stand just at the end of the hotel’s driveway (which was about 1/10th the price of what the hotel wanted to charge).
The spa was small and we were greeted warmly and offered some refreshments before being checked in. Shortly after, we were brought into the massage room and got ready. Our masseuses asked us which of the many massage options we wanted and then we started. The next 90 minutes flew by, and unfortunately it was time to get ready to leave. It was amazing how inexpensive the entire thing was, two 90min massages and tip came out to about $50usd. We got a ride back to the hotel from the spa in their convertible VW Thing, which was a blast.
Back at the hotel we were ready for a late lunch, so we headed back to the restaurant. The food wasn’t great, but at 4pm it was very welcome. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in and around our pool. Having not made it in to town today we needed to go out and get a few things, so we took a taxi to the nearest Circle K. There we picked up some water, snacks, cough drops (I seemed to have picked up K’s cold), and a few other items. We had the intent to head into Ubud for dinner, but as the time grew closer we decided that a dinner of some chips and granola bars would be preferable before calling it an early night.
Cheers,
-N
Have Wine Key, Will Travel 