My early wake-ups at 0640 for the last three days put me in good position for a similar wake-up time in order to get to Denpasar airport for our 1325 flight.
We summoned a Grab vehicle around 0830 when the streets were quiet but when the vehicle arrived, a taxi tout had appeared and told him off. The Grab driver messaged me and said it was too dangerous so we had to take a taxi. The price was IDR175K vs IDR300K (asking price IDR350K).
The ride took around 1h20 with congestion leaving Ubud and getting around Denpasar. We got to the airport around 3h prior to departure. That gave us time in the lounge, a perk I will miss soon. For over 20 years I’ve been getting lounge access courtesy of a charge card but they have announced complete withdrawal from New Zealand.
Boarding, we saw a man with two wheelie bags, a backpack and a man-purse. His wife had a wheelie and a handbag. Airline staff didn’t pick this up but Kim said something to him and I added that regardless of the pieces and size, the weight limit is 7kg on Indonesia AirAsia. He said that he had paid for the extra luggage, which I didn’t believe … until inflight when I saw he was served a value-pack meal (which indicates that he did pay for luggage). Presumably he bought the luggage allowance but decided to carry it on perhaps to save time at bagdrop.
We had a nice flight with a seat between us and shared three meals between us, two of which are very good meals that I don’t get a chance to savour often. They were Indonesia AirAsia’s Nasi Kuning Manado and Uda Ratman’s Nasi Padang; both are not available on other airlines in the AirAsia group.
Despite leaving about 10 minutes late, we arrived into Singapore 10 minutes early. As usual at Changi, were out in the taxi in no time headed to Tai Hoe Hotel opposite City Square mall. I had shifted my hotel booking to this one specifically because of the Decathlon and Uniqlo in the mall opposite.
Even tough I’m not really a shopper, I did go a little overboard (as did Kim) at Decathlon as we are so deprived in New Zealand having to pay inflated prices for many things. In fact, some prices were so low I had to ask if there was a price-scanner somewhere for me to double check. Having been to Uniqlo in Miri recently, all my shopping was done and dusted there.
We grabbed dinner at the lower level before finding better options upstairs . We returned to our room to figure out our packing before turning in.