Week 38 - Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, Singapore, and finally Indonesia
Sunday wasn't perfect, but it sure could have been a lot worse. Sometimes I think airport days are like some kind of a game, pass these tests in this order and you advance to a different city. We had our usual breakfast at the Flots Bleu hotel in Tana. One pleasure of our prolonged stay there was a young waiter, very proud of his self-taught English, which was quite good, who took us under his wing. We met him on our way in when he brought us everything we needed while we had to quarantine in the room. Tipping isn't universal in Madagascar, and in fact it can be a surprise and if you don't make a point of explaining what you're doing the staff often turns it in to the boss. We didn't know this on the way in. We had the bills the ATM gave us, which were 20,000, the equivalent of $5 US. So that's what we tipped with, and to us $5 was a reasonable tip for a room service delivery. Especially considering that the poor guy ran every trip. I told him to relax and walk, but he still ran. He was really confused and taken aback by "so much money". We then realized that even though a 20,000 is $5 US dollars, it's was the price of the most expensive menu items and the largest bill we ever got from an ATM. So in terms of what you can buy, they're more like $20 US. Anyway, our friend was back and took excellent care of us again, and again we tipped him well. He's in school and wants to get an education to improve not just his own life, but his community. He told us that he used the money we gave him to buy a new hard drive for his computer which he really needed to do school work. That made us so happy, Easter breakfast with him was a great start to what we knew would be a challenging few days.
Test number one was to find the international terminal, since the perpetually confused shuttle driver dropped us at the domestic one. On the way to Fort Dauphin he took us to international, but when we needed international we ended up at domestic and didn't catch it until he left. No biggie, we took a taxi. We had given ourselves plenty of time for challenge two, which was getting our luggage checked through to Johannesburg, since our overnight layover in Mauritius had become an hour. That was big, because we never could have made the connection if we had to re-check bags in Mauritius, and if we had missed the flight we would have had to fly all night two nights in a row. As it was, we did get the baggage checked, though the transit desk in Mauritius had to work pretty hard to find it and get it on the plane, and we were amongst the last to board, but we made it. The kids were pretty good on both flights, and the hotel in Johannesburg was very comfortable. We got a really good meal, hot showers and a comfy bed. S even got a bath in a tub, something he enjoys and hasn't gotten to do since we were in Beirut. So, day one was pretty good.
Monday morning started early with a nice breakfast and PCR tests. We had planned to do them at our hotel, but the nurse was off today so we had to go to another hotel, adjacent to the airport. This was no problem because the shuttle from our hotel took us right there. It was one of our better PCR experiences. S has been traumatized by a couple rough swabs and sometimes just falls apart. This guy was very nice and even swabbed Starflight the dragon. No tears from either Starflight or his owner.
It took us a while to find the check-in desk, but we were still early and first in line, we knew it would take a while because we needed to pay for extra baggage and check everything through to Bali. We previously had a night in Singapore, but we couldn't find a reasonable hotel and then that flight got canceled anyway, so we now have just five hours in Singapore, which is just as well. Plus, we got credit for our flight to Perth after we're done in Indonesia. J and I really stressed over these logistics and nothing has gone according to the original plan, but so far it's all working out fine. It took pretty much all morning, a lot of help from really good desk clerks, and a trip back to the adjacent hotel for a missing PCR result, but we made it to the gate in plenty of time with all the correct documents.
Ever since our initial transatlantic flight we've been making mostly small hops with no jet lag, only moving forward one time zone. The Johannesburg-Singapore flight was about ten hours and six time zones. Nobody loves flights like that but the kids did just fine.
The best way to deal with jet lag is to use your time on the plane to make the adjustment, since you're not doing anything else anyway. So after "dinner" and a movie we told them it was 11:00 and time for "bed". It was only 5:00 Johannesburg time, and 6:00 Madagascar time, but it had been a tiring morning so they bought it. I had a little more trouble convincing my body to sleep, but we all got a few hours.
Tuesday morning we woke up almost in Singapore. Changi airport is supposed to be one of the best, and it's true there are a ton of shopping and dining options, a clinic, and even outdoor gardens, but the signage is so terrible we spent most of the morning wandering in the wrong direction. S slept through breakfast on the plane, J and I needed a second cup of coffee since they only gave us a couple swallows in a tiny airplane cup, and we needed to get boarding passes since that was one bit of magic our helpers in Johannesburg couldn't manage. We usually buy tickets online, but Singapore Airways had a glitch on its site so we did something we normally avoid and used a third-party booking company. That was the start of all the issues and we won't be using them again. Anyway, we finally got it straightened out, plus found time for breakfast and tooth brushing which made us feel a bit more like it was morning. The boys and I actually did school while J stood in line and dealt with the boarding pass issues. We really dodged a bullet when our flight changed and we ended up not trying to spend the night in Singapore. Another family we met attempted that and wasn't allowed to leave the airport since the kids weren't vaccinated. Ours only have one shot because we weren't in Reunion long enough to get the second one. The transit hotel was full and that family ended up sleeping on the airport floor. We didn't have time to enjoy any gardens and most of the shops were closed, not that we're big shoppers anyway. Honestly, I'd take Fort Dauphin's two-room airport over Changi any day.
The Singapore to Bali flight was only a couple hours and they didn't provide any meal service or drinks, so we missed lunch except for what little was left in the snack bag, but that wasn't too bad. Immigration and customs in Bali were more thorough than we're used to, but pretty straightforward and didn't take too long. We found our driver and rode about an hour to our hotel, a nice little diving resort near the ferry port. Even more so than in Johannesburg, we just needed a meal, shower and bed and all three were great. I got to try an Indonesian spinach stew, which was really tasty. Overall, I'd rather have a house than a hotel, because we save money with me shopping and cooking and it's just more convenient to eat when we want rather than depend on a restaurant, but I'm so glad the food and cleaning are handled by someone else the first two days after our long journey. We crashed and slept a good 12 hours.
Wednesday was a fun day. After sleeping in until 7:00, late for me, J and I relaxed and had coffee in the room and finally woke the boys up for breakfast at around 9:00. We had breakfast, did school, and I went to a pharmacy a few blocks away for vitamins. That was a fun way to see a little bit of the city of Padang Bai. There are a few main roads for cars, but a lot of places are connected by narrow lanes for pedestrians and motorbikes. Every house has a little shrine in front with offerings of rice and flowers. I really enjoyed the walk. When I got back we went to lunch and then the kids and I swam.
There are two pools, both with some fun features.
This last one shows one of the flower and rice offerings I saw all over the place. I didn't want to take a picture of just the offerings because I wasn't sure if it was a respectful thing to do, so I got one with the pool. This place doesn't have a beach, but it's right by the harbor.
By the time we were done swimming it was time to clean up for dinner, finish packing and get ready for bed. I really enjoyed the vegetarian food there. It was a nice stop, and a good place to recover from all the flights.
Thursday we got up early to catch the ferry to Lombok. We thought it left at 9:00 and we should be ready by 8:00, and we were. Turns out you can't board before 9:00. So we did some school work.
We had no difficulty getting on at nine, but it didn't actually leave until close to 10:00, which was unfortunate for the property manager who was waiting to meet us on the other side. It was an interesting ride though.
Lombok is beautiful, much less built up than Bali, and the house is gorgeous. The property manager dropped J, the kids, and the luggage, showed us around, introduced us to the housekeeper, and took me to the grocery. We're a little bit out of town, which is great, but grocery shopping will be something that needs a taxi. So I stocked up and won't need to go for a while. Turns out Lombok is Muslim while Bali is Hindu, so no beer or pork in the grocery. I don't consume either, but J will miss both. Other than that it's a pretty western grocery, but for some reason there's no bread. Oh well, guess I'll be baking. When we got back the kids were in the pool.
Indonesia seems to have a thing for fancy pools.
They played until it was time to get out so I could cook dinner. We have a housekeeper and a gardener, and could hire a cook if we wanted. It's not permitted to use the washing machine yourself, so the housekeeper handles cleaning and laundry. I'll cook, which is my favorite job of the three. We will probably have the cook come and give us a lesson in local cuisine at some point, but for now a simple supper and early bedtime we're just what we needed.
Friday was a pretty low-key day. It's the day off in Islamic places and it's Ramadan right now so not much is happening. I have traveled to Islamic countries before, but never during Ramadan. We're used to the call to prayer five times a day, but for the past two nights, the mosque has continuous prayers over the loud speaker all night long. I was so tired the first night that I slept through it, but J was up and we were both up Friday night. So everyone is tired. We like to take a few days to get used to a new place anyway. I took a walk, we unpacked and did school work.
Saturday our property manager came to help us set up WiFi and help us plan some trips. We considered going to Komodo island, but it's expensive and a long multi-stage trip by plane, boat, and car. There are some closer by trips we'll probably do instead. So that was the morning's work, now back to the pool.
