First day in Sumatra

Day 22 - February 1

It’s been a quiet morning so far. Had breakfast which was quite good. Came back to the room and got things more or less put together. Waiting on a few things to charge up before we check out. Need to be at the airport for a 1:50 flight to Medan. We will be there for a little more than 3 days before we return to Jakarta. Will check out here at about 11:30.

The Grand Istana Rama Hotel here has one great asset and that’s it’s location to the beach on the south side of Bali. The beach is right across the road. As I said earlier the beach could be fantastic if the people that make a living of the beach would clean it up some. The hotel room is quite large and the bath looks to have been redone recently. The room was clean and comfortable. The only real criticism I have is that it is quite dark. The dark wood furniture absorbs all the light in the room. The bed could use some work but it was satisfactory. The pillows are nice, there were 6. Does not compare with the place we stayed in last week but it was worth the money.

Maya met us when we checked out and thanked us for our stay and gave us a couple of parting gifts. She has been really nice to us during our stay in Bali even if we didn’t stay the whole time at her hotel. The taxi fare to the airport was about 70,000 rupiah. Traffic was light so it didn’t take long. Went through security right as we entered and then again after we got checked in. We are in the back of the plan but we have a window and an aisle seat so can’t complain too much.

If you are flying in SE Asia but sure to check the website of the airline you are flying else you may not get the cheapest fair. Hipmunk, Expedia, and one other did not give the cheapest fair. If you get your tickets there and have to change there will probably be no charge. But if you know what you will be doing get the cheap one. I basically got two tickets for the price of one by purchasing on the Garuda Indonesia website.

We had a snack at House of Beans by the departure gate. Bonnie wanted sweet potato chips so we got those. I would rather have had regular, oh well. They did have been though so I got a Bintang. Will have to find out if Scott wants be to bring a bottle back for him to paint, or maybe a picture.

Plane leaves in about an hour and a half. One stop along the way. Will be in Medan, Sumatra about 5:30. The  JW Marriott is supposed to have a shuttle. Guess I will call when we get there.
At the airport in Bali Garuda Airlines tracked us down. We were sitting in the area by gate 1C, which was on our boarding pass, but they changed gates to 2. So we weren’t there. We were not the last ones on the plane but it was close. The flight was uneventful. I like those kind. Got to the airport and call the Marriott to find out about the shuttle. They said we had to schedule it ahead of time. So there was not shuttle. Took a taxi to the hotel. The room is pretty posh. We went down to the lounge for our welcome drink. It was apple juice. I ordered a bourbon on the rock and Bonnie had some peppermint tea. We also ordered some spring rolls. All of that was nice.

The nicest thing though was a combo with drummer, piano player, guitar, and singer started up shortly after we got there. They were pretty good. Played and sung a lot of mellow oldies. Had a great time listening. When their first set was done we left thanking them for their music.

Off to bed for now. Will figure everything out in the morning.