Taking Devin to the airport in Bali

Devin had a 4pm flight ot catch today, so I helped him get ready for his journey home. After playing with Jevon and chatting to Ika, we said goodbye and I rented a Feroza. The place closest to my house, Bali Puspa on Jl. Dhyana Pura, is so relaxed that I didn’t even have to sign any forms today. I paid 30,000rp for a 2 hour rental, enough to do Devin’s erands and get him to the airport.

Heaving a massive ‘Bali holdal’ onto the back of the car, we thought it might be a good idea to pick up some rope to tie the bag. These Bali bags are good for stuff like sarongs, carvings, DVD’s etc. but the stitching is not good, the straps at zips flimsy. Stopping off at Ace Hardware in Kuta, we found they were completely out of rope…all rope. Previously I had seen reels of the stuff but today they had none. Instead we found a fancy ‘box carrier’, which is basically a couple of long velcro straps that overlap with a handle. It ost 87,000rp, expensive but works well. I guess its better than having his gear fall out all over the place.

Devin has a 17 hour layover in Hong Kong and I looked around online for a guest house. A little nervous at venturing out of the airport, I told him HK is safe, easy to access and fun. The 2 websites I checked out for accommodation in HK were Virtual Tourist and BootsnAll. VT has handy facts broken down into categories, BootsnAll has stories and guides, plus the inside track on all the budget guest houses in Hong Kong. Taking BootsnAll’s advice, I directed Devin to catch a train from the airport to Kowloon and find a guest house in Mirador or Chungking Mansions, the 2 tower blocks of budget accommodation options. HK is an exciting city and a 17 hour layover is long enough to have some fun, see the sights and get some sleep.