Monday 17 May - Arrival

Arrival in Bali and settling into the Inna Grand Hotel, Sanur.

Alexis and I met in the early hours of Monday morning at Auckland airport to discuss our proposed adventure to Bali and the PPSEAWA conference. We left on different airlines and took different flight paths but landed in Bali within minutes of each other just after 2.30pm, so the trip is already a very coordinated affair

One of the more helpful aspects of travelling to Bali is that you can get a visa as soon as you get off the plane and before queuing up for the first immigration check. Apparently the price has gone up over the last few years to USD25 but when you have to apply to the embassy in Wellington to go to India, or the embassy in Canberra to get to Egypt with weeks of waiting in between, I’d rather be paying USD25 just to get an entry permit directly after I arrive on their home turf.

While waiting in the queue to go through the Immigration counter, I happened to espy some ladies who looked familiar. I was right. They turned out to be Ann Candy, ex-Deputy Mayor of Manukau City who last visited Rarotonga with the then Mayor of Manukau Barry Curtis several years ago. She was accompanied by Georgina Kupa who was the Principals secretary of James Cook High School in Manurewa where I was the Board Chair for many years and NZ’s national president from Wanganui whose Early Childhood work puts her in regular contact with our Ina Tamarua, Early Childhood advisor with the Ministry of Education and PPSEAWA member. Ann explained how after the last PPSEAWA conference which was held in Manukau City, there was a merger of some local women’s groups to form PPSEAWA Manukau. The only branch prior to that was in Auckland.

Going through customs was not as traumatic as I had expected considering what we have taken over to sell at the conference. Being a last minute and self-funded journey (with kind donations also coming from Jolene, Paddy and Mathilda), Alexis and I have come away with goods that we hope to sell to help to recoup our expenses. I was worried that we might have to pay duty on the local crafts, books, calendars and jewellery we were bringing in. However, local porters quickly located our luggage and rushed us through the customs check. I was quite relieved that there were no questions asked except how many calendars were in the box. It was gratefully worth the NZD 10 that the porter demanded almost as soon as we got through the checkpoint.

Fortunately Caroline had sent some information that had come to her about the conference organisation, so that we were easily able to find the firm that was to transport PPSEAWA travelers to the Inna Grand Hotel in Sanur which was about 15kms from the Denpasar Airport . Travelling along the roads in Bali was rather chaotic, made even worse by the hundreds of motor bikes and scooters on the road. Road rules seemed to be rather lax and two wheeled drivers seemed to expect that the larger vehicles would give way even without any prior indication of their intentions. Somehow the bike riders seemed cloaked in the belief that because they all wore helmets, this automatically made them immune to the potential dangers of road use on these Bali roads. We were watching it all from the safety of a taxi van and it looked pretty scary from where we sat, especially when we saw a mum and THREE children, all with helmets, on the back of a scooter. They’d never get away with it on Raro… right!

We finally arrived at the hotel at about 4pm and were greeted at the entrance by a group of musicians and a host of porters who quickly grabbed our bags out of the van, so that we could organise our bearings and find our way to the PPSEAWA counter.

This was easy to find, but there were already several groups of delegates there or waiting to register. Alexis and I decided that we would go and have a cup of coffee in the bar while we waited for the queue to thin out a bit. Two coffees cost us 30,000rp (NZD5.00) which wasn’t too bad. Later that evening we were to find that 2 G&Ts cost us 193,000rp (NZD32) in the same bar – fortunately Alexis brought a little bottle through duty free, so we might give the hotel bar a miss from now on. When we finally checked in with the PPSEAWA desk, we paid our accommodation (USD325) and our registration fee (USD550) so that at least our main expenses were out of the way.

We then had to go to the hotel’s registration desk to get our room keys etc. This was a bit of a mission having to give our passports and credit card details and checks off the main list, etc. We made enquiries about the use of the internet at the hotel, to find that their internet connection has been down for the past week. Panic! How am I going to get this information to you all?? Apparently there is a free public wifi connection at the end of the drive (its about a km from the hotel to its main road entrance). When are we going to get a chance to get out?

The afternoon is spent acquainting ourselves with our room and our surroundings. We wander out onto our small balcony which overlooks Sanur Bay. The tide is out in the bay but several guests wandered along the stretch of sand onto which the Inna Grand Hotel property is adjoined. A little way along the beach, there are what looks like little fishing boats resting on the sand awaiting the new tide. Already the sun is starting to go down. We hurry back to our bags and start unpacking and organizing ourselves.

It doesn’t take long before hunger pangs are starting to set in. On the way to dinner, we bumped into Vio and John Annandale. Vio again thanked the Cook Islanders for sending a delegation to the conference, and gave best wishes to Paddy and others whom they had met at the Auckland conference.

We wander down to the poolside restaurant where there is quartet of singers entertaining diners. The meal isn’t much to write home about but it fills a spot (a fish stir fry for Alexis and chargrilled fish for me costing 300.000rp (NZD50). We called into the hotel bar for a nightcap and to listen to some further musical entertainment. Two G&Ts cost 200.000rpn (NZD33 includes 21%VAT) we won’t be buying drinks here very often. The singer tonight was very good and then asked for requests. Alexis asked for a Spanish song, and ended up on stage with the lead singer of the entertainment duo providing a supporting backup role. The Cook Islanders have arrived!