Today's flight will be a connecting flight instead of a non-stop that Ive had up to this point. I'm also on an airline that I've never heard, Garuda Airlines. I looked up some information on this airline and found they are the national airline of Indonesia. Okay I've had adventures up to this point and I can chalk up another country that I have traveled. I assume you can count it as a country visited since I will have about a 5 hour wait at Denpasar, Bali. I queue up Uber again and they are prompt as usual to take me to the Tokyo Main Train Station where I'm to meet the bus that will take me to Tokyo Narita Airport, which is an hour and half bus ride. I leave four hours before my flight leaves, just to be sure there is no issues and there will be. The cab drops me off at the front of the train station and I lug my two big bags and backpack inside the terminal. I look around but can't find a desk or kiosk for the Airport Limousine (even though its a bus) service. I go up to the ticket counter that has no line because its 6:30 AM and ask where i might find this bus line. She was very helpful as has been my experience this entire trip in Japan. She gives me a map and lines out the path to an outside bus stop. Apparently the bus line leaves from outside the train station. I get about half way through the directions and they don't make sense to me. I very well dressed Japanese businessman asks if he can be of help, since I obviously have that lost American tourist look. He looks at my map and says to follow him. Another example of the kindness of the Japanese people. He walks me directly to the stop and says good luck with the traditional Japanese polite bow. There is a line already started but there are only six people. The bus drives up and I go to hand the driver my ticket, since I had bought a round trip ticket earlier last week when I arrived at the Narita Airport. "No good", was what the driver was telling me. I tell him its a round trip and the bus name says Airport Limousine. The lady in front of me helps out and she says that this is not the right Airport Limousine company. Apparently as I find out later there are over a dozen Airport Limousine company's that use the same name. She is not sure as is the driver of where the company that I have a ticket for is located. I decide I don't need the aggravation of dragging my bags all over the Tokyo station for $28US, so I buy a ticket on this line to get to the airport. So I had to eat the return ticket.
The drive is very smooth with no traffic since everyone this time of morning are coming into Tokyo and we are headed in the opposite direction. The bus even has wifi that has a good signal. I get to the Garunda Airlines stop at Terminal 1 and proceed to the international check in desk. When I get there I find that Delta apparently contracts with Garunda to do their desk servicing. I had my passport and she asks for my Visa for Australia...what visa? My travel agency said I didn't need one since I was from the US under a participation agreement with Australia. Come to find out that only applies if Im coming directly from the US, not from another country, in this case Japan. Great! Its about 2 1/2 hours before my flight leaves so I start to panic a bit. The nice lady at the check-in desk said not to worry and she would help me do an emergency electronic visa. She took my information and the whole process took about 30 minutes to complete. Now I'm legal and its time to check in. But, my big bag is 5 lbs over the limit for his airline, which is 50 lbs instead of 60 lbs for business class tickets. So I have to drag my suitcases back and I start stuffing heavy stuff in my backpack plus my suitcase I bought in Amsterdam that is already stuffed. I finally balance things out and I'm through check-in. I get to Customs and Immigration and for once today everything goes without a hitch.
After a bit of a search, I find the executive lounge for Garuda Airlines. A tiny place with primarilyAsian selections. I do find a Sapporo and some chips. That will hod me over until dinner on the flight.
The airplane is an Airbus 330-300 and the business class seats are the total bed layout so maybe I can get some sleep on the plane. The flu or cold that I seem not to be able to shake is really coming back with a flurry. I'll go to a clinic when I get to Sydney. The flight dinner was just fabulous, a 6 course affair with everything very tasty. I try and get a couple of hours sleep before we land in Indonesia for my flight transfer. I sleep about two hours and feel miserable. The pressure in my ears isn't helping much. We land in a rain storm at the Denpasar, Bali airport. Before landing though, I was able to see a couple of volcanos, one seemed to be blowing some smoke in the atmosphere.
The airport was going through some major upgrade and remodeling. The outside design seem to be finished with its traditional Indonesian Pagoda design for each gate area. The inside area though was a mess, with the air-conditioning not quite up to par. There was a temporary executive lounge for Garunda Airlines but it had temporary A/C units in the middle of the lounge. Five hour wait is going to seem a lot longer that it will seem. I find a comfortable chair and I leaned back and actually fell asleep for two hours. I didn't see that coming. I find a Wall Street Journal that someone had left behind so reading that took another hour. I decided to move to the gate area and its a good thing I did because it was a 15 minute walk to a new area of boarding. One hour left to lift off....until they announce the flight will be 1 hour late going out due to weather. Grrr!
Finally after a hour and a half delay we finally board another A330-300 for our 5 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. I didn't get to sleep until about an hour left in the flight. As we are approaching the Sydney International Airport there is a great view of the Sydney Harbor and the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House. Movement through the customs and immigration was a bit of a slow process, because I had to answer on a special Ebola Form that I had been in Africa in the past 30 days. Two Supervisors came about and they were all huddled around my paperwork. The one senior looking gentleman came over and ask be if I had been anywhere other than Nairobi and of course my answer was yes because I had taken safari along the Great Rift Valley and Serengeti Plains. That caused another conference and huddle with another person. After about 10 minutes they came over and asked me again if I had been in any other country other than Kenya..my answer was no. I wasn't going to tell them that my guide had snuck us over the Tanzania border so we could find hippos.
I decide to save some money and take the Sky Train to Hyde Park, just south of the Opera House area of Sydney Harbor. The train ran me straight to the Museum stop and I lumbered out with my big bags and backpack. I look for a lift, but there wasn't one and I had to carry each of my heavy cases up 4 flights of stairs to the outside park. From there was a walk throughout the Hyde Park and to the apartment building where I was to stay. They were expecting me and got my keys and moved up to 11th floor and room 1107. The apartment was very nice with a great view of the south side of Hyde Park. As I roamed around the room I realized that a gay gentleman lived there based on the nude men's art on the walls and other "obvious" signs. It really doesn't bother me a bit, since I've worked for gays a lot in my past 15 years. But, I guess it just caught me off guard a bit. I'm anxious to get some sleep so I take a shower and hit the hay.
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