Before I go on, I want to make two exciting announcements, since many of my friends and family are reading this...
1) Saturday is Mat's and my 20 year wedding anniversary! We will be spending the weekend in KC and going to watch several bands on Saturday at Buzz Beach Ball concert.
2) We finally got an offer on dad's house last night! I had really given up on it happening this summer and my siblings and I had a call scheduled to discuss the next steps (renting it, waiting through another winter, etc.). The problem was that the money to pay the mortgage and utilities runs out next month and we were going to have to split the cost out of pocket.
We got up around 8 or so, needing to take care of some final things before we left. I got a ride into town on the back of Illo's motorbike. She is young, maybe 18, but was a very careful driver. This is the first time I had been on a motorbike for further than just our little road, this time going into real traffic. I started with a tight grip on her waste but by the time we got to the photo-printing shop, I had found a good grip under the back of the seat so I could sit kinda cocked to the right and look around at all the people as we drove. I felt a little melancholy as I watched the people go by, knowing this would be my last excursion before heading home. Once we made it to the shop, I printed off the below photo of Made and River from the beginning of our trip to give to him as a gift.
I also printed off 10 copies of a letter that we wrote to the staff, telling them how much we cared about them and how to reach us. I also told them all to contact us if they ever needed a US contact, a reference, or anything like that.
Illo got me safely back to the villa in time for breakfast. During the morning, Made had approached me and asked if I could call our normal driver, Adil, and see if he could be our second car at noon. His other driver had fallen through and so could use our guy. Our driver had already asked if we needed a ride to the airport, and we had told him no, but when we asked him that morning, he said "no problem!". As noon approached, our scheduled departure time, Gun and the others got all 15 pieces of luggage up to the main area and we sat there waiting for Adil to arrive, saying our last goodbyes to the 8 staff members who were there for the morning shift. Made and Este had been on the phone with the airline all morning getting updates, but so far had only determined that the airport would be open at noon, but no news on our flights.
Adil was running late and I was getting anxious. Meanwhile, the entire staff was waiting in the lobby area to see us off. Made's vehicle was loaded up and the rest waited to be loaded into Adil's SUV. Just before Adil arrived, Made finally got through to someone from our airline at our airport. I saw him writing down our normal departure time, so I was excited to think that we would leave as planned. He got off the phone and asked another guest, who was waiting to speak with him, to wait a second so that he could talk with me. I remember thinking "you will need more than a minute! You are driving us to the airport now!". He gathered us all over to his staff and told us all to say goodbye. We joked that we had 14 times and he said "one more time!" and we did, hugs and laughs abound.
Our 14th Goodbye
Right then, Adil arrived, and we had to tell him that there was no flight, not now anyway. Made told him that he had his own driver later, so he didn't need him then either, but Adil sat and hung out for a while, clearly not eager to head back out just yet. Made and he talked a lot in Balinese and it made me happy because of all the drivers we had, Adil was our favorite, and we really wanted Made and him to have at least a little bit of a relationship because it would help them both a lot.
Made and Adil hanging out talking, with sleepy Ketut in his arms. Made's bandana was a gift from us to him that morning. I think it looks great on him.
After a few minutes, mom took her exit to take a nap. The staff unloaded all the luggage and then went back to work. Mat and River headed back to our room to play on the computer. So, just Made, Adil, and I remained, just kind of hanging out. I pulled out my computer and started trying to figure out things. I called the airline again and found out that they planned on us having a 14 hour layover in Taiwan before flying to LAX, and they couldn't even guarantee if we would get on that flight. They said that we couldn't confirm until we got to Taiwan. Made offered for us to stay another night and fly to Taiwan in the morning, to avoid the long layover, but I thought we should get there as soon as possible in order to save our seats on the LA flight.
After a bit, Adil's son, Ketut, who had been asleep in the vehicle (with the doors open) woke up and Adil held him while hanging out talking with Made. I finally took my leave, and headed to our room to make some calls. I called Southwest and luckily, due to construction in LAX, they were allowing people to change their flights as much as they wanted without any fee or difference in fare, which was a very welcome surprise! I went ahead and changed our flights (as we were guaranteed to miss the one already booked) to the latest flight that they had for Sunday night. It would get us in around midnight and give us 3-4 hours in LA after our international flight, to get our lost luggage, food, stretch legs, etc.
Ketut (the masseuse), showed up, saying that Made sent her, knowing that we would probably want one last massage while we wait. Well, you can't turn that down, so we accepted. Mine was great, but moments after she left, I suddenly got a migraine. I am not sure if it was the stress, the position of my head, or what, but it came on sudden and hard! The good news is that it made me remember mom's ice-pack which we had just about left behind in the freezer! I took my migraine cocktail of medicine (benedryl, ibuprofin, sumitriptin, and a nausea pill). Mat and River grabbed some food for us all from next door and then around 6 we headed back to the lobby. It was early for an 11 flight, but from what everyone was saying about the airport, I figured that we needed the extra time.
When we got to the lobby, we saw Adil, who was already there, with Ketut at his side. I am not sure when Made changed his mind, but apparently had decided to use him for the evening trip after all. River and mom piled in with Made and Este while Mat and I rode with Adil and Ketut. We made one last call to the ariline, confirmed our flight, and headed out. Just before we left, Made sat on the steps and said, "so, um, do you want to pay for today's massages?" We all joked, saying "um...no?" but then said of course, but we needed to stop at the ATM on the way. He said that he realized after he called Ketut that we may not have any more money, but we assured him that it was fine, we could get more from the ATM and were glad to pay.
We pulled out a little extra for Adil, hoping to give him a little something to account for the non-trip from earlier. Unfortunately, the money that I had pulled aside for Adil got lost in his car somewhere and so when we left him at the airport, we told him that there was a 100,000 rupees floating around for him somewhere. He laughed, never seeming to care about money, and wished us well.
At the airport, Made tried to determine if our flight was still scheduled, but we couldn't find it on the screens anywhere. The porters had loaded us up and finally I told Made that we would call him if anything went wrong and they could go. We had to tear Este and mom from each other, but finally we were heading into the airport.
The porters tried to get more money than we had agreed upon. I had watched Made tell them how much I had and watched them agree and still they tried to guilt me out of more. I didn't have any extra, saving our last bit for the exit taxes, and so they left somewhat disappointed. Usually I wouldn't care, but they were being put through hell that day, with so many upset people moving through that airport.
Finally, we were in line for our airline checkin. The line was huge and I went and asked them about a wheelchair for mom who had "meet and assist" on her ticket, since it was usually hard for her to stand for so long. They told me to get out of line and wait on the side. We did. 30 min later, I asked again and they told me the same. Another 30 min they said we were looking for you over here and pointed the opposite direction that they had sent me. They gathered someone who came an got us and asked for our tickets. I told them that we didn't have them, that we still needed to check in, that they had pulled us out of the line. She tried to put us back in the line and I fell apart saying that we would not get back in that line, that it was them who told us to get out of it. She went and talked to someone, came back and said "I'm sorry", which was the extent of her English, and seemed to be directing us into the line again. I will admit it, by this point the tears of exhaustion, frustration, and the feeling of being wronged had emerged and I walked over to what seemed to be a manager, with the poor young woman following me unsure what to do. I told her what had happened and that we can not get back in the line, using mom as an excuse saying that she couldn't do it, but mostly just feeling like I would break if we had to go back to the line where we had started, wasting an hour over on the sidelines. The boss said, "come around to the preferred line" and told the woman to take us around to the other side (where they said that they had looked for us in the first place). However, to get to that spot with all our luggage, we had to go through the line which I suddenly realized might have been where the woman had been trying to take us from the beginning (although I am not certain). Once in the "preferred" area, not a real line, just next to a line of people that seemed to be going faster than a different line, we sat and waited again. Finally, after 15 or 20 min, the manager woman came and got us and walked us down to the other end of the counters (back to near where we had sat and waited originally), used a computer that seemed to belong to another airline, and got our tickets ready. When it was time to pay the exit taxes, which are only in cash, it turned out that Made had been wrong about the amount by 10x and so we had to find an ATM and get more money while the woman waited. Oh, and did I mention that one of our bags was too heavy and so we had to re-organize our suitcases right there at the counter!
This whole time, I was very stressed. I was feeling claustrophobic, which happens to me when I am in big crowds, or maybe it is agoraphobic, not sure, but I was on edge and ready to fall apart at any moment. River was worried about me but mom and Mat reassured him that I was fine. I was aware of my anxiety and kept telling River, and the others, that I will be fine as soon as we get through security, I just need to feel sure that we are getting on this plane and know what we are doing.
Finally, we had our tickets in our hands and they had swapped out the no-english woman for a young man who could speak English well and pushed mom's wheel-chair with a pleasant calming attitude. We made it through security, which is much more lax than in the US (they don't care about shoes, water, or taking out laptops). Once in there, I started to relax, until the guy pushing us looked at our tickets and said "there is no gate yet" so I will just leave you wherever you want and then pick you up once we know which gate it is. I asked "well, when is the flight" and he said that they didn't know yet. It was about 10:30 by now and the original flight was at 11:00 but the ticket said 12:30, but that didn't seem to be a real time, instead just something to fill in the space on the ticket. So, he dropped us off and we were left not knowing when or where we would board our flight! Suffice it to say, may anxiety did not go away. Traveling gives me a certain amount of anxiety anyway, and this trip gave us more luggage and more people to manage. The part of me that has trouble letting go of control insists that I control the passports, tickets, timelines, etc. Even though I was aware of how capable my companions were, I still couldn't let go of that control and so not knowing our gate or departure time was very hard on me. Every time someone would go to the bathroom or get food, I felt like I had to make sure that we weren't going to miss our flight.
Finally, I thought I heard our flight number and so I gathered everyone up and headed for the gate, at which point we ran into our wheelchair pusher who told us "no, that is 1123 not 123" and sent us back. Eventually, our guy showed up and brought us to the gate we would leave from and we promptly started boarding. By this time, it is nearly 2am.
When we got on the plane, I felt like I really needed to wind down, get rid of the anxiety, and get some sleep. So, I ordered a free drink, just one, and took a sleeping pill that my dr. had prescribed for the airplane rides. I got the drink, took a sip, made fun of the safety video with River, and then woke to the plane landing. I have very vague memories of repeatedly trying to take a drink of my mixed drink, which later Mat told me he drank most of because I kept just holding it while sleeping. I also remember getting my phone out to take a picture of River and Mom who were very cute, both sleeping and leaning into one another. The pic, though, doesn't do them justice.
Sunday
We got into Taiwan where they immediately told everyone on the plane that they did not know when we would be able to leave Taiwan, but could we please take these meal vouchers and come back in two hours. We grumbled but then did as they asked. It required us to go through their security (they have security between the international and local terminals). We got food and then waited for the guy who was supposed to come for us (mom's wheel-chair pusher), and found that he didn't show up. We finally found someone else from the airline who brought us back to the other terminal, through the security check, and to the counter where everyone was desperately trying to get a flight. They tried to tell us that they didn't know anything yet, and I told them that we needed to know something so that mom could sleep since she needed a breathing machine and couldn't sleep well on the plane. My goal was to get them to pay for a hotel room (in the airport, like we had on the way there). The complaint to them was only a half-truth since mom had slept quite a bit on the plane.
When I said "breathing machine" suddenly everyone snapped into action and before I knew it they had pulled recliner-like lounge chairs over to the corner and had set her up with a little sleeping area near an electric outlet. I went over to mom and was like, "um.. sorry.. I was trying to use you to get us a room but now it looks like your going to have to nap here in public since I kind of told them you needed to sleep". I was worried that she would be annoyed with me for putting her in that position, but she took it like a champ and got her machine out, put a sarong over her, curled up, and tried to rest.
Meanwhile, I was assigned a person to try to get us on a flight. Apparently, the flight they had originally told us about was no longer an option and so they had to find something else. After a half hour or so, our woman said that she thought that she had something. She was going to send us through Korea on a partner airline (Taiwanese airlines or something) and get us back to LAX in time for our Southwest flight to KS. She was clicking away at her computer when we heard everyone start whispering and talking. Then, she stopped and they all grouped and had a meeting behind the desks where their manager was explaining something to them. Afterwards, she told us the "good news". It turns out that they had been expending a whole flight of passengers from Bali but that all flights out of Bali were grounded again, and so all of those people were supposed to be on the last flight out of Taiwan that night, and so we could all get on that flight instead! They were thrilled because they didn't have to pay another airline premium rates to take us. However, that meant that we would arrive at like midnight and miss the last flight out of LAX to KS. Beyond that, this meant that I would be flying back to KS on my birthday, Monday, which I was very resistant to, trying to maintain one nice day to look forward to. But, there was not much that we could do, so I asked the lady to try to get us good seats, like maybe in the first class? She liked me by then, lots of smiles and half hugs and said she was working on it. I waited, eager, thinking we might actually get to try out first-class! She finally got our tickets and told us that these were good seats. When I looked them up later, there was absolutely nothing special about these seats at all except that they were near the front which meant nothing to us since we had to get on and off with the wheelchair person anyway. Oh well, I think she tried.
They gave us vouchers for two more meals as our flight wasn't for another 12 hours or so. We went ahead and booked a room at the in-airport hotel and quickly fell asleep. After a few hours, they called our room to see if we wanted to continue booking (we had originally only booked for 3 hours) and I said yes but was now wide awake, the others still sleeping. I decided to go see if I could find Mat's phone that was lost int he airplane 6 weeks earlier.
I went to the info desk and they called lost and found. After giving them the wrong email info they asked "are you sure there isn't one like wind... and I said "oh yeah, it used to be my phone, so it probably has windenergyhome..... email on it." at which point they said "yes, this is it, we have your phone". I ran back to the room, got my passport (and ticket) and came back so that they could help me get to the lost and found. As it turned out, the lost and found was on the other side of customs and so I had to leave and then re-enter to get his phone, so I have a Taiwanese stamp in my passport now. I filled out a form that I could not read at all, frustrating them as I entered things into the wrong places, but eventually I got it done.
I got back into the terminal and found Mat who was now awake and showed him that I had found his phone. He was happy to have it back.
We found that we could only use about half of our food vouchers as the options were limited and we were getting really sick of burger king, the only non-dim-sum restaurant there. Mat and Mom tried the dim-sum but still we had the equivalent of about $25 USD unspent. We searched the whole terminal and found that the only place that took the certificates that was not in the food-court was the Ganeva Chocolate stand. Our four remaining meal vouchers bought about 12 pieces of chocolate and a vanilla ice cream cone.
Finally, it was time to head to our gate, but we had to wait for our wheelchair guy to arrive. He got there late and then pushed mom so fast that we had trouble keeping up. We finally got their and I found that I couldn't find Mat's ticket. I got teared up all over again and they told us that we would have to board last. I pointed at my mom in the wheel chair and asked what about her and they said "oh, you are with her? You go now, its ok" and then eagerly reassured me that everything was ok as they re-printed his boarding pass and gave it to us and shoed us into the hallway to wait with about 15 other people in wheelchairs and their companions and pushers. This was the largest amount of people I had seen on this whole trip in wheelchairs on one flight and wondered what it was about LA that attracted the disabled...
Once on the plane, River asked me not to order any alcohol, as he was nervous after hearing his dad talk about how out-of-it I had been on the last plane. I reassured him that I didn't want to drink but that it wasn't the drink, it was the pill, and I wouldn't be taking that again.
The flight was rather un-eventful and we arrived in LAX a couple hours before we left Taiwan. Yes, we time-travelled :) Once in LA, I found out where the Southwest lost and found was and walked over there, about a half-mile away. Remember, we left a suitcase in LAX on the way to Bali. They first told me that there was no way that they would have kept it that long but I assured them that I had talked to someone who was going to tag it. She looked it up and after the third name was checked (mom's, River's, then mine) they found it in their computer and she perked up, excited, saying "we do have it!" and ran and got it for me.
I rolled it back to where Mom, River, and Mat waited with our 15 other pieces of luggage, now making a solid 16.
Having now collected our lost goods from around the world and making it back to LA, we waited for our shuttle for our hotel. The shuttle arrived and told us that he couldn't fit us all and so Mat stayed with a third of the stuff and the rest of us went and checked in. It was another hour or so before they got Mat there. Apparently 2 shuttles had passed him without stopping and it annoyed me that they didn't communicate to one another that they had just split up a family and needed another to come straight back.
Around midnight, we were all in the room and it suddenly occurred to us that we would have to get up at 5am to make our 8am flight to KS. It was not a direct flight and so we wouldn't be home until 5pm. I had booked this flight thinking that at least we would have a few hours at home on my b-day. Realizing how close 5am was, we decided as a group to change flights and we took a direct 7pm flight that would get us into KC at midnight.
Monday
We got a good nights sleep, enjoyed a slow day (with a late checkout), a nice walk to Denny's and back, and finally headed to the airport.
As we arrived, we found that our flight was delayed 2 hours and wouldn't get home until around 2am.
This whole time, every time that I changed our Southwest tickets, I also had to contact our shuttle to change our pickup. After the last flight-change, I had emailed them but hadn't yet confirmed the change on the phone. Mandolin (my sister) called me while we were still at the hotel and told me that she was going to surprise us all but needs me in on it so she confessed that she had gotten a new car and was going to show it off when she picked us up at the airport. I told her that I would be thrilled but that we wouldn't be able to fit 5 people and 16 pieces of luggage in her vehicle. She said "let me think about this" and after considering renting a small trailer, but realizing that she didn't have a hitch, she ended up renting a passenger van in order to pick us up! I kept it secret from everyone else (very hard for me) and everyone was happily surprised when we arrived to her waiting at the gate.
Mandolin called the shuttle company to cancel and they were good sports, helping my sister surprise us by offering to wait to cancel it until after so that we wouldn't get a telling email. She admitted to them that I knew but that she was calling because I felt so bad about calling and changing so many times. They made her promise that she really was picking us up and let her have her surprise.
Mom, Mat, and River were happy to see her and it let us catch up on the ride home instead of for another couple hours after getting home (she was determined to see us that night, which was actually her birthday, as hers falls 1 day after min, and 4 years before).
We finally got home at around 3 and found it hard to wind down, not getting to sleep until about 5am.
We have spent the next couple weeks trying to get back into a normal schedule and catch up at work and get our digestive tracks back used to an American diet.
That brings us up to now. Back home, and back to "normal". We miss our friends in Bali but feel quite certain that we will be back one day.
Stay tuned for my follow up where I will summarize some of my thoughts on Bali culture, but I am too tired to write any more tonight.
This picture is clearly not taken in Bali, although there were actually some similar corn-fields there, but I included it to show off the jumper that they gave me as a going away gift.
