Tag: Singapore Airlines

Travelling to Bali, Indonesia

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Today we woke up at 430am to catch a 730am flight to Denpasar, the capital city of Bali, Indonesia. I woke up feeling quite unwell so I didn’t feel like eating. I attributed my stomach problems to the noodles in my Laksa Soup, that I ate the previous day, being made of rice. I have developed a rather large sensitivity to rice, corn, and potatoes within the last six months.

The flight to Denpasaar was on a SCOOT Boeing 787-9, and took about 2.75 hours, which is a very short hop for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. SCOOT is a low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines that was started in 2012. It merged with Tigerair in July 2017. The airline was fairly “hip” and had electronica music playing upon departure and arrival, as well as a neat rainbow inspired lighting scheme.

After arriving in Bali we took a GRAB (think Uber) to our hotel; Ratan Hotel Uluwatu Pecatu, about 30 minutes (16km) away. The hotel was fairly nice for only $40/night, however they could have cleaned the room a bit better. The small private pool area was quite nice, but we never used it, because it was too cold. Haha. Before diving into our adventures let’s look at the history of Bali, Indonesia.

Bali History

Bali is a province of Indonesia, and is the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was originally inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian’s who migrated originally from Taiwan. Culturally and linguistically, Balinese people are quite closely related to people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tourism makes up for about 80% of Bali’s economy. Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in a Muslim-majority Indonesia, with roughly 87% of Balinese people adhering to Hinduism. Bali’s capital city is Denpasar, which is comprised of about 2.3 million people. Bali has a total population of 4.3 million people, which means over half the population lives in the capital.

Exploring Bali

After napping for about four hours we dropped off our laundry to get cleaned. Laundry is very cheap to get washed in Indonesia, typically costing about $1/kg. It was then time to get some dinner. We ate at Warung Boga Sari. Warung’s are typically where the local’s eat, and it’s cost is typically $3-5 and is based on the weight of the food served. We had a bunch local Indonesian dishes, including Tempe, which is fermented Tofu. It’s one of my favourites so far. On the way back we stopped in at Indomaret (Not Indomarket. Think 7-11) for some water, and a few snacks. We really struggled to stay awake, so that was the extent of our day.

Travelling to Singapore

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Today Julie and I set off on a 17 day trip to Singapore and Bali, Indonesia. We booked Premium Economy seats through Air Canada for just under $1200 return. Some of the cost was covered by Air Canada Aeroplan points.

We had to take a bit of a milk run approach to get to Singapore, travelling from Calgary to Vancouver on an Air Canada Boeing 737-8 MAX, then from Vancouver to Tokyo on an Air Canada Boeing 787-9. We were upgraded to Business Class (Air Canada Signature Class) for only $200/pp on the Vancouver to Tokyo portion of the trip because of my Aeroplan status. We had a six hour layover in Tokyo and used it as an opportunity to take a shower ($10), and relax in the lounge. COVID is currently having a major impact on Japan at the moment, and foreigners are not allowed to visit, unless it’s for business purposes, therefore the airport was ominously quiet. In fact, our flight was the only one that evening, as you can see by the flight billboard. Originally we were only supposed to have a four hour layover, but our next flight was delayed due to a late arriving inbound flight.

The next leg of our journey was on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER to Singapore in Premium Economy. The seats were fairly comfortable, however the food wasn’t as good as on Air Canada.

We finally arrived at 3:45am and checked into our hotel; Yotel Singapore Changi, a pod style hotel which is located inside The Jewel at the airport. I have previously stayed at a Yotel hotel in Amsterdam in 2018 when I went to Kenya. You can checkout my blog on that adventure here. The Jewel is a nature-themed entertainment and retail complex inside of Changi Airport. The Jewel, which cost $1.7 billion to build, was opened in mid-2019. It features the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, the Rain Vortex, and is surrounded by a luscious terraced forest setting. I’ll check it out more tomorrow morning.

The Rain Vortex was designed by WET Design, which has created some of the world’s most famous fountains including The Dubai Fountain, Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, 1988 Lisbon Expo Fountains, Fountain of Nations at EPCOT in Florida, etc. I’ve seen all the above forementioned fountains, with the exception to the Dubai Fountain, as I’ve yet to visit Dubai. WET (Water Entertainment Technologies) was founded by Mark Fuller, Melanie Simon and Alan Robinson in 1983. All three worked as Imagineers at Disney. Their original creation was the Leapfrog foundation at EPCOT.

Having been awake for over 30 hours it was time to get some sleep. We opted to not set an alarm, as we wanted to catch up on some much-needed sleep. It was about 4am by the time we went to sleep.