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- Jul 12, 2018
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This Trip Report won’t be for everyone. I’ve been in two minds for months over whether to write it at all. But there hasn’t been a Bali trip report on AFF for … well, for almost a whole year now. And the circumstances of this TR might be of some interest to at least a small subset of AFF readers.
It all started when my daughter got married in March 2024. She married a lovely young man, and after they announced their engagement I told them that I’d use my points to fly them in Business Class to anywhere in the world, for their honeymoon.
Somewhat to my relief, they chose New Zealand. So I decided to pamper them with at least a hint of the proper international Business Class experience. I flew them from Melbourne to Sydney in Qantas 737 Business Class (probably for them the highlight of that particular flight was the domestic Business Lounge in MEL), where they overnighted in Sydney before catching the Emirates A380 to Christchurch.
That flight went very, very well.
After a mostly-amazing honeymoon my daughter approached me and said, “Dad, thanks so much. We had such a great time that if you’re OK with using your points for our flights, we’d love to have a holiday with you and Mum!”.
Readers with adult children will know that when your kids volunteer to willingly spend time with you for a week, you jump at the chance. Even if there are strings attached.
And yes, there were strings attached. (A) I had to use my points to fly them. Happy to do that. (B) It needed to be somewhere warm. Fine with me, even though personally I rather like the cold. (C) They needed to be able to swim, at a proper surf beach with waves, without being eaten by crocodiles or fatally stung by box jellyfish. Fair enough, probably. (D) It needed to be mid-year, during my daughter’s university mid-year break.
Put together, (C) and (D) effectively ruled out anywhere in Australia. Darn crocodiles. Could we have risked it at somewhere like Cable Beach? Probably. But it would have been a lot more expensive, with no guarantee of decent surf.
It came down to Fiji or Bali. And I have spent many years solemnly and publicly swearing that I’d never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, go to Bali (that’s what living in Perth does to you).
But then I checked prices and availability for Fiji. As for flight availability, there was nothing. It is school holidays, after all. As VA Platinum I could have taken advantage of their reward flight guarantee thingy, but even so the peak-period accommodation prices were greater than I was wanting to pay, especially as I was already planning for a not-insignificant splurge which took place early this year.
So Bali it is. Is my vow to never go there a reasonable, informed, sensible choice which is about to be reinforced? Or is it racist, ignorant, condescending arrogance which I shall shortly regret with deep shame? Ask me in a week!
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks enduring comments from work colleagues along the lines of “I’d have never thought that you were the sort of person who’d want to go to Bali!”. And as soon as my GP learned about my forthcoming trip, he insisted on jabbing me with vaccinations for Typhoid (dull pain in the arm), Covid (stings, and I felt awful the next day), and Hepatitis A (not too bad). He also prescribed me a drug for vomiting and nausea, and another for diarrhoea, and not-too-subtly made it clear that he thinks that going to Bali is not the greatest idea I’ve ever had.
So as I prepare to leave, I feel the most reluctant I’ve ever felt before a holiday. But we get to spend time with our daughter and her lovely husband – and what could possibly go wrong?
Stick around and we’ll find out together.
It all started when my daughter got married in March 2024. She married a lovely young man, and after they announced their engagement I told them that I’d use my points to fly them in Business Class to anywhere in the world, for their honeymoon.
Somewhat to my relief, they chose New Zealand. So I decided to pamper them with at least a hint of the proper international Business Class experience. I flew them from Melbourne to Sydney in Qantas 737 Business Class (probably for them the highlight of that particular flight was the domestic Business Lounge in MEL), where they overnighted in Sydney before catching the Emirates A380 to Christchurch.
That flight went very, very well.
After a mostly-amazing honeymoon my daughter approached me and said, “Dad, thanks so much. We had such a great time that if you’re OK with using your points for our flights, we’d love to have a holiday with you and Mum!”.
Readers with adult children will know that when your kids volunteer to willingly spend time with you for a week, you jump at the chance. Even if there are strings attached.
And yes, there were strings attached. (A) I had to use my points to fly them. Happy to do that. (B) It needed to be somewhere warm. Fine with me, even though personally I rather like the cold. (C) They needed to be able to swim, at a proper surf beach with waves, without being eaten by crocodiles or fatally stung by box jellyfish. Fair enough, probably. (D) It needed to be mid-year, during my daughter’s university mid-year break.
Put together, (C) and (D) effectively ruled out anywhere in Australia. Darn crocodiles. Could we have risked it at somewhere like Cable Beach? Probably. But it would have been a lot more expensive, with no guarantee of decent surf.
It came down to Fiji or Bali. And I have spent many years solemnly and publicly swearing that I’d never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, go to Bali (that’s what living in Perth does to you).
But then I checked prices and availability for Fiji. As for flight availability, there was nothing. It is school holidays, after all. As VA Platinum I could have taken advantage of their reward flight guarantee thingy, but even so the peak-period accommodation prices were greater than I was wanting to pay, especially as I was already planning for a not-insignificant splurge which took place early this year.
So Bali it is. Is my vow to never go there a reasonable, informed, sensible choice which is about to be reinforced? Or is it racist, ignorant, condescending arrogance which I shall shortly regret with deep shame? Ask me in a week!
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks enduring comments from work colleagues along the lines of “I’d have never thought that you were the sort of person who’d want to go to Bali!”. And as soon as my GP learned about my forthcoming trip, he insisted on jabbing me with vaccinations for Typhoid (dull pain in the arm), Covid (stings, and I felt awful the next day), and Hepatitis A (not too bad). He also prescribed me a drug for vomiting and nausea, and another for diarrhoea, and not-too-subtly made it clear that he thinks that going to Bali is not the greatest idea I’ve ever had.
So as I prepare to leave, I feel the most reluctant I’ve ever felt before a holiday. But we get to spend time with our daughter and her lovely husband – and what could possibly go wrong?
Stick around and we’ll find out together.
, but I’ll definitely go one day probably when kids are older, however will be staying at premium places, and no Jetstar!
