Meeting Donovan and Carrie in Kuta Bali

Today I had one very important appointment.

Donovan who works with us on our BootsnAll.com website in Portland Oregon was due to arrive today at 2.30pm with his new wife Carrie.

I parked my motorbike at Internet Outpost in Kuta and took a taxi to the airport. Donovan had emailed me and said he wanted to do the the ‘hotel honeymoon thing’ with Carrie and I was planning on helping them find a hotel. I also prepared a room in my house for them as a back up.

The taxi ride took about 10 minutes and cost 10,000rp. Most international arrivals are scheduled for midday and between 1pm and 4pm there are 11 flights. The place is like a zoo with touts, taxi drivers, hotel reps and tourists all out looking for someone. I had seen Donovan’s face on the BootsnAll.com website but never met him. After looking at several people who ‘might be him’ I decided to make a sign. Finally Donovan came out and we hooked up immediately. Donovan and Carrie told me they almost didn’t make the LA-Hong Kong flight and had to agree to board without luggage. Their luggage comes tommorrow and if it doesn’t, clothing is cheap here in Bali.

A pitstop at my house to allow us to get acquainted and find Donovan some clothes gave me a chance to introduce them to Made my pembantu and her sister Wayan, the lady who helped me with a bbq once before. They were cleaning the house and were all smiles to see us.

I had bought a ton of fruit anticipating my new guests and we got into some passion fruit and a juicy ripe mango.

Out on Jl. Legian we hailed a cab and went off to check out a couple of hotels. The first was the saphir bali Resort on Jl. Petitenget in Kerobokan. Its a Balinese styled place and is very nice. Donovan asked me for another recommendation that was a tad cheaper and I suggested the Bali Agung Village. Before meeting Donovan and Carrie I had printed out some prices from Baliblog. Showing up at Bali Agung Village on Jl. Dhyana Pura the staff showed us a Standard room and told us it was US$70. I whipped out my Baliblog printout and said “We can book it online right now for US$38, how about it?” That did the trick and shows the margin some of these places charge. I tell you if you want a good deal book it through Baliblog, Donovan and Carrie saved 46%.

Donovan and Carrie have travelled in Africa before but never in Asia. I think they’ll do fine and Donovan told me he wants to get out and explore the island. They might rent motorbike soon, which will aloow them to really get around. My friend Mick Turnbull will be back in Bali soon and I hope we can all do a motorbike trip with him. We are planning a short trip to the Gili islands in Lombok with myself and my friend Ika, so that will be a great adventure.

We strolled up Jl. Dhyana Pura and ate Indonesian food at Warung Mimpi. Its the laid back ‘padang style’ food and very good. Donovan told me stories from the office back in Oregon which brought back memories and delivered my new camera!

I could tell they were exhausted and soon after eating they both headed back down the street to hit the sack. I will rendezvous with them tomorrow and help them enjoy their honeymoon…they are both drinkers so that shouldn’t be hard.