Globe Journey: October 2011

The Odyssey: Boarding the plane to Seoul

From Bali we had a flight to Seoul with Air Asia doing a transfer in Kuala Lumpur. We were not expecting any major trouble in our transfer as we knew in South Korea you get a visa on arrival.

We were all excited going in to our transfer for our Seoul flight when the Air Asia lady checking our tickets to Seoul says: "Where is your ongoing flight out of Seoul" ... and we are like: "We are in an around the world trip we will leave Seoul to keep traveling plus we should get a visa with no issues in Seoul"... and then she replies: "You will not board the Air Asia flight until I don´t see a ticket our of Seoul"... there was no point on discussing this further.

We tried to assess our situation... 2 hours to the flight in Seoul we need to book a ticket out ASAP!! we try using the free wifi from the airport and book a ticket to Beijing with China Southern Airlines.. but the wireless connection is soooo slow that the browser keep on timing out!!!.... 1.30h to the flight... stress starting to take over.... we ask to be allowed out of the transfer area in order to get a better connection.

We find a good wifi connection and try again to book the China Southern Airlines website but after filling everything the page gives a strange error and ask to contact the company..... 45min to our flight!!!! stress really takes over now...

We call the airline company brunch in Malaysia but the lady doesn´t speak very good English and was booking our flight to another Chinese city.... we give up and called the Chinese brunch which we are so lucky to get a person that spoke good English and was able to book our ticket!!!... but after tells us that will only send the confirmation in 1 hour!!! stress really takes over. We try to explain that we need it now.. our flight to Seoul is leaving in 20min!!!!!

as you can see from the above picture everything worked well!!! we were able to board our flight and in the way get some dim sum snacks for the flight!!!

Guess what!! when we arrive to Seoul the immigration officer just stamped our passport for 90 DAYS!!! with no questions asked about a flight out of Seoul!!! BAD BAD BAD Air Asia, putting customers in to a huge stress for nothing! do you believe while we were struggling to get our flight to Beijing! that they suggested us to buy a ticket with Air Asia back to Kuala Lumpur... as exit flight from Seoul!!! :P

Anyway! we arrived well to Seoul and had an amazing time there!!! more to come :)))

Terima Kasih Bali, Thank you Bali!

Terima Kasih Bali Indonesia!!!! We spent 18 days in this amazing island and we had a wonderful time! We saw some amazing places and meet really nice people long the way.

Mid September was the best time to visit Bali, as it was low season :) you could get really nice prices for accommodation and the most touristic places were not crowded. We started our journey without knowing exactly what to expect and what to see :P but thanks to Wikitravel and the Rough Guide we managed fine! We only had the first two nights booked the rest of our accommodation we found as soon we arrived to each place.

One advice is if your are going for guest houses and budget accommodation always ask to see the room before paying! they are used to this in Bali, no one took it negatively when we asked to see the room first.

As well don´t be afraid to bargain the room price :) and try a discount if you are staying longer, as it was low season there was some bargaining power here!

For travelling around Bali we used the Perama bus, but we realized later that for two is more comfortable and sometimes a little bit cheaper to take a taxi, you just need again to bargain down the price! Basically we bargain down everything in Bali... maybe not restaurants and fancy hotels :) although you can always try ehehhehe

The food in Bali is amazing! really tasty! and the pineapple and watermelon juice! yummy!! what to avoid.... tap water and uncooked vegetables!

It was truly an amazing start of our Globe Journey!

We leave you it the sort video of the amazing Kecak dance,

Our next stop: Seoul, South Korea!!

Our last city in Bali: Lovina

We had a wonderful time in Ubud! but it was time to move on,

Initially we had thought to go to Padang Bai... but when we arrived there we saw it was mainly a port city to travel to the Gili islands, a lot of boats everywhere and not the relaxing beach we were looking forward. So we took the Perama bus to Candi Casa,

Candicasa looked promising but we couldn´t find a nice hotel at a decent price....so here we go again!!! this time we took a taxi to Amed (after bargaining the price). We started to search for a hotel and we found a nice room.... but we tried to search for a better deal... and when we arrived back that room was booked :( so we ended up with the worst room we had in this trip so far :P .... it was on top of the reception and facing the street.. nightmare! really hot and mega noisy!!! but while in this hotel we meet really nice people! Jonathan and Manu! we ended up going with them to the amazing Lovina and in the way visiting some amazing places!

First stop was snorkeling where a Japanese boat suck,

Visiting the hot springs,

After we arrived at the amazing Lovina! we enjoyed it so much that we ended up staying 3 days,

The next day we woke up early to see the dolphins... we confess our expectations were low... we thought this was just a tourist trap... buttttt we did see a lot of dolphins :) and an amazing sun-rising!