WorldTravelReynolds

Called bin chickens because they dig around in the rubbish bins but real name is Ibis

I do admit they are hot and even more so in a hot humid environment already. Started our tour through long check-in lines, had all our bags scanned line part one, final carry on bag scan through security, immigration check lines. That’s where the long lines came to a halt for us! We had overstayed by one day. And in reality only an hour as we arrived at 11 pm the night we arrived. Another line with the immigration office to only be told you have to pay a fine of 2,000,000 Rupiah which is $145 in local cash.

Lunar New Year.  There are a large amount of Chinese that have made their home in Australia.

We gave the last amount of our Rupiah to the cab driver so Chuck had to walk through the airport to locate an ATM. After the first one didn’t work, we finally found another one. Chuck said they need to put an ATM next to immigration! We paid our fine and were finally free! We stopped just to be able to sit down, its now 9 pm. 3 hours since we left our villa and we were exhausted. We purchased a couple of coke zeros in the can and a snack. When we were ready to go, I took the rest of my drink with me to the gate.

The general post office was once described as what symbolized Sydney in the late 1800’s. This was until the Harbour bridge and Opera House were built. The beautiful tower clock that chimes on each 1/4 hour was once Sydney’s tallest structure at 73 meters until the AWA Tower, at 111 meters look over the honor.

At the gate, we had our bags opened and searched through (everyone did, we weren’t special) I’m not sure what they were looking for. He said I had to leave the soda in the rubbish. I told him I would finish before getting on the plane. He showed me where to put the unfinished drink in a tub. More water bottles and drinks in the same tub. This was either a Bali rule or maybe an Australia rule since we had to sign a declaration form stating we didn’t have any fruit, vegetables or even mud on our shoes before arriving.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Finally on the plane at 10 pm. 4 hours from the beginning of this adventure, as Chuck likes to say. The only option we had to get out of Bali, Indonesia was to fly at night. I’m not good at flying anyway but trying to sleep on a plane is horrible. We flew on Jetstar. I had never heard of this airlines and it is a budget airlines but it still cost us $600 USD to fly one way. The good news is we paid for that flight with credit card points.

The Martin Place Heritage Walk

I purchased an airline care pack which included a blanket, socks, neck pillow, toothbrush and even some chap stick. It sure came in handy but I still slept very little and Chuck didn’t do much better. The good news is it was only a 6 hour flight. We made it to Sydney and of course we have a few more lines. Immigration again. Our passport has the electronic feature. You scan it at a machine and it spits out a card. You stand in another line and the camera scans your face to match to your passport. The sign and guards told us to take our glasses off.

Altar of Remembrance memorial with a soldier and a sailor standing guard as a reminder of the sacrifices that Australians have made at war. ANZAC Day remembrance services are held here each year.

Chuck and I both agreed we would be rejected and we were right. All new passport pictures created the year or so after ours require that we take our glasses off. Our first passport has our glasses on, our secondary passports have them off. We had to stand in another line to talk to the immigration officer personally. She had a hard time identifying me from the picture so asked for more ID. Chuck gave her my drivers license. Both the passport and my DL have long hair. Maybe she matched those two, I don’t know but I was finally let through.

The light rail is one of the many mass transit options in Sydney.

Was all of this day a bad experience? Not really, just long and exhausting. We have been through so many different scenarios at airports that nothing surprises us anymore. We are now in our apartment for 7 days before our cruise boards next weekend. This morning we dropped off our bags but wasn’t allowed to check in until 2 pm. We came back around noon and they let us in. We crashed for about 4 hours. Even ordered for pizza delivery for dinner.

I liked this map on the plane because it shows how far we are from home!

I’ll always hate travel days but they always lead to the next adventure so the complaining is minimal.

We will venture out now that we are settled and somewhat rested to see a little more of Sydney and hopefully get some great photos to share. When we arrived, it was really hazy from the smoke. Today, its been raining all day which is something Australia really needs. Hopefully the fires are under control and finished. We are on our way out to buy groceries for the week. We haven’t cooked a meal since we left Morocco on the 29th of November. We may have to retrain ourselves! That will give us a 4-5 days left to explore Sydney until we leave for the 35 day cruise around Australia.

I still need to write about the monkeys and our hike on our last 3 days in Bali. I’ll have that done before we leave for the cruise. Promise!

May God bless you always!

Chuck & Lea Ann  

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