Day 19-20: Singapore to E-ville

Day 19-20: Singapore to E-ville

The most bizarre check-in ever. The guy checking in at the Crowne Plaza has a mask on. He is communicating with a woman with luggage on a cart in the far background. They are using hand signals and some language though of course THB can't understand it (let alone hear her). She must be 30-35 feet away. Maybe she doesn't want to get coronavirus from him? From THB? THB is not wearing a mask though he still has Budi's gift.

Quote of the Day 19: 

Oh yeah Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what's my name
I tell you one time, you're to blame

Oh, right

What's my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name

Weather: Another scorcher.

There's a monkey at lower left, very camouflaged, on the road leaving 6 Senses

DB notices the burn holes in THB's rash/sun guard. She also notices it really isn't a rahs/sun guard, rather a lightweight undergarment that THB used in Antarctica. Doesn't leave 6 Senses

Budi gives us a going-away present: a pack of 5 very thin face masks. If these worked then 9 billion people would be wearing them now. 

Today in FC the a/c is on and there are no mats. Breakfast same as yesterday except we try hot dishes as well. Nothing special. DB waits 20 minutes for a buggy to take her back to the room while THB climbs the stairs and beats her by 18 minutes.

More mistakes at breakfast. It’s a drumbeat here at 6 Senses: lots (and lots and lots) of idle chatter and many, many mistakes. They have been open for almost 2 years. In our 36 hours here, THB has talked to two managers, accepting humble apologies (one THB called when they hadn’t moved us to an a/c capable room; the other came to us when lemonade never appeared). THB has rarely talked to a manager at any hotel, so 6 Senses here in Bali really stands out. It is way below its sister in Portugal and we’re very happy we didn’t stay in any in Bhutan (they were brand new). And Capella looks better and better.

As Budi says, they have no spirit. So true. Budi and Wayan come to 6 Senses to shuttle us in an easy ride to the airport and we deliver their tips.

We're now in our room at Crowne Plaza, the view from our window

Business person's special: desk, long ledges

We have a courtyard view, this is the pool around 4pm, mostly abandoned

Just like the Remota in Chile, a glass bathroom. In this case you can lower a shade inside the bathroom for privacy

Then we do something we’ve never tried before: we check our two bags through to SFO even though we’re spending the night in Singapore. Will they make it to SFO when we do? Stay tuned for breaking news. It makes our moving around in the Singapore airport much easier.

We spend time in the lounge; a very easy 2 hour plane ride to Singapore (huge plane is maybe only 30% full).

The Jewel from the outside

A massive water structure

The view from the bottom looking up

Our dinner spot, all these food places are "fast" food...no fancy dining spots that we could see. The American places (e.g., A&W, KFC) are the busiest places

THB is having hot-ish tea, it is a metho day so no alcohol, forward or not

Bok choy

Bake pork bao at top and rice noodle rolls with pork at bottom

Back to Singapore, a dollar here is about 75 cents in US

Every receipt comes with a chance to win a million Singapore dollars (not rupiah) and you go to a kiosk and of course you have to enter a bunch of personal data...THB and DB give their dinner receipt to the ice cream scooper

Not bad, apparently made with raw milk (is that different than not raw milk?)

DB has gelato, made with Italian amor?

This pre-light show: more like Beverly Hills lights at corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica

We’re spending the night in the Crowne Plaza, right in the airport and visiting “The Jewel” which is sort of an amusement park/food court next to the CP. There’s a huge waterfall attraction with a tedious light show (5 minutes seemed like 50 to THB) and ancillary activities you can pay for and many eating and shopping establishments (100s of each….it’s staggering). Dim sum and ice milk softee and gelato for dinner, grand total $55. Both places take AMEX. We’ve timed the trip just right: no Singapore dollars or rupiah left over (though THB thinks he may have saved the 500 rupiah coin he received somewhere in Indonesia).

Day 20:   Continued

One oddity with our CP room: there are two "windows" that don't look out (good thing because on the other side of the wall is the hallway outside our room) 

Quote of the Day: James Baldwin, from the epitaph of the book reviewed below, referring to Leonel Gomes Vides, Carolyn Forche’s mentor / inspiration

For the strangest people in the world are those people recognized, beneath

one’s sense, by one’s soul – the people utterly indispensable for one’s journey

Weather: Preciously cool in E-ville at 7:45am

How do you know your trip is coming to an end? You have just enough pills for one, maybe two days. THB thought about making this a pictorial pop quize, Name These Meds. Winner gets a free refill of her or his choice. The A-reds (for mac degen and the calcium/D pills are kept separate for some bizarre reason)

Waiting for the sky train between terminals. Today we took a tram, a plane, a train and Uber, and walked a bit

Up early at Crowne Plaza and find our way quickly to Terminal 3 to verify our check-in at Denpasar. 

What does THB do in the biz class lounge when not blogging or eating...studying his Kindle

All good, except our flight to SFO leaves from Terminal 1. This airport is so huge that we need to leave the Singapore lounge 1.5 hours before take-off. Singapore Air does not have a lounge in Terminals 1 or 2. We ride the Sky Train (really a tram), so we didn’t need to leave so much time.

First lunch

Inedible, THB isn't actually hungry

Strawberry ice cream (made with raw, semi-raw or not raw milk) and supplemented with Trader Joe's chocolate. 

Sky piracy worries are over, Sngapore Air now gives you THREE real knives, enough to hijack two planes in the pre 9/11 days.

2nd meal is slightly better: both THB and DB remove the fish chunks and eat the sushi rice (THB adds soy and wasabi to his)

Here’s a surprise: instead of SFO we are on way to Mumbai. No, wait, we’re going to Chennai. The boarding area is at least 80% Indian. It is so stark that DB checks with the red headed guy next to her (no, on her other side, THB has some white strands sticking out of his scalp, nothing approaching red) and asks where this flight is going. He confirms that it is indeed bound for SFO. DB likes to double-check, she asks one of the stewardesses who has no idea for this “imbalance.”

Book Review: What You Have Heard Is True, Carolyn Forche’: A beautifully written memoir of the poet’s time spent in El Salvador 42 years ago (or so) just as the country was about to dissolve into civil war, and brought current with what is really  a short epilogue. It is frightening in its naivete of the danger the author was enmeshed in all those years ago and how complicit the US was in fostering yet another destabilization of a much poorer country for reasons that have always seemed to ignore the needs of the many for the benefit of the very few. Corruption and force are a terribly potent combination, always lurking there in humanity to the detriment of the many. And, a brief and intense glimpse into the life of a highly unique activist/philosopher. Highly Recommended and most likely will be THB’s top book by year-end

Singapore Airlines delivers, our bags are some of the first to arrive on the carousel, so the drop and hold from Bali worked great!! 

The happiest kids on the block after realizing that THBs' and DBs' bags made it back safely