Traveling to Bali from Thailand as part of our vacation was an adventure within an adventure, with plenty of surprises and pleasures.

Before our trip, I was sitting in the Japanese town of Nara, known to have freely roaming deer, when I received a message that our flight from Thailand to Bali had been rescheduled to an earlier time. As a result, I was given the option to change the flight, receive a refund, or simply be assigned to the new flight. This change wasn’t ideal for us, as it meant we would have to wait at the Denpasar airport for almost an entire day before Marianna’s mother would be able to pick us up. Some time ago, Marianna and I adopted the mindset that there must be something good in every situation, and this has become a necessity while traveling. I wondered what good could come from this inconvenient change. Sitting in Japan, nothing came to mind, so I had to let it go.

About two weeks later, during the final week of our stay in Japan, I realized that we had overbooked the length of our stay in Thailand and exceeded the 30-day visa-free period by two days. We had the option to apply for a 60-day visa, which would require some effort and additional cost; otherwise, we had to change our flight to Bali. Unfortunately, there was no option to change the flight—only to book a new one, which would mean losing the original ticket. Luckily, I remembered the message I received while in Nara, Japan. Due to the time change of our original flight to Bali, I was entitled to a free cancellation, which I used, booking a new ticket that was 100 GBP cheaper than the one originally reserved. So far, we were off to a good start.

Finding Sunshine in the Showers

Our journey began very early as we left our resort in Bang Saray. We encountered a heavy downpour about 20 minutes into our drive, near Pattaya. The situation became increasingly challenging with each passing minute—puddles began forming on the highway, and traffic slowed to around 60 km/h. We only had a buffer of 30-40 minutes to get to our flight, a notion that became more and more stressful as time went on. We needed to return the car to Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)—Thailand’s largest and busiest airport, located about 25 km east of downtown Bangkok. After that, we had to get to Don Mueang Airport (DMK), the elder of Bangkok’s two airports, situated about 24 km north of the city centre.

After about 20 minutes of driving through the pouring rain, I realized that I didn’t want to stress about the situation—it was what it was. We had little time to spare, but eventually, the skies began to clear and the rain vanished. We calmly arrived at the car rental return at BKK. We dropped the keys in the box, opting not to wait a half-hour for the rental office to open. Usually, upon return, I prefer to be present during the inspection of a rented car, but because we were pressed for time, we trusted that everything would be fine. I left a tip in the car and about a week later, our full deposit was returned.

Making It to the Flight and Our Destination

To get to DMK, we ordered a six-person taxi on the spot from the rental office, as only standard five-person taxis could be pre-booked in advance. Fortunately, our Uber driver arrived within a few minutes. Bangkok was very busy at 8 a.m., and the roads were jam-packed with traffic. Our driver must have been well accustomed to this scenario because, with typical Thai calm, he began speedily manoeuvring through the congested streets—switching lanes, driving on the shoulder, and merging into traffic at the last moment. Despite the dreadful traffic, we reached DMK in about an hour, giving us plenty of time to drop off our luggage and relax at the airport.

The flight itself went smoothly. We circled over Denpasar for about 15 minutes, waiting for our turn to land. Our first task upon arrival was to purchase visas; after paying around 120 GBP for five people, we proceeded to passport control. This went quickly, and we moved to fill out a declaration regarding items brought into Bali. After scanning the received code, we were through with all the formalities.

Our last thing to do at the airport was to visit an ATM. I had never withdrawn such a large amount before—we took out 15 million IDR in 100,000 banknotes. It made for a substantial stack that wouldn’t fit in my wallet.

We called the gentleman from whom we were renting a car, but I’ll tell you about the car rental and our first drive in Bali in a separate article.