Around the World 2024

The Holiday of a Lifetime (8th March - 6th November)

What an unforgettable eight months that was! And all thanks to my amazing dearest loveliest Lebley Jane. 

In just over 240 days (almost 2/3, that is 65%, of a whole year) we visited 28 countries in 5 continents with 100 different accommodation stays averaging 2.42 nights per stay. A few were too long but so many were not long enough.

Since we got back people have often asked us "so what was your favourite destination?" 

The truth is there have been just too many highlights to do them credit. And rather than spending hours boring the pants off people I'm going to try to summarise them all here in this blog. 

What follows is the briefesy summary of the whole trip. If there's a visit you wan to know more about you can click the links in the text, or the photo collages below them, to zoom into a blog post specifically about that part of the holiday. Otherwise just scan through the summaries below and read the briefest of notes here. 

I still can't believe how I ever did travel blogs whilst actually travelling before. My first one was "Algirdo in Brazil 2014" which I wrote, literally as I travelled. Two years later I did "Aljice en France 2026" and two years after that, "Algis goes to Russia" - my favourite one, I think. Then I wrote a blog, over four years, tracing Nottingham Forest's glory years "Forest 40 Years Ago". I think I'm most proud of the research that went into that one. And I did another for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 before this one.

Apart from the Forest 40 Years Ago one, all the others were written as I travelled. But not htis one. In fact this one has taken me almost TWO YEARS to complete. Why so long? Apart from laziness, we obviously we did a lot more, for a lot longer and went to many more destinations, than i ecer did before. It was never going to be possible to record everything as we went and, let's face it, to do so would have detracted from the enjoyment of it. 

The other reson is just the sheer volume of images collected. I estimate that Lesley and I captured over 20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) photos and videos of the trip. I have tried to go through every single one of them, removing the worst ones and any duplicates. Most of the photos have been cropped in some way and thus improved and all of the videos have been processed too - sometimes combining them, sometimes editing bits out of them, but always compressing them to a smaller format, at the expense of some quality.

Anyway, apart from this blog acting as a handy on-line diary for Leb and me to refer to whenevr we forget anything about what we did, I hope it will serve as an interesting record for our grandchildren, and close family at least. Of course anyone else who might be interested is welcome too. If you spot any errors, broken links etc. please email me algis@kuliukas.com.

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March

The trip started with us staying with Žem & Frankie in Bendigo. It was the perfect way to start the holiday - with family (including Pippin the dog) in a new part of the world for us, but one that was still just like home. I quite liked Bendigo and we enjoyed visiting the old gold mine and the bizarre Buddhist Stupa.

We then left these shores and headed for another, quite familiar feeling country, New Zealand. We had long planned a road trip around that amazingly spectacular land and lived up to expectations. We started on the South Island, at Queenstown, then drove down to Invercargill and then up to a fabulous cruise on Milford Sound. 

Then we driove back to Queenstown and then up along the west coast and across to Marlborough for a lovely wine tour. 

Next we caught the ferry across to the North Island where, after a fabulous but far too short stay in Wellington we drove up through Tongariro National Park, Lake Taupo, and then the sulphuric stinky Rotorua. Then we visited Hobbitland where I went down with a nasty urinary tract infection. (Leb had a great time!) I received wonderful medical attention in Hamilton before finishing off in Auckland.

After New Zealand, we flew across the vast Pacific Ocean and the International Time Line, bizarrely arriving in Mexico City pretty much the same time we left Auckland - albeit almost 24 hours later, if you see what I mean. 

The main reason for going to Mexico was to see the full total eclipse in Mazatlan, having witnessed our first in Exmouth, WA the year before. But we also squeezed in a visit to Teotihuacan and the Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City. The four days we had at La Paz which included snorkelling with whale sharks and sealions.

After the most amazing eclipse in Mazatlan we visited Guadalajara and then enjoyed our last stop in Guanajuato. Mexico was great, and not at all scary. The food was fantastic but I must admit I did start to long for some bland British stodge by the end of our stay.

April

Next stop was the USA. We started by visiting New Orleans and experiencing the music of the French Quarter. We caught the overnight Amtrak line train line from New Orleans to New York and had to skip Atlanta and a few other cities we'd hoped to visit as America is just so expensive. We both loved New York and it was especially great to be in the Ukrainian quarter when "speaker" Mike Johnson finally agreed to pass the military aid package to Ukraine (only about 10% of that has been delivered even now). 

The majority of our time away was spent in Europe and there's no surprise there. The thing I miss most about emigrating from England is its close proximity to so many countries on the continent. So, our first stop was Portugal's capital Lisbon, then Porto via Coimbra and then three nights in the Duoro Valley.

Spain's Barcelona was next. After a couple of nights in the massive coastal city we caught the train, via Zaragoza, to the Rioja region and then onto San Sebastian in the Basque Country. The tapas, hot chocolate and wine in these places were all magnificent. 

May

After April had turned into May, we made the short journey from Euskadi (Basque Country) to South West France so Leb could have a birthday treat week with her sister, Lucy in Nerigean not far from Bordeaux. So much delicious food and wine. Lovely.

Whilst Leb stayed on in France to try to reduce the number of things they had missed in their conversations, I had a great few days in London, watching Spurs v Man City, visiting the Hunterian museum and attending a talk by Yulia Mykytenko at the Ukrainian club.

Then, Leb rejoined me and after I met her at Gatwick and picked up a hire car, we drove south to the delightful Sussex village of Alfriston to hear a great talk on Piltdown Man by Vernon Reynolds.

We then had a lovely road trip down the south coast of England, seeing Julia & David in Brighton, Ingrid Brocklesby near Bournemouth, Leb's dear uncle Barry in Looe before popping in to stay at Lyme Regis.

Paul and Judy McKeon kindly hosted us for a few days at theirs before we retraced our wedding 37 years ago at the still functioning Catholic Church and the sadly now derelict Sodyba.

It was great to see Rob Steel and Elly Nason and their growing family before going back to our old stomping ground, High Wycomeb in Bucks. We visited our first three homes there before heading up the M40 to Oxford where we had a lovely evening with Primatologist Simon Bearder. Leb then headed off to London whilse I enjoyed a fantastic pub crawl in some of Oxford's famous old pubs.

Leb visited her dear friends, Susie Pascall and Nicky Villeneau including, thankfully spending a few days with Toots before her health deteriorated. 

Meanwhile I spent a very boozy week in Nottingham.

June

By the time we rejoined eachother again in Stroud, it was truly summer. Now in the month of June, we had another lovely week with Leb's other sister Tina and Jan and Leb's old friend Ruth Moore.

After the Cotswalds, we headed west towards, and sometimes just crossing, the Welsh Border. We stayed at a lovely holiday cottage in the middle of nowhere on the Black Mountains, called The Birches. Anyone that knows me won't be surprised to learn that this used to be the home of Elaine Morgan. It was actually where she started her writing career. 

It was at The Birches too, where Leb unfortunately picked up a very nasty hip problem doing some exercises. We didn't know it at the time (at first we thought it was sciatica) but she had developed sacro-iliac joint dysfunction. Poor-ole-Leb would regularly be in agony for weeks after this.

By this time the European Football Championships had started and so I had to somehow fit in as many evenings watching football in British pubs as I could. (It's tough sometimes!) After The Birches we headed north. 

First stop was Liverpool, where we visited the Beatles museum, had a ferry ride on the Mersey and a great musical night in The White Star pub. Then, over to Manchester where I visited the national football museum and we caught up with our dear old friends Fax and Anne Stojic.

Then it was up to Ambleside for some hiking (yes, I still can't believe Leb did that hike, still in absolute agony) in the Lake District before driving across the Pennines (with Leb lying on her back in the back of the car) to Newcastle for a night in the Toon and then up the Northumbrian coast, to do a very quick visit of Lindisfarne.

I then dropped Leb off to stay with her great friend Rosie Nicoll in Edinburgh for a couple of nights while I nipped over to Glasgow to watch the continuing Euros.

The big UK leg over, we handed back the car at Edinburgh airport before flying across the North Sea to Oslo. We had the most a wonderful train ride across the mountains to Bergen where we went on a cruise up a spectacular Fjord. 

Oslo was probably the worst time for Leb's hip pain and it was really only the thought of the long flight home that prevented her pulling the plug on the whole trip. Instead, she'd bravely carry on. As well as the Fjord cruise and a lovely walk, we also had one lovely afternoon relaxing in a world class swimming pool in Bergen. I think that all helped.

Next was the Baltic States. Starting with Riga in Latvia. We had originally intended to spend longer in all three Baltic States and I had planned a road trip through parts of Latvia I'd never been to before, but because of Schengen Shennanigans (a recurring theme) the plans had to be curtailed and we had to limit ourselves to just two nights in Riga.

July

We then made the relatively short but comfortable bus ride up north to Tallinn, Estonia, and not the islands I'd planned to visit. Still, three nights is better than nowt. I always love going to Tallinn.

Last, but certainly not least of the Baltic States was, of course Lietuva, tevyne musu. We caught the bus again back down to Vilnius. We had planned this for months too because we wanted to be there for the centenary of the Tautos Švente. 

Whilst there, we bumped into old friends Rasa Mačiuliene, Paul Markevicius, Christine Harmes and a new aussie one Belyssa Radzivanas. I made sure I spent time visiting memorial sites to the Litvaks, shamefully for the first time for me. Their pre-war population of 200,000 was decimated in the holocaust - especially in 1941. So many were murdered so quickly, let's face it, only thanks to a great deal of local collaboration. It was at the site of Paneriai - where as many Jews were killed as the number of spectators as Vingis Park for the song festival the night before -  that I lost my wallet. An event that would affect later plans.

Krakow in Poland was next. After eating an inconceivable amount of pieriogi, we had a short break in the mountain resort of Zakopane where we enjoyed bathing in hot spa waters under the mountain tops. One exciting, but ultimately, typically, disappointing night was after staying an extra day in Krakow to see England narrowly lose to Spain in the European Championship final. 

More Schengen shenanigans left us no choice but finding somewhere hot and sunny outside of the EU zone, so we flew to Antalya, Turkey for some hot days in the sun and our first snorkel since Mexico. It was only here that Leb finally had her hip problem properly diagnosed - Sacroiliac joint dysfunction. At least she could now seek out the right advice.

We then flew to Cyprus 50 years, almost to the day, since Türkiye invaded the north part of the island. We had nine relaxing days in Paphos doing very little but lolling around by the pool, snorklelling and eating Greek cuisine.

August

Next, we flew back to Türkiye, but this time to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Istanbul. There, we had the very pleasant surprise meeting with another Lith-Australian friend, Kristina Tamosauskaite Aktaş.

Next was the Balkan States, starting with Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia. I loved the food and enjoyed going to not one, but two famous football grounds in Sarajevo before spending a couple of nights in the cute and famous town of Mostar.

The biggest pleasant surprise of the whole trip for me was next - Montenegro, and its wonderful coastline where we did more snorkelling. I had one of the best birthdays ever in the capital Podgorica. A boozy day of hiking, wine, visiting Roman ruins, football and a lovely meal. Twelve days of Montenegran bliss.

Next we again caught the bus south to the capital of Albania, Tirana, where we had a short stay full of delicious food.

Our original plan was to hire a car and drive down to the Albanian Riviera near Greece but after I lost my wallet (and driving licence) in Vilnius we flipped our coast time to Montenegro where buses seemed easier to navigate with.

From Albania we flew across the Adriatic to Perugia in Italy to spend a few days with Leb's old friends Julia and David at their gorgeous holiday home before hopping over to the island of Sardinia - a place we'd long wanted to visit. It was a lovely few days until Leb stood on one of those bloody sea urchins. It took weeks before the barbs started to dissipate. Poor Leb was really going through it.

We then had three lovely days in the enchanting Czech capital Prague before catching the train to Plzen and its famous brewery. 

September

Next we caught the bus to Bavaria, in Germany and the old city of Nürnberg where my Oma and Uncle used to live. Unfortunately I couldn't find their graves in the cemetery but I did trace the site of the Nürnberg Nazi rallies and the War Trials Museum. Then we caught another train down to Munich where, continuing the Nazi theme, we visited Dachau and a fabulous bierkeller.

Next, we had another dose of Schengen Shenanigans so we had to leave the Euro zone for a few days and, once more, go back in blighty to stop the Schengen clock. It's a hard life! 

On the positive side it was great to catch up with old mates, Jake Holloway, Romas Kinka and others.

After that, we flew back to Europe to resume the Schengen clock and caught the train from Munich straight to Innsbruck in Tyrol, Austria. It was here that we made the culinary discovery of Kaiserschmarrn, the most delicious pudding - as long as you are literally starving!

Keeping with the alpine theme, we then caught a train across the mountains to Garmish-Partenkirken (GaPa, if you can't remember the name!) and then Füssen to have many, many selfies on or nearby Wank Mountain.

Next was supposed to have been a cycling tour around Lake Constance (Bodensee) but the weather was bad and we just has a day's biking to Wasserberg instead. Leb, by now, was getting regular great advice and support from Dr Ryan Peebles and so she even felt confident to cycle. 

October

From Konstance we caught a train to Basel where we were due to board our Rhine River cruise, which would normally be a holiday in its own right. Amazingly for us, this was just a tiny part of our whole trip!

The cruise was great overall but being polite to four bible bashing Trumpers was a massive strain for me and it felt a big relief to get off in Amsterdam. 

Leb left me in the Dutch city a day early to be with the ailing Toots but we met up again soon enough (after the most unglamorous stop for me - in Crawley!) for the next leg of our amazing trip, a first visit to Morocco.

So, to Morocco, and the famous city of Marrakech. This was my 69th country visited and it's very different from anywhere I;ve visited before. We also visited the coastal town and city, respectively, of Sidi Kaouki and Essaouira. We we ate tagines galore. Delish!

Then it was back to blighty where we again went our separate ways for a few days. Leb was able to say a final sad farewell to Ruth (Toots) Catherine Haines and more time with friends and family whilst I had a much more selfish time bombing around England drinking beer, watching football and seeing old mates, some of whom I'd not seen in decades. Andy Smales, Paul Stevenson, Antony Cobb, Steve Buckley, Jeff Newcombe, Steven Clarke, Paul Chamberlain, Simon Bishop, Jason and Tim Caunt to name just some.

Amazingly I saw Forest beat Crystal Palace at home and Leicester away and even did the City Ground tour for the first time. I can't believe that when I finally returned to Perth at the end of the trip, Forest would be sitting in third in the Premier League. These were amazing times!

November

Finally, we had one last relaxing five-day stay in Bali to draw breath and to try to get back into the right time zone before heading back home, some 240 days after we left.

Wow!!!

How lucky am I? This was definitely the holiday of a lifetime. Two years on, I still can't quite believe we did all this and even scanning through them over and over again now, it just seems too much. But there it is. We did it.

Finally I want to acknowledge that of course it was only possible because Leb had the brilliant idea to take advantage of Curtin University's very generous salary sacrifice scheme. Four years of working at 80% salaray followed by a year off at 80% of her salaray was perfect. It gave us the financial security to plan and execute this holiday of a lifetime at what feels like the perfect time in life to to so.

Thanks, mi'darlin'!

Here's the holiday summary spreadsheet...

Back in Bali

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Getting Jet Lag Balance Back in Bali.
Wednesday 30th October 2024 - Tuesday November 5th

Summary: 

Our last port of call was good old Bali. We schedulled this in to relax and slob about for a few days to give our bodies chance to catch up and re-synchronise with WA time and it ticked all those boxes.

If Europe was hectic, this was not. Instead, it was pure, pure, pure slobbery. Apart from one solo trip I did to nearby Kuta - bus there, taxi back, we just pottered around the hotel, it's pool and its nearby beach. The beach faced west, so we had five glorious sunsets too.

And to put the icing on the cake, my one trip to town, to watch Forest, was rewarded with a strong 3-0 win against West Ham united. A win that put the mighty reds in the giddy position of being 3rd in the Premier League.

We ate lots of fish. I had a few Bintangs, but other than that practically nothing happened.

Batteries recharged, we were finally ready to go back home.

Bye Bye Blight (again), Hello Bali. (Wednesday, 30th October)

Somwehere below was Europe. Ahead was the Middle East, Pakistan, India and eventually our destination in Indonesia, Bali.

I must say I love flying. Short flights. Long flights. It doesn't matter. I started catching up with my reading on my Kindle. Starting with a short history of Russia which, I must say, I found rather boring.

Hillary Clinton's book "What Happened" had also been deadly dull for the first few chapters. Why do so many politicians, especially those left of centre, seem to think they have to mention all their family and friends and all the people who have helped them over the years? I guess it shows they're nice. Barak Obama's autobiography was like this too. But the chapter in Hillary's book I'm up to now is really fascinating (and alarming) reading. It's all about the 2016 election and how the the scandal over her emails dominated everything. How Trump publicly basically asked Russia to hack into the Democrat's servers and find her allegedly dodgy emails. (They weren't dodgy at all... just boring.) How Wikileaks managed to find them and the traitorous Julian Assange, who only ever found dirt on western leaders, never Russians, was a hero on RT as a consequence. How the increasingly well known and disturbing reports of Russian interference into the election and Trump's links with Moscow were not reported by the FBI before the election - Comey thought it would be "election interference" and yet how just before the election the same guy did not think re-opening the inquiry into Clinton's emails was anything of the sort.

Poor Hillary. That election really was stolen from her by Putin and his agents.

You'd think, after all this happened so blatantly, the US would have learned its lesson and done something to stop the same thing happening again and, and yet here we are, eight years later, and it *is* happening again. If anything ,worse than before.

I listened to a "Today in Focus" podcast from the Guardian about how MAGA election denying Republicans have taken over various election committees in Georgia and other so-called "battleground states" and how they will probably use their power to disrupt the vote if Trump loses.

And then I listened to how the Washington Post... yes The Washington Post, had decided not to endorse Kama Harris because billionaire Jeff Bezos personally vetoed the already prepared editorial and how several staff members resigned in protest. As if Rupert Murdoch owning Fox and Elon Musk owning Twitter was not enough.

As these gloomy thoughts set in, the gloom outside enveloped the plane. The sun set as we flew over the Black Sea. Somewhere down there we were leaving Europe and moving into Asia.

After a nice fish and rice, Malaysian airways in-flight dinner option, with a few glasses of wine, I was ready to try to get some sleep. This was going to be a short night and we'd be arriving up in Kuala Lumpur at 11pm UK time but in the morning local time. It was going to be a rude awakening for my biological clock.

Sleep came for a while and then left me again. As we flew over the Caspian Sea I tried to think of something else, something positive that might also help me sleep.

Music.

My mobile phone is pretty much on its last legs but it has just about enough memory for me to have downloaded a very few of my favourite albums for situations like these.

Elton John, from his earliest albums, is my usual go to. Such wonderful melodies. That soaring voice. The introduction to "Indian Sunset" always gives me goose bumps. "Tiny Dancer" always makes me think of Almost Famous. "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" - surely the most dramatic opening he ever did. "Teacher I Need You" always takes me back to school, in fact all his early stuff does... the time when my dear sister introduced me to him having discovered him from out of the blue somehow. I wonder if she still listens to Elton John. Is she listening to High Flying Bird or Skyline Pigeon right now?

Half way there and I was not sleepy at all. How about an Audio Book?

Time to tap my phone silently in a few carefully chosen spots on the screen to bring back to life the great Christopher Hitchens... at least virtually, in order to hear his authoritative voice describe why "God is Not Great" with laser-like precision.

I always find listening to him inspiring and very stimulating. One small sample will do...

"One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human pre-history when nobody had the smallest idea what was going on."

Oh well. No sleep for me this way then. Goodnight Christopher.

I gazed out of the window as our flight turned south, presumably to avoid the Tibetan plateau. Pakistani or Indian cities glowed in the dark down there like distant galaxies.

Another five hours remained. Leb was on her third movie but that's not for me. I'd watch one if I thought it was going to be brilliant but few really grab me these days. Besides, I need to close my eyes to get some sleep. Maybe I'd try some more music.

How about some David Bowie? I downloaded "Aladdin Sane" thinking it might take me back to my youth. It's a typically atmospheric album with the space age feel that I found so appealing when I heard "Star Man". "Jean Genie" was my favourite song for weeks when it came out. I really like Bowie's version of "Let's Spend the Night Together" on this album and I do like the way the crazy piano solo in the title track gets back on rhythm at the end. But... so many of his lyrics are just so crazy and a bit sordid (it reminded me I actually cried the night I bought it as I felt I'd brought some kind of evil into our home!) Anyway, I soon started thinking "how did I ever like this album?"

If Bowie wasn't going to send me to sleep how about Yes and their brilliant track "Gates of Derlium" on the album, Relayer?

It certainly took me back to my teens when I played this kind of music a lot. None of it made any sense but I loved the searing guitar riffs and it felt serious and important.

The lyric...

"Soon. Soon, the light.

Pass within and soothe this endless night"

...seemed quite appropriate but no, no sleep was coming with this. How about a bit of Santana?

I played the album Moonflower a lot at uni. It is more soothing than the other stuff I'd tried. I thought I'd play the album and then select a single track to put on repeat.

The title track, Flor de Luna, seemed to fit the bill but again, no good. I think I repeated it eight times before I thought "sod it" this isn't going to work.

In the end I couldn't get back to sleep. I tried watching a film, like Leb, I tried listening to some classical music. As daylight began to appear to the east I knew it was futile. The crew brought around breakfast with coffee, so I decided that was the end of that, much shorter, day.

100th accommodation. Selamat siang, Bali! (Thursday, 31st October)

Day 237 (5 to go) 

To finish off the last post... we landed in Kuala Lumpur absolutely knackered having had almost no sleep. The plane was a little late but the good news was that our connecting flight to Denpasar was close and we scuttled off to the gate. Frustratingly there was another bag security check there and we hopped between queues before getting through to board immediately.

After a surprisingly tasty spicy chicken with rice I slept like a log. Even Leb did and we arrived in hot and humid Bali three hours later.

Bali airport has significantly grown and modernised since we were last here and relies on new technology more than ever, in particular a couple of on-line declarations, for example the customs declaration. We soldiered through and got a taxi to take us to our century of accommodations for 300,000 rupiah (about $30) I'm sure we were ripped off for a 15 minute ride but at least it was easy.

After 20 minutes waiting for our room to be made ready in 28C humidity we were allowed into our cool (metaphorically and literally) room and immediately crashed out. Leb really made a wise choice booking this place: Relatively inexpensive but close to the airport and a beach and it has a magnificent pool that was really swish. This was the perfect way to end our gargantuan tour and, I think our 30th sub-holiday (!) back to back.

Later I had a short walk around the block, visiting the nearby beach and downing 3 Bintam beers.

Five nights of Bali bliss awaited us before we finally wen back home.

Being Lazy in Bali. Friday, 1st November.

Day 238 (4 to go)

We had the mother of lie-ins this morning. Having arrived around 2pm local time after almost no sleep on the flight we soon were asleep and although I woke up a few times we stayed that way until 9:30 am the next day.

Jet lag is a strange thing. When we flew from Auckland to Mexico City back in March we crossed the International Dateline and the flight took practically 24 hours but realistically it didn't feel too bad. Mexico is apparently 19 hours ahead of New Zealand so it should have felt like going back 5 hours. Maybe like flying from Europe to New York. And when we did do that flight the other way round again it wasn't too bad either. But this one felt much worse. We decided that a lot of sleep might help. We'll see how much sleep we get tonight.

Breakfast at the hotel was nice. I had scrambled egg, Leb had egg Lebanese-style. I'm not a fan of Balinese coffee but there was plenty of tea.

Our hotel has a magnificent, long pool and that was our main pastime for the day. Swimming and reading in the heat of the day.

I listened to one of Tim Snyder's election video calls. It was a little alarming to see his sad face as he started "... Hi. I'm Tim Snyder. I'm a historian. I wanted to share a few thoughts about the coming Trump, as I see it, economic disaster..."

I don't think I've ever seen him looking so gloomy as he spelled out some basic truths about law and the economy and how it can't work if everyone is thinking about how to please and not upset the fuhrer.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-lawless-crash-video...

On a brighter note, we had a lovely video call to the girls who were all together in Margaret River. It was so sweet seeing them, Medeia and Lenny and thinking we'll be able to give them all a big hug very soon.

Later we got changed and went to the nearby beach and strolled along to one of the many seafood restaurants at Jimbaran. It looked familiar. We reckon we've been there before. There were lots of weird patterns in the sand, apparently made by tiny crabs. Beautiful, but as with Morocco, it was disturbing to see so much plastic rubbish littering the beach. Still the seafood platter we had, including white snapper, was really good and well priced.

After that, Leb headed back along the beach alone while I went to look for a barber and for a shop to buy a bottle of wine, milk and some new beach sandals (I was a bit previous dumping my stinky K-Mart shoes in Essaouira).

Bali is so humid I had another dip in the pool when I got back.

That was it. Lazy. Lazy.

Watching Forest go 3rd in Kuta, Saturday 2nd November 2024

Day 239 (3 to go)

The only specific objective I had for this (30th?) last phase of our megatrip was to find a bar to watch Nottingham Forest play West Ham United on our second night there and I'm happy to report that not only did I succeed in meeting that objective but also that Forest powered their way to a third consecutive win which, amazingly, had them sitting in 3rd place in the Premier League the following morning.

The day started gloomily, I have to admit. I just can't snap out of the feeling the world is sleep walking into a dystopian nightmare. Every news article seems to confirm this fear. The day's headline was some revelation about Jeffrey Epstein being a much closer friend to Donald Trump than Trump had said he was.

Well, what a surprise.

And yet *this* is the guy that 80m Americans want as president?

In related events, "Russia" was about to squeeze 10,000 North Korean soldiers into the Kursk meat grinder and the response from Ukraine's allies was precisely ... "zero".

I needed a good fix of football to flip me out of this mood, so that was my plan for the day.

First, brekkie, and Anja Jimbaran gives you about a dozen to choose from every day. I went for a healthy yoghurt mix, Leb went for the banana pancakes.

Next it was pool lolling around time. It really was a lovely feature of the hotel. It was wonderful how the beautiful flowers of the frangipani trees fall into the water. There was even an orchid growing on one of them.

In the afternoon we went for another walk along the would-be beautiful beach. It would be if they just cleared up the rubbish there.

We had another seafood platter at Roma's, one of the many beach restaurants there. This one wasn't as good as yesterday's. The fish had a decidedly fluffy texture. Mmm.

Still, it was a lovely walk as the sun set.

So... Time for football.

I found a few good sport bars in Kuta on Google Maps and plotted a route there by bus. I had to walk 15 minutes through the tiny, busy, streets, along very irregular and badly lit pavements and immediately regretted not taking Leb's advice and wearing my boots. Plastic flip flops are not good for walking in.

I just missed one bus but they seem to come by quite regularly.

Bali has these bizarre elevated steel bus stops as if passengers are expected to climb on top of the bus and at about 7:15 the next K6B came and I got on board. 5,000 Rupiah was the fare - about 5 cents. Good for them for trying to encourage more people to use public transport but sadly whilst the bus was empty (just one other passenger and me) the roads are choc-a-bloc with petrol guzzling mopeds and motorbikes.

The bus wound its way through the traffic, to and then from the airport towards its final destination, Kuta. It's a busy, noisy city, full of bars and who knows what. Walking along 100m of street and you get all sorts of propositions made to you.

"No thanks!"

I knew my destination and I was determined to get there before 8:30 pm (1:30 UK time).

The GOAT Melasti was one of a handful of Kuta sports bars that seemed to have the best reviews.

Newcastle United v Arsenal was about to start and I arrived in perfect time to see the kick off. I was alone upstairs watching it whilst downstairs some local band bashed out all the usual songs with an admiring audience singing along as the lyrics were shown on big screens. Communal Karaoke.

A beautiful Anthony Gordon Cross looped over onto the head of Alexander Isak and it was 1-0 to the Geordies. The noise downstairs, the price of a small Bintang (58,000 rupiah) and an overly persistent barmaid made my decision easy - to leave at half time and go to another bar.

GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)? I think not.

I wanted to get some cash for the taxi ride home later (the bus service stops at 8:30) but none of the ATM machines I tried worked. Never mind, let's watch the rest of the football and see later.

My next port of call was the cryptically named "Y Bar" (Why not? They ask) and this was definitely an upgrade. Newcastle v Arsenal was being shown on a big screen with commentary on. About a score of people were watching, some with red and white Arsenal shirts or black and white striped Newcastle ones. Always a good sign. The beer was 43,000 Rupiah too.

Newcastle hung on to their win. Arsenal's defeat meant that Forest would overtake them if we beat the 'ammers.

Bournemouth v Manchester City was, understandably, their choice for the next big match so I asked one of the very helpful and friendly bar staff where I could watch the Forest match. She said they could put it on any screen more or less anywhere I liked. I did think about sitting at the bar where there was a panel of screens like the Patriots bar in Perth, but I didn't fancy sitting next to a couple of Kiwi rugby fans and a couple of young ladies who seemed to be "on" a quite different "game" so I sat on my own.

As promised, the screen flickered and images of the World Famous City Ground appeared. Soon the players were lining up in the same tunnel I walked down eleven days ago.

Come On You Reds!

Once Forest settled they really took control of the game and dominated. Morgan Gibbs-White, back in the starting line up, looked sparkling and released a lovely long ball to acres of space on the left. Alex Moreno ran onto it and skilfully wove into the box before releasing an inch perfect cross right onto Chris Wood's noggin. The simplest header and Forest were 1-0 up. Wood's eighth of the season.

It took West Ham half an hour to have their first shot by which time Forest could have scored at least one more. Half time 1-0.

The second half continued like the first with Forest on top and then, a gift. West Ham's Mexican Edson Alvarez panicked when Anthony Elanga ran at him. He brought him down and received a second yellow card.

With West Ham down to ten men this really shouldn't be a big problem for Forest now. Jarrod Bowen continued to threaten but it was only a matter of time before Forest added a second through Callum Hudson-Odoi and a third through a brilliant strike from our world class fullback, Ola Aina.

Yates was millimetres from making it 4-0 but VAR did not overturn the original decision even though I thought it might at first sight.

It was a brilliant performance and with Liverpool beating Brighton, it takes Forest to the giddy heights of 3rd place in the Premier League. Bournemouth beat Manchester City so Forest are now "only" four points behind them.

I had a nice chat with a Crystal Palace fan before saying my goodbyes to the Y Bar staff.

I didn't want to traipse around the streets of Kuta at 1 am in the morning so I grabbed a taxi right outside the bar. The driver wouldn't take credit card payments but drove me to the nearest working ATM where I became an instant (Rupiah) millionaire.

He was a very nice driver and we sailed back through relatively empty streets to get back here by about 1:30 am.

Apart from a nasty little cough I must have picked up on the flight from London, the day ended much happier than it had begun.

Slobbing about in Bali. Sunday, 3rd November.

Day 240 (2 to go)

The penultimate day here in Bali was pure laziness. Slobbing by the pool. Reading. Listening to podcasts. Walking on the beach. Eating a nice red snapper just before sunset.

Nieko!

Last full day before we go home. Monday, 4th November.

Day 241 (1 day left).

Another relaxing lazy day by the pool and then walking along the beach for another sea food platter as the sun set on our glorious holiday.

Last day (#242) abroad and return home. Tuesday, 5th November 2024

So this was it. Last wake up in last accommodation. Last packing of bag, for the 100th time. Last goodbye video. Last breakfast. Last taxi ride to the airport to catch the last flight back to Perth.

The airline... AirAsia surely the last one anyone should choose.

Everything was going so well! When we got through two security checks with no hassle, the automated passport checker turned green and let us through and we arrived at Gate 6C to wait to board our QZ544 flight to Perth with still about three hours to go, it all looked good, if a little boring. I spent my last 40,000 Rupiah on a small bottle of water and we were set.

When a third (!) security check by the gate confiscated our water from us I was a bit annoyed but we sat down and waited. A couple of hours passed before I think there was an announcement that the gate had changed to Gate 4. So everyone trundled up stairs and along to the new gate and sat and continued waiting.

The scheduled boarding time of 1:35 passed as did the 2:05 departure time. Still we waited with no announcement. Gradually, through word of mouth, it became apparent that the flight was delayed to 2:40 but that seemed overly ambitious to put it mildly and, sure enough, that time came and went too.

Still no announcement. I saw a (I presume) mother and daughter talking to the red coated AirAsia staff member and say something in Indonesian and then start walking away. Good if you're in the know. Another Australian lady asked her and, yes, we were told we had to go back down to Gate 6C again. Brilliant.

Back at the first gate... we waited some more.

At 3:36, without any announcement, people started standing up and moving toward the gate to board the plane. At last we all started boarding.

The flight finally took off an hour later at 4:38 pm and so the last leg of our holiday was able to begin two and a half hours late with no apology or anything. This was only the second delayed flight of 26. Murphy's Law that the flight home would be. Never mind.

Arriving back in Perth was very strange. Compared to Bali, it was cool and clean and... empty. It felt like it was in the middle of the night. The airport tube station was so deserted but it wasn't even 9 pm yet. Walking back to the flat, I asked Leb "it's not Good Friday, is it?"

You always have a weird feeling going back home after a holiday but after eight months it was truly bizarre, almost like going back to a previous life. Thanks so much to dear Rozalija Kuliukas and Joey Gibson who have made our flat feel like an upgraded home from the first step in the door. Everything was so sparklingly clean and all my pet theoretical DIY projects were done. Thanks to Ashden, Elden Garrett Kuliukas's brother our lighting is now great. It's definitely now Gordon's 2.0. I immediately got changed into new clothes for the first time in eight months! Bliss!

So good to be back. Thank you.

Now... my focus was on the US elections. My call "COME ON. PLEASE DO THE RIGHT THING", as we now know, was like pissing in the wind.

Over and out.

Financial Summary

Bali was a pretty cheap stay overall. Apart from our nice hotel all we really spent anything on was at the fish restaurants on the beach.

Mood Summary

This was a happy week apart from those times when the thought of Donald J Trump entered my head. When that happened, I often went into a mini-depression or at least a bit of a sulk for a while. But apart from that, it was happy, happy, happy.

Holiday Summary

This is the last summary sheet for the holiday.