Australia to Bali airline experiences 08

[Bumps]

Ross,

Too funny, gotta agree with the greed is good strategy. There are in for a penny in for a pound and they do hate to share, especially with the boss who has Gordon Gecko as his hero.

[Kauaikneelo]

Tell me where else do you get travel info like this? This is why this site is great.

Hey Ross, .....and how bout the babes? end of story?

[red]

So when are you boys heading over?
I'm in a group (including girls*) heading out next fri for 10 days. But hanging at the hotel at Melasti, rather than cruising about much.

*when the surf gets bigger we'll all be girls, hanging out at the pool.

On topic - We're flying Garuda because Jetstar have a 2m limit on boards.

[ross]

Kauai,
No babes stories my friend, i'm a happily married man and like i said, an ogre .

i also wanted to add that customs guys in indo are the only guys that i would haggle down in this manner. I'm no Mr Indo, but i reckon your on a fast track to getting ripped off if you start being mean with your coin.

[Mike Fernandez]

ah good old customs at Denpesar

My usual course of action is to asses the check in line when leaving Sydney. Pick out a few people who appear to be travelling with less than three boards and go about accosting them to say they are travelling with you and you are carrying boards for them.

Sounds dicey, but i've had moderate success with it. In fact last year was the first time it didn't work
I get to check in , two older blokes with what appear to be 2 boards each and 2 rather attractive young ladies with one board each are my "targets"(this sounds dastardley doesn't it? ). I adopt my usual plan and wait till I'm in the departure lounge before i weave my magic.

Rest assured about which team I'am batting for, of course i hit up the young ladies. Turns out the girls are 18, with this being their first trip to indo. It also turns out they are from North Avoca (1 beach away from me ) and i went to school with their brothers. Looks like i won't have to talk to the old fossils

i ask the girls if they have heard about board restrictions in Denpesar, which they had and before i can finish asking my little favour one of them just goes "no worries i'll say one is mine!".

now for the important bit and the flaw in my silly little scheme. When your filling out your immagration info before landing make sure you include your new friend in the question about number of people you are travelling with. If you are a dickhead like me and fail to do this. you will look like an even bigger dickhead at arrivals when customs come looking through board bags.
Picture me thinking I'm home sweet, the customs man knows as well as me that these hot young girls would not be travelling with an ogre like me. Imagine his delight and my despair as he points out my fatal error on the immagration form

off to the little room for a talk

first thing, try not to sweat, keep the attitude light and happy.

As mentioned above customs man (think Bangcok Hilton) goes for the huge US dollar amount.
My reaction to this is to pull out a novel and start reading. I ignore him for a couple of minutes, which seems to agitate him. The reason for this is that they have to give their supervisor a cut if he sees them fleecing you.
So time is your friend, drag it out for as long as you are game enough.
this will bring the price down real quick.
Out of fear that i'am ticking him off to much i pack the book away. The price is down to 100US. When he says 100. I agree and say yes i will pay 100 000 rupiah The guy goes off like a volcano. He slams the desk at sceams "US DOLLAR" at me. I've got him close to where i want him now. Yelling and causing a scene is gonna attract the attention of the supervisor. So now he needs to wrap this up real quick.

I offer him $40. He doen't like it but he yeilds. He really isn't very happy
So you can imagine his face when i hand him $40 AU He shunts the table at me screaming something about US dollars.

To which i reply "I'm Australian mate why would i have US dollars?" with a little smile on my face( which really is a facade as i've grown 2 inches taller in my seat from shitting my duds).

He tells me to go. It takes me a second to realise whats going on, before i get to my feet and bolt out of there.


back to the question about flights? As with Kiya and Grant , i'm going Singapore airlines. Landing in Jakarta with as many boards as i want( no tax) and making my plans from there

Unbelievably classic Ross!!!