Getting to Bali

We live in La Quinta, California in the winter. Normally, for a trip like this, we'd just fly from Palm Springs airport (PSP) to Los Angeles airport (LAX) but the problem is there are no late-in-the-day flights from PSP to LAX.  So the only reasonable option is to rent one-way car and drive into LAX. It's about three hours so no big deal. $75.00 or so.

Then we have to wait about four hours for the flight which leaves around midnight.

What to do...???  Visit the first class lounge...

Below a shot of the concourse from the lounge. It seems to me that airports these days seem more like shopping malls than airports.

Once at the lounge all there really is to do is eat and drink. Terri takes full advantage of the "free" food. I indulge in the "free" booze.

To get to Bali we have to connect through Taipei which is in Taiwan and, same as the last time we connected through to Taiwan from this airport, the LAX lounge is mostly full of  Asian customers.

We finally get to board the plane and once again we are seated at the pointy end (thanks, Tony, thanks Keeto, thanks Ryan).  These seats are the full lay-down kind and are really the only way to go on a such a long flight.  

It's almost 14 hours to Taipei.

Below is the screen that shows our flight path. Pretty much a straight line between Los Angeles and Taipei. I guess it wouldn't make much sense to do anything different than a straight line would it?

Sitting in our plane waiting to get going I see a HUGE airplane sitting next to ours. I think it's what they call a 747 Jumbo but I'm not sure.  It's freaking huge though.  Same airline as we're flying - China Airlines.

So we finally get to Taipei and we have another three hour wait before our flight to Denpasar, Bali.

So what to do???

Back to the lounge.

Not quite a classy a place as the LAX lounge but not bad.

The walls are covered with chinese writing. Probably warning us white devils to behave or we'll be sent to the salt mines.

It's breakfast time in Taipei and here's what I had. A local beer and some sort of dumpling thing. Yuummmy.

Taiwan, from the air, seems to be a very beautiful country.  Strangely enough, this is the third time we've been in in Taiwan in just two years; we connected through this same airport when we did the Vietnam / Cambodia trip two years ago, we visited Taiwan via a Seabourn trip last April and here we are again.

They seem to like their golf courses if the shot below is any indication.

It's a bit of a cloudy day but still very scenic.

So off we go to Bali. From Taipei it's pretty much a straight south flight to Denpasar.

Here we are just about to arrive at the Denpasar airport.

It all looks very nice and civilized.

And they even have paved highways.  I'm impressed.

So that was how we got to Bali.

DONE.