Indo, Let's Go

For months, I told anyone who would listen that we’d cracked the code! We signed up for Capital One Venture X credit cards (the one with 20 different T-Swifts in the elevator) and accumulated enough points that we could get one-way, first-class tickets on EVA Airlines for free. I told friends to sign up for the card, showed the kids YouTube videos of lie-down seats and fancy cuisine, and dreamt of relaxation and free food/drinks in airport lounges. LAX → Taipei → Bali, no problem, not for this luxury traveling family!

Then the time came to book our flights. This was my crowning moment of fatherhood, spoiling my family with bourgeoisie travel! I felt like Ralphie dreaming of his Red Ryder BB Gun in “A Christmas Story.” A few clicks through EVA’s website…error. Wait, what? Error. To the customer service line I went to fix their error. “Sorry sir, we only allow a very small amount of first-class tickets to be reserved with points. They are full. For you, we have 4 lovely seats in row 56, right in front of the toilet!”

DAD FAIL.

Slogging up to LAX at 9 PM with 7 checked bags, a surfboard bag, 4 carry-ons, and 4 backpacks makes fording the river in Oregon Trail seem easy. Boredom sets in quickly. Our flight didn’t depart until 12:50 AM. Kids were wrecked, Mom and Dad were grumpy because somewhere in the past 2 years a glass of wine became $27 at the airport. “Airport prices, mate,” said the bartender.

The cattle call began, and off we went to row 56. This was all really happening; we had a one-way ticket to Bali. It was so late at night; we ate, drank a glass of wine, and all fell asleep pretty quickly. What to worry about? This is a breeze! Then I woke up, looked at Amanda, and she mouthed, “OMG!” Jack was so tired; he passed out, pissed himself, woke up shivering wet, all with only 9 hours of flight remaining! Change the clothes, shove a Nintendo Switch in his face, problem solved.

We made it to Taipei. All in all, everyone did great. We may not have flown first class, but that silly credit card did get us into one of the fancy lounges. White wine, dumplings, Sprite, noodles, more white wine, cookies all at 5 AM…but of course!

The funniest part was a shmammered couple sitting next to us yelling profanities at each other at the top of their lungs. When I politely asked them to be quiet, there were kids around, she screamed, with the education of a 6-year-old, “F-you, this is a free country!” Uhm, we’re in Taiwan, are we? Eh, some people are funny. Five hours later, off to Bali!

The next five flight was thankfully uneventful. We made it, #indoletsgo was ready to begin. The normal airport shenanigans of trying to gather our 500 pieces of luggage began. We have Indonesian visas, so we hit the locals’ line in customs; that was rad. Found our driver, loaded up our chariot, and off to Canggu, Bali, we went!

Amanda and I were amazed the whole time. Little snippets of peeing oneself, some hangry moments, and grumpy tiredness all came from the kids, but they were few and far between. They were rockstars; we were so proud of them. 31 hours of door to door travel is a lot; they rocked it. Never a doubt, Lyla and Jack, well done!

Let the adventure begin.