DAY 10
Week 2
KUTA (Bali, IDN) to DARWIN (Northern Territory, AUS)
via DENPASAR (Lesser Sunda Islands, IDN)
Saturday October 6, 1990
TODAYS MILEAGE – 1103 miles or 1775 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 3331 miles or 5361 kilometres
While taxing in preparation for take-off, the Captain come on the intercom and asked all of those on the left hand side of the aircraft to pull their window shades down. After the cabin crew ensured the shades were down and had returned to their seat, curiosity got the better of me. I opened my window shade to find an Garuda Airline aeroplane in the grass beside the runway and it was upside down, with its landing gear in the air and charred like a Dixie chicken. All it took was me saying "farq, take a look at that fellas - it wasn't there when we flew in" for all the shades to start opening in quick succession. This had the flight crew running up and down the aisle admonishing us in their native tongue.
We get off the ground and have a giggle about the crashed plane and concentrate on getting a couple of beers into ourselves before the plane runs out of piss again. ½ an hour into the flight, the pilot comes back on the intercom and announces that we have to return to Denpasar to on-board some "important materials". In preparation for landing, we were asked to close the window shades, which everyone on-board duly ignored. We landed and the only thing that came to the plane was a fuel truck. We heard a bit of banging and crashing below the aircraft and with that, the fuel truck disconnected and left. Make of it what you will, but having enough fuel would be right up there on the important "anything" list if you ask me.
Believe it or not, we actually returned to Australia with all 17 who partook of the Wests Rugby League 1990 World Grog Tour, much to the surprise most of those of who know us. 
Here's a breakdown of the travel times and distances in getting over there:
∗ KUTA ~ Rama Beach Hotel (Bali, IDN) to DENPASAR ~ International Airport (Lesser Sunda Islands, IDN)
1.4 miles or 0 kilometres
• Travel Time: 7 minutes
1098 miles or 954 kilometres
• Flight Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
3.7 miles or 0 kilometres
• Travel Time: 8 minutes