A travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their journey from Mandalay, Myanmar to Bali, Indonesia. The vlog covers leaving Myanmar after a 10-day stay, airport procedures in Mandalay and Bangkok, unexpected airline booking constraints that require collecting bags and rechecking in at Bangkok, time spent in the DMK (Bangkok budget airport) lounge, and arrival in Bali at 1:45am — which they note is their 73rd country. Practical tips include spending leftover local currency ("chat") on souvenirs and preferring Bluebird taxis or Uber in Bali.
Questions this video answers
May 18, 2018
1:45am (local time)
Their 73rd country
Chat (local currency referenced in transcript)
Chapters
Today is a bittersweet day because we are leaving Myanmar, which is a country that we've really come to love over the last 10 days. But at the same time, it's hard to be too sad when you're going to Bali.
I feel like Myanmar is like this secret that we figured out. And I hate to even put these videos out because then everybody's gonna know the secret.
The secret that we're ruining. We're part of the problem.
Like I want to people to come here because we love it so much. But don't like make a big deal.
When you come here. One of the really appealing things is that there aren't many tourists here. Okay. It is currently 9:30. We are about to leave for the airport, but we're not going to get to Bali until after 1am tonight. So today's a travel day long.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Bye Bye.
Thank you. Every time we walked by that man yesterday, he asked if we needed a taxi and we told him no. He was super excited this morning when we told him we needed a ride to the airport. And he was just the cutest thing, said bye like a hundred times. Okay, here we go.
We just made it through security. Security. And we are currently sitting in the airport like normal people who told me not dislike regular people. We thought that would be less offensive. And we just finished spending the last of our chat, which is the currency, here in this convenience store behind me. Apparently when you take it out of the country, you can't exchange it for any other currency. So like it basically turns into a souvenir. So we just bought a lot of junk food. Today's travel plans are going to be a little confusing, so I thought I would explain. For some reason AirAsia doesn't allow you to book a ticket straight from Mandalay to Bali, even though they fly both routes, which I don't understand. So right now we're flying from Mandalay to Bangkok. Then we have to go out of security, collect our bags, and we have to check back into our next flight, which is going to take us from Bangkok to Bali. And that's why we're not getting there till 1am time.
Six.
We will be boarding the aircraft by September.
Our train was a bit delayed, which isn't a big deal, but it's cutting into our lounge time.
What are we riding on?
Did I say train? Our plane is a bit delayed. We're boarding now to Bangkok.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have just landing at Norman International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand. The local trainer is quarter past three.
Thank you.
For flying wishes and have a good day.
We are officially in Bangkok. This is the unfun part of the travel day. We just collected all of our luggage, left security, and now we have to go back through security. But we're so close to the lounge. Let's get to the lounge.
Thank so much for almost to the lounge. I believe this is the longest line we've ever to wait in a jegging for our flight, which is only frustrating because they made us book two flights. If we could have just made one big flight, our bags would have gone straight to Bali and we'd be in.
The lounge right now.
It's going to be okay. There are worse things in life.
Okay. Two hours later, we have gone through immigration in Thailand, officially entered Thailand, collected our bags, gone through customs, gone back through security, gone back through customs, gone back through security. There was only one security in there anyway. It took two hours. It's finally time to go to a lounge.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. We have. Oh, I had to take my watch off at security.
Wait.
Okay, it's 5:15. We board at 8.
7.
I thought we boarded at 8.
7, boarded at 7. So we still have a pretty good amount of time here. I'm excited.
That's quite the range of emotions.
This lounge has tons of it. Last time we were here on Nate's birthday, we didn't have time to eat anything, so we only had like five minutes. And then I stole his massage. So since we have time, I'm gonna make Nate get a massage to make up for it. And I'm gonna eat fried rice with sausage, stir fried chicken with peppers, stir fried fish with chicken.
I forgot they had sushi in this lounge. One of my favorite foods in the world. Who would have thought in Bangkok's budget airport that they would have a lounge? This. Okay, let's eat.
Two hours went by way too fast. As usual, the board in the lounge doesn't say that we're boarding yet, but we're a little nervous we're going to miss our flight. So we're going to go ahead and leave. And it's a good thing we didn't wait until the board in the lounge said morning, because it's morning. We could have missed our flight and been stuck here all night. Wouldn't have been the first time.
I love when the aces. He creates this mist.
Makes me feel really fake.
Shoot an oxygen mask like this.
Ladies and gentlemen, now we just landed at Lulala international airport, Bali, Indonesia. The local time now is a quarter to one. A quarter to one. Which is one hour ahead of Thailand local time. On behalf of every indicator. Thus I'll return all cabin cruise. We'd like to say thank you so much for flying me now. Tonight we look forward to see you again in a near hotel.
It is 1.45am we are officially in Bali, our 73rd country. Now we just have to get a taxi to our hotel. So that's loud there. A lot of people want to get us in a taxi right now. So we've heard a few things about.
So if you go on the Internet and you read about tax in Bali, it seems like you want to avoid all of them except one called Bluebird. And then if you can find an Uber, you should jump in one of those. So that's what we're gonna try.
What's your name?
Yeah, Balinese name.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
It is 2:45. We have finally made it to our apartment. We wandered outside the airport. One of the Bluebird taxis came by. We jumped in it. I'm still pretty sure we paid too.
Much to get here, but he was nice.
But it was like less than 15 for at least, least a 30 minute ride.
And our place is nice.
Yeah, it's not like the like Bali villa that you picture when you picture coming to stay in Bali. But I quickly realized that like if you want to stay in like a nice area that's only affordable if you have like a group of people, then it's a good deal. But for us, it didn't make sense to pay like a hundred dollars for our own villa every night.
But we do have a big pool right outside the door though.
Okay, it's 2:45.
Oh, I almost broke the.
That was super weird. Took a picture on passport, took a picture of the drone and everything that was in my bag. And then he was like hand carry. I told him I was carrying it on. He just let me go. But it took seven people to come over there and tell me that.
I'm sorry, what's my camera? I didn't know you were there.
