The hugfest begins

Friday

We flew from Perth to Bali yesterday. I was travelling with friends for a change, rather than by myself and we met up in the check in line. It was surprisingly quiet with only a couple of people ahead of me wen I went through passport control, then security. Being so quiet I got tested for explosives and then frisked as well.

The plane was late in and hence we were delayed in taking off but about 45 minutes. It was on AirAsia and my choice of meal made a few months ago turned out to be OK. No entertainment but I had loaded some videos to my iPad so I watched those. The driver arranged by the hotel was waiting for us and after changing money and organising a Sim card we were out of the airport building and heading for the car park. He left as by the road and went to get the car which took quite while and then we were off and into some terrible traffic. It was about 7 when we got to the hotel. According to Google it was about 15minutes drive - they lied.

One of the first people I saw was a young Korean guy I'd met last year and I was greeted with a big hug. This was repeated throughout the evening and today as I caught up with others I'd met last year. A large group had gone to dinner but we were too late to join them and instead went to the roof top bar and resturant. There were 2 other Mensa ladies just finishing dinner so I went to reception and passed the word. The hotel staff later put up a sign directing people there. there were 8 or 10 of us eating there and people trickled in as their flights arrived and then later the group returned from dinner and joined us as well. It was midnight when I left for bed.

I slept very soundly till just before 7 so was down to breakfast in good time. Again lots of people to catch up with and then over to the registration and booking of trips and buying the polo shirt. After the welcome and introductions we separated into 3 streams. The main hall had 2 game sessions, one put on by Singapore and the other by Japan. I spent the day at the LEAP talks.

This program selects 5 people from the applicants (27 this year) and they present their topics in the US and this year in Asia. We quite often have speakers on topics of general interest but these were Mensa focused and not only well presented and entertaining but relevant as well. The topics were - dispute resolution, social media, tools for building the organisation and Team dynamics.

The last speaker discussed a reward system used for volunteers. After describing how points were allocated and rewards issued, she finished by saying there was so much argument over allocation of points the scheme was abandoned as a failure. A bit of a surprise ending.

I then joined a group sharing a taxi. they were after an ATM and I wanted to get some mixer for my whisky. The round trip was only $4.

The gala dinner was tonight, rather than the more usual Saturday and was also on the roof. Again it was great to socialise and there were innumerable photo ops. At one stage we had a fashion show of local based clothing, some traditional dancing and later the Koreans demonstrating Gangnam style, but mostly it was a night of conversation with a great mix of cultures.

There are 20 countries represented here this year and about a dozen Aussies. As the night wound down we went to our rooms and then back up for a swim in the roof top pool. Its now 12-30 and it doesn't look like adding pics is a simple procedure from the iPad.