Brandon Olson and Mackenzie Pešl are hoping to return home to Kelowna with baby Eden, but Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport remains shut down due to ash clouds from a nearby volcano.
Hundreds of Canadians like Olson, Pešl and their baby are stranded on the Indonesian island. Global Affairs Canada said 403 Canadians in Bali have registered with its Registration of Canadians Abroad service.
Olson and Pešl were at the airport ready to leave on a Philippines Airlines flight Saturday at 1 a.m., but it was canceled and a kiosk was abandoned by staff, they said.
“Seven representatives of our airline got up and walked away,” Olson said on a facebook video he and Pešl posted to help communicate with their family back in the Okanagan.
Olson said they found a different flight out of Bali, but Philippines Airlines told the couple they would have to pay for it themselves.
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Global News requested answers on Olson and Pesl’s experience but did not hear back from Philippines Airlines at publication time and the company’s website makes no reference to delays or cancellations in Bali.
An unnamed airline employee sought out the frustrated couple and offered them money from his own pocket to put them up for the night, a gesture they emotionally declined.
WATCH: Bali tourists forced to take extended holiday as volcano grounds flights
They have now booked into a new hotel, about 70 km from the current evacuation zone created around the Mount Agung volcano, and have been told their travel insurance coverage will reimburse them upon return to Canada.
The family said they were told to return to the airport Tuesday for a possible chance at re-booking a flight out of Bali.
Kelly Rowahan, also from Kelowna, said she feels the stress her twin sister Gina Petrovich is experiencing as she wonders if she’ll be able to fly home from her vacation in Bali as scheduled later this week.
“We call it ‘twin-tuition’,” Rowahan said of the para-sympathetic feelings both have when either are in distress.
Those feelings are intense, Rowahan said, as she keeps in touch with Petrovich through social media.
“She doesn’t tell me, but I’m sure she doesn’t feel safe,” Rowahan said.
An airport spokesman said 445 flights were cancelled, stranding about 59,000 travellers.
The closure was to be in effect until Tuesday morning, although officials said the situation would be reviewed every six hours.
Olson and Pesl reached out to the Canadian consulate in Bali for help, but were told their predicament was an airline issue.
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