Mixing business and pleasure in Bali, Indonesia

I had been curious about Bali and had wanted to go there ever since I learned about its existence, not because of its popularity for what is, but for what I thought it was. I had this wrong notion that Bali was the same island called Bali Hai in the movie musical South Pacific. I have been fascinated with it ever since I watched this movie when I was 11 years old. Anyhow, Bali Hai is fictional but Bali, Indonesia is real :) and thanks to my company, I finally had the opportunity to go to the real Bali for one weekend. I went there with my colleagues for our annual company jamboree/convention.

Before our flight to Bali from Singapore, we were warned by our Singaporean tour guide to be attentive at all times at the Immigration because he said it is known as being corrupt. I thought this remark was very derogatory to the Indonesian government. However, I didn't expect that I would have to agree with him based on experience. We arrived at Denpansar airport at 9:35pm, me and my Southeast Asian colleagues queued up to the Immigration line for foreigners not needing any visa on arrival. I think the officer we queued at for was not in a good mood that night as he just suddenly refused entry of my Vietnamese colleague in the line ahead of me, telling him that he needs a visa and that he needed a return ticket. Then I went next, I presented my passport, my embarkation card and return ticket. The Immigration officer rudely asked which company I am travelling for, I replied with my company's name twice as he could not understand it. Since my planeticket was booked for the whole group (all our names were on the same e-ticket), after he let me in, he knew that he had no more excuse not to let my Vietnamese colleague in as well. My colleague was pissed off, of course ,and I was a little too, because I didn't expect something like that to happen since I've been to other parts of Indonesia (Bintan and Batam) before and did not encounter such a scene. Then at the customs, they were really opening and rummaging through the bags! But since we were there as a large group and I think the tour guides did some talking to the customs officers, they didn't check for ours. Anyways, the not so nice experience ends at the airport, thankfully.

Outside the airport, each one of us was greeted with a lei of flowers before we boarded the bus that would bring us to our hotel. By 10:30pm, we were on our way. Our local group guide was so enthusiastic in giving information about Bali, especially Kuta, which, according to him, is "where the happenings are". He gave some details, like how much the taxi from our hotel to Kuta would approximately cost, to go to Bounty bar/club to party, etc., etc. While he was saying this, I didn't really much care, because I knew I wouldn't have the time to go there since it was already quite late that night and our hotel was located in a secluded area in Jimbaran, a good 20 minutes away by taxi from Kuta. Besides, I was meeting a fellow travbuddy for a late night drink in my hotel.

But what do you know, three hours after, I found myself in Kuta, dancing on a ledge in Bounty bar! Yeah baby! :P Thanks to fellow travbuddy Manuel (as I've told before, you can find sincerely nice people in www.travbuddy.com), I had a crazy, wonderful, fun first night in Bali. We went drinking vodka, gin and the killer native palm drink that finally got me drunk and puking (in the toilet and not all over the place, ok! :P ) Woohoo! ;-)

I spent the whole of Saturday for the company activities scheduled. In the morning I went for my Aquatonic seawater therapy pool session* and the afternoon I spent in the hotel ballroom with my colleagues for the 4 hour speech by the big bosses. By the end of their speech, they mentioned that next year's jamboree would be held in a boring place since they were made aware of the torture we were going into, being in Bali but not being able to explore the place, hehehe. In the evening, we had our company gala dinner where we wore the traditional Indonesian sarong and headpiece. While dinner was served, we were mesmerized by the Balinese dance performances because of how good the dancers were in using distinct and snappy movements of their arms, legs, neck and most especially, their eyes. We were served some native dishes for the dinner, which were ok although I didn't quite fancy because I am not really into curry and spices. After dinner, as like last year, there was the usual free flow of champagne and lots of drunken dancing. But me and my roommate/friend/colleague, Donnah, retired early and by 10pm, called it a night.

I made Sunday to be the time for me to explore Kuta in daylight. At half past 8 am, I was walking around the small alleys where you could see lots of shops selling souvenirs, surfing and beach stuffs, scooter rentals, tattoo shops, white water rafting and other activities booking agents. At 9am I met Manuel again and he was kind enough to accompany me for the day. It was nice to hang out at the famous Kuta beach and see surfers and people basking in the sun. Although as I've expected, there were a number of vendors who could be persistent in selling you different stuffs: from food, drinks, ice cream, accessories, to massage, tattoos and braiding your hair. The key to avoiding them? Do not talk to them even just to say No nor make eye contact (although I found it hard at first due to my usual courtesy) and if this doesn't work out, you can always try to pretend to be a hooker and tell them you were also just there in the beach for money like them ;-P (hehehe, just kidding on this one).

We had a yummy lunch of wrapped marlin and went to buy my usual souvenir collection: a shotglass that was overpriced at 50,000 Indonesian rupiah but we bargained at 10,000; and a Bali Starbucks city mug (yay!). By 5:45pm I needed to go to Hard Rock cafe to meet my colleagues for dinner before we head to the airport and take our flight to Singapore. I was surprised to see the traffic jam and I was sure that I'm not gonna make it at 6pm in Hard Rock Cafe' if I take the taxi even if it was just a good 2 to 3 kilometers away. Good thing that there was an ingenious alternative: off I went with a local who took me to Hard Rock Cafe' via his scooter (look ma, no helmet on! :P)

Dinner with my colleagues turned out to be not in Hard Rock Cafe' but in the restaurant in Hard Rock Hotel, and it took me a while to find my company's reservation because it turned out the reservation was under the event organizer's name. Good thing the hotel receptionist was very kind to assist me and extended all the help he could give (and so in the end I couldn't refuse him when he asked for my email address, gulp :S). This is one of the things I most liked about Bali, I find the people nice and friendly (except in the Immigration). I was always mistaken as Indonesian so they spoke to me in their language and when they learn that I was not Indonesian, the locals still treat me nicely and they are quite curious where I was from and would always smile back if you smile at them. Anyways, by 9pm, I was in the airport doing some last minute souvenir shopping while waiting for our flight back to Singapore.

Today, I am happily writing this with a bit of sunburned shoulders. ;)

I really had a fun time in Bali, it was short but definitely memorable and I definitely would like to go back there again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Information from

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Bali/Spa/Menu.htm:

"The Ritz-Carlton, Bali Thalasso & Spa's Aquatonic® seawater therapy pool is the crown jewel of the Spa. Effortlessly exercise your way through 14 hydromassage stations using the pool's therapeutic jet streams, micro-bubbles and geysers to rehabilitate injured muscles, to relieve stress and for relaxation. "

Photocredit: Picture of the infinity pool is courtesy of Donnah.

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da

They say that for every hurtful experience there is a lesson to be learned.
So what have I learned this time?

If it is too good to be true, it is not true!

HAHAHAHAHAHA. :P

Gosh, if learning from being brokenhearted was an academic course, perhaps by now I have a Master's degree on it. But oh please, I hope I don't have to earn a PhD on it in the future! Oh no, no, no!

Kidding aside though, there is indeed something good that comes up from each of the downs we have in life. We discover something new about ourselves, our weaknesses, and our capabilities as well. Then we grow more as a person, we become stronger as we find a way to face it. That is, if we do treat each challenge as a learning experience instead of something to pull us to our complete downfall.

I know I don't need to go on analyzing what happened, wondering what went wrong or who did wrong, or speculate or even blame fate. But it is normal I think to be on this phase of trying to figure out why it turned out like that, or think that maybe I am just destined to be jinxed. I think it is but normal to be scared and to feel weak. I have been through this before, only this time, I could not just believe that I would feel so very weak that I felt like I couldn't stand up anymore. However, my Dad made a very good point: it is not that I am weak, I was just hit very hard.

Yup, combo hard.

Like when you thought that everything has fallen into place and your crossroads are finally over, in an instant you find yourself back to square zero, but now with even a bonus blackeye.

My Papa and Mama said it was not like me at all to be weak. My family and friends perhaps have never seen this side of me until now. I have always been seen as the strong, independent one. I'm sure they were surprised to get to know this side I have, my side that is capable of raising the white flag, this part of me that is like a fragile little puppy asking to be consoled...

But then again, my Papa also made a good point: I am just a normal human being who gets tired.

Yup, like everyone else, I need to feel inspired and be loved to keep on going with life.

However, now I realize, that after all the heartaches, the heartbreaks from my quest to find true love, I did not really have to look far: I did find true love, I found true love from my family and friends. And this will be the best inspiration I have. I am not letting myself clam up and ruin the best relationship I have in my life. I am fine where I am right now, I don't need to run away. I've come a long way and now I am quite sure that I do not belong in a fishbowl, for I belong to the ocean, where I don't have to feel lost amidst its vastness, because I know that wherever I am, my family and friends are always with me, here in my heart.

I am so blessed for belonging to a wonderful set of family and friends. Thank you, God, for making me have them in my life.

Is it possible to whack some balls with calmness?

Having not played tennis for three weeks, my tennis teacher was too shocked at how I played last Saturday night. He joked if I went on secret training or something, because my hits were very fierce. Indeed, I was surprised myself, as I have never played like that before in all my almost 3 years of playing tennis. I was hitting back very hard and I could hear myself shout at each whack I made.

But then, I knew where I got all that power and adrenalin. With the turn of events, I think I have all the reasons to be fuming angry. But I choose not to. Because I do not want to hold any grudge, I do not want to have a heavy heart, I do not want to make my world smaller. Even if God knows how I do not understand why right after surviving the killer cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, I would still be given an even stronger kind of cyclone that I have yet to survive. Furthermore, how being too nice has become a flaw instead of an asset...

All I want is to remain calm, better yet, indifferent. It was a learning experience, but a very tough one indeed. Can I really be this? Well, we'll see...

Putting Things Lightly

On my way back to the office from THE lunch, I went in the elevator excitedly, I couldn't wait to send that email, yeah THE email that I've been wanting to send to my manager for months now.

Anyways, one guy from another office was in the elevator and then my colleague went in the elevator as well, with a gloomy look on his face. I asked him why he had that look, he replied with "Why? Do you see Schindler's List theme on my face?" and started to hum the Schindler's List movie theme song. It was a joke from a conversation we had a few weeks ago. Becoming more serious, he said "It's the same." He meant that the problem is still his lovelife. I see him like a younger brother and I kinda became his confidant in the office about this girl he has been pursuing for months now but things seemed to be not in his favor (according to him he was out of the race).

With a cheerful tone I said "Hey, cheer up. I just got dumped by my boyfriend two days ago, what could be more worse?"

That not only got my colleague to smile, the other guy in the elevator almost choked out from keeping his laugh.

A Journal from Myanmar

4 May 2008

6:43 am

Yangon, Myanmar

It's now 16 hours that we should be considered to be missing, at least with those who were expecting us to arive in Singapore yesterday at 3:00pm.

It's almost 24 hours now since we risked our lives trying to get to the airport to get home. When I look back and think about the intensity of the danger that we have put ourselves into -- driving in the streets at the peak of the storm, with trees and electric posts falling down, debris of roofs and wood flying around, the heavy rain and strong winds -- I am amazed at how we survived it unharmed, and I am even more amazed at how determined we were to make it in time for our flight, even if at the back of our minds we knew that it would take a miracle for an airplane to stay in one piece in that weather.

I was indeed expecting some danger in this trip due to the political situation of the country. We were told that there will be no international mobile roaming phone service and the internet would be limited. In short, we would be detached from the rest of the world. However, I was not expecting that we would indeed be unreachable. Telephone lines and internet cables are down. We have no way right now to even inform our loved ones that we are still alive...