This post will have other parts, because it's a story about a trip. So much has happened in that trip, that it deserves a series. Only one blog post will not do justice to the epic-ness of it all! But first of all, let me start with a picture of some of us who went on this trip, from long long back. Like 2003 and 2008. So yeah. No one judges anyone. Everyone has looked like this at some point in their lives ok.
Stuti : On the extreme left, stripped t-shirt
Simran : the girl in the red shirt
Me : In the orange sleeveless next to Simran
Akshay : In the orange/red sleeveless shirt with a green hat (which was mine!)
Latika : Standing in a green & white checked shirt.
[On a completely unrelated note, Aiyappa, the little boy in the blue t-shirt is my brother :)]
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My friends from school and me had been planning a vacation for ages. I think we started in 2011 and initially it was supposed to be Goa, then it was supposed to be some other part of India and then a million other places. During all that planning, I moved jobs within India and then shifted to Singapore. 2 of the couples got married and a few other finished education and started work, a few others left their jobs to go study more. So basically a lot happened, other than the vacation of course. So when we started planning this vacation, very few believed that it was actually going to work out. So while we started a WhatsApp group with full gusto and I started a Google Docs sheet and put in places we could holiday in, we were all thinking the same thought : "is this actually going to happen?"
I'm going to break my no-naming ritual and go ahead and name my friends (with their explicit permission) : Akshay, Stuti, Latika, Himakshi, Agam, Uttesh, Simran and me :) . Everyone arrived in Singapore before we flew out to Bali and then to Lombok. The fun started with Akshay and Stuti arriving a few days before everyone else. My house started feeling like home, I was swamped at work and would unfortunately get back only late, but I don't think I've ever wanted to run back home so eagerly than those days. We would sit until late night and talk talk talk about old days, about the upcoming vacation, about life in general. Uttesh joined us on Friday and the house got a little bit nicer. When people ask me what's there to see in Singapore, Im stumped for a few seconds, before I say "umm nothing really, we can eat". Haha. And most people, including this group screamed at me on WhatsApp when I said, nothing to do in Singapore. But fortunately for them I was working in the mornings and they actually managed to do some sightseeing, good sightseeing that is, and show me pictures at night. Most of those pics were revelations to me. So finally on Friday evening I joined the gang of three for a tour of the observatory atop Marina Bay Sands. We got delayed lazing in the house and waiting for Stuti to finish some work, so by the time we got to the venue, we had 15 mins to go up and take pictures before they shut the observatory! But we managed to get pretty good pictures.
(The singapore skyline from the observatory!)
The next hunt was for food! It was 11 pm and most places shut for food at 10:30/11:00. Thankfully, Club Street was still open and we found ourselves good pizza and even better wine at Trattoria! There i bumped into another friend, Dhruv, who was visiting Singapore from Dubai and was also travelling to Bali, but for a wedding. We got home and went crazy on Youtube. They introduced me to the beauty that this movie review is : Prem Agan by Pretentious Movie Reviews. I was rolling on the floor. I think we all were. I went from thinking "is this true" to "OMG why would someone make a movie like this" to "stop it, or I'll die laughing". It is truly the best thing I have watched on YouTube in a very very long time. This went on to becoming the tagline of our trip from "You wanna, I wanna" to "oh Yeaaaaaaaaaah", we would try and fit it in anywhere we could. Absolutely i.n.s.a.n.e. !
We finally went to bed only to be woken up by the madness quotient of our group : Simran and Latika had arrived. With a bang. I usually get woken up by the church bells from the church next to my house. And the church is next door. Like literally. I've had friends (including Uttesh) who have landed up at the Church instead of my house, it's that close. Imagine noise that drowns the melody of the bells, that's what my house sounded like with Simran and Latika walking in. I am sure half of the noise was them swearing about the 5 floor climb to my lovely walk-up apartment. Anyway, so much for all the description, because frankly, I didn't even wake up then, Simran had to walk in & do some drama in my room to wake me up from my weekend slumber. I rubbed my eyes and hugged her and Latika before checked my phone to see a message from Himakshi and Agam, they'd arrived too! Time to start the party. Just not. Thanks to everyone's eagerness to see Sentosa :(
(This is what Latika and Simran were doing before they boarded their flight in Bombay. So nowyou can imagine what state they arrived in. Also, they managed to drop half a BIG BOX of Maltesers on the Air India flight :| )
(This is Sentosa. Ok, I'll admit, it was fun. But only because i was with these guys.)
The gang, ganged up on me, and decided to take me to Sentosa. I hate Sentosa. Like, I hate it. I find it the most painful part of Singapore. It's hot, and it's artificial and it's full of tourists & kids (!) and it's super expensive for some reason! You have to pay me a million dollars to take me to sentosa. Or you have to drag me all the way while I cry throughout. Basically, they took the second option. But not before we managed to locate a Apple service store in Wheelock Place on Orchard to do Simran's some random friend's random chore and all the while stopping at random stores on our way back, which the group blamed on me delaying purposely to avoid Sentosa. Untrue. Should've done that though. Oh how I hate Sentosa. Anyway moving on.
(Simran and me getting lost in a disneyland-ish store! We wanted to buy everything!)
And I was forced to board the train to Sentosa. I didn't do too badly though! And the crowd wasn't all that bad. The guys even managed to play frisbee on the beach after a lovely lunch, while I rested my busted left knee and managed to sleep for 15 mins.
(The beginning of an epic beach vacation!)
( How we all love food. So much craaab!)
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And I got my revenge by making them see the Singapore National Day Parade that evening. So there, I didn't feel all that bad! Except when they walked almost 3KM in the lovely Singapore weather to get to Robertson Quay, while Himakshi, Agam and me, acted smart by taking a 10 min cab ride. Not my fault. I warned them, I really did. They cursed me after they reached, but then we were back to being friends again over a huge round table of crabs and prawns and lobsters and what not. Dhruv had joined us for dinner that evening. How can you come to Singapore and not eat crab. Any crab : chilly, butter, salted egg yolk, pepper....the list just goes on and on and on and on. OMG. CRAB! So we ate our heart out at Red House Sea Food at Robertson Quay. And then Akshay, being Akshay wanted to try out reverse bungee at Clarke Quay after a FULL meal. And he managed to convince some others in the group and so we walked towards Clarke Quay.
I was praying that it would be closed, but the damn thing was open. And so these guys decided to go for it. I mean, who places reverse bugee right next to a the biggest collection of watering holes in Singapore? But that doesn't stop people from "going all the way to the moon" (as Simran put it). I found company in other sane people : Himakshi, Agam and Stuti. Though I feel and in fact im sure, if it wasn't after a meal, Agam would've definitely tried it. So the three of us, stared at each other, with a straight face thinking "thank God we have a brain" Haha. But honestly, it looked like it was awesome fun. Dhruv, Simran, Latika and Uttesh had their own stories to tell. Dhruv looked the calmest of them all though. Simran didn't have anything to hold onto, she was properly strapped and all, so no reason to worry, but the other guys on the ride had handles to hold on their sides, so when she asked the operator, what should she be holding onto, he said "To your life" before releasing the lever. I would have died there. Just there. At that moment. Dead.
The smile you see on Latika's face is fear! And Look at Dhruv's "I do this everyday" calm.
So anyway, after they were back on mother earth, and we had enjoyed the show from the side with our drinks, we decided to check out a couple of places in Clarke Quay. But most nice places needed you to not wear shorts (i mean who has such rules in singapore!). So we decided to get some alcohol and head home. Himakshi and Agam were exhausted and decided to head back to their hotel. Now I wonder, if i should have just asked them to stay at home as well.
The gang outside Robertson Quay after eating 100kgs of crabs
Anyway, once home, we got the glasses out and started the party ! We switched on YouTube and decided to watch the Prem Agan review all over again. And this time, I was crying. Literally, closing my mouth to avoid disturbing others from enjoying the beauty of the video while I went mad on the floor laughing. We also then did bollywood karaoke via YT and sang (or tried to sing) crazy bollywood songs. It was a great evening, we broke glasses. Or rather Akshay broke glasses, laughed until we couldn't possibly laugh more, watched a lot of crap on YT, sang ourselves hoarse, drank loads and then finally crashed at 5:00 AM in the morning. Our flight on Sunday was at 3:00 PM. And I hadn't packed, anything. I hadn't even take out the bag I was supposed to carry. I woke up to see the boys up. Or rather Uttesh up. Uttesh always woke up the earliest. Throughout the trip. And he would shower as well. And be all fresh and ready, while the rest of us would have to be dragged out of our beds and pushed into the shower. More about Uttesh later. So yea, Uttesh was up, Akshay was waking up, the girls were nice and sleepy, Dhruv was sprawled on the sofa. I need chai on weekends to start my brain. So I went into the kitchen and started making chai for everyone. In my state, I managed to drop scalding hot tea on myself and get a nasty burn. On any other day, I would've screamed in pain, but my excitement about the upcoming trip was knew no bounds and all I felt was just a pinch ! Anyway, Chai done, and it was time to start packing. I had my list on Google Keep (whatte advertisement!) and all I had to do was fit stuff into the bag. I was done in 20 mins flat, all the while holding an ice-pack to my now-turning-blue burn!
Stuti, Latika and Simran got ready. Oh wait, let me rephrase that. Stuti and Simran got ready. And as usual we were left waiting for Latika. Poor girl in her defense though, she was the last one to take a shower in my only-one-washroom house. So she was forgiven. I realised at the last minute that I hadn't put my out of office reminder on email and quickly did that and cleared last minute work To Dos while Stuti and Uttesh tried to make my house like a house and not a bar. We didn't have any time for any breakfast, even though we sent Akshay 5 floors down and then back up to 7Eleven for milk and bread, that we didn't open at all. With all this running around, Uttesh was sitting calmly and watching the mad house. Dhruv was lost I think and eventually left with a mad plan of walking 12 km on a Sunday morning in the Singapore heat. I hope he didn't end up doing it! Latika finally got ready and we were good to go!
Himakshi and Agam were already at the airport. We got delayed with cabs, but got there eventually. Not to forget, singing Kuch Kuch Hota Hain songs on the way to the airport. 20 glorious ShahRukh Khan minutes later, we reached the airport and checked in and bought our stock of alcohol from the Duty free, grabbed sandwiches and hogged them down and were all set for Bali! Now, madam Latika had decided to join us for this vacation late and couldn't get onto Tiger Airways, and had to travel Air Asia, which flew from a different terminal and reached 50 mins after our flight. More exciting stuff on that story later. Akshay and Uttesh were dreading the fantastic Tiger Airways leg space, only to thank the airline gods (and the nice man on the check-in counter) when we realised that we had the emergency exit seats. Now, Tiger Airways sells these premium seats for a sum. And we were blessed enough to have gotten them free. Our vacation had officially begun! Only, Himakshi and Agam weren't on the flight yet. I was freaking out, and then I finally saw them walking in with the last group of passengers. Phew! Time to take out those Maltesers i say!
TR 2288 was all ready for take off!
Bye Bye Singapore and Hello Bali!
Stuti : On the extreme left, stripped t-shirt
Simran : the girl in the red shirt
Me : In the orange sleeveless next to Simran
Akshay : In the orange/red sleeveless shirt with a green hat (which was mine!)
Latika : Standing in a green & white checked shirt.
[On a completely unrelated note, Aiyappa, the little boy in the blue t-shirt is my brother :)]
( Top to Bottom : Himakshi, me and Sakshi in Agra in 2008)
My friends from school and me had been planning a vacation for ages. I think we started in 2011 and initially it was supposed to be Goa, then it was supposed to be some other part of India and then a million other places. During all that planning, I moved jobs within India and then shifted to Singapore. 2 of the couples got married and a few other finished education and started work, a few others left their jobs to go study more. So basically a lot happened, other than the vacation of course. So when we started planning this vacation, very few believed that it was actually going to work out. So while we started a WhatsApp group with full gusto and I started a Google Docs sheet and put in places we could holiday in, we were all thinking the same thought : "is this actually going to happen?"
(This is how sexy we all look now in 2014 + Uttesh)
(L-R : Akshay, me, Latika, Simran, Stuti, Uttesh)
I'm going to break my no-naming ritual and go ahead and name my friends (with their explicit permission) : Akshay, Stuti, Latika, Himakshi, Agam, Uttesh, Simran and me :) . Everyone arrived in Singapore before we flew out to Bali and then to Lombok. The fun started with Akshay and Stuti arriving a few days before everyone else. My house started feeling like home, I was swamped at work and would unfortunately get back only late, but I don't think I've ever wanted to run back home so eagerly than those days. We would sit until late night and talk talk talk about old days, about the upcoming vacation, about life in general. Uttesh joined us on Friday and the house got a little bit nicer. When people ask me what's there to see in Singapore, Im stumped for a few seconds, before I say "umm nothing really, we can eat". Haha. And most people, including this group screamed at me on WhatsApp when I said, nothing to do in Singapore. But fortunately for them I was working in the mornings and they actually managed to do some sightseeing, good sightseeing that is, and show me pictures at night. Most of those pics were revelations to me. So finally on Friday evening I joined the gang of three for a tour of the observatory atop Marina Bay Sands. We got delayed lazing in the house and waiting for Stuti to finish some work, so by the time we got to the venue, we had 15 mins to go up and take pictures before they shut the observatory! But we managed to get pretty good pictures.
(Stutu and me on the observatory. Akshay and his big camera has better pics!)
(The singapore skyline from the observatory!)
The next hunt was for food! It was 11 pm and most places shut for food at 10:30/11:00. Thankfully, Club Street was still open and we found ourselves good pizza and even better wine at Trattoria! There i bumped into another friend, Dhruv, who was visiting Singapore from Dubai and was also travelling to Bali, but for a wedding. We got home and went crazy on Youtube. They introduced me to the beauty that this movie review is : Prem Agan by Pretentious Movie Reviews. I was rolling on the floor. I think we all were. I went from thinking "is this true" to "OMG why would someone make a movie like this" to "stop it, or I'll die laughing". It is truly the best thing I have watched on YouTube in a very very long time. This went on to becoming the tagline of our trip from "You wanna, I wanna" to "oh Yeaaaaaaaaaah", we would try and fit it in anywhere we could. Absolutely i.n.s.a.n.e. !
(We have these guys to thank for our epic trip taglines : You wanna, I wanna! and Oh Yeah! )
We finally went to bed only to be woken up by the madness quotient of our group : Simran and Latika had arrived. With a bang. I usually get woken up by the church bells from the church next to my house. And the church is next door. Like literally. I've had friends (including Uttesh) who have landed up at the Church instead of my house, it's that close. Imagine noise that drowns the melody of the bells, that's what my house sounded like with Simran and Latika walking in. I am sure half of the noise was them swearing about the 5 floor climb to my lovely walk-up apartment. Anyway, so much for all the description, because frankly, I didn't even wake up then, Simran had to walk in & do some drama in my room to wake me up from my weekend slumber. I rubbed my eyes and hugged her and Latika before checked my phone to see a message from Himakshi and Agam, they'd arrived too! Time to start the party. Just not. Thanks to everyone's eagerness to see Sentosa :(
(This is what Latika and Simran were doing before they boarded their flight in Bombay. So nowyou can imagine what state they arrived in. Also, they managed to drop half a BIG BOX of Maltesers on the Air India flight :| )
(This is Sentosa. Ok, I'll admit, it was fun. But only because i was with these guys.)
(Simran and me getting lost in a disneyland-ish store! We wanted to buy everything!)
And I was forced to board the train to Sentosa. I didn't do too badly though! And the crowd wasn't all that bad. The guys even managed to play frisbee on the beach after a lovely lunch, while I rested my busted left knee and managed to sleep for 15 mins.
(What a pose!)
(The beginning of an epic beach vacation!)
( This was the view of the national day parade)
And I got my revenge by making them see the Singapore National Day Parade that evening. So there, I didn't feel all that bad! Except when they walked almost 3KM in the lovely Singapore weather to get to Robertson Quay, while Himakshi, Agam and me, acted smart by taking a 10 min cab ride. Not my fault. I warned them, I really did. They cursed me after they reached, but then we were back to being friends again over a huge round table of crabs and prawns and lobsters and what not. Dhruv had joined us for dinner that evening. How can you come to Singapore and not eat crab. Any crab : chilly, butter, salted egg yolk, pepper....the list just goes on and on and on and on. OMG. CRAB! So we ate our heart out at Red House Sea Food at Robertson Quay. And then Akshay, being Akshay wanted to try out reverse bungee at Clarke Quay after a FULL meal. And he managed to convince some others in the group and so we walked towards Clarke Quay.
[ Stuti, Akshay (in his no-entry shorts), Uttesh walking from robertson quay to clarke quay ]
I was praying that it would be closed, but the damn thing was open. And so these guys decided to go for it. I mean, who places reverse bugee right next to a the biggest collection of watering holes in Singapore? But that doesn't stop people from "going all the way to the moon" (as Simran put it). I found company in other sane people : Himakshi, Agam and Stuti. Though I feel and in fact im sure, if it wasn't after a meal, Agam would've definitely tried it. So the three of us, stared at each other, with a straight face thinking "thank God we have a brain" Haha. But honestly, it looked like it was awesome fun. Dhruv, Simran, Latika and Uttesh had their own stories to tell. Dhruv looked the calmest of them all though. Simran didn't have anything to hold onto, she was properly strapped and all, so no reason to worry, but the other guys on the ride had handles to hold on their sides, so when she asked the operator, what should she be holding onto, he said "To your life" before releasing the lever. I would have died there. Just there. At that moment. Dead.
So anyway, after they were back on mother earth, and we had enjoyed the show from the side with our drinks, we decided to check out a couple of places in Clarke Quay. But most nice places needed you to not wear shorts (i mean who has such rules in singapore!). So we decided to get some alcohol and head home. Himakshi and Agam were exhausted and decided to head back to their hotel. Now I wonder, if i should have just asked them to stay at home as well.
The gang outside Robertson Quay after eating 100kgs of crabs
Anyway, once home, we got the glasses out and started the party ! We switched on YouTube and decided to watch the Prem Agan review all over again. And this time, I was crying. Literally, closing my mouth to avoid disturbing others from enjoying the beauty of the video while I went mad on the floor laughing. We also then did bollywood karaoke via YT and sang (or tried to sing) crazy bollywood songs. It was a great evening, we broke glasses. Or rather Akshay broke glasses, laughed until we couldn't possibly laugh more, watched a lot of crap on YT, sang ourselves hoarse, drank loads and then finally crashed at 5:00 AM in the morning. Our flight on Sunday was at 3:00 PM. And I hadn't packed, anything. I hadn't even take out the bag I was supposed to carry. I woke up to see the boys up. Or rather Uttesh up. Uttesh always woke up the earliest. Throughout the trip. And he would shower as well. And be all fresh and ready, while the rest of us would have to be dragged out of our beds and pushed into the shower. More about Uttesh later. So yea, Uttesh was up, Akshay was waking up, the girls were nice and sleepy, Dhruv was sprawled on the sofa. I need chai on weekends to start my brain. So I went into the kitchen and started making chai for everyone. In my state, I managed to drop scalding hot tea on myself and get a nasty burn. On any other day, I would've screamed in pain, but my excitement about the upcoming trip was knew no bounds and all I felt was just a pinch ! Anyway, Chai done, and it was time to start packing. I had my list on Google Keep (whatte advertisement!) and all I had to do was fit stuff into the bag. I was done in 20 mins flat, all the while holding an ice-pack to my now-turning-blue burn!
Stuti, Latika and Simran got ready. Oh wait, let me rephrase that. Stuti and Simran got ready. And as usual we were left waiting for Latika. Poor girl in her defense though, she was the last one to take a shower in my only-one-washroom house. So she was forgiven. I realised at the last minute that I hadn't put my out of office reminder on email and quickly did that and cleared last minute work To Dos while Stuti and Uttesh tried to make my house like a house and not a bar. We didn't have any time for any breakfast, even though we sent Akshay 5 floors down and then back up to 7Eleven for milk and bread, that we didn't open at all. With all this running around, Uttesh was sitting calmly and watching the mad house. Dhruv was lost I think and eventually left with a mad plan of walking 12 km on a Sunday morning in the Singapore heat. I hope he didn't end up doing it! Latika finally got ready and we were good to go!
(Random Changi pictures. Yes I was very excited about being at the airport this time around)
Himakshi and Agam were already at the airport. We got delayed with cabs, but got there eventually. Not to forget, singing Kuch Kuch Hota Hain songs on the way to the airport. 20 glorious ShahRukh Khan minutes later, we reached the airport and checked in and bought our stock of alcohol from the Duty free, grabbed sandwiches and hogged them down and were all set for Bali! Now, madam Latika had decided to join us for this vacation late and couldn't get onto Tiger Airways, and had to travel Air Asia, which flew from a different terminal and reached 50 mins after our flight. More exciting stuff on that story later. Akshay and Uttesh were dreading the fantastic Tiger Airways leg space, only to thank the airline gods (and the nice man on the check-in counter) when we realised that we had the emergency exit seats. Now, Tiger Airways sells these premium seats for a sum. And we were blessed enough to have gotten them free. Our vacation had officially begun! Only, Himakshi and Agam weren't on the flight yet. I was freaking out, and then I finally saw them walking in with the last group of passengers. Phew! Time to take out those Maltesers i say!
TR 2288 was all ready for take off!
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