Sand, Sun & Smiles : Part IV

The smaller group leaving for Lombok with our aircraft in the background!

Ok, so the group has given me a lot of feedback about how conveniently I am eliminating all my quirks from the posts and all the embarrassing stories about myself. So I'll start off this one, which also happens to be the last post where we would be together as a group, by talking about myself. I am terrible at keeping in touch. Like, terrible. If there is a word worse than terrible, akshay and stuti will use it to define my "keeping in touch" skills. Or any of my other friends as well for that matter. I don't keep my phone with me at all times. When I am at work, it's lying on one corner of my desk by itself, I put it down when I come to work in the morning and i pick it when I leave for the day in the evening. At home, it will be lying in some remote corner, either charging, or (which is the case most times) on silent. So when this trip was being planned, I would sometimes be asked questions on WhatsApp about travel or some thing or the other and not respond. :) But I am getting better now, my phone now buzzes and I carry it around at home as well. I have a weird laugh. Or rather, other people think I have a weird laugh. I find it completely normal, i mean, it's a little loud yes, but it's not abnormal. You know? There was once this instance, which is way later in this trip, but since I'm talking about myself, I might as well get it done with no. So, yes we were travelling back from Bali to Singapore, Sim, Uttesh, Axe, Stutu and me. And Axe narrated a story, it was super funny ok. What do normal people do when they find something funny, they laugh right? So I laughed. my laugh. And everyone rushed to cover my mouth, so I had some 3 pairs of hands covering my mouth (including my own btw). So I apparently need lessons on how to laugh silently and like a lady. Sigh.

I don't get sarcasm. Like you have to be obviously sarcastic for me to get it. My friends here in Singapore, have devised a tactic. Whenever someone says something sarcastic, they tap the table/chair or whatever they can find, it's supposed to be my sarcasm alert. :| Im working on it. Axe is my teacher. I even managed to crack a joke or two myself! :)

Ok now, to the really embarrassing stories. The girls, Sim, me and latu were sharing, actually not exactly sharing, but our room and Uttesh's room were joint with a door. And we tend to be, pretty loud. Actually we are always very very very loud. So, I've already mentioned how Prem Agan and it's dialogues were the taglines of the trip. Now there is this scene in the movie, where this happens:

So, when simran came out of the washroom one day, latika and me were on the bed, in this pose. Sim almost ran back into the washroom, out of fear. And latu and me rolled on the bed laughing our heart out. Now here is where I must have laughed really loudly, ok guys? My normal laugh is just that, normal. Simply they take my case, anyway, so yea, thankfully no one documented latika and me, could've been pretty strong blackmail material. And Uttesh, poor boy, must have been scandalized with our shrieks. 

However, not quite as scandalized as he would have been, when he heard our conversation the night we all wanted to 'dress up'. Simran was in the shower (!) and Latu and me....maybe it's just latu and me you know, we go mad like this sometimes....anyhow... so the both of us were dressing up. Now I was wearing something that needed zipping up, and latu was helping me. Except that we managed to screw it up and the zip got stuck and was neither moving up nor down and was stuck in between. So after trying a zillion things, we decided to pull it up above my head. And the both of us were already on laughing hysterically because of the stuff we had tried, so when she tugged hard, i screamed, well very loudly. And then she left it on top of my face, while she finished her laughing fit, and I was blinded. But still laughing. :|  And then a couple of inappropriate words were said, which we are pretty sure Uttesh heard because he was sitting right outside our room waiting for his turn to shower. He claims he didn't hear anything, because we were choking with laughter every time we said something, but we don't believe him. So then, when simran came out, she again saw yes in very weird looking postures and thought we had gone mad for sure, and almost looked like she would faint. I don't have any representative pictures of that scene, I'm sorry, but you're better off without it, trust me. So this story would have ideally been buried, if it wasn't for the folks who coerced me to put it in. so blame them. 

Here's latu and me. Omg, I have a banana smoothie in my hand from atman cafe I think. And I have that stupid expression on my face because Latu must have said something just before expertly posing for Akshay!

Ok there, I'm done with my embarrassing stories. Not too bad right?

Back to the story now. I woke up early that morning, not for yoga, but just, and I am so glad I did. I went to washroom to brush and right after i had finished, the water stopped. And I stared at the tap with a 'oh come on now' look. I went downstairs and saw Uttesh and told him we were out of water. Then i tried charging my phone and realised that power was out too. So we called Widi. I made chai until then and chilled waiting for Widi. He arrived with a plumber and electrician in tow and fixed the problem. Himakshi walked out of her room, and I started telling her the no water story and i began with "there was no water in the house, and then I called Widi, that's why he is here..." and then I didn't complete my story, because one of the girls called me and I ran upstairs for something leaving poor Himakshi with a half baked story. So she went back to sleep thinking, there is no water . :| And so when everyone was getting ready and had gotten ready and were planning to leave, she walks out of her room again and asks me if the water was back and then I realised that i had only told her the first half of the story! My bad, absolutely my bad. So then she and Agam rushed. The scooty guys were at the villa to get the scooters and we bid our rides goodbye. We kept one because Akshay and Stuti went to buy the girls these beads. Latu had picked up one from Seminyak beach and Stu and me wanted it :

The rest of us walked to Bali Bakery for a brunch and Agam and Himakshi were to join us there after getting ready. After brunch we shopped a bit. The plan was to leave by 1:00 PM so to head back to the villa by 12:45 PM. But girls being girls ended up chilling at the shops. Actually we were pretty good on time until we arrived at this shop, Uluwatu Balinese Lace. 

It was o.m.g beautiful. I ended up trying some 50 things I think :|

So, yea, I think we got delayed because of me. haha. it was 1:00 PM when I got a call from Himakshi saying Widi and the driver were already at home and that we were getting late. Stuti and Simran rushed to the villa, they had a little bit of packing to do. I had fortunately packed everything, so was set. Latu was leaving later anyway, so she didn't have to leave for the airport with us. I quickly paid for the two things that i bought (i btw have no idea where to wear them)  and latu and I ran, like we literally ran to the villa. I rushed upstairs, zipped by bag and brought it downstairs. And then we were all set to go. We had a bottle of white wine, Agam's whiskey and loads of dirty Myers Rum left. Oh and a little bit Baileys which we transferred to a plastic bottle and double sealed it to avoid carrying that heavy baileys one. Did I narrate the story about the enthusiasm with which the boys bought this Myer's Rum? No right? So, they love Old Monk, i mean which india rum drinker doesn't love old monk. I used to love old monk at one point in time, during my younger days, and then got over it. But we had only one bottle of old monk and the boys needed more rum, so akshay picked up this Myers thing at the duty free. And if that was not enough, he told latika to pick one as well. So now we had two bottle of Myers, that NO ONE had had before, but had heard about, so they guessed it would be ok.

However, it turned out to be pretty bad. Like, really very very bad. It was dark rum that tasted and smelled like tequila. Ok, I know there are people who love tequila, but I am disgusted by it! Anyhow, So we had 1 and a half bottles of this dirty Myer's rum that we didn't know what to do with. So we thought Widi might like it and we gave it to him and he did seem to be very pleased. Budi, our house cleaner was there as well. And it was time to bid everyone goodbye. Himakshi, Latika and Agam, Widi and the house staff, our lovely villa, and the pool! Hugs and kisses were exchanged and time for one last group picture:

The gang together one last time! (Widi is the one next to Agam and Budi is next to me)

We've all tanned. And how. We finally boarded our cab and bid farewell for one last time, cracked one last prem agan joke and left :( The ride to the airport didn't seem all that long. We were there in time. Checked in our baggage, which itself would've been a problem if we hadn't been travelling as a group since Lion Air allowed only 10 Kgs of check in baggage. We decided to get coffee and a few snacks and sat down to eat and drink. Uttesh tried Luwak and i took a sip, it was pretty ok actually. And finally we boarded our 20 min flight to Lombok. 

We utilised the airport wifi to it's fullest extent and exchanged pics with others on our whatsapp group. 

The group was a lot smaller and we kept feeling like we were leaving folks out. It took sometime to get used to the size. All boarded and set to fly to Lombok. We were sad about leaving other, but excited about what was waiting for us at Lombok and the Gilis!