Bye bye Mentigi Dome Villas :(
There you get to see AZIZ! This is us just before getting into our cab to go back to the airport and Bali !
And the day we had to leave dawned. I woke up wishing for the sun to go back and for it to be night again. I so wanted it to be our first morning in Mentigi when uttesh and sim woke us up at 7 AM. But like they say, all good things come to an end, so better things can come your way :) With that attitude and spirit we got ready to bid farewell to mentigi and lombok. I made some coffee for the folks, we sat around the entrance to the bedrooms with our mugs of coffee and there was a little bit of silence, a little chatter, a few sighs and many smiles. Showers and packing followed, and we were all set to leave. Aziz and us took a picture (above) and we climbed into our taxi and set off. I don't remember what we spoke about in the car, but im guessing the mood and our hearts were very heavy. We reached Lombok Airport only to realise that Akshay and Stuti had left printouts of their singapore visa in the locker at Mentigi. So a little brainstorming and calling and messaging later, we had Aziz send us photos of the printouts on email. Oh, and we spotted a Roti-O shop and bought Roti-Os :) Only 5, we weren't greedy ok. And then we also spotted a shop selling lombok branded t-shirts. Sim picked up this awesome on (which I am wearing to work tomorrow : because it's friday!) and we bought it :
Ok, ignore this picture. I never smile showing my teeth, but these guys were teaching me how to, hence that smile or whatever you want to call it. You will see how quickly I learnt in the below picture:
Sigh. What a dream, the saying on that t-shirt.
Akshay and Stuti bought this one
And Uttesh didn't buy any. We were all so engrossed in buying our own and Axe and Stuti sorting out the visa thing that we didn't notice.We would have asked him to buy one for sure! Anyhow, the sport that he is when we complained on WhatsApp why he hadn't bought one and how he is now the only one without a Lombok T-Shirt, he took this picture and sent it to us:
Clearly Loves Lombok more than the rest of us, went ahead and made his own T-shirt.
Everyone freaked out when we heard that the plane carrying us back was an ATR. But well, we survived the ride. and Landed safe and sound, and frankly, it was smoother than regular planes.
There were no babies in the flight, Thank GOD. We landed at Bali and collected our baggage and decided to leave it in a locker at the airport and go get food outside. It was 12 PM and our flight was only at 7PM, we had a lot of time to kill. So after a long walk from the Arrivals lounge to the locker at the Departures lounge, we hired a cab and asked him to drop us at this mall: Discovery Shopping Mall. We were a little vary about eating at a mall, but it turned out to be a LOT better than what we'd expected and we also ended up shopping a bit :)After random looking around at shops here and there, we settled at this place called Segara Seafood and Indonesian restaurant. It was really pretty and on the terrace of the mall, so open and looked out to the ocean, we got a sea-facing HUGE table and just plonked ourselves on the cushions. I ordered Banana smoothie (of course), but there were other fresh juices and smoothies on the table, Pineapple, Mango, and what not and of course there was alcohol later. We ordered some grilled prawns, they were out of lobsters unfortunately, then there was other mixed stuff. I stuck to one of the Nasi's nice and spicy :)
Our last together girl pic from the vacation. We missed you latu. :(
We all then decided to check this huge department store that had all this pretty looking Balinese arts and crafts and loads of batik apparel. Sim sat the restaurant, guarding our MANY and looking out at the ocean with her drink for one last time before she left Bali. The rest of us bought something or the other, including Uttesh, who bought this really pretty dress for his sister. Stu picked up a couple of nice ones as well, I dont think akshay bought anything for himself, a few gifts for his cousins I think and I picked up a vanity bag (with purple and pink batik prints) and I had picked up a wallet that i loved. The boys conspired and Uttesh ended up gifting me that wallet for being a good host (mom did you hear that, I am a GOOD host!), Thank you UTTESH ! :
Pretty no? :)
And then time was up, we finally had to get going. We walked to the restaurant, paid our last really expensive Indonesian bill and picked up our bags to left to the airport. At the the taxis stand we discovered this HUGE water park : Waterbom and we all stared at each other with disbelief and silently saying "Oh come on, how did we not notice this!" It was too late to try it out now and we climbed into our taxi with sullen faces. We got to the airport, picked up our bags and checked in, paid the $30 fee, and were on our way. Stu got print of akshay and her visa to singapore from the airport helpdesk (those guys were so so helpful!), we crossed immigration and Simran and I decided to wear our Lombok T-shirts and then akshay and Stuti changed as well! Those are the pictures above :) crossed the Duty Free stores, Simran bought a philosophy book to read in the flight, I just remembered she is supposed to send us a book review! Let me ask her now.
This helpful little packet was our Kitty/Pool money packet and has been our constant companion throughout the trip! Thank you Kitty!
The flight to Bali, had a few tears, loads of mixed conversations,many stories, happy and sad and a few drinks and random food! We finally landed, I got out early, Stuti and Akshay followed, and soon we saw Uttesh. But no sign of Simran. Why? It's a huge story, but worth telling, hence I shall tell it here. Simran doesn't have a last name. Her passport says:
First Name: Simran
Last Name: -
Haha. I mean, she has a second name but she chooses not to use it. So I think in fact when she went to get her passport, the officer asked her we can't leave the second/last name field empty, let's just say 'Dot' ( . ) :D ! So whenever she crosses Singapore immigration they take her to a room to question her background and the glaring absence of a second name! So while we collected our baggage, shopped at the duty free for some liquor and did random chitchatting, Simran was busy explaining to the immigration officer where she comes from, what she does for a living, why she is visiting singapore, is she sane? haha. Ok not the last one maybe.
FINALLY by the time we got out and reached home, it was 11:30 PM and most restaurants were closed for dinner. So finally we called Brinda's who are open 24 hours and ordered some butter chicken and roti and rice as comfort we-can't-believe-our-vacation-has-ended food! I then discovered this weird pain in my right jaw. I must have hit it against a rock or the ocean bed or a wave, whatever, i couldn't chew on my right side :( eventually managed to eat a little and we bought out the baileys to raise a toast to the epicness of what we had lived the last 10 days. Axe and Stuti eventually went to bed, and Uttesh and I decided to stay up with Simran, whose flight was at 8 AM and she had to leave the house at 5:30 AM for the airport.It was already 2:00 AM, so no point in sleeping now, might as well stay up. So we did. And a lot of randomness followed. The takeaway from that late night nonsense was me being introduced to Bollywood Classroom and Im shocked Akshay and Stu slept through the shrieking laughter ! But so much fun! I think the one I went mad on is this one : Shock Lagaa, insane!! She finally left at 5:30 or 6 I think and slowly my house was starting to get empty....I went to bed dreading the next day....but it did come. After a lazy lazy breakfast and loads of chai, and some awesome Japanese lunch, it was time to bid everyone farewell. My maid was at home cleaning, I she found me crying in one corner of the house,while everyone was packing. She came and gave me a hug and cried with me a bit. And then the folks caught me all teary eyed with a swollen face and they all gave me a group hug and then we asked Ei Ei, to take this picture for us :
And with that our Bali-Lombok trip came to an end. I loved it. It was everything i had hoped for and more. But the best part was all of us bonding after ages and me meeting a new fried : uttesh, thank you for breaking my " I don't think I can make any new friends in life now" belief. We're already brainstorming on where our next trip should be in 2015 and we'll make it happen for sure :) I go back from this vacation with renewed hope in friendship, laughter, love and life. Like they say, zendagi migzara
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