`Colours of the rainbow

Friday, August 04, 2006

Back in the swing of things after taking my not-so-long break. Sufficient to get me back kicking at least.. I shall attempt to do up a quick summation of my travelodge.

Bali

After my stint at work, which ended on Friday, I flew off to Bali on Monday. Was supposed to be away for 5 days, but was only back on the 6th. Will explain why later.

The night before

I started packing my luggage only at 1130pm, all the way till almost 1am. Blame it on myself for the last minute work.

Day 1

We flew SQ and took the first flight out to Bali. Flight departed at about 930am. By the time we arrived there was afternoon. Checked into hotel, did our orientation walk around the hotel vicinity. We were staying at the prime shopping district, so you can imagine how much time we spent just trying to familarise ourselves with the area.

Dinner was at Jimbaran Bay. The restaurant is located along the beach. We had to choose the fresh seafood we wanted then bargain for the right price. There were 3 of us there. I turned on feminine charms and manged to make that guy slash my price from 1m rupiah to round about 700,000 rupiah. My other 2 friends were happily watching the show that was going on between him and I from the side. My powerful bagaining skills combined with feminine charms sure worked wonders.

The great lobster and prawns feast

Day 2

We hanged out at the beach and pool during the day. Did a massage at the beach then went to the night market at Denpasar. There were only locals at the market. Foreigners were a rare sight. We each took corn on the cob. When we were about to leave, with the cob still in our hands because we could not find any dustbins (typical Singaporean mindset), we asked our driver where we could dispose it. We signalled to us to throw it on the floor. We were like "huh? can meh?" 2 of us squatted and placed it neatly on the floor on 1 side. The scene was hilarious. The shopkeepers and our driver was laughing at us, thinking which planet we were from.

Surfers. Crashing waves. Us

Day 3

Day 3 was THE highlight! We went for whitewater rafting. Highly recommended! A must go! Dinner was at Poppies Restaurant. Good food, value for money.

An all-natural shower point

Day 4

We hanged out at the beach for a while then went for a 2 hour spa treatment. Dinner was at Ku De Ta. Pretty expensive, in Bali but it was still affordable as the prices were about Singapore's. Another not to be missed place because of its fantastic ambience! Eating near the sea and having drinks under the stars. I must say my ex-colleague has been of a great help at recommending all the worthy places to be in, from the beach, to activites to restautants.

Day 5

Hanged around at the shopping malls, did our mani and pedicures and went for foot reflexology. (I AM A SLAVE OF MASSAGES) Headed to the airport, ready to get back home.

Our journey was supposed to end here. But the twist of events proved not.

We were about to board the plane in 3 minutes. They paged for one of my friends. They told him that the SQ flight had been overbooked and 2 people needed the air tickets urgently. They then asked if we were willing to give up our seats and fly back on the first flight the next morning. In compensation, they will fly us back in business class, provide free airport-hotel tranfers, hotel and breakfast. We grabbed it.

Here comes the interesting part... We went into the SQ office and I started my natural talent of negotiation again.

1. I told them we haven't had dinner. - they provided free dinner at the hotel
2. I told them I needed 2 bedrooms because there was 1 guy and 2 of us girls, when in fact we stayed in a triple sharing room. - they adhered to my request.
3. I asked them if we could get some allowance because we didn't have enough clothes to wear, (which in fact was exaggerating). - they provided an overnight kit with branded toiletries and S$300 per person. We were skipping with joy from within!
4. We were given the SQ loungue to rest in before boarding the flight on Saturday.

*All on top of the original package they offered. Thank God for that favour!

When else can you 'chop' SQ?

That explains why my trip was 6 days instead of 5.

A rainbow appeared at10:58 AM

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