Bon Voyage - Pack up and board the flight
The French phrase “Bon Voyage” means “Have a nice trip”. It is generally used to express farewell and good wishes to a departing traveler.
I really wanted to write a travelogue about my first foreign visit, but since I already have an established medium of expression like Blogspot finally I settled for a note in my next post.
I was really thrilled when my boss announced that foreign leisure holidays are in the offing and have been sanctioned by the Marketing Director. There was excitement and jubilation amongst our team members. For some of us including me it was a first-time experience abroad. We thanked the Delhi-based travel agent who has taken care of our elaborate tour plans and arranged for visa formalities to take off to Bali, Indonesia via Singapore.
We have planned a five-day foreign tour program. All of us have purchased some Singapore dollars and Indonesian currency for the shopping and additional individual tour expenses. We being loyal employees worked the entire day on that weekend Friday and left after office hours to the Mumbai International Airport bundled in two “Innova” Toyota cars with our luggage to board the flight to Singapore.
Our group of eleven people comprised eight men and three women, most of us were Digital Marketers, and others handled Media and Brand promotional activities such as Research and Advertising. Our team was a blend of youth and experienced professionals.
Our team of eleven was high in energy and intellect. It appeared that the team was a carefully hand-picked eleven. It was like a dream team selection for the cricket World Cup.
A famous travel quote –
“Man cannot discover many oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide.
The flight from Mumbai to Singapore was comfortable and the Singapore Airlines crew was awesome. After reaching Singapore Airport we ran to the Sky Train to board the flight to Denpasar. Denpasar is the capital city of Bali.
Our tour operator’s guide “Sukarto”, the local Indonesian welcomed us at Bali with folded hands and greeted us with an Indian “NAMASTE”. Namaste is a Hindi word for traditional greetings. Bali is an island and Province of Indonesia. Sukarto was our guide and constant companion for the entire Indonesian tour. Sukarto was found to know many Hindi words and was familiar with local dining and other important landmarks. Throughout the tour, he remained useful and guided us with his historical data as well as modern knowledge about Indonesia.
Sukarto in his tempo traveler took us to the Ayodya Resort, Bali where we were put up for five days of our tour. “Ayodya Resort” was a beautiful place with buildings built on acres of land with flowers, butterflies, chirping birds and snakes in the water, a giant swimming pool and two hundred meters from there lies the ocean in its abundant splendor.
The lobby of Ayodya Resort was spacious and breezy with high ceilings and wooden carvings. I was provided with an individual Villa with a rear opening towards a garden balcony. The Villa had a small refrigerator, a coffee maker, and a bathtub. Just outside my Hotel room stood a statue of an American eagle at 9 ft. height, broad and gigantic. When I saw the statue of Eagle for the first time, it struck me the Hollywood motion picture title “Where Eagles Dare.” Eagle an American Army Symbol and National Bird of America.
The Hotel was full of many tourists from Western countries have been put up there.
During the tour every night we used to assemble at the Hotel lobby and brainstorm about how well we could excel in our portfolios and strengthen the department, really mixing business with pleasure.
Let me recall the tour program and itinerary though not in chronological order. However, the entire tour program was discussed in Mumbai and made the deliberations and was subsequently handed out to the tour operator. The travel agency ensured strict compliance with our tour program.
After checking in at the Hotel we all had a shower and refreshed by putting on fresh clothes and going out in the city sight-seeing. The town was planned in Hindu culture with many gigantic statues from the Hindu epic “Mahabharat” to be seen there. The statues were 22’ X 16’ in size. The township was neat and clean and we could see in the pathway many big dust bins made of wood featuring Owl, Kiwi, Squirrel, Rabbit, and Monkey which was an amusing sight. The Hindu Sanskruti was seen everywhere including in the Ayodya Resort.
The next day we went to Tanjung Benoa beach and indulged in adventure water sports. There was a single Jet Ski and a group Banana Boat, an unpowered inflatable recreational boat meant for towing.
(The images shown in this post are not real. The tour photographs are withheld for the confidentiality of the members involved.)
We traveled by boat to an adjacent stretch of land for parasailing. The parasailing for me was one of its first kind of experiences. The 800 ft. high parasailing with strings attached to your gloved hands was a thrilling and adventurous sport for me. All of our team members participated in the parasailing. We almost spend the second day of our tour on the beach and beach water sports.
In the evening we went to Benoa Harbour for Sunset Cruise Dinner. The luxury cruise was most beautifully decked up. Our team was in their best of motivation and inspiration to enjoy the cruise trip. The Buffet Dinner was sumptuous with continental dishes. One of our colleagues sang a Hollywood number with the cruise band. The cruise had various entertainment programs including a beauty contest and dance numbers. Some of our teammates turned out to be excellent dancers and received applause from the audience for their dancing skills.
I personally enjoyed the star-studded and moonlit night sky from the upper deck of the cruise. I was lying down at the edge of the deck on the seat with a 9” width attached to the rim of the deck and clasping on it to avoid falling down and looked up in the sky and enjoyed my dream come true i.e. the poet in me was admiring the ocean waves and the beautiful star-studded sky. It appeared that there were zillions of stars in the sky. When nobody was around I started singing my favorite tunes and really enjoyed the beautiful nature and sky from the upper deck of the cruise. There was moisture in the atmosphere and a cool breeze was blowing making it really exotic. If there is a heaven on earth, it’s here, it’s here. This was a lifetime experience one could not have afforded to miss out.
The Bali Township was spik and span and the natives were spotted in neat clothes. In some respect, Bali was the most liberated country by personalized body treatments. When you think of Bali an image of Bali’s traditional “Hand-fan” comes to your mind’s screen. You can see in the street corners big roosters being kept for sale in huge baskets.
Indonesia is predominantly an agricultural country. Many plants, trees, fruits, and vegetation resembled India’s southernmost strip Kerala. May be a land that is parallel to South Asia separated by the sea. The Indonesian currency is called Rupiah and INR 0.0048 can fetch an Indonesian Rupiah. US Dollar 1 = 12,873.93 Indonesian Rupiah. Balinese is a unique culture. The Balinese are an extremely devout and spiritual mix. Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture beginning around the 1st Century AD. In Bali, there are over 10,000 temples.
On the third day, at 2 a.m. we started from the Ayodya Resort to Batur hikes in two vehicles. We reached the starting point of mountaineering around 4 a.m. Many other groups including the Spanish, French, and Americans joined us in the Mission Batur hike. We had put on our casual jeans, tees, and sports shoes and all of us carried a pen torch to grope through darkness. The upward journey was adventurous and had difficulty in trekking Mount Batur. I was one of the first to reach the top of the Batur hike with great energy and excitement. Batur heights of about 2063 meters to scale up and experience the white rising sun in the early morning hours was amazing.
To conquer Bali Heights and capture the Sun in all its majestic glory was a fantastic and thrilling experience and an amazing awesome sight. The Sun appeared like a white round bread popularly known in Kerala as “Vatteppam”. The Vatteppam is a round-shaped big white sweet bread made out of rice flour, sugar, and yeast with an inch thickness made in a round mould. You feel that a mission accomplished when you are on top of the challenging heights. The view from there is a lifetime experience. You sit on a cliff’s edge dangling your legs down and there lies the mountain valley in its horrifying vertical depth. A glance down gives a spine-chilling experience for your adrenaline rush with your heart pounding in your mouth. We had an energy drink, a thick and nutritious milkshake along with a filling banana split sandwich on top of the Batur hike. The descending order trip was easy even though we tried not to slip and to maintain body balance.
The afternoon we spend visiting a temple and rice terrace gardens at Jatiluwah. The rice was cultivated in step by step terrace paddy. It was an unforgettable experience and an eye-pleasing sight. The team members kept on clicking photos throughout our tour including the Jatiluwah panorama and we all shared the invaluable and beautiful images clicked by all when we returned to our office desk which was a prized possession. My contribution of photos was worthwhile too.
Many of us could not adjust to the Indonesian food. The smell of the food was tummy turning and I ended up settling for fried rice and Egg Omelette most of the time when we were on tour.
One day we witnessed a beach wedding next to Ayodya Resort. The Beach wedding is a novel idea and the patrons were well dressed in suits and gowns the wedding area was in white sand and the breezy open space was well decorated with plants, flowers, and gigantic bouquets.
In the evening we dined in the Kemangi, an Indonesian and Italian cuisine restaurant in Bali.
Our team members posed for photographs in great inimitable style which resulted in invaluable treasure of memories.
On the fourth day, we had gone for scuba diving. The Atlantis Bali Scuba Diving Center has been providing Scuba Diving service since 1996. There was a pool next to the sea where the expert scuba diving trainers gave training to the team before diving in the sea. The sea almost close to the shore had underwater marine life and ship debris. The stone-studded coast itself had deep dark blue water.
After Scuba Diving we went for a candlelight beach dinner. The long beach with a stretch of 2 km had decked up rows of tables with white cotton cloth and chairs. There were singers with musical instruments including the local musical instruments performing at your table and were willing to play a Hollywood and even a Bollywood number on request. The candles were lit on all the tables. The awesome seafood was served there. Alongside the seashore, there were many stages erected within the span of 200 yards performing local cultural programs. The candlelight beach dinner was gratifying and the visuals were amazing.
One of the Restaurants in which we dined called Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center conducted the 63rd edition of the Miss World Beauty Pageant 2013 a few days after we visited Bali. We were photographed with Bali’s traditional Legong and Barong dancers and the orchestra team that performed in that dining joint.
During the tour when we visited the terrace rice paddy, we could also visit an adjacent coffee plantation Bali Coffee Processing and Farming. We could see how the coffee beans were grown and how they packed coffee powder in different measures of weight.
On the fifth day, we did some shopping in Bali and bought some souvenirs, Bali coffee, a diary, and traditional Bali fan amongst others and boarded the flight from Denpasar Airport to Changi International Airport Singapore. Singapore is the cleanest city in the world. If you litter anything on the road, you will be fined by the cops. The Singapore Airport was a modern monument and was seen as quite beautiful. We returned to Mumbai from Singapore and landed in Mumbai in the middle of the night on the last day of the Ganapati idol immersion. The Ganesh festival is a ten-day long festival in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India worshiping the elephant-headed god Lord Ganesha. The festival is celebrated with great gaiety and grandeur. On the last day of the Ganesh festival, the bigger idols of Ganesha were taken for immersion in the lakes and seawater.
The tour in general was amazing and superbly satiating. The tour was studded with some of my life’s most cherished moments.
I must congratulate all my team members for the excellent team spirit shown by them and for making the tour a great fun, adventurous, and memorable one.
When we departed from Bali, the tour guide Sukarto wished me goodbye with
“See You, Sir”.
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