Farewell Trip

During my exchange program, I became really really close to some people, especially the ones that stayed in the same residence as I did. We spent most of the days together from breakfast, dinner, shopping, and hang out in the lounge for almost every night. Most of them are also exchange students. Some of us, including me, only stay in Singapore for 1 semester. Some other will spend the next semester in Singapore but after May they will go back to Europe. In short, it’s hard for all of us to meet again after this semester. That’s why we planned a trip together somewhere.

After days of discussion and lots of options, from Thailand, Laos, Korea, we ended up in Bali. As the only one in the group that never see snow, of course I’d prefer Korea, but I really don’t mind because what matter for me is spending time with my friends.

On December 5th I arrived in Bali. The others already arrived there. There were 8 of us, me, Nurman, Robert, Ankur, Wai Yan, Richard, Soo, and Jay. There were 3 people who could speak the language, me as the only Indonesian, Nurman who learn bahasa in his college, and Ankur who lived in Jakarta for 14 years.

It’s been around 10 years since I left Bali. I am so excited seeing some things that don’t change like the statues and my elementary school, my house, the neighborhood, even some old supermarkets. Too bad I didn’t meet any of my neighbors. Some things totally changed. As far as I remembered, it was only 10-15 minutes from my house to Kuta by bicycle. But during this trip Kuta seems so far far away. Robert called it the long way, which is from Legian all the way to Kuta.

There were not much to tell about this Bali trip except for the bad luck that kept coming again and again. First was Ankur lost his motorcycle key. Then Robert and Nurman got robbed by children, they lost their credit card. Soo’s phone was missing. The room key somehow disappear. I left my wallet in the cab. Not too mention we got deceived and lost so many times. It’s like time passed by so quickly and most of our times wasted to waiting for the group to gather, to look for way to go back to the hotel, or simply just to discuss which took forever…. I remembered at some point someone said something like “we keep on discussing and do nothing, just discuss.” kk

Although we wasted so much time just chatting, eating, waiting, drinking, and especially discussing, we still managed to visit one place as a whole group, Tanah Lot. At least that’s the only group picture I found after browsing almost every picture from every camera uploaded in facebook. 

We spent 3 days in Bali as a whole group. After December 8th, some of us went back to either their home country or Singapore. Started with Jay on 8th, then Wai Yan and Ankur the next day. Soo flew one day after Wai Yan and Ankur, leaving the 4 of us alone in Bali without money. It was only 2 people that got robbed, but somehow 4 of us run out of money. Three of us would fly to Yogya including me of course, Richard’s flight had the exact time with ours, but he’s going back to Korea.

Since our flight was on 6 in the morning, plus we didn’t any money left, we decided to check out from hostel on 12 noon and spent the last night somewhere, the options were between airport or beach. And there we were, as disgust as I have ever been, no shower, no money, sleeping on the sand of Kuta Beach, under the star. I was so happy that it wasn’t raining. I guess we still had some luck after all. 

So that was it. My first trip with friends. Despite what happened and all of the troubles, I had fun, I really did. In fact, it was such an experience and adventure for me. A story that we could retell when we meet again in the future, a story that we could laugh about in the reunion, a story that I will tell to my children, a memory that will never be forgotten for the all of us.