Me and my husband both are adventure lovers. Be it
trekking, diving or trailing through forests.. We don’t leave any opportunity
to spend our vacations riding high on our adrenaline rush.
Since we shifted
to Singpore six months back, we had rather hectic schedules and so this time we
thought of doing the unusual… a quiet place for a 4 day vacation. Where we
could laze around the whole time. And with this in mind we went to Ubud. A
serene central part of Bali.
Ubud on one hand holds attraction for being the art and
culture centre of Bali and on the other boasts of ravishing expanse of paddy fields, glorious sun rises, lush greenery and calm village life.
We had perfect 3 days we dreamed of. You must be
wondering why am I saying 3 when we were on 4 days holidays. Because my dear
friends that’s when the adventure started…
Last day in Ubud. Like everyday it was a bright sunshine
morning. After having a scrumptious breakfast and dillydallying morning. We
packed and checked out of the hotel at 12, leaving our luggage at the concierge to be picked later. Well..we had 4 more hours before we start for the
airport.
So we decided to stroll around the market one last
time…have lunch at our favorite restaurant and leave. Once there, as we were
happily clicking, trying to capture as much of the enigmatic Ubud as possible we
came across a board…
Spa Bali… 90 min of rejuvenating Balinese spa…
We looked
at each other.. we looked at our watches…. we were tempted to indulge in that
luxury!
We did the math… It was 1:50 pm
we had 2 hours. … 90 min spa still leaves us with 30 min for lunch. And we went
in.
We went in at 2 and came out at 4:00. What? Where is the
half an hour for lunch?
While we were contemplating how to have food we saw our
driver frantically waving at us from the other side of the road. We rushed to
him and quickly got into the car. And then we dropped dead…!!
A loooong procession of some
ceremony had jammed the whole road….well the only road..!
We slowly moved towards our hotel and somehow managed to
reach there at snail's pace, in 30 minutes. A distance of not more than 5 min.
Anyways, we dumped our backpacks into the car and hopped
back in. By now we became quite anxious because the airport was one and half
hrs away from us and our flight was at 7:00. …
Again we looked at each other and at our watches.. it was 4:40pm ..we were
tempted to screeeaaam..our lungs out…!!
Left with little choice the driver took another less traveled route through the villages, narrow
winding road that did not allow us to drive at more that 40 km per hour
because of sharp curves every now and then.. but atleast we were moving.
After a painfully long and slow drive of one hour during
which no one spoke and I was continuously cursing the Bali Spa in my mind….which no longer seemed rejuvenating, we
finally hit the main road toward the airport.
It was 5.40 pm.
Our driver was Racing towards the toll bridge..the road was
clear.. airport was still 30 minutes away ..but if we drove like this we should reach just in the nick of time... everything seemed fine…and for the first time in last one hour forty min
we sat back, relaxed and noticed the beautiful,blazing crimson sun set at the horizon …..
As fate would have it..this was the calm before the
storm. Just as we passed the toll and hit the main road all hell broke
loose.The traffic was pouring in from all directions it was like a sea of
vehicles…and they were not moving beyond a point.It was the longest traffic
signal...!!
Now we panicked. What the
hell ! As soon as the light turned green, the traffic moved once again we were sitting at the edge of our seat…giving directions to the driver… "overtake this car…move on
your right…go go..go..go.."
Our driver kept on maneuvering on the road until the
traffic reduced and were just 2 min away from our destination. We pulled out
our passports, tickets...….back packs on the shoulders …
and the moment our taxi stopped at the departure terminal we jumped out.. and ran as fast as we could… of course we left
the taxi fare and a generous tip on the seat…
Final leg of the race. We were just praying out
loud,"..dont fly don’t fly …" ran through the entrance … spotted a Singapore Airlines staff..
we asked,"..flight to Singapore..at 7..?" She pointed in one direction…without
waiting another sec we dashed …to the end of the huge hall and what what did we
see..? Few people in the dimishing queue and counters closed. Oh My God..!! We missed the
flight..!!
But No....!! Something was missing… there was no sign of Singapore Airlines. We looked around..found another staff and asked for the check in
counter..and we had to sprint allllllllll the way back as the check in counter
was right next to the entrance….
With bags of atleast 20 kgs each..we reached the counter
…huffing and puffing … literally begged to the girl… we could not afford to miss
this flight. She checked us in but with a warning and a soul grilling glare.
We ran…making our way through the immigration and the security check
…we had to find gate 1…the laast gate…
"Run.. run.. run…"we were telling each other.
With heavy bags…
no food and all the nerve wrecking anxiety…we finally reached the gate …and we
heard the most reassuring smile and the most beautiful words in the world.. "Welcome to Tiger Airlines… Have a good flight…"
"Phewwwww….Yes we will…Thaank you..!!!!"
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