Alan & Sandra’s wedding in Bali

So my bro finally gets married, and does so in style (Gungnam style >D) in Bali. First of all I’d like to congratz my bro and Sandra for tying the knot!

We spent 4 days in Bali with Sandra’s and our family at a really nice villa getaway. It was accommodation like no other. 4 massive double story houses, giant 1000 sqr metre back yard, personal cook, person Rajon Rondo look-alike driver, massive pool and insects. As great as it sounds, it does have it’s downsides. First and foremost the insects! It was like some tropical rainforest, the houses weren’t enclosed aside from the bedroom (which still had gaps through the doors). Meaning all sorts of insects such as mozzies, ants, spiders, bees, scorpions, frogs, geckos, moths etc will get inside. Thankfully, they supplied us with Mortein which did help but oh man, they were everywhere. Then there was the bathrooms, which had a window that passer byers can directly peer in and see you! So everyone used the bathrooms upstairs which were fully enclosed. Chibi was so freaked out she could barely sleep lol. I think to get through this challenge, you have to become one with nature. You know? pretend you’re a local, let the ants crawl on you, let the gecko’s eat the mozzies, let the ants eat the dead insects. After a while you realise it’s just part of nature, a food chain for survival and the humans are on top of it.

Moving on, on our first day we split up into 2 groups, Chibi, Sonny, Raymond, Dad, Vivian and I went White Water Rafting while the rest went to a zoo. Since I’ve done rafting before I wasn’t nervous but still an interesting experience. Before that we went to a nice lunch buffet with spectacular views! (forgot the name sorry, might update it later hehe). Our first taste of Indonesian food and I wasn’t disappointed. They served Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng, chicken, fried bananas, hot chips, pork skewers etc. Yum =).

After that we went to the rafting starting point. We split ourselves into 2 rafts with me, chibi and dad being in one and the rest on the other. We were then introduced to our guide Pilihan. Little did we know Pilihan was such a prankster, always flicking water on us intentionally, pouring water from his shoe onto chibi’s vest, tapping his paddle onto our helmets, smacking the water with his paddle as if he killed a crocodile…Pilihan! you’re more aggressive than the river itself! But nah, he was a good guy, got us through the 16km river with no troubles =).

There was a 4 meter dam towards the end and some were hesitant to do the jump as we had the option to hop off. I asked my dad if wanted to to jump, he said “I guess so since chibi’s gona do it”, and chibi was like “I guess so since Raymond’s doing it”…So off we go, all thanks to Raymond haha. It took us 2.5 hours to get to the end and by then we were quite exhausted. Good job everyone! To finish off the day we got our personal cook to cook up a feast back at our villa.

Day 2 we embarked on an early trek to climb to the top of a volcano to watch sunrise. Waking up at 1:30 takes some effort. We arrived at a coffee place to stop for a morning break before starting our climb. We were served tea/coffee with a banana chocolate pancake. We saw this cute racoon like animal inside a cage and thought this might be a farm of some sort. Yeap I was right, turns out they use the racoon poo, gives it a light roast and turns them into coffee beans. So you’re essentially drinking poo =). Good thing I had tea!

We finally arrived at our starting point, the base of the volcano. It was pitch black so they handed us torches and we relied on them as our only source of light. It was an interesting experience, you could see a trail of lights from other people’s torches all the way to the top of the mountain. This reminded me of a Saint Seiya scene where Shiryu fights the scorpion saint and they get transported to some hell area where lost souls make their way to the top of the volcano before plunging to death. Of course, it was nothing like that =P, the journey to the top was tough for those who weren’t fit such as my uncle who vomitted on his way up. Chibi kept on slipping so I had to hold her tightly. How many times did I save you? was it 6 or 7? =).

Alas we reach the top and made it just in time for sunrise at 6:10am. Unfortunately it was a very foggy morning so we didn’t actually see the sun rise from afar but instead just saw it pop out of the fog when they dissipated. It was really a spectacular view I must say. I took the opportunity of those short golden minutes and took some really surreal looking scenery shots.

After the strenuous trek, we actually still had some quota left for a bike ride around a kampung village. Those who were too tired such as Chibi and my uncle got to jump in a car and follow behind which was kinda cool. Not much to say about the village except this old lady kept pressuring us to buy her bracelets. We had no money so we simply weren’t able to buy it. That didn’t stop her though, she went from 25,000rp($2.50) to 10,000rp ($1) to 5,000rp (50c) to ‘give me anything!’. She even threw one at Chibi hoping to get any sort of cash. We felt bad because we simply did not have any money at hand. If I did, I would buy one so I do apologize for that.

The Day of the Wedding

And finally the day has come, my bro had his wedding ceremony at The Ritual Chapel, positioned along side a 50m vertical cliff with the ocean stretching out to the horizon beyond. It was simply jaw dropping, I’ve never seen a place like it. Most of the day was spent preparing. I was the best man so my bro, Sandra, Vivian and I had to get there early to dress up and to learn the steps and procedures. All went well till my bro had decided to test the ring out. And to our surprise it actually didn’t fit! that’s when we entered panic mode…I mean how is it possible that the ring just decided it won’t fit?! He must’ve gained a bit of weight lol. In the end he added a bit of body lotion inside and was barely able to slip it on =).

Then came the ceremony which went quite smoothly, except it got so sunny everyone had to sit a few rows back. Watching Sandra walk towards Alan was a great feeling. I don’t normally get this feeling when I attend other peoples weddings but it was great. It did feel like they were genuinely having the best time of their lives. He is my bro after all and would be one of the closest persons in my life. Being the best man though, I didn’t have a speech ready because it would be awkward to do so in front of just family members. However, since this is my blog and I know he doesn’t read it, I can say whatever I want =P.

He’s a good bro, always leading by example and doing the right things. Always honest, helpful, intelligent and would never lose his cool. Always a step ahead, beats me in everything but teaches me everything. I can’t imagine what life would be like if he wasn’t around. But now he goes his own way. Not that we won’t see each other again, but I can’t rely on him like I use to, and not that I need to either, he has taught me enough, but I also feel I can never learn enough from him. I guess that’s where this warm feeling within sprouts from. He’s a good bro, that’s all I need to say. Congratz to Alan & Sandra and all the best for the future!

So afterwards we had dinner at this amazing cliff side Spanish restaurant also overseeing the ocean. What made it even better was that the sunset would be exactly in the middle of the horizon. Simply amazing stuff. In Sydney we don’t get to see sunsets over the ocean. You’d have to go all the way to Perth for that.

I won’t go on for much longer, the rest of the time was spent doing massages and the usual visiting shops for souvenirs. Too bad we couldn’t buy much in fear that we won’t get them past customs. All in all it was a fantastic trip which I didn’t have to do a single bit of organising. Thanks to Alan and Sandra for organising and paying for pretty much everything! It was an amazing trip and one that I would never forget. Just before we go, let’s finish off with a brother’s shot shall we? =)