Santi Mandela, Bali

After a really long and tiring Journey, the fever and my nausea had gotten the better of me by then, but it didn’t dampen any of our spirits though,  we reached Den Pasar airport at Bali after a brief transit at Kuala Lumpur International airport. Santi Mandela Villa & Spa, a peaceful resort which was an hours’ drive from the airport was our first stop at Bali.   Sudha had done pretty good homework before choosing this resort and had amply educated us girls about the geography of Bali.

A panoramic view of  Santi Mandela 
 From one of the cottage balconies to the other 

Our Cohort met Kevin, who would be our friendly guide for the entire trip, as soon as we disembarked. I remember Kevin introducing himself in his traditional Bali name, it must have been the look on our faces, that he insisted,  we all call him Kevin. Apparently that happens to be his sons name.  Fourth son. Kevin is a young man with a ready smile, extremely helpful,  knows when to intrude and when to stop his banter, and makes real good effort to speak in English.  In fact, he pauses quite a bit during his speech in an attempt to be  clear and effective in his communication.   Every single day, pretty early in the morning, Kevin would show up punctually and we know our day is going to be fine.

The best part was that,  Kevin came dressed in traditional Balinese  costume on all the days of our trip.  Traditional Balinese dresses are colorful and aesthetically pleasing.  Large portion of the population, at least the places we went to, chose to wear the traditional clothing like our guide Kevin.   Kevin’s costume was mostly collared half sleeved shirt with floral motifs and it was paired with Sarong which is just a layer of dark colored cloth tied around the waist.  Kevin wore two sarongs, the regular sarong on the inside, and a shorter sarong called "Saput" on the outside, so the regular sarong shows underneath.  We girls, much to his embarrassment, asked him the details, and Kevin told us all about it with a shy smile.  We even tried touching his clothes and we saw him go pink in the cheeks.  He also wore a head band, which is called Destar. Balinese women we saw were pretty, petite and wore more colorful clothes along  with an innocent coy smile.  The girls at the resort too wore Sarongs and paired it with lace tops.  Unlike men they did not wear any head gears.

The cohort with Kevin, our Guide,
 dressed in traditional Balinese costume

Santi Mandela is set in some 4 hectares of hillside garden, on the outskirts of a scenic village called Ubud. The entire resort is set in a calm, serene and pristine surrounding, we felt the peace of Bali even during the night that we landed there.  Panaraga Giri river, flows right through the resort and the sound of the flowing water had a calming  effect on us, the girls from the bustling metros.  We really couldn’t get enough of the river, and loved to watch it flow.  And there was no escaping it – The Boga Mandala restaurant  and the swimming pool overlooks the river.  There is a little river dam across this river within the resort, that can be seen from many places in the resort and it was such a pleasant sight.

another view of the river

In fact, when we reached the resort, it was quite late in the evening and from the entrance we were transported by a buggie.  It was pretty dark and we had to cross the river dam and that’s when we heard the sound of the raging waters of the river first.

Imagine a serene, tranquil place with a mild drizzle and sound of water flowing interrupted mercilessly by the constant shrill sounds of cicada’s.   That’s when all of us fell in love with Bali, with Santi Mandala and within few hours of setting foot om the shores of Bali.

The little river dam that we need to cross to
reach the resort's lobby from the entrance

The tropical flora and fauna, reminded me so much about Gods own country to which somehow all four of us were connected.   Our cottages were nestled in a lush green rain forest, surrounded by water sources and we had booked honeymoon suites for ourselves.  :-) After all it was an all girls trip.  The rooms were quite spacious made of wood and the roof of the cottage was covered with some kind of hay like stuff, the typical Bali roofs and we all loved the open to sky showering spaces with huge bathtubs.  We all laughed and giggled about the bathtubs and how we need to be careful in them.  We had large balconies where we usually had our late night get-together's, dancing and huddling before we went off to sleep and we also did some early morning photo shoots.

The interiors of our cottages - The peacock shaped setting
 of the Towels, bathtub, open to sky showering spaces

multiple shades of green in a
fancy plant
that grew on a concrete wall

Green is always a soothing and peaceful colour.  A million shades of  green could be spotted  in this resort ranging from the luxurious Emerald green to the dark matte Shamrock and the springtime Mint green to the striking  loud parakeet green and we reveled in its natural beauty,  Santi Mandala was love at first sight for all of us and on the days we stayed there, we were looking forward so much to get back to the resort in the evenings.

The Panaraga Giri River with the temple within the resort in the background

This place also had a little waterfall, a temple, a space for teaching cookery classes, a great Spa, and multiple cottages in different nooks and corners with the traditional Balinese architecture.  The entire resort had well manicured bright verdant lawns all around with air so pure that we could feel its freshness in every breath and it completely rejuvenated us.

Santi Mandala was the perfect quiet hideaway for us girls at Bali and just the right retreat away from the crowds.

P.S:  Just figured out that this looks like a review for Santi Mandela, but it is not.  And I am not being paid for this.

And finally here we are, "the babes"  at Santi Mandela, Bali

posing at the Swimming pool - part of our early morning photo shoot - Jay, Sudha, Rosy and Moi :-)

The babes again

A couple of swans that didn't seem to move
 from that spot throughout our stay

 Phew !!! that was one long post with an overload of photos!

A twist in the beginning of the tale… errr.. holiday

So after months of meticulous planning, multiple calls and messages, discussions, disagreements and conciliation's,  lunch outs to finalise stuff and finally some random group shopping, Bali trip was finalised.  Our WhatsApp group name which changed from “ Babes to Bangkok”  to “ Babes are back”, now changed to "Babes to Bali".

If adventure and fun was the theme for Bangkok,  this time it was culture, architecture and pampering ourselves. ( for the new readers of the blog, 4 of us friends had done a Bangkok trip last year and you can read about  it here, here, here, and here). 

We were sure we had ticked all the things-to-do lists multiple times, cross checked with each other and this trip is going to be a smooth sail like our Bangkok trip.

It looks like our families are happy without us, and in fact, the youngest kid amongst our families, Sudha’s son was also waving us off in animated excitement at the airport. We bid the husbands and sons a pretentious sad farewell and waited for them to leave.  Then  we did a loud Yahooo and punched the air and gave each other the wickedest of our smiles.  The realisation that we are  mothers, corporate women and most importantly not left home turf yet, dawned on us and we quickly  regained our poise and balance.

Luggage’s in one trolley all set to go to the counter, we pinched ourselves yet again, to make sure this was real.  The four girlfriends ( One of the girls would join us from Australia)  were making it yet again for another holiday to Bali and it really sounded preposterous.  Twice as nice.

I signalled Jay and Sudha to stay on, and I went on to check at the counter.  We had time at hand and we were not in a hurry.  The counter space of our airlines was eerily empty and I thought to myself that we have reached much ahead of our time.   I still thought I will check in the next active counter that was buzzing with activity and the staff at that counter when enquired casually said, oh the flight to Bali?  That stands cancelled.  

This guy does not know a thing, I think to myself, and ask him if he was sure.  He says yes.  I think to myself again, we got a confirmation to web check in 4 hours before we left home and how can this be?

Jay and Sudha, who are standing a bit far away, smile at me slyly and I know they are pulling my legs.   I am sure they are saying, Vincy is flirting with the staff at the counter.  I see them giggle.  Now I am sure that’s what they said.   I smile back at them and show them signs to hold on.  I don’t want them to know there is some issue at the counter and want it sorted.  I still think, the staff is giving wrong information.

I insist that he checks again.  He sees a persevering woman and so pulls out a phone and calls the airline staff and confirms that our flights are cancelled. And the best part was, the flights were cancelled two months ago and our agent didn’t let us know.  Not just that, there was also a confirmation about our fight timings 4 hours back.

My face turns ashen, and  I couldn’t smile anymore.  I signal the  girls to come and tell them our flight is cancelled.  Sudha is furious and Jay is speechless.  I am lost.   Sudha stepped into action, partly because she was the one who booked the tickets and felt terrible about this mix up though it was not her fault.  

We called  the MakemyTrip team  and fired them left, right and centre.  Luckily for us we had all the documentation including the request for web check in details. MMT disagrees with us initially and then they finally accept their blunder on phone.  They asked us to take the next days’ flight which was not acceptable to us.  Our entire planning would go for a toss. 

Multiple escalations and arguments later MMT agrees to repay us the costs new ticket we would purchase right then at the airport.  We record the entire conversation for documentation purposes.

Indigo had a flight that starts almost at the same time of our flight that we were supposed to take, but with a  layover at Philippines and I run to the counter to pick the tickets.  A man is waiting before me and I tell the lady there that I need 3 tickets to Bali.  The man has an ashen face too, that would beat mine and he says he has to go Philippines to pick up his brother-in-laws body and I just fall silent.  The omens weren’t good.  He gets the ticket and I walk to the counter and the lady starts working on our ticket. Just then, She gets a phone call and says I am sorry Ma’am.  The airline’s itinerary has gone to the airport authorities and they have asked us to stop issuing the tickets. Second blow.  This was our chance to put it all back together.

I come back and tell this to the girls.  We all are fizzled out completely.

By now the airline staff at the counters who had seen all the drama unfold have started feeling sorry for us and they did the searching and told us there are tickets available in an airline but the flight would  start 8 hours later.  The ticket prices are exorbitantly high.   I look at the girls and make a decision - we are going for this.  Bali it is.

After some more drama of getting out of the airport, purchasing tickets  and some more drama to get back in, finally we three dance together looking at our Bali tickets.  The airport staff join us in the merry making.  They seemed more happy than us.

Nothing, absolutely nothing could bring down our spirits ( yeah except for a few minutes).  Not even the scare of not having tickets for our holidays.

After an excruciating 7 hour wait at the airport ticketing area,  Batik Airlines takes off with the three resilient women.   

Joyous laughter and chatter fill the otherwise dull early morning flight, in the knowledge that the worst is over.

Postscript :

As we had predicted we had a wonderful time in Bali.  I will try posting about the places we visited in Bali.

We fought our way through with MakeMyTrip guys and got back every penny that we paid for the new tickets. Thanks to the persistence and regular follow up of Sudha.  MMT budged, but they did put up a good fight with us.