Saturday,
29 October 2016
Game
Day! I woke up for morning prayers (Suboh and sunrise are early in those parts)
and stayed up. I felt discomfort in my throat – probably because I didn’t drink
enough the day before, or I had to drink an iced drink the evening before (as a
general rule, I don’t drink iced drinks) or because it was just too dang hot in
Bali – and also a lot of wind in my tummy (I always have a lot of wind when I travel
long-distance but come on, Bali is only three hours away!). I went down for
breakfast at 06:35 (we were told that we would depart at 07:00) but when I reached
the restaurant, found out that we would only depart at 07:15. There was a large
spread of breakfast from fruits counter to dim sum and chee cheong fun, cereal
counter, bread counter, noodles, some Japanese food, local food, porridge and
eggs counter too (but of course). I had a small portion of a bit of a few
things. We then left and made our way for the various buses ready to ferry us
to the event venues. I was impressed to find that the host had engaged the
highway patrol to escort us to the venues but even then it took us almost 45
minutes before reaching the first venue, the regional office of Bank Indonesia,
where Scrabble would be played. The bus dropped us off and continued on to Gedung
Olah Raga (GOR) Lila Bhuana where table tennis and badminton would be played.
The women’s volleyball would be played in a building nearby GOR Lila Bhuana.
We
had known the day before that we would be playing against Thailand followed by
Indonesia and then Singapore. I recognised a few faces from previous Games where
Scrabble was played. We started play at about 08:20 (I didn’t note the time
although I know we finished our first match around 09:15). Oh before I forget,
we had to field eight players: four men and four women. There would be one
men’s singles, one women’s singles, one women’s doubles, one men’s doubles and
one mixed doubles. So five games with eight players from each country. I was
assigned to play in the women’s singles.
We
knew that the Thai players would be our strongest opponents and this proved right.
They don’t necessarily speak good English but they do memorise the two- and
three-letter words. It didn’t help that my tiles were so bad that I had to
change them in the second round itself and I had a word rightfully called for
not valid so that were two turns that I missed. She also scored a bingo while I
couldn’t find a place to put mine. Needless to say, I lost the first game. I
was feeling down until I found our men’s singles and mixed doubles lost too. So
that was 2-3 to the Thais. I told myself not to feel too down, that we had two
more games to avenge ourselves.
We
had a short break before resuming for the next game against our hosts,
Indonesia. They had some sweet black tea and coffee and some local delicacies
but I didn’t have any of the latter as my tummy was still unsettled. I continued
to drink gallons of mineral water throughout and even during the match. This
time around, we did better and won all our games. 5-0. The Thais won 3-2 again
against the Singaporeans. We had another mini break and because it wasn’t even
11, we agreed to finish the last game before lunch instead of playing it after
lunch. This time, we won 4-1 against the Singaporeans (I was holding my bladder
towards the end from all the water I’d been drinking!) and the Thais won 3-2
again against the hosts.
It
was a good thing that the captains met after the opening ceremony the previous
night and agreed that the winning country would be determined by the total
number of wins and not the number of wins overall. So we won because we won 11
games out of 15 and although the Thais won all their matches (3-2 for all three
matches), they had only a total of 9 wins out of 15. Phew, what a good thing
the captains had agreed on this beforehand.
We
then broke for lunch and as it was already Zuhur, I decided to perform prayers
first. I was shown to the prayer room by the person in charge of the Scrabble
game. After that, I went back up to the first floor for lunch. The badminton,
table tennis and women’s volleyball players also had their lunch there. After
lunch, we had some photo session before boarding the bus to GOR Lila Buana to
support our table tennis and badminton teams. My, I can say that Indonesia are
a good host but I couldn’t help feeling like I stepped into the 1960s when I
walked into GOR Lila Buana. From the outside, it looked grand but it was
anything but that inside. It was a sauna-like suffering for us after playing in
AC comfort and it didn’t help that our table tennis team quickly lost to the
Thais. After table tennis had ended, we went up to the badminton courts to watch
our mixed badminton pair which was still playing. We lost the final set and
last match against the Thais. After that, we left the court and building and
walked over to watch women’s volleyball in the other building across the car
park. Again, I wasn’t impressed with the dirty surroundings and the state of
the building (yup, you guess it right: straight out of the 1960s again! They
must have built the two buildings together!). And again, we watched as our team
lost – to the Indonesians this time. News filtered through that our bowling
team won though so together with Scrabble, we managed to be in second place
overall. The Thais were just three points behind us in third place. Talk about
cutting it close!
We
made our way back to the hotel and arrived at 17:05.
Tonight
was the closing dinner and the venue was by the beach. I don’t know why islands
are hot and the occasional breeze didn’t help much. The food was OK but ran out
quickly and it wasn’t replenished immediately. The performance by the Malaysian
contingent had just finished when we felt big fat raindrops and before long, we
had run for the nearest shelter which was the restaurant where breakfast was
served. After some time and it became apparent that the rain would continue, we
made our way to the grand ballroom. The rain had petered out by then but the
seats at our tables by the beach were no doubt already soaked through. I felt
bad for the hosts and only hoped that the rain didn’t spoil the chairs too
badly.
The
other three countries continued with their performance before the winners for
each category of games contested were announced and called upon the stage to
receive the trophy. There was another round of photo taking session before we
retired to our rooms.
Sunday,
30 October 2016
There
was a city tour planned for today and we were first told to be ready by 08:30.
I found out during breakfast that we would instead leave for the tour at 09:30
so had a leisurely breakfast with my mates. It was already hot and bright when
we left. My throat felt slightly better today but I was starting to have
running nose. This heat! I didn’t bring my hat so I decided to don the cap
provided to our contingent. We reached our first destination half an hour after
leaving the hotel: Garuda Wisnu Kencana or GWK Cultural Park. It is devoted to
the Hindu god Vishnu and his mount, the mythical bird Garuda. We arrived in
time for the 10:00 Barong dance. I must say I was annoyed with some of the
audience who encroached into the performance area just to take selfies.
Seriously, what the heck?! Some dancers were in creepy masks and as they neared
the audience, I caught a whiff of their body odour and smelly costumes. Well,
it was blazing hot and humid after all.
After
the dance, we went up some steps to Vishnu and I peeked around the corner to
see Garuda. I’m not big on statues so I wasn’t at all impressed and refused to
take pictures except for the group photos of all participants of the Games. I
refused to go down to see Garuda to pose in front of it and stood with two
Singaporean women Scrabble players. Before long we discovered the rest of the
group had left via a separate exit and we rushed out. Fortunately, I managed to
find the way to the parking area and boarded the bus I rode in earlier. The
buses were about to leave to pick up the group from atop the hill. Oh well. As
long as I didn’t miss it altogether and had to find my own transportation to
the next destination... I wouldn’t recommend going to GWK: it was still a
work-in-progress and I wasn’t at all impressed with the park.
We
left GWK and drove to Tanah Lot. We were told by our guide that it was an
hour’s drive away and most of us dozed off along the way. It was hot and bright
outside, not unlike a siesta time. We arrived at Tanah Lot about 70 minutes
later and went to have lunch at a restaurant. The food was mediocre, inadequate
and unsatisfying. After lunch, we walked to the Tanah Lot temple but we
couldn’t walk up to it. Fortunately here the sea breeze was more abundant. We
spent some time here and I walked to explore the interesting landscape around
shaped by the elements.
We
left just before 15:00 and drove to Krisna Oleh oleh Khas Bali, a shopping
centre where we bought some souvenirs to bring back. And a good thing too
because we discovered later that evening the prices in Kuta were a lot higher.
Some of the participants really shopped so we had to wait for them to finish.
We finally left at 17:20 and made our way back to the hotel. Krisna was less
than 2.5 km away but we were caught in the stupid traffic crawl near the
airport and all the way back to the hotel. My mates agreed to meet at 19:00 for
dinner – I argued for 19:15 instead.
After
dinner (at the restaurant where we had breakfast), we walked out. We split up
and Rehdy and I walked up to Hard Rock Hotel. He bought a t-shirt there (who
knew guys take a long time to try on t-shirts too?) and then we walked along
Jalan Pantai Kuta before finding a place offering massage. Vincent had a foot
massage for Rp75K on the day of arrival and we managed to find a few places
offering it for Rp65K. we left at 22:45 and walked back to the hotel.
Monday,
31 October 2016
I
went for morning walk at 06:00 and walked along the beach to Citadines Kuta
Beach Bali before turning back. I then walked south past my hotel and up to
Patra Jasa Bali Resort & Villas where I could see the runway of the
airport. I spent some time looking at the planes queuing up at the runway, at
the approaching plane, at the boats and other people out and about before
returning to the hotel. I had decided to have a late breakfast and after
reading and showering, went down for breakfast at 09:40. By now, I had gotten
sick of the same food on offer and was at a loss as to what to have for
breakfast.
I
returned to the room to find my roommate had already left and finished packing.
I read until I felt drowsy and took a short nap. I got up at 11:30 and
performed ablutions before leaving the room. Went down to the reception to
check out, had my bags stored in the luggage room and went to find a room I
could perform prayers in (our Secretariat maintained four rooms for those on
later flights to rest, store their bags and performed prayers etc).
We
had to wait for two people on our flight to make their slow waddle to the bus
and only left the hotel at 12:50 (we were supposed to leave at 12:30). I had
already checked in online and went directly to the counter to get the boarding
pass and drop my bag. I had some food and water and decided not to go in yet. I
only went through the security check and immigration at almost 15:00 and made
my way to the gate.
We
took off on time and I spent the flight finishing my book and starting a new
one. We landed at KLIA at 19:10 and as my normal practice, I went to perform
prayers first before going to the conveyor belt. I spotted my bag from a
distance and ran to get it and just about made it for the 19:55 KLIA Express
train to KL Sentral (I thought the train was at 20:00 so it was a good thing I
hurried).
So
long Bali. I don’t think I’d return for the third time though. You are just too
blazingly, blindingly, unbearably hot for me. One thing though, I was amazed
there were no mosquitoes at all!
