The Bali Six

The logistics of rounding up people from Sydney, Hong Kong and Jakarta would be the biggest challenge of this trip. To convince people to spend almost a thousand Australian Dollars, 10-12 hours on a plane with the intent to spend less than 72 hours in a single destination would require either a carrot to dangle or the coercive skills of a master salesman. Luckily enough we had a carrot, a carrot so large and orange that it was capable of commanding an army of rabbits. Or in our case five guys, the carrot was the Groom-to-be and this was his Bachelor's party, Stag-do, Buck's Trip, call it what you will. Inspired by the movie The Hangover we headed to Bali, Indonesia.

We, the Hong Kong contingent arrived in Bali Denpasar just after midnight. The hall for immigration was filled with arrivals all trying to purchase Visas and get through customs. Seeing our impatience airport security approached us and asked if we would like to purchase and "express visa" bypassing the queues and headaches. We negotiated a final price of 500 HKD for the three of us and immediately cut through the assembly of tourists.

The last time we were all together in one place would have been the wedding in 2008. It had been a long time coming and I honestly miss hanging out with these guys. What ensued was a weekend spent lazying in the villa, catching up, cracking jokes, reminiscing and of course plenty of alcohol.

Saturday night we gave the Buck his Belly Dancer outfit, a platinum wig and a list of tasks to complete by the end of the night. Tasks included, Find a woman with the same name as your fiancee, dance onto of a table in a public area, get a guy's phone number plus many, many more. Great night, plenty of stories, plenty of laughs, plenty of realisations that were no longer 18 years old. Come Sunday we were spent and could not wait to get home. Somehow managed to score an upgrade to Business Class on the flight back but that did little to alleviate the tiredness and the thought of work on Monday. Excellent weekend, cannot wait to get back to Sydney for the Wedding!