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I had never experienced such an intense weekend preceding and following Nadia and Fajar’s wedding. I know for some people this may seem like nothing, but for me it was quite a lethal dose of exhaustion.

Saturday, March 21

4 a.m.
So I woke up at 4 in the morning, after having spent around 4 hours practicing with the choir and the youth vocal group the night before. Total hours of sleep: around 5 hours.

5:30 a.m.
After a morning prayer, we departed Denpasar and picked up our friend along the way.

6:30 a.m.
Arrived at Baturiti fuel station for a brief refueling and driver’s break…

7 a.m.
Arrived at Bedugul. From Bedugul to Singaraja is a road of endless devil’s bends (bends that are almost 180 degrees).

7:45 a.m.
Arrived at Singaraja. We were welcomed with a happy Balinese meal, made by Ida’s mom.

9:20 a.m.
After breakfast and brief hairdressing sessions (for the women) we departed for the church. We ran into the local Partai Demokrat mass who were en route to Denpasar to meet the president, who was scheduled for campaigning.

10 a.m.
The wedding ceremony starts. I led the choir in with a solo piano (on a simple Yamaha PSR keyboard). I totalled three songs, one for the choir, one for the youth group, and one saxophone solo.

12 p.m.
We went to the reception. Great food, but because we were so hungry we forgot any kind of documentation.

2 p.m.
We returned home from the reception. One of our friends had become ill so she decided to return to Denpasar with the choir group, instead of staying with us for the night.

7 p.m.
Drove the car to the central park, where there are lots of great food, for cheap! I spent Rp 5000 on a ‘tipat cantok’ (a little bit like gado-gado, with less vegetables but more rice-cake and tofu) and a melon juice. In Denpasar, such a meal would cost nearly Rp 10000

Sunday, March 22

7 a.m.
A little walk-around for exercise…

9 a.m.
Church service.

11 a.m.
Picked up one of YKIDS students living in Sanur, who had to be left behind by her mother because there was not enough room on the motorcycle for her.

2 p.m.
After lunch, we departed to Denpasar. If Bedugul-Singaraja route was challenging, the returning route was even more severe, with the same devil’s bends, but with an average of 30-degree inclinations. I had to resort to first gear many times. The fact that it rained quite heavily didn’t help… and the car was almost hit by a bus on its side.

3:30 p.m.
Arrived at Bedugul and stopped at the Panca Sari market to get some supplies.

5 p.m.
Arrived in Denpasar. We drove across Jalan Gatot Subroto (Gatsu) to get to Sanur quickly.

5:30 p.m.
Arrived in Sanur. Dropped the YKIDS student.

6 p.m.
Arrived back at the base camp.