One bachelorette party down, two to go

Last Friday, 10th February, started one of the most talked events of the INSEAD Class of July 2017 - my (first) bachelorette party.

At some point in the middle of P2, some of my girlfriends at INSEAD came to the conclusion that we deeply needed a girls' weekend. With that in mind and with the excuse that I am getting married in a few months, 13 of them - Chantal, Daniela, Daniela, Helena, Inna, Iuliana, Laura, Leyre, Linda, Marijn, Rita, Stefania and Willenijn - organized an awesome surprise weekend getaway.

A few days before the ever so famous weekend, they shared with me my flight schedule and what I should put inside my bag. They took care of the rest. Believe me, the rest was AWESOME and A LOT.

My (first) bachelorette party was in Langkawi, Malaysia, a 1-hour flight away from Singapore. And it was... hilarious!

As soon as we landed in Langkawi, the girls equipped me with a really tacky crown and 'bride-to-be' band. We left the airport, quickly got changed and moved to the infinity pool of the hotel for a much deserved sunbath and drinks. That was when the weird things started to happen.

Already at the pool and excited about being in a just-girls weekend, we ordered the bar menu. Guess what? It only had soft drinks, freshly squeezed juices, healthy juices and... mocktails! No alcohol whatsoever. We were in a halal hotel! Did you even know that such thing existed??? A halal hotel? It was not the end of a world though. We asked Dani and Laura (coming on a later flight) to buy some drinks at the airport, and meanwhile ordered a few juices for the pictures.

Around 7:30 pm, after getting even more beautiful and ready, we moved to a very nice restaurant (literally) by the sea, right on time to watch the sunset (gorgeous, by the way). Helena had booked a long dinner table at the beach. We were excited about our first night out in the island. However, as we were ready to order food and drinks, were told that there was no power in the restaurant. Burst into laughing, we decided to be patient and order just some salads and appetizers, together with the first of many rounds of drinks. At some point, the power came back and we still managed to have an amazing seafood dinner - so amazing that we did not leave the table before close to 1 am. We then moved to a bar next door, still at the beach, and nothing wild happened.

The next day, everyone showed up for breakfast in their workout clothes. They wanted me to lead them through one of my fitness sessions. Quite sweet, uh? We had a decent breakfast at our halal hotel, and moved towards the hills. The plan was to take a cable car and do the workout in one of the island's coolest spots, however the line for the cable car was 1-hour long and we were not feeling super comfortable in our tiny sports clothes so close to so many traditional Arab families. We decided to go for a hike instead. However, 10 minutes into our hike, Marijn started started feeling the effects of a very strong food poisoning and we had to go quit the initial plans.

Back to our halal hotel (sorry, I will mention the words halal and hotel together at all times in this post, as it is absolutely hilarious that we ended up in one for a bachelorette party), I led a 30-min workout, in the garden, by the sea, all of us in bikinis and tacky crowns. It was good! That was followed by some time at the pool, a late lunch/ early dinner in a yummy middle eastern restaurant in town, and a nap at the beach.

I won't share many details about what happened next as 'what happened in Langkawi, stays in Langkawi' and the 14 of us signed a non-disclosure agreement. I can however say that I didn't even know that we were as fun as we are. We had bride/ bride's team tattoos, very perv straws and games and an absolutely awesome video made by Gorda. In the video, Gorda answered some questions about us and charmed me non-stop. I had to try to guess his answers all the time, the girls would have to do so too, and we all found excuses to make each other drink/ laugh/ scream/ dance. By the way, we had a class on how to dance like a Brazilian (oh man...) - thank you Laurinha for that! The rest will remain to be explained. We ended up in a fun club in Langkawi, which at some point got so crowded that it seemed to us that the entire island was there.

On Sunday, it was harder to wake up than usual. I guess that is how all my friends feel the day after having a few more drinks than usual (I.e., every time they go out). After a long breakfast, in which we could not stop laughing while making a summary of all the silly gossiping that had taken place in the two previous days, we left the halal hotel for a surprisingly nice boat trip. For 3 to 4 hours, we went through beautiful channels, saw a few caves, checked eagles in action, dived in an incredibly blue sea, and retouched our tan before going back home.

After a late lunch at the halal hotel and some case reading in the pool, we took the 1-hour flight back home. Before 10 pm, we were safe and sound at home. Safe and sound, and with the fullest heart possible. I cannot thank  my friends enough for preparing, and even paying, for all this for me.

It's incredible how, 6 months ago, we still didn't know each other but, over a few weeks, they put on a big effort to organize such a fun and special weekend for me. How lucky can one be?????

This weekend would have been absolutely perfect if I had not lost my computer in the meantime...

Thank you girls. I love you and I owe you big time <3