Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all its incarnations are(is?) the property of Minekura-sensei
"""""""""""""""""""
Saiyuki Singapore: Sarong Sunshine.
"Aah!" Gojyo was appreciative of the June sunshine. Along with the climb in temperature was the corresponding climb in hemlines. There was more of a bosom, midriff or thigh than you could shake a stick at, "Yeah!" Gojyo smiled at the world from the relative safety of his mirrored shades at the bounty of nature.
He and Hakkai had ventured into town this Saturday as they had some errands to run. They would not normally, as they weren't keen on the madness of the Saturday shoppers, but it was alright once in a while. Hakkai wanted to check out the island's biggest Kinokuniya, and in the same building was a library, Gojyo was not so keen on books himself; so they had decided to split up and meet up later.
The arrangement suited Gojyo fine as he had other things on his mind. He looked again at the piece of paper in his hand. The information had cost him a hike in blood pressure and a few more cigarettes than normal. Gojyo was a man with a plan. It had taken some arguing and cajoling on his part to get Sanzo to play along and in the end…not only had Sanzo given in but had given him an address to go to and had also loaned him his Amex gold card. Gojyo smirked and wondered if it was due to his persuasive powers or just so that Gojyo would go away and leave him in peace. A bit of both he presumed. It was Sanzo after all.
He found the office easy enough. He was unsure as to how to proceed however, it seemed that the long arm of Sanzo had stepped in again, and that irked him a little. However it was still His plan.
"Hello are you Mr Sha?" A young lady came up to him with a smile.
"Uh, yes."
"Please do take a seat, Sanzo had called earlier and had warned us that you would be coming by."
"So how may we be of assistance?"
"I'd like to book a holiday please." He said feeling a little foolish. This was a travel agency after all.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Well here is where I would like…" as he outlined his plan to her, he was getting quite excited by it.
"I can see you've given this some thought," she said laughing gently.
"Well I guess you could say that" he said smiling back at her.
"Alright then, I'll work out the details and check some things out for you. None of it should pose any problems." She continued, "Just give me a few moments and I'll come back to you." With that she left him sitting at the table. He used those few moments to shut his eyes and relax a little.
After what seemed liked mere seconds, he felt a gentle tap on his arm, "Excuse me Mr Sha."
"Um excuse me Miss you can just call me Gojyo- ok"
"Ok …well Gojyo sir, I'll need your passports if you have them with you and how will you be paying?"
"Gojyo without the sir and here are our passports and Sanzo said it was ok to use this" he put the gold card on top of the requested documents.
"Yes we will top up his frequent flyer miles for him!" she grinned at him. So there was a reason he'd lent him the card after all.
"All right then another few minutes is all I need, and you'll have yourself a holiday."
He leant back on his chair. Well this had been painless. And he was feeling really good. They deserved this he thought. He didn't know what Hakkai and Sanzo had done before he'd met them but he had wanted to go on a trip like this since… well … forever. He was sure Goku would be glad for the break, civil servants tended to be worked hard for very little. Sand, sea and sunshine…who wouldn't want to go? Even his high and mightiness had said yes in the end. Not forgetting the babes in bikinis…hell yes! He tried to school his features a little as he was certain he had a smile and a leer on his face. He laughed inwardly, there was a new word there…he was 'smeering'. Hakkai would be proud.
The girl returned and she seemed to have a veritable pile of papers with her. "Ok here you go," she took a deep breath "are you ready for all this?"
"Yeah hit me with it," he replied.
"Right here are your passports back and the card as well. This little paper wallet is your e-ticket for all of you. The flight itinerary is inside as well as the reservation slip for the hotels you have requested. The package includes transfers from airport to hotel and vice versa for the homeward journey." She paused for breath, "any questions so far?"
"How about the ferries and the guides?" he queried. "Oh and please include travel insurance too, whatever plan is the standard these days is fine."
"Well the second hotel has been booked and your primary hotel will have been asked to arrange the trip to the other hotel for you, and any guides you'd like you can enquire at the concierge." She smiled again at him, "don't worry it's all done for you now! All you need do now is turn up and enjoy yourselves."
"I'll let you in on a secret," she winked at him conspiratorially, "this is the first time Sanzo has booked a non-corporate trip, well not since I started here anyway!"
"But I will let you get on with it as I am sure you will be busy till you go. If you have any further questions or problems you just have to call, here is my name card" she said as she handed a card over.
"Ok then thanks for all your help."
He looked at his watch as he left the building; he had an hour and a half before he was supposed to meet up with Hakkai. Well he would make his way to the bookshop first and see what time he made, as he didn't really have anything left to do. He wondered how he would break the news to Hakkai. Perhaps he would suggest going to Sanzo's.
As he neared Kinokuniya, he saw a familiar figure sat hunched on a bench outside the store, over a book no doubt. He touched him on the shoulder. "Hey!"
Hakkai looked happy, not frazzled yet by the Saturday shoppers. But books tended to have that effect on him though so it was no surprise really.
"You just want to get some food and bring it over to Sanzo's. I'm sure Goku will be happy to see us. Well the food anyway!"
"Yes. That sounds like a good idea." Hakkai took a deep breath, "it will be good to get away from the crowds and out of this humid sunshine."
By the time they had got themselves over to Grangeford it was way past lunchtime and Gojyo was starving. Goku had better let him eat some of the food that they had brought, or he would have a fight on his hands. Sanzo should feed him better. Honestly the kid ate enough for two or three sometimes, almost as if to make up for something lost he could not name. They hadn't actually checked to see if Sanzo or Goku would be in, but more often than not they were both in. The security guard greeted them before letting them through the entrance. Both were regular visitors here and the man knew Hakkai from way back when Sanzo lived on his own.
As it turned out Goku answered the door and he was happy to see them both and was especially glad that they had brought food with them. "Hey Sanzo! Look who's here?"
"Ch! What do you want?" Sanzo asked with a gruff voice.
"We were in the area and wished to say 'Hi!'" Hakkai replied without preamble.
"It's done now!" Gojyo said gleefully, "Sanzo! Catch!" as he flipped something over to him.
Sanzo put a hand out and caught the gold card deftly.
The other two looked on in askance.
"Gojyo," Hakkai started to say.
"Sanzo, what's going on?" Goku asked at the same time.
Sanzo merely pointed at Gojyo and said "Ask him."
Uncertain on how to proceed, Gojyo decided that he would just come out with it. "We're going on holiday." He gestured over to the table where Sanzo sat reading the papers. "Come on everybody, siddown, and I will tell you all about it."
He waited till Hakkai had come out with some iced tea for them all, and had himself sat down before Gojyo continued.
"Well we've known each other for a while now, and I thought we could get away from work and this place for awhile. So I've booked us a holiday."
"I had already talked it over with Sanzo; he thinks it's a good idea
Sanzo looked over at him eyebrows raised, as if to say nothing-to-do-with-me, and then went back to his paper.
"Really? Oh! Wow! That's cool. Where! When?" Goku's eyes lit up.
"Breathe, Goku" Sanzo advised.
"Go-jyo." Hakkai asked his red headed friend in a tone that meant what-trouble-are you-causing-now?
"Well, like I said I think we all deserve a holiday and I just thought it would be nice to go on a trip together. You know" Gojyo began to falter, "kind of like a school trip."
"Yes. Sunshine and sea air is supposed to do you good you know!" Goku piped in.
"Ok then" Hakkai sighed seeing as he was outnumbered, although Sanzo was neither upset nor overly excited about the idea. "Where are we going, and I would need to know the dates, as I will have to explain to the students and their parents my leave of absence."
"Bali and Lombok. In the second week of July and we are going for twelve days."
"As in Bali, Indonesia?"
"Yup!"
"This is so cool!" Goku was really getting into it. "Twelve days would be no problem to ask to go on leave." He was a little upset that Sanzo had not told him but, that did not matter… because they were all going on holiday. There would be surfing there too, he had always wanted to try that out.
"Yes, I've booked our flights and the hotels too. We will be in Bali for 4 days, and then we will hop on a ferry across to Lombok for another four days before coming back to Bali for the remainder of our stay." Gojyo stopped to take a breath.
"So we only need to make sure we have shorts and sun lotion."
"Yeah you two will need at least SPF30" Goku said indicating Hakkai and Sanzo. "Us two can get away with a cream of factor 15 tops."
"Well it's too late to pop out now to the shops."
"We still have a few more weeks."
"We could draw up a list of items we all need and I could go and get them." Hakkai volunteered, "No sense in all of us traipsing round the shops." He continued "Gojyo will be able to give me a hand, won't you?" Hakkai paused for effect perhaps, "Go-jyo."
There was that way Hakkai had of saying his name that never ceased to make him feel like a child. Gojyo looked mildly annoyed, before he finally acquiesced. "Well I suppose I'd better make sure that he doesn't leave anything important out."
"Okay then, we can come round again next weekend, say ten o' clock and be ready with your list." Hakkai was in his element now, marshalling his troops into action with his strategy. Gojyo just grinned at him, yep; he was 'smeering' again.
"Alright then that's settled. Now lets eat!"
"Yeah! I'm starving"
"I had a feeling you were going to say that!"
…one week later…
The first thing that Mr.-I'm-So-Organized-Hakkai did was to make sure that no one was lacking in their vaccinations. Asking when each of them last had their tetanus and polio boosters. Made sure they'd started taking the malaria tablets already and also ensured they had enough prescribed for all four of them for the duration of the trip. Gojyo had argued with him on this point saying they didn't have to take them, but Hakkai pulled out the "it's better to be safe than sorry" argument, which was sensible Gojyo supposed. Hakkai also mentioned that it would have been alright if they were just staying on Bali, however visitors traveling to Lombok were advised to take the Malaria tablets.
Gojyo was pleased, because in spite of the little arguments and the hassles that Hakkai complained about due to their leave-taking, he was getting quite animated about the whole idea now. He had to have Hakkai draw the line at getting the others' clothes.
"Well I'm sure Goku and Sanzo have different ideas to you what they would wear on holiday!" Gojyo has protested. "Besides with clothes you know they would have to try them on; and we'll most likely get it wrong with Sanzo, 'cause a) he's too skinny and b) he's an old fusspot!" So in the end his housemate conceded that it was commonsense to let the others buy their own clothing.
The other thing that was amusing Gojyo was that Hakkai had bought himself a little phrasebook for Bahasa Indonesia. He had caught the brunette muttering "terima kaseh" and "selamat siang" to thin air every now and again. He himself knew a smattering of Malay, but this sounded a little alien to him. He was certain that they would get by in English or even Mandarin fine. Hakkai was also getting quite interested in the nature parks both islands had to offer, especially Lombok as it had species unique to itself as compared to the rest of the Indonesian islands. It was said; due to some geological plate shift (or some such) the birds found on Lombok were more similar to the birds found in Papua New Guinea and Australia.…
Well it was now only a week before the trip. Gojyo was mentally checking his list; Sunglasses, shorts, Bermudas, tees, a couple of long sleeved light cotton shirts, a pair of jeans, sandals, his boots, a cap, sunscreen, after-sun and toiletries. Added to that Hakkai had added on a first aid kit, which included a variety of single packed sterilized needles, bandages and plasters, painkillers and other assorted meds enough for a sortie into enemy territory. One would have thought they were going to war and not on holiday. They were as prepared as a scout could be.
Gojyo knew what he wanted to get as soon as he got there. Some nice sarongs. The reason why He was packing light was so he could get two or three really nice sarongs and he would be quite happy to saunter about in the sunshine in his new acquisitions. Go native as it were. Well it just might 'Wow!' the ladies as well!…
It was now the night before they were due to travel. Hakkai was stood in his room looking at the stuff he wanted to take along. All laid out neatly, of course. One could almost imagine each pile to be labeled. Okay, he would take two books to read in the carry on luggage together with the passports and all the documents. He had been designated as the 'route planner' and 'organizer' for the trip. It wasn't exactly a self appointment but he slid into the role perfectly and no one thought to gainsay him in the matter anyway. He suddenly thought of something, and called out to Gojyo to remind him.
"Gojyo – make sure you don't have any sharps in your carry on stuff."
"I'm done already. I don't need much with me just my mp3 player." Gojyo's face peered round the corner, " I'm going to sleep now, as we do have an early start tomorrow morning and if we're late; his royal highness will have our asses and feed them to Goku!"
"Ahahaha!"
"Well, g'night then, and don't stop up too late!"
"Go-jyo," now what did he do (or not do), "Thank you for organizing this. I do appreciate it you know."
"Gah! It's ok man. Just you go to sleep soon alright" and with that he shut the door on Hakkai.
"""""""""""""""""
End
