Actor Aashish Chowdhry and his wife Samita have a blast of a time on the island retreat, finds out Ismat Tahseen

The Island of the Gods is what the place is known as and yet it is that and so much more. For actor Aashish Chowdhury and his pretty wife Samita it meant eating out, shopping, trekking, rafting and more fun in the sun.

“It had to be Bali,” laughs Aashish, “I am quite a beach and tanning kind of person and I love going to sunny beachy places. This was one place we hadn’t gone to before.” Samita who is also a travel enthusiast joins in. “Aashish doesn’t mind visiting one place up to even 10 times,” she teases with a glance at her husband, “but I like going to different places. Bali sounded like so much fun, so that was the choice.”

The duo took off around the New Year for 10 days. Aashish says, “We were a group of around 10 people from Mumbai and were joined by some more friends from Dubai.”

The stay
The group stayed at a town called Bintang. “We were booked in four suites at The Ramada, which is magnificent five-star resort. The best part about my room was that it was facing the beach area and as you opened the living room door you directly came into the pool area, so it was heaven for me,” he recalls. The actor enjoyed suntans and just lazed by the pool.

A dash of adventure
Aashish says that what he shares in common with his wife is the love for adventure. “Both Samita I are heavily into outdoor sports and adventure sports. We had hired bikes and travelled around Bali like a couple of roadies,” he chuckles.  The icing on the cake was to try river rafting, a first-time experience for the two of them.  “It was quite scary,” he admits, “We got tossed out of the raft quite a few times, but soon got the hang of it.” Adds Samita, “I was extremely petrified at first, but then I soon started rowing fast. Luckily we had quite safe river beds with not many sharp rocks.”  They also indulged in some sports such as parasailing, jet skiing, deep sea diving too. Phew!

Food and shopping
With a wry smile, Aashish admits that every time he goes on a holiday he breaks his diet regime. “You know, I stack up my hotel room with goodies like ice cream, chips and chocolate. Luckily most of the people in our our group were foodies too, so every day we went to some different restaurant in Bali. We must have been to at least 15 restaurants and I have had the best steaks and seafood there.  Shopping was fun, they say. “We bought a lot of beachwear, swimwear, beach chappals, especially some really good Australian brands. Aashish picked up several pairs of Crocs sandals for relatives back home and I got a couple of them too.”

The most memorable part of their holiday adds Aashish, was watching the sunset at the beach. “The sky had superb hues of yellow and blazing orange ,” he recalls, “I think Samita and I loved that, It really made our New Year.”