So glad I didn’t.
I found out so much about Bali that I love the place. Very much. I am returning someday definitely.
Here are some interesting founds:
1. There is no time difference between Bali and Singapore. Realised that when the captain make announcement. Strange, how come Batam is 1 hour behind Singapore??
2. They give out nuts on AA flight. Free tit bits on budget airline?? I almost tot I got up the wrong flight!
3. Bali could be fast paced. One beach in the morning, one beach in the afternoon, a sunset and u are normally late for dinner. A couple of drinks (Bintang is THE beer in Bali) and u r near bed time. Without you realizing it, few days past and u r about to go home.
Tide change could be fast too. U could be sitting on deck chair listening to the waves beating the shores, the next moment, the wave could advance so fast and so near to u that ur belongings are wet. This is the time where ur deck chair attendant will shift ur chair back by few meters, and the lifeguards will shout at the kids to get further inland, and shift the warning flag poles inland as well. All these can happen real fast.
Monkey’s movement can be swift. Just when the driver asked me to put the camera and wallet into my friend’s backpack instead of holding them in hands, my travelmate’s spec got snatched away by the monkey. The poor driver has to use banana to trade the spec with the monkey. The damned monkey bit the spec and spoiled it.
4. Kite in the shape of a sail ship can float in the air. Amazing. I couldn’t get my kite flying tho. So Sad.
Pic: Kevin
5. The cheapest place to get souvenirs and paintings is to buy them away from the city. Get them when u r visiting the attractions away from Kuta.
6. Bali is truly a surfer’s paradise. With the frequent waves and shallow water, one can pick up board surfing quite easily. I am one of those gundus who barely could stand despite repeated trials, even a 6 year old beat me. For the pros, go to Uluwatu and Padang-padang. For amateurs/beginners, try Kuta.
7. Satay comes with personal charcoal stove. Naiz.
8. Angmos go topless even on topless beach. Bring ur camera XD
9. Poppies I and Poppies II are where the aussies are found, and I happened to stay in Poppies I haha. Wonder if people do drugs here since it is named poppies. This area is well known for drunkered tho.
10. Remember to apply sun block SPF 30-50. Lip gloss is a must. I learned through it the hard way.
1 July 2011
The AA flight was punctual. We set off at 905pm and reach Bali at 1130pm, no time difference between Bali and Singapore. My driver, Joko, was holding a placard spelled IAM. LAM it should be, but never mind, shook hands and waited for another 30 minutes for Kevin. His flight was delayed. EK got a packet of nuts from the nearby minimart. I must say the garlic kacang tasted like heaven. I couldn’t find anymore kacang like that for the rest of the trip sob sob.
Reached hotel pretty late. Passed by Hard Rock Hotel and turned into a narrow lane called Poppies I, then after a few more turns we are at the hotel “lobby” – an open area with counter. The moment I see the hotel, I knew my travel mates wont pass it. The aircond is spoilt. I requested for another room. The cold air rushed in. Yay! Took a shower (good water pressure I must say, and hot too) and right into the bed we went. Snore snore.
2 July 2011
Pic: EK
Sprung up from the bed at 833am and I knew we were late. Quickly took a shower and went down for breakkie. Don’t expect a spread, it is only roti with drink. Sob Sob.
Joko came punctually at 9am and he waited a while before we were really ready for the ride. It was a good 2 hour drive to our first destination – Kintamani.
Pic: EK
We had buffet lunch at the restaurant while savouring the majestic view of Mount Batur and Mount Agong.
Pic: EK
The food is so so but the view is definitely something.
Dozed off on the way back till we stopped for toilet at a terraced rice paddy field at Tengalalang. Decided we should have a coffee break at one of the pondoks and took pictures of the terraces. Coffee Luwak (cat poo-poo coffee) is too expensive for us, so we ordered Coffee Bali instead. The fragrance alone can snap ur soul away.
Pic: EK
Bought a kite on the way to Jimbaran and decided to fly it at Jimbaran, not that successful. Jimbaran was the place where the bombing took place the last time. The seafood restaurants there decided to fixed price like cartel instead of cutting each other like they used to do before the bombing. Nice sunset and nice seafood I must say.
Returned to Kuta. EK went to check out the paintings at Kuta street.The rice paddy field painting that EK liked, was quoted a whopping 1.5 million rupiah. WOW. We walked out of the street immediately. Went to check out some surf shops and the items inside are not cheap actually. I bought a pair of Bintang shorts and a pair of I-Love-Bali slippers. 940pm and we all met at Matahari before ML led us back to the hotel.
3 July 2011
We tot we were going to the waterfall and hotspring today. Then Joko told us the jam outside was pretty bad so we changed our mind and went to Nusa Dua - Tg Benoa instead. Turned out to be disappointingly rowdy and full of locals, all trying to get on the para sailing thing.
ML suggested we go Uluwatu instead. The driver asked if we are keen to go to the temple near Uluwatu. Little did we know there are monkeys near the temple. One sleek move and off ML’s daughter spec went. The monket snatched it away. Joko tried his best to get back the spec from the monkey by trading it with banana, to little avail. Finally Joko managed to get back the spec but it is already spoiled. Sigh.
We have little mood left so we went to a beach at Uluwatu instead. There are many steps down to the beach (which means many steps up later) so ML decided to stay in the car while we made our ways down.
We promised to come back in 5 minutes. In the end we stayed for 2 hours. It is not difficult to guess why.
EK went back to the van and convinved ML to come see the real scene instead of waiting in the car, using those nice pics he took with the 550D.
It is quite an amazing place. The Indian Ocean has string waves, very suitable for pro surfers. This is the ocean linking Australia to Bali. Theoretically you can swim back to Australia. The beach is perched against a steep cliff and many drink stalls and surf shops set up their businesses there. EK was having a drink while I went down to the sun-bathing area to check out the caves. The cave is also the entrance/exit points for the surfers.
Went up to the Blue Point hotel and the Infinite pool overlooking the ocean. The line of pro servers were waiting in the ocean to catch some waves. The whole scenery is simply fabulous. There were some pro photographers taking pictures of pro surfers doing stunts and sell them to the surfers for a small price. Kevin bought some Uluwatu t-shirts there.
We went to an Italian restaurant: Pink Coco Bali for lunch and it was fabulous. The thin crust pizza and the seafood pasta was so good. The restaurant was part of the hotel. Surfers will prolly like to stay here for easy access to the beaches. We love the Italian owner that served us. He is very friendly and even threw in a free appetizers. Apparently this restaurant also have branches in Singapore and KL.
We walked down to the beach for some waves. Pretty cool. You have to walk down a narrow opening between two cliffs to get down to the beach.
Paid for an umbrella and bought a sarong as ground sheet. Many people on the beach. There were even some who did rock climbing there surprised!
The tide is slowly receding and expose the rocky surface once underneath the water. Nothing beats a bottle of iced-fanta on the beach.
If this is called the Monkey Beach (which we only knew when a tourist asked the drink seller where are the monkeys), where are the monkeys?? ML would have been freaked out and refuse to come if we knew this beach has monkeys eh! The seller told the angmo that the monkeys only come in the morning, they are all gone by the afternoon. To verify this, we got down the car the next day to take a look at this beach from the road bridge high above, which gives an helicopter view of the beach.
The monkeys were there! Joko explained that monkeys are normally found higher up, so when we went to visit the temple yesterday, it was like going into their house and they tend to be aggressive. If they come down to the beach, they tend to be more docile. Our opinion was that if we knew there were monkeys at the beach, docile or not, we will think twice of getting down to the beach. It is plain dumb luck that when we got down to the beach in the afternoon, monkeys were long gone.
After we have enough fun on the beach, we asked Joko to send us to the Rock Bar. Rock Bar was actually inside a very posh resort called Ayana. After dropping us at the resort, we walked into the funicular point to take the funicular down. Long queue and the lady told us that Kevin and me didn’t meet the dress code. So gotto go back to the van and change the beach wear to something more decent.
Pic: EK
The sun already setting while we were waiting for the funicular. By the time we got on to it , it was already complete darkness, save the lights from the bar itself. Ordered some drinks and checked out this cool cool drink place. Not bad, I must say. The ambience is simply mesmerizing. Open space and stars above, with waves lapping on the shores, one could be forgiven to think that he or she is in heaven.
Pic: EK
We made our way back to the car. I got separated from the group cos I went with the earlier ride. Once I got hold of Joko, I moved back to wait for them near the lobby. It must be the Bintang I just had in Rock Bar. I mistook the shallow pool as steps and walked right in. All the water started to get into my boots OMG! This chill finally woke me up I guess. ML’s daughter was curious how come the inside of the van is so wet while I kept quiet, too embarrassed to share the tale.
By the time we passed Kuta Street, it is already 830pm. We asked Joko to let us get down near Ramayana and walked to a random restaurant for dinner. Dayu I (EK nick-named it Big Fish Ball) turned out to be not bad. Good food, cheap price and best of all, come with avocado juice. Satay was served in individual stove how cool is that!!
We walked the long Kuta street and bought some souvenirs on the way as well. Back to the hotel happy as a lark =P
4 July 2011
It is 4th and no surprised, the private beach owner gave us a million dollar face as we drove into the beach. It is a nice private beach but the owner did not look welcoming at all. He is only nice to all his in-house guests and not to outsiders. Fine. We moved on to Dream Land.
Joko told us that Dream Land is owned by Tommy, Late Suharto’s son. We walked down to the beach, barely settled down at the deck chair and the strong wave swept us off our feet! EK’s bag was the first victim, my “I love Bali” sandals nearly went to the sea as well. We quickly moved back to the row of deck chair behind, knowing how powerful the wave here can be.
After that we went to eat Babi Guling for lunch (recommendation by my friend Master Chin). After so many days away from hotel, we moved to home ground at kuta Beach (yes, finally!) to laze around in the afternoon.
Pic: EKWe ended the day with Tanah Lot Temple visit. The journey to Tanah Lot was so long that we all fell asleep. I was only woken up cos of the urge to pee. Saw people selling durian at the roadside. Are these like the Thai durians? I asked the driver. Nope, this is the typical sweet nice durians that we all know. Wow.
Reached Tanah Lot and I swear this is by far the most crowded tourist destination we have been to so far. Everywhere is people! Everywhere is shop for souvenirs! We walked to wards the temple amd it was low tide, so you can walk all the way to the entrance. We walked up to the drink stalls and enjoy the sunset from the terrace.
Pic: EK
After the sunset, we went to one of the painting shops to see the painting that EK likes. The deal went through at 250k rupiah. A bit too quick to close the deal IMHO but EK was pretty satisfied with what he got.
We stopped at Dayu I for dinner but this time round they have run out of avocado juice to my travelmate’s disappointment. Kevin and I walked to Legian after that to finish the night off. Very long street I must say. We could not finish walking it. Many surf shops along the street, Kevin bought a t-shirt. We went to have a drink at Kopi-O, before going back to the hotel via Poppies II, which is surprisingly shorter walk than from Poppies I. Internet and massage shops are still opened so it was not such a scary walk after all. Before we know it, we reached the hotel.
5 July 2011
ML is back to Singapore today. We took the afternoon off to Balangan Beach. Very very hot day, the sand is so hot I couldn’t walk on it. Pretty quiet beach, but with rooms available for rent. Suppose the surfers will like it. After awhile the tide started to recede and seabed rocks with moss started to appear. I can now walk to the cave and secluded beach on the other side and see those pro surfers riding waves from nearer distance. There is even one guy doing the traditional Hawaiian paddle surfing.
We went to the Garuda statue to see sunset and kecak dance. After that we had dinner at Legian and spent the night away walking. Many shops have closed since it is Gulingan and Kuningan Festival (Hindu festival, Public holiday in Bali) tomorrow. We went to the same bar for a drink and use the wifi before going back to hotel.
6 July 2011
I told myself I must be brave today and learn to surf. Kevin decided to join me and for 450,000 rupiah for two persons, we got ourselves boards and instructors. Off we go. I really must confess that I am damn scared. I cant see without specs. I cant swim well (beside the frog style that I barely know). And I am bad at balancing. Combine all 3 and you can see I am hopeless when it come to surfing. Despite the repeated assurance from my instructor, I really try very hard to sweet talk myself to drag the board to the sea. When the wave come, I must either duck or jump to avoid being splashed on. The feeling of feet off the ground, floating on water everytime a strong wave come, is scary.
Well, money paid, still have to do it right. First he showed us how to lie down, use hand to hold upper body, right leg at 90 degree to the board, and finally up and riding the wave. Easy to say huh? When I lied on the board, the instructor said 1,2,3 and go, the wave caught on my board so fast that I only managed to cling to the board and surf along at great speed. Great speed it felt like. Before I got into the water after the board overturned. Never mind, repeat the procedure one more time. After so many trials, think the instructor also know I am hopeless, I finally managed a squat, much to our chagrin. After 45 minutes or so, Kevin and I decided that we have embarrassed ourselves enough that we better call it a day. He has done not bad tho, at least he has more water confidence than I do.
After my first surfing experience, I walked from Kuta to Seminyak on the beach and got to see people repeating my clumsy beginner’s moves in order to learn surfing. Haha I could almost see myself doing the same thing an hour ago. Two gals (presumably aussies) were learning and they could stand on the board after awhie, I am pretty amazed.
By the time I walked back to Kuta, it is already 230pm. Bade farewell to Kevin, EK and I went to have a good lunch before packing up for the airport. When I returned to the hotel, surprised to see few guys (again presumably aussies) having fun at the mini pool in the hotel. Here we have a mega pool at the sea, they must do it a mini-mal style at the hotel?? Couldn’t comprehend. I bet if any of them were to jump right into the pool, all the water will be splashed out.
The blue bird taxi came and picked us up. Smooth traffic to the airport thanks to the public holiday. He was surprised we stayed in this hotel cos according to him, there are many drunks at Poppies I and Poppies II. Couple of days ago, one guy died.
The departure hall is much better than the arrival hall. Many shops for last-minute shopping. Loads and loads of travelers were unloaded from the plane despite us leaving. How I wish I could stay in Bali longer!
