Bali Trip

Finally the anticipated trip to Bali has come and go. I have a great trip there. This trip is better than the Bangkok trip because the language barrier is low as our Bahasa Melayu and the Bahasa Indonesia is almost similar. In fact, most of them speak Bahasa Melayu well... and most of them can speak English. Most of them learnt it from their day to day negotiation with tourists there. And they can speak English really well. Some can even speak Japanese!

Date: 6th June (Wednesday)

My flight to Bali was on 6/6/2007 10.45am. However, I was out of the house at 6.30am and I reached KL Sentral at 6.50am. Friend was still on the way. We have to catch latest 7.30 am bus, otherwise, we will be late to check in. Trip by bus to LCCT takes about 1hour and 15 mins. and we have to check in by 8.45am. Lucky friend reached at 7.00am, and the 7.00am bus departed at 7.05am, so, we managed to board on the bus.

Upon reaching, we checked in and then had our breakfast in LCCT. We walked around and even checked some prices of the cigarettes and alcohol. Well, wanted to make comparison if it is cheaper here or in Bali.

We boarded on the plane finally at 10.25am. As usual, kiasi people always wanted to squeeze to the front of the line. I don't understand why. Not that you can go any faster, yet, people can't help trying to get to the plane first as if you will be given a medal if you are the first to step foot onto the plane.....sigh. I am taking care of friend, cause this was her first time taking plane. Flight takes 3 hours though, so I drowsed and woke up and drowsed back. However, in the plane, there is this cute little girl who can helped looking back to us. Her mommy was sitting next to me. So, I snapped her photo. And she kind of like posed for me too.

We were reaching Bali half an hour ahead of schedule at 12.15pm. Before landing, I managed to snap some photo from the plane. The view is beautiful. You can see the volcano stand by itself from the plane. At this moment I wished I have the SLR camera that Calv had. It is really beautiful.

The Ngurah Rai airport is a small airport. The first photo is some sort of sculpture at one of the entrance of the airport. Later, we find that every entrance of buildings, temples and even houses had the similar sculpture. Next, I had took some photos on some funny signs. The second, third and fourth photo were taken in the toilet. Fourth photo was a doormat outside the toilet. It marks the day of the week! Then the fifth photo ... they called toilet as 'kamar kecil'.

We proceeded to the exit. Our guide, Encik Made was waiting for us. We were looking to any sign that shows our name. I found but it was read "Mr. Chin Song Chiang"... again. Sigh... even the guide tried to verify if it is really me. -_-"". Our ride to the hotel is short, about 15 mins. We checked in to our hotel and was welcomed with welcoming drinks. We snapped some photos. Below was taken from the lobby in the hotel. Weird, after we took those photo then only me and friend realised that we wore same colour from tip to toe.

Hmm.... I know you guys would like to see how the room and the hotel looks like....

From left to right:

Top: 1. Our bed. 2. The room. 3. Small sitting outside the room, at the balcony. 4. The view you can see from the balcony. 5. Sunken bar in the pool

Bottom: 1. The swimming pool. 2. The bar. 3. The walkway from lobby to our room and also to the pool. 4. Resting booth. 5. Entrance of the Spa in Hotel.

We freshened up and rested a while. By 5 pm, our guide came back to fetch us for dinner. This was not in the package, but he did it anyway. He brought us to Jimbaran for seafood dinner. It was a nice place. It has restaurants all by the seaside. And we actually dine by the seaside.

From Left to right:

1. The exit to the tables by the seaside. 2. Me taking pictures by the seaside. 3. Some of the view you will see from the restaurant. 4.Us with our drinks. 5. Rows of tables prepared

What we ate?

From Left to right :

Top: 1. Our drinks and salad. 2. Vegetables - complimentary. 3. Baked potatoes. 4. Prawns - grilled. 5. Mussels - masak merah

Bottom:1. Squid - grilled. 2. Prawn - masak kicap. 3. Squid - deep fried. 4. Crab - masak cili. 5. Mussel - masak kicap.

While eating, you can enjoy the scenery which is changing as the time changes. Sun in Bali sets earlier. By 6.30pm, it is as dark as 8.00pm. I snapped some photos. You can see down there, there were bands going round singing to you ... of course you have to pay. And they can sing in various languages. I heard them sang in Japanese, Germans and etc.

We were back in town. Night is still early, so we went walking to Hard Rock Cafe which was about 20 minutes from our hotel. On the way, we saw the horse carriages. It was about Rp 75,000 (RM 30) for a round in it. Me and friend prefer walking .. :-P

From left to right:

1st Row: 1. Hard Rock Hotel. 2. Hard Rock shop. 3. The drink I ordered - Hurricane. Mixture of vodka 68% and some fruit juices I think, recommended by the bartender.

2nd & 3rd Row: 1. Friend's order - Carn-A-Karn. Tasted funny, but cannot drink so fast. 2. Us with the bartender, Jay. Rest - Birthday celebration in Hard Rock.

Date: 7th June (Thursday).

We started the day earlier. Made, our guide said to come pick us at 8.30 am. Breakfast was provided by hotel.

Our first stop was to do some water activities At Tanjung Benua. After much negotiation with the PIC of the water activities centre, we decided to see fishes in the glass bottom boat and also to see turtles int he Turtles Island. Yeah, we had to pay for these. But it is enjoyable.

From Left to right:

1st Row: 1,2,3 - some fishes we saw from the glass bottom boat. 4. Us on the glass bottom boat and heading to Turtle Island. 5. Fisherman

2nd Row: 1. Turtle island 2. Hands on with turtle. 3. Trying to play some kind of traditional instrument there. 4.Turtles' eggs shelter. 5. 20 years old giant turtle.

3rd Row: 1. Other animals there - bats. 2. Other animals there - hawk. 3. Friend posing with phyton. 4 Giving some donation. 5. Friend with the boat driver.

4th Row:1. Me with rows of boats before leaving Turtle Island. 2,3,4,5 - some scenery on the way back.

We traveled again to another destination - to Ubud. On the way, we saw these people selling news paper from van to van while waiting for traffic to change. And friend bought a copy - HK paper Rp 45,000.

In Ubud, we visiting the Batik Factory, Wood crafts and also the Silver and Gold factory. I made my purchase in the Batik factory - nice batik post cards and at the wood crafts for souvenirs. We also went to this Art Gallery. Friend bought an abstract art for her home. She also bought a kite/wau. We came to this kite shops which have very nice kite designs. She bought the boat.

We finally had our lunch at 3.00pm... damn I am hungry. Our lunch was in Ubud, eating crispy duck one of the local fancy. The hotel happens to be nice too.

From Left to right: 1. Our lunch. 2. Lily pond facing the restaurant. 3. Surrounding of the pond. 4,5.The hotel oversee the paddy fields. 6. Me imidating the frog sculpture.

Next we went to Tanah Lot. There is a temple there by the seaside. I can tell you, I was mesmerised by it. See below, you will understand why.

There are shops outside the Temple. Me and friend posed after I got my temporary tattoo done. After that, we have Spa.... it was very nice and relaxing. No wonder, it was planned at the end of the day.

Date: 8th June (Friday)

This is free and easy day. So, we decided to walk around the area around our hotel. We have not venture around it, except to walk to the Hard Rock Cafe the first night. Early morning, we meet with this beautifully dress lady. She was supposed to be on some ceremonial tasks, so she dressed up like that.

The breakfast we had is more like 'nasi campur', soup with 'meatball' (it is chicken) and I had coffee (Balinese coffee), despite the colour it does taste nice.

Ah, this is Kuta Beach. 5 mins from our hotel. There are again some praying areas around the beach. I can say I have been seeing all these around the island. And my guide said most Balinese are Hindus.

What I do at Kuta beach? I got myself tattooed.. temporarily. Right foot and left foot. Yeah, I also did my manicure and pedicure on the beach! Oh.. my tattoo on the left arm .. temporarily.

We visited some stores. And it is the tradition there that first business must worked! So, if you try to walk away they will dragged and persuaded you until you agreed. They will tried to lower and lower the price until you buy. And also, it is not good for their first business that they need to pay you your balance. I bought something from this shop for Rp 10, 000 but I only have Rp 7,000, so, I wanted to give Rp 50,000 but then the shopkeeper insisted that I paid her later when I have changed.

Date: 9th June (Saturday)

Finally, the day has come for us to go back home. We had our breakfast and also tried to snap additionals photos within the hotel area which we did not take earlier.

From Left to right:

Top: 1 Breakfast. 2. Artificial waterfall by the pool. 3. Entrance the pool side.

Bottom: 1. By the Sunken Bar. 2. Another entrance to the pool. 3. By the pool side.

We boarded on the plane at 2.25pm. To our surprise, the cute little girl and her family was on the same plane with us again! We reached LCCT at 5.00pm. By 7.00 we reached KL sentral and boarded taxi home separately. It was an enjoyable trip. I had a lot of fun and seen a lot of things too. This is memorable.