Sunday, May 18, 2008

[Travel] Trip to Bali

Bali Bali here I come. The party of 6 rocked Bali for 4 days 3 nights from 7th May - 10th May 2008.

Day 1 - 7th May 2008 (Wed)
We meet at LCCT McD. The moment we reached, hugging each other, coz is been a year didnt see. Oh yeah, this is our gathering trip. Went to the counter to check in our luggages and take the tickets. Yippie, so excited, finally is the day to go Bali.

Flight AK900 depart from LCCT to Denpasar Airport at 10.50am. After 3 hours flight, finally we departed at the Airport. Quickly we proceed to the imigration checkpoint and collect our luggages, then went out to the departure hall to look for the local tour who coming to pick us. So many local tours were holding the cardboard with the customer's name waiting outside the departure hall. We are looking who is the guy who taking the cardboard with my name on. See, on the right, there he is. Faster we approached him and he help us to take some luggages and proceed to his car. A red van - we named it Ferrari coz drive very fast.

1st destination to go of coz is to go hotel to check in and put our staffs. The hotel we stayed is Dewi Sri Hotel located at Legian, Kuta. The hotel is considered clean, overall is ok, just that the shower not so good condition, because the water is kinda small.

3.30pm, we gathered at the lobby and meet up the local tour, well his name is Elvys. Then we start our journey, the 1st place of visit -> Uluwatu. From hotel to Uluwatu, took about 45min.

Gotta pay Rp10,000 per person for the entry fees. The local tour brought us to visit the place, it was like trecking. Finally reached the top, wow, the scenery is simply breath-taking. Started to snap pic here and there. We need to be extra careful because many monkeys there. They will take things away from you if you didnt hold it properly. But the love to take pictures, they will sit down and posting for you to snap them.

Around 5.00pm, we bought the ticket to watch the performance by Balinesse at Uluwatu -> Kecak Dance, cost Rp50,000. Before the show start, we managed to see the sunset. Is so nice. By 6 plus, the sun already set, and the performance started. Well, basically we have no much idea on what they are performing (guess is something related to their so called story tales) . The performance took about 1hour to finish.

The sky already so dark at 7.00pm. After the performance, we proceed for dinner. So hungry already. Went to the romantic location -> Jimbaran Seafood to have our dinner. No doubt, the place there is really nice, romantic. Eating seafood by the seaside, listen to the song of the sea. However, the food so so only. Maybe because all of us too hungry, very fast we finished all the dishes. hehehe.

After the dinner, Elvys send us back to Legian, Kuta. Before he wanted to drop us at the hotel, we asked him to stop on the road side. We then continue to walk around the street. Long street and full of shops and pubs. Girls start the shopping. hehehe.. Then went in to one of the pub. Is special, on the top of the building and is open air (no air-corn). Just relax and dance over there.


Day 2 - 8th May 2008 (Thurs)

Early in the morning 8.00am, we meet up for breakfast at the hotel (as breakfast included). 9.30 am gathered at the lobby and start our 2nd day journey.

1st place : Barong Dance - Rp50,000 . Well, again dont really understand what they trying to tell us. Just felt that they look horrible with the masks.

2nd place : Batik factory . Actually this is not in my list, is the local tour who brought us there. Can see how patient are the ladies there doing the batik. Very nice. But none of us buy any product because we are not into batik and kinda expensive.
3rd place : Celuk. Place that sell all type of silver accessories. We didnt buy anything from there because the price is not cheap. Is not worth to buy a silver accessories with the expensive price.
4th place : Kintamani. This place I love the most. It has very attractive mountain view while you having buffet lunch at Grand Puncak Sari Restaurant. Admire the view while eating. The air is cooling and refresh. Nice.
5th place : Sukawati. This place let me had a very deep memory. When think of this place, then remind me of the toilet there. Is not the toilet clean. It is super smelly and still need to collect money. I really admire the guy can sit outside of the toilet to collect the money. Really will faint le. This place is a bazaar selling sourveniers, clothes etc. Clothes there are cheap, can bargain a lot. And the people there are quite friendly, at least they wont curse or scold you if you trying to bargain price with them. If you don't want just tell them then they wont show you unhappy face.
6th place : Dinner @ Selera Kuring. After the bargain at sukawati, all already hungry. Went to this place for dinner and we treat the local tour for dinner.
7th place : SPA. After dinner, go to relax the body. Is Spa time. This is my 1st time to do Spa, and i guess will be my last time. Why? Because i don't really enjoy it, felt it so uncomfortable. I still prefer massage or thai massage, simply the best. Spa for 2hours, cost Rp250,000. First 1 hour is whole body massage. Second 1 hour is Spa. They put the scrub on your body, then use blanket to cover. Awwww, imagine, the scrub on body then blanket cover over, so uncomfortable. Rest for 30 min, wash away the scrub, then put on milk, and again cover the blanket. Yuucckkss!! After a while then can go bath and relax in the bathtub with the roses.


Day 3 - 9th May 2008 (Fri)
After breakfast, we started our 3rd day journey.
1st place : Taman Ayun Temple. Rp3,000 per entry. This is a park basically. Nothing much special. The weather is so hot. We quickly snap pictures and walk one round then jumped back to the car.
2nd place : Bedugul. Another nice view for lunch. This time we seeing all the padi fields on the hill while having our buffet lunch. But the weather is not as nice as Kintamani.
3rd place : Tanah Lot bazaar and temple. Rp10,000. This is another place to see sunset. The temple is built in the middle of the sea. When low-tide, we can walk to the temple to take pictures and see the sunset. Unfortunately, that day weather not so good, too many clouds, thus cant really see the sunset. The wave there is big, is so nice to listen the sound of the wave. We continue our shopping and bargain day till the stalls almost closed.
4th place : Dinner. This time, we told the local tour not to bring us to those "tourism" place for dinner, coz the food there not as cheap as i thought. So we ask him brought us to mamak stall for dinner.

Day 4 - 10th May 2008 (Sat)

Today is the last day at Bali. Most of the places we have visited. This day, Elvys didnt come to pick us up instead he asked his partner to bring us. For the 3 days we already used to the red van aka Ferrari. Now suddenly changed to Toyota Unser. Although this car is better than the previous car, the driver is lousy. He drive like tortoise. So slow till want to fall asleep. We asked him to drive faster, then he said why you all like fast fast. Of coz la, last day already, sure want to go places that we want before go airport. And he seems like doesnt understand what we trying to tell him. We asking him to bring us to place like Sukawati where can get cheap things. But he brought us to shopping mall. OMG! We told him in English and Malay, still canot understand?? Then i asked him where go sell Bali local product food, he wanted to bring us to Carrefour supermarket. *Puke* Carrefour here also have, why i need to spend my time from spore to Bali. Then he brought us to another shopping complex. Luckily there is a shop that sell local product.
Is time to say goodbye to Bali. We heading to Denpasar airport to check-in. When wanted to enter the departure hall, need to pay the airport taxes. Initially, we thought is Rp50,000. When we went there, omg, price has increased. Rp150,000. All the money we had also not enough as we just kept Rp50,000 at the beginning. No choice, have to go change money to pay the tax. We felt like we are participating the Amazing Race. haha.
Although is 6 of us, we enjoyed the trip pretty much. Looking forward for the next plan --> Kuching.