Day 5

Its our final day in Bali. Woke up pretty late this day (guessed the spa helps). Checked out of hotel at 12:00 pm. Took some last shots from the balcony of our hotel at around this time. Never had this chance since our this trip is pretty packed throughout. As our return flight is at night, we had a lot of time to kill. Made our way to Tuban beach and did hotel hopping along the beach without much difficulty (Each hotel can be accessed via a back door). Spent the rest of our time again at Discovery Centre mall and Matahari. Stock up some more coffee powder at Matahari and managed to locate the rectangular shaped raw prawn keropok (costs IDR$50,000 per packet and they are very delicious when fried) at a tidbits store in Discovery Centre mall. We took some very good shots of the beach near evening time when the tide recedes (notice the reflection formed by the receding waves).
We complete our day by packing 2 dozens of Krispy Kremes (promotion for a dozen of glazed and a dozen of flavored costs IDR$98,000) for our families.
Like what they said, all good times must come to an end, we closed our chapter at Bali with these romantic sunset views of the beautiful beach. Till the next time we meet again, have fun and stay healthy always!

Day 4

This day is Sea Sports day. Marco's last task for us is to hook us up with a dependable vendor, Tanjong Boeno at Nusa Dua beach, whom charged us IDR$300,000 per pax for 3 activities (Para-sailing, Jet Ski and Flying Fish). They also provide free transport to/from your hotel at that price. It was a perfect sunny day for beach activities. Before the activities, we need to sign a disclaimer form first though. We tried para-sailing first and it was an up-liting experience, literally. You get airborne to a height of 30 metres and get to appreciate the surrounding beaches. Darn, where's my camera? There is basically no control when lifted except during landing, when one is expected to watch the ground crew and pull either the left or right rope attached accordingly. We touch down without much difficulty and gets ushered for our 2nd activity, the Jet Ski. My partner wasn't too keen to ride the ski on her own, so she rode as my pillion and I get a whole 30 minutes ride. This machine is like a wild horse on waves. It can easily outrun any boats on the beach. I believe I had skidded across 3 beaches and back in less than 5 minutes. Wheeee..Our final activity is the flying fish. According to the owners, this is one of their latest attraction (1 year in operation). Essentially, both you and your partner gets to lie down on a kite-shaped dingy and secure yourself to 2 ropes by the side. There is a trained personnel who will be attached to the dingy. It will then be dragged by a speed boat. After approaching a certain speed, the whole thing will lift off and sear through the sky, approximately 15 metres away from sea-level. The attached personnel's job is to counterbalance the raft so that it doesn't flipped and spin like a kite with a broken string. Also, it is part of his job description to scare you as you are landing down by rocking the dingy. It is almost noon time after all the activities. Its time to head back to hotel for shower/lunch. Before leaving our hotel, we made a reservation for Spa in the evening (a 2.5 hours exfoliation session costs us IDR$250,000 per pax). We had our lunch at Kunyit Bali, which is just a left stone's throw away from our hotel. Food is presentable. Taste wise is slightly above average. We spent the rest of our short hot afternoon exploring the Discovery Centre mall in Kuta area. You can find the usual retails (Giodano and Breadtalk can be found here), DVD shops, in this mall with their main house tenant being SOGO. Oh yes, Krispy Kreme, the famous U.S. doughnut shop can is located here. They can be found in almost every country but Singapore! We have heard a lot of reviews on their overly sweet sugar-rushed doughnuts, and we decide to give those a miss. Instead, we picked the less sweetened one. Even these are sweet to our taste buds. We also made our way to the local Matahari Supermarket which is a few streets down to purchase local coffee powder, which I have grown affinity towards during my few days stay here. Well well, look at how time flies. Its our Spa time so that is all for today. This is "The Traveller", signing out.

Day 3

We began our day visiting temple Taman Ayun at Mengwi. This temple has a different setting from the rest as it is surrounded by a moat and flowers/ferns. The clear skyline and traditional architecture provides very nice landscape feast for the eyes.
Our next stop is Bedugul, to visit yet another temple by Lake Bratan, Ulun danu. On our way up the mountain where the temple is located, we stopped by to visit their local fruits/vegetable market, Bukit Mungsu. We bought some of their local fruits, namely the snake skin fruit and the passion fruit from the market. Again, we have to pit our bargaining skills against the locals. We finally settled for IDR$10,000 for a kilo of each type of fruits. They are very tasty and sweet and I guess it could be attributed to the fertile soil of the mountains. At the temple, there appears to be a ceremony as local folks gathered in a shack playing music to entertain the visitors. Its pretty crowded for a normal weekday. The unusual overcast has cast a blur to the backdrop of the pictures, which surprisingly produces a very nice effect. No photoshop work here. It gets chilly as the wind blow inwards towards the temple from the lake. We had our buffet lunch (costs IDR$65,000 per pax) at a restaurant overlooking a padi field. The scenic view is simply fantastic and the weather is superb. Can't comment similarly on the food though as my favorite dish get replenished too slowly. Our next checkpoint on our itinerary is the famous rice terrace Jati Luwih. There is a booth at the entrance to the venue collecting fees to the tourist attraction. Official price per pax is IDR$10,000. We were dropped off one end of the road and expected to take a slow stroll up to meet Marco at the end of the road. Too bad for the cloudy sky, otherwise I can imagine the view to be spectacular. At the end point, we also spotted a few tourists admiring the marvelous view. Some adventurous ones actually tread down the muddy path to get more in-touch with nature. Careful of the dung there!Cows are spotted in the vicinity. Off to the next stop for us, Tanah Lot temple. The temple is built on a weathered cliff next to the ocean that is inaccessible when its high tide. We were greeted by endless rows of shops leading to the temple. Its awfully crowded here. By the time we were there, the tide has receded and we can marvel the structure from various angles on the coastline. A lot of kids peddlers / womenfolk can be seen selling pictures of the temple. Sunset here is known to provide a romantic atmosphere. We wished for the clouds to move away but it did not happen for us on this day. Soon it was dark and we are on our way, to a Seafood Dinner by the famous Jimbaran beach. We chose Segara Cafe to have our dinner (Our dinner consists of 1 kg of prawns and 1 kg worth of fish which costs us IDR$260,000). You have never truly experienced the romance of Bali if you did not pay this beach a visit. The moonlit beach is filled with candle-lighted tables facing the smooth crashing sound of the sea. I have to apologize for the poorly taken shot of the beach due to my shaky hands but I just have to show you pictorally what I have just described. There is also this roving band which can basically sing and play any songs you can name, internationally for a small token (We heard Japanese, Chinese, English and Korean songs being sung) . The sea food was only average to taste (be'coz we are not so much of seafood lovers) but the sauces are excellent. So much for the day. It is time to say good night to this eventful day.

Day 2

We met our friendly, informative, chatty and punctual driver, Dewa Marco (picture is taken at Lake Batur) in the at 09:00 hrs sharp. Our first stop of the day is the town of Ubub. We visited the market which sells mostly local artifacts/produce, clothings and apparels. Always bargain when you are in such areas. The peddlers will always offer you a rather high price (which they expects you to haggle, of which if you don't, they will be laughing their way to the banks). They are used to bargaining so don't be shy (50% or more cut can be expected). Some common coaxes used by the peddlers includes "Good luck, come buy", "Morning price for good luck, come buy", etc. You can see the glow in their place when a deal is struck, and they will use their first day cash to bath their products for more good luck in business. Right across the market, you can find the famous "Bu Oka Babi Guling" (Suckling Pig). You need to sit inside the cooling hut and the waitress will attend to you. If you don't state the portion which you want, they'd assume you want the extra biggest portion and that will set you back IDR$20,000. The skin is crispy and the meat and its garnishing, well, you'd either love it or hate it. Heard from my partner that this place is recommended in a lot of forums / travel guides. No wonder I see international folks lunching in here as well. After tasting their local savory, we decide to give a more up class restaurant around the vicinity a chance with our stomach as well. We arrived at Bebek Bengil restaurant (aka Dirty Duck Restaurant. Funny name right? But the food is definitely tastier than it sounds) and ordered their famous Crispy Duck (seen on the left picture). Noticed the difference in presentation between the 2 makan venues? Settings of the restaurant is spacious and airy and is surprisingly cool, even under a sunny day.

Our next stop from here is Kintamani. Along the way, we stopped by Tegallalang to snap photos of a small scaled terraced rice plantation. At Kintamani, we get to view the infamous dormant volcano, Mt Batur and a breadth-taking view of Lake Batur. As the weather is slightly overcast by the time we arrive, pictures taken here doesn't do justice to the otherwise picturesque scenery.
We moved on next to visit a must visit place of interest, the Luhur Uluwatu temple (translates to the divine far away rock, or something like that as explained by Marco ), located at the south western part of Bali. The temple is built on a cliff and visitors are required to wear the provided sarongs as a show of respect to the temple. There is also a Kecak dance (Archipelago, Balinese style) performed here at around 18:30hrs for IDR$50,000, which we have unfortunately missed. Monkeys is also one of the "key" features to see at this temple as they roam about freely, terrorizing tourists by snatching away glasses, hairclips, handphones, etc. Remember, you have been warned. To end our day, we had dinner at this restaurant near Kuta area, called Made's Warung. It is rather famous and is packed with dinner crowd by the time we arrived at around 18:30 hrs. We decide to take a much needed stroll back to our hotel after our hearty dinner. Small shops littered along this busy Kuta street and we popped in occasionally to broswe/shop. We ended our day with a nice 1 hour foot / shoulder massage at a shop near our hotel which costs IDR$60,000. This night both of us slept like a log.

Day 1

Got to Changi early 2 hours before flight for dinner @ Popeye's (Why Popeye's? Guess it must be the show by Adam Sandler's movie, Little Nicky, which was re-played the night before and he keep mentioning Popeye's chicken is the Best! KFC still rocks imho.) and Duty Free shopping. Jetstar has allocated seating, so there is no need to rush, unlike other budget airlines (make a guess which one...). Flight time took 2 hours and 15 minutes. From Denpasar airport, airport-arranged taxi brought us to our hotel for IDR$40,000 (I think I have been taken for a ride here). Febri's Hotel, is located in Kuta which is near Tuban beach (Kuta is renowned for its long sandy beach (Tuban and Kuta) with many bars and restaurants alongside it). The hotel is not fenced so anybody can enter through some blind spots from the reception. We discovered on Day 5 that this is also true for some other hotels. Another complaint is that there is no door latch from the inside of the room. We need to constantly remind ourselves to lock the door and hang a "Privacy" tag outside the door for fear that chamber-man(no maids in this hotel or @ least I couldn't see any) enter our room while we are still inside. Otherwise, this hotel is a clean, cheap and conveniently located place to sojourn.

Facts on this trip

Facts on this trip to Indonesia, Bali Aug 26- Aug 30, 2007.

1) Exchange rate is SGD$ 1 = IDR$ 6150 at China Town complex
2) Traveled via JetStar's ValueAir, cost SGD$602 for a pair of tickets, excluding IDR$100,000 Denpasar airport tax. Seating is fixed and light snack and drink is served on board.
3) Stayed in Febri's Hotel and Spa for SGD$312 for 5 days / 4 nights (both booked via www.asiarooms.com 1 and a half month before). Water is not drinkable from the tap in Bali, so do purchase some mineral water from convenience stores.
4) Purchased insurance via tenet insurance (http://www.tenetinsurance.com/personal/Traveljoy.asp) for $27 per pax.
5) Average temperature in the city at this time : 25/34 degree Celsius and windy (Cooler temperature near the highlands)
6) Changed SGD$500/pax for expenditure. More than enough for this trip.
7) Engaged the services of a local driver, Dewa Marco ( friendly chap with lots of knowledge on Bali to share. See www.dewamarco-tour.blogspot.com) for the 1st two days to tour around the places of interests around Bali for IDR$350,000/day.
8) For all doughnut luvers, hang on tight, Krispy Kreme is here @ Discovery Centre mall!
9) Always bargain from street vendors. Competition is very stiff, so chances of 50% or more discount is possible.
10) If you need to baseline prices, try and visit their local supermarket, MataHari. The store sells anything from the local art pieces to the daily groceries.
11) Bali Coffee is fragrant imho and I was informed later by Marco that the best is Toraja coffee from Sulawesi. Toraja and the local coffee can be easily purchased from MataHari.