First DIY Trip to Bali

Promise myself to write journal for every trip I have made. Here you are the journey to Bali that I have made with Celine last year. Even it's late but I think worth to put on here to share with all of you, so that you can have better picture and budget to plan yours. haha...you are going to travel with me day by day and while you are reading this, yours truly is in Bali at this moment, from May 18 to 25...

8 Days 7 Nights in Bali...

27 October 2005 (Thursday)
KUL – Densapar – Kuta

The departure time should be 4.40pm but it was delayed till 5.10pm. We reached Nguh Rai International Airport, Denpasar at 8.00pm. The concept sold by Air Asia – Now Everyone Can Fly is true! But, don’t expect any food would be served on the plane. You have to purchase or bring your own.

While arriving, I saw a man holding a cardboard with my name written on it. So lucky and happy to see him there, as it proved that online booking and arrangement are reliable! It took 20 minutes to reach our first day hotel – Bali Sorgawi Hotel (USD20 per night for 2 persons via online booking), which is situated at Jalan Legian.

We were lucky to enjoy warmth hospitality from the owner of the hostel, Henry, who is such a friendly business man. He even offered to fetch us touring around Kuta for about 45 minutes. We got on his car and had a nice simple introduction and explanation from him. Out from his hotel, it’s Jalan Legian which is full of shops and pubs. Very happening! Of course, not forgetting to visit the places which were bombed a month ago. According to Henry, Bali is not as crowded and happening as before bombed. It is now much quieter than last time. I felt sad hearing that especially most of the people there are lived on tourism.

As we hadn’t taken our dinner yet, Henry was so generous treated us dinner at MIE 88, which is only 2-3 minutes drive from his hostel. He ordered Chap Chay Fan and Fu Yong Egg for us. Simple dinner for 4 persons with Rp60,500. You could try the rice when you were there. My friend, Celine is still missing the taste of the rice until today.

Try to enjoy movie programmed in Bali but not quite understand their language even it’s very close to our Malay language. Moreover, the dubbing has affected the originality of the movie. We took our rest at 12.30am.

Remark:
1. Rp2,500 = RM1; Rp100,000 = RM40.


28 October 2005 (Friday)
Kuta – Celuk – Mas – Art Village – Tegallang Rice Terraces – Ubud

Woke up at 7.30am. The dawn breaking at around 6am. After shower and little packing, we went for our breakfast of choice – fried rice and fried sticky noodle (don’t get them wrong, it’s actually mihun at our language).

Tika, our tour guide and Mode, the driver came very early at 9.10am to fetch us for a half-day trip (Rp85,000 per person, inclusive of entry ticket charges). Firstly, we visited Celuk, which is a village famous with gold and silver smith. If you have budget, you should get a piece or two (for example, earrings, bracelet, necklace, etc) for yourself as souvenir or reward because the items are uniquely designed and traditionally handmade.
Then, we went to the art village. The art of Bali consists of 4 categories: traditional, religion, tropical and modern. No doubt the paintings there are unique with their culture and lively! Most of the paintings are big enough to put in the living room as decoration. Well, too big for me to carry back, and most importantly, not of my affordability.

After devouring the beauty of Bali arts, we were heading to our next destination to Tegallang Rice Terraces. Well, a piece of greenish land that really eases both of your eyes (green is always good for eyes :P).

Then, we led our way to our final destination today – Ubud. Along the journey, we passed by a very village-ish route. To our surprise, the road all are of good condition even it’s small or I would say narrow.

As we hadn’t booked the hotel for tonight, the tour guide was willingly to help us to find guest house based on the info I had gathered from the internet. We visited a few guest houses, including Puri Asri 1 (Rp90,000 for 2, open-air showering area, both of us were shocked and we dared not to try); Rahayu (Rp110,000) and the third, Jati Homestay (Rp80,000). We chose Jati Homestay which is very Balinese style.

Tika left us and agreed to pick us up at 9.00am tomorrow morning. We then went for our lunch. It’s already 2.30pm!! We took kecap babi (served with rice) and sate Babi (served with rice) at Rp45,200.

After lunch, we asked the direction guide to Ubud Palace. Not quite know how to describe the palace but it’s very religious symbolic. You can see many small & narrow doors.

Then, we went to Ubud Market. YES!! This’s where we would start our shopping! Celine’s bargain kung fu is powerful – I just chose my items and she chose hers, sorry but I had to leave the bargain part to her as I was still confused with the currency and the exchange rate.

We decided to go got Spa after a short-time shopping. We went back to Jalan Hanoma and looking for Zen Body Holidays. The price there is fixed, reasonable and of course the environment is excellent! They offered many different packages and we selected milk spa. 1 hour 45 minutes cost us Rp115,000. What a first time great experience with massage, exfoliating and spa. Worth it! Worth it! I thought of coming here again and again!

After spa, we hunted for our dinner tonight and decided to try Café Dewata. We ordered gado-gado (Indonesian food you should not miss out, consists of tofu, vege, eggs and peanut) and Balinese Nasi Campur (Satay, Chicken, fruit marinated and steamed rice). Emm…yummy (even it’s a bit salty. Both of us were wondering if the salt in Bali was sold at a very cheap price)!


29 October 2005 (Satutrday)
Ubud – Batubulan – Pura Ulun Danu Bratan & Lake Bratan, Bedugul – Git Git Waterfall – Lovina

Woke up at 7pm. Have our breakfast – jaffles (toast + half cooked egg + cheese) and tea. The jaffle was really delectable (we are still missing it)!

Tika was waiting us at Reception at around 9am. We started our first agenda of the day - Batubulan for Barong Dance which we missed yesterday. It’s the most famous and must-see dance in Bali. The show will start at 9.30am every day and only one performance per day. It’s an hour show about the fighting between the good and the bad. Tika had told us the synopsis before we watched the show. Thus, we had better understanding on the dance. For rating – I would say quite interesting even I had no idea what they were talking about!

After that, we were heading to Bedugul. We visited Pura Ulun Danu Bratan and Lake Bratan. The weather here is very cooling and windy. I would choose to spend one or two nights here if my schedule was allowed! Tika told us that the temperature here is 28 degree Celsius in the day time and would drop till 18 degree celcius in the night time. Emm…the weather is just like Genting Highlands in Malaysia, love it! :D The uniqueness of Pura Ulun is it consists of Hindu and Buddhist temples. However, the Buddhist temple occupies merely a very small corner of all. The Hindu temple here is known as functional temple (as agricultural temple) and public temple.

After the exploring, we had our buffet lunch at Mentari Restaurant. Even the variety was not as luxury as Malaysia’s, but I was still enjoying the food heavenly. It’s nice and simple! The fish sate (which is known as otak-otak in our country) was the most delicious one!

Having our stomach devoured all the sumptuous Balinese food, we began our journey again. We dropped by roadside to see Mengakah monkeys (which is a norm to be seen everywhere around the world). An Englishman was feeding the monkeys with banana.

Then, we continued our visit to Git Git Waterfall – the largest waterfall in Bali. Even Tika told us that it’s only 200m to reach the pavilion but it seemed like we were walking for about 15 minutes.

After waterfall, we were heading to our final destination today – Lovina. The whole journey towards Lovina was zigzag and I got a bit dizzy with it. Around 3.30pm, we reach the hotel - Aditya. The hotel is nice, but to our surprise, the air conditioner is quite old-fashion. We chose the standard room without TV. So, Celine and I had to find our own entertainment for the 2-night stay here!

We were lazying in the hotel for a while until the evening approaching. We walked along the beach to enjoy the black sand here! Later, we went hunting for our dining place. Along the walking, we could see there were not many visitors or we were too far from each other. It’s really a serene place for relaxation and peace of mind. That’s the reason why I chose to stay here for two nights – to free my mind!

Next, we decided to enjoy ourselves in the swimming pool. Irresistible, coz the swimming pool is too nice, even the water is actually not as cold as I thought.

After having enough time in the swimming pool, we went back for bathing and ready for our dinner. We had our dinner just opposite the hotel, LiAN (just follow the style of the name being written on the board) restaurant! We ordered Tamie with seafood and vege, ginger tea, banana milk shake and curry fried rice with shrimp and chicken. Simple dishes yet delicious! It cost us only Rp37,500 (exclusive of 10% tax).

Finished our dinner, we went back to hotel and booked our dolphin seeing and sunrise for tomorrow morning. It was Rp55,000 per person.

Remark:
1. Balinese people study six days per week – 1 (kindergarten) + 6 (primary) + 3 (secondary) + 3 (secondary), and followed by university if qualified. Only those with excellent result will stand a chance to study in the university. Further studying to university is expensive especially the private one.
2. Praying culture: Balinese prays with both hands close together and make sure you pray at the right way:-
Above head – for the Goddess
At the lip – for the dead
At the heart – for each other


30 October 2005 (Sunday)
Dolphin Seeing – Sunset – Swimming Pool – Dinner – Facial Spa

We woke up at 5am today for our dolphin seeing at 6am. We took a boat riding for approximately an hour. Then, we were in the midst of the ocean. Able to see dolphin but not many of them. According to the boat rider, the weather today was not friendly as the wave was strong. You would be able to see thousand of dolphins surrounding you if the weather were good. The boat rider could see the dolphin easily compared to us. I supposed because they get used of it already. As for us, dolphins appeared to be the same colour as of the ocean, we could hardly spot the dolphin. The seconds we saw them, they had already dived into the water. We went back to hotel at 8am.

The breakfast was served in the hotel. Not much choice as compared to Malaysia but I think the food were more than sufficient served as breakfast and they were delicious.

After that, we went back to our room and took our short nap as we woke up too early this morning. When we opened our eyes the next minute, it was already twelve at noon. We had a very simple lunch – Indofood Instant Noodle with hot water provided by the hotel.

The weather outside was hot, we didn’t plan to go anywhere today. Actually, if the weather were to be good, we did plan to go to Hot Spring Water at Banjar which is 10km away from our hotel. At the same time, we could drop by at Buddhist Temple and Mundu Waterfall. However, the killing weather made us forget about our plan.

After lazying in the room for the whole afternoon, we decided to view sunset and swimming. We were not able to see the beautiful sunset coz the spot is not suitable. Luckily, we could still enjoy ourselves in the swimming pool till 7.30pm.

We went to Warung Made, which is located very nearby to our hotel tonight. Ordered “Tapas” for 2 persons at Rp35,000 – something unique consisted of chicken ball, tomato marinated, potato, egg rolls and bacon rolls with pineapple. No tax being charged in this restaurant. To me, the food was a bit salty.

After dinner, we had DIY facial spa – paper mask in our room and thereafter straight award falling into our good night sleep. Tika is going to fetch us at 10am tomorrow morning.

Remarks:
1. Poor Celine was sitting at the front seat of the boat, got herself a bit wet when boat speeding and the wind blowing.
2. The feeling of dolphin seeing is very different from that of in the zoo or underwater world. Go and Feel it!


31 October 2005 (Monday)
Lovina – Lake Bratur – Plantation Farm – Pura Tirta Empul – Pura Goa Gajah – Ubud

Woke up at 8am. The breakfast served in the hotel were of the same per yesterday. We were waiting for Tika after that.

Though, he reached at the hotel at around 11pm due to his car was broken down at Bedugul. We left for our first destination today – Lake Bratur and the Volcano. It’s really a marvelous view. We had our buffet lunch at Grand Puncak Seri Restaurant with the accompanion of the stunning view of volcano and strong wind blowing. It was so cooling, I felt a little bit of freezing.

After lunch, we went to visit Plantation Farm. Variety of plantation inside the farm, such as cocoa, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, lemon grass, etc. This plantation farm set purposely for the knowledge of the visitor about the different plantation found in Bali. If you were interested, you could buy cocoa, coffee here.

Then, we went to Pura Tirta Empul., where we could see the fresh water which is believe to be built the God of Indra.

Later, we visited Pura Goa Gajah, which is meant for meditation and religion. At last, we stopped at tonight’s guest house – Gusti Guest House at Rp70,000 per night. We took Mie Goreng and Connetto ice-cream for dinner.


1 November 2005 (Tuesday)
Ubud Market – Tanah Lot – Kuta

Wake up at 7.30am and have our breakfast in the guest house at 8am.

We proceeded to our shopping crazy at Ubud Market. Both of us spent Rp150,000 for the first round. We went back to guest house to put our “huntings” before lunch.

We took suckling pig (babe guling) with rice as our lunch. It’s one of the recommended food by my friend. Quite unique actually, I thought it’s quite similar to “char siew” rice in our country. Though, not an ideal food for me who doesn’t fancy pork so much.

We continue hunting our favourite at Ubud Market before our driver fetched us to Tanah Lot at 4pm.

Tanah Lot is unique with its temple stand surrounded by the sea. As the weather is cloudy, we only managed to see very blur sunset, which was better than nothing. Besides, things sold at Tanah Lot is reasonable and affordable. At least, the price offered here is acceptable as compared to Ubud Market. Of course, we had another round of shopping before we left for our hotel – Vilarisi Hotel which is located at Jalan Melastic.

We had our dinner at Bali Rock Café. It’s a very enjoyable place with music played from 40s’ up to today.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel to enjoy our “huntings” – necklace, browses, sandals, album, pants, handbag, etc.

Remark:
Entrance for Tanah Lot: Rp4,300.


2 November 2005 (Wednesday)
Kuta – Shopping – Kuta Beach – Bed time

Woke up at 8am. After having breakfast in the hotel, we started our shopping plan again at 10am. We were shopping from shop to shop, just couldn’t stop bargain, swear to clear our wallet before leave Bali.

We had Pizza Salsicia and Ice Tea (Rp45,500) at Porchetta Italian Seafood restaurant. The pizza was crispy like California Pizza kitchen.

We continued our shopping and went back to hotel to have a short nap at around 3pm.

At 5pm, after asking direction from the hotel staff, we were walking to Kuta Beach to enjoy marvelous view – sunset! The best sunset I have seen in my life.

The sky turned dark around 6.30pm, it showed us the time for dinner. We chose Legian Garden Restaurant to ease our stomach with Pizza la Taman Legian (which consisted of ham, bacon, red & green pepper, tomato) and fried vegetable with tempura butter (Rp42,000).

Went back to hotel at 8pm. Stopped by 7eleven to get ourselves Bali beer known as Bintang.


3 November 2005 (Thursday)
Kuta – Denpasar Airport

Woke up at 8am. Had our shower and breakfast.

Hah…last-day shopping! Hunting around for sweet and nice knick-knack before went back to Malaysia. At last, unintentionally, we found Uluwatu Lace Boutique. We did not plan to purchase anything at the first place as the price was a bit pricey to us. Though, attracted by its handmade lace and the touch of silky-soft, we couldn’t resist but promise to give it a try. Ended up, I chose myself a pair of pants and a dress. Hahaha…no much cash left but have to swipe card :P Worth as bring home item from Bali, no regret!

We took simple lunch at McD which served different set lunch with rice. Then, it’s time to packing and waiting for flight at 8.10pm.

A very fruitful trip with my own way of traveling that open my eyes. A journey of relaxation and to free your mind, no doubt!

Remark:
1. Don’t forget to reserve airport tax – Rp100,000 per person.