Day 1: KLIA LCC
Left house at 2pm. There was a thunderstorm. Was supposed to meet with PP at Gavin's since he had graciously agreed to send us to and from the airport. The rain stopped after about 10 mins. Got to the new KLIA Low Cost Carrier airport by about 3.15pm. Our flight was due to take off at 4.40pm. At about 4pm, the announcement came that our plane was delayed by 3 hours! *Bahhh...* Horror! It was the first time I'd encountered such a long delay via Air Asia. *Hmph*
Finally boarded the plane at about 7.30pm and it took off at about 8pm. We arrived at Bali at 11pm! What a bloody waste of the day! *Sigh* But we were not about to waste the nite away. So we checked in to Masa Inn, Kuta (based on a friend's recommendation), freshened up and headed out to check out a salsa bar. Hehe. A salsa mate from the studio had referred me to a salsa dancer at Kuta. So with the taxi driver's help, we found the place called Obsession at Jl. Dhyannapura. Unfortunately, the salsa scene in Bali is not huge and there was hardly anyone at Obsession. Disappointed, we checked out the other salsa bar nearby called Bahianna. It was more happening at Bahianna cos they had some performances. But it wasn't quite what I expected. Relatively quiet for a Friday nite out. So after a drink, we called it a nite. After all, it had been a long tiring day...
Day 2: Basking on Kuta Beach and monkeying around at Uluwatu
When we first arrived at Masa Inn, we were kinda put off by a few factors:
- It was off the main road, thru a tiny dark creepy lane. We knew that we'd feel unsafe to walk on that lane to get to the main road, where all the happening places are.
- The reception area was just a large table at the front of the hotel manned by two chaps, one of whom was apparently the security guard dressed in a singlet. Hmm...
- We were rather impressed with the landscape as we walked past the pool area to our room. But when we got into our room, our faces fell once more. It was a dogdy and dark looking room.
So we made up our minds to go check other hotels situated nearer or on the main road. After breakfast, we went on our hunt and found a nice looking hotel just 50m off the main road called Kuta Puri Bungalows. The landscape was scenic and we were more pleased with our room's deco. So we checked out of Masa Inn and registered at Kuta Puri.
After all that was sorted, we were set to get on with our plans for the day. It was a day of sun tanning on Kuta Beach. The beach was just 100m from where we were. The day was scorching hot - in a way it was ideal for our objective to sun tan. The beach unfortunately wasn't v.impressive and the water wasn't clear. In fact, it was rather dirty and vile. But I've had prior warning of that - Kuta beach is more of a surfers' beach and not much one to be swimming or soaking in. Nevertheless it was still good for sun tanning purposes.
As soon as we stepped on the beach, we were terribly harassed by a string of sellers, begging us to buy their products and/or services. They were selling all sorts from sarongs to beach pegs to hair braiding services to manicure and pedicure. Eventhough the stuff were cheap, it was a rather harrowing experience as the sellers were awfully persistent and kept returning to bug us. And when we decided to go for the manicure and pedicure, other sellers kept persuading us to buy other stuff/services and were giving samples by tugging at us and pulling our legs and arms to sample a massage, for example. While we were quite pleased with our mani/pedi-cure services, it was overall a not-so-pleasant beach experience.
We decided to head back to the hotel to sun tan by the swimming pool. Then we booked ourselves a tour to Uluwatu to witness a supposedly stunning sunset view. The view was to be seen from a hilltop where a puri (temple) is situated and lots of monkeys reside. We were also booked to watch a kecak dance. It was worth the trip as the view was magnificent. However, we were not so lucky to see the sun setting as it was a cloudy day. *frown* The scenery would no doubt be much more spectacular against a sunset background.
There were monkeys everywhere at the hilltop. Some tourists had bought food to feed them. These monkeys were extremely cheeky and mischevious. One of them snatched my bandana off my head and went to the cliff side to play with it. After a few tries of retrieving it back myself, a local lady managed to pick it up from a branch as it was left there by the cheeky monkey for a small fee. *Hmph*
The kecak dance is a dance sung by a group of about 70 men, unaccompanied by any instruments and tells a story of a local legend. It ended with one character kicking up fire bushes. It was an experience all right but not one that I fully appreciated.
Later at nite, we headed out Bahianna again as it was supposedly salsa nite on Sat there. Met up with the Bali reference and danced a few dances - with a guy named Made, his girlfriend and another girl leader. Apparently, Made had learned salsa through dance videos and he and his girlfriend have been trying to boost the local salsa scene. Their leads were similar to the on-1 steps that I know although there some parts of their leads that were a little unclear. However, the fact that their salsa arose from videos, they danced as good as many 'veterans' I've danced with.The salsa scene however is small and not quite exciting - there weren't many couples on the dance floor and the salsa only lasted a couple of hours. Yet I was glad that I had managed some dancing. *grin*
Day 3: More basking at Nusa Dua and the Dirty Duck Diner
We were told that the beaches at Nusa Dua are lovelier, quieter and have far fewer harassing sellers. So we were looking forward to a more peaceful day of sun tanning. We got a reasonable taxi deal that took us to Nusa Dua, then Ubud as we had 2 nites there.
The taxi driver took us to the Geger Beach at Nusa Dua. It was as promised - the water was blue and crystal clear, the sand was softer and cleaner, there were just a few tourists under some lovely umbrellas and there weren't many sellers lurking around like a pack of vultures. It was another crisp hot day and we were fairly relaxed as we soaked in the water and basked ourselves trying to even out our tan. While I had tanned myself to a relatively nice golden brown, there were several uneven spots caused by my new brief-type-bikini I'd worn the day before. Silly me - I should've known better than to wear a brief bottom when sun tanning. Hmm...
After a couple of hours, we left Nusa Dua for Ubud. We arrived at Ubud in the afternoon. It is a quiet, tranquil town with lots of view of rice fields. The town central is simply a circle surrounded by artsy, hippy looking shops. After we had checked into our hotel at Graha Ubud Bali, we strolled around the circle. We finished walking the circle in just under a couple of hours. It is not a big area. Shopping at Ubud is not as satisfying - stuff were not as cheap as they were at Kuta and one could not bargain v.much. The shops would only offer small discounts. However, there were the occasional quirky and unusual stuff that you probably would not find elsewhere.
We booked ourselves dinner at Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diner), that had come highly recommended by some friends. The main dish is a deep fried v.crispy duck that was extremely delicious. Food was good but was not exactly cheap, yet it was worth the while.
There isn't much nite life in Ubud. So we retired to bed fairly early, compared to our stay at Kuta. Our room was pretty old but it had a quaint authentic feel to it.
Day 4: Volcano mountain and amazing spa
We had booked a tour that took us to several spots in the north of Ubud:
1. First stop was at Gua Gajah - a cave with elephant carvings and a place for the Hindus and Buddhists to worship.
2. Gunung Kawi was the next stop - there were a lot of steps to climb and we weren't extremely impressed with the view when we got to the end where another temple ruin was.
3. Then we visited Tampak Siring, where there is a holy spring water pool - a number of locals were bathing in that pool.
4. We then stopped by a cocoa/coffee plantation - it was a v.small plantation run by some locals mainly for their family consumption. Surprisingly enough, we found ourselves a few shopping items at the shop in the plantation. There were spices, coffee and several other natural produce from the plantation. The most worthwhile purchase was saffron and vanilla pods at Rp20,000 and Rp60,000 respectively - which translates to only RM8 and RM18 each - dirt cheap!
5. The highlight of our tour was the visit to Kintanmani to see the volcano mountain called Gunung Batur. The driver drove us to a restaurant for lunch up a neighbouring hill that has a spectacular view of Gunung Batur. The scenery was magnificent. It reminded me of the scenery at a homestay south of Christchurch, New Zealand.
6. The last stop was at a rice terrace. We took a few snapshots of the rice terrace but didn't stop to venture into it.
When we got back to Ubud, we decided to try out a Balinese massage. The driver recommended Jelatik Esthetic. We then booked ourselves 2 beauty packages, comprising Balinese massage, facial and cream hair treatment - for only IDR210,000 (approx. RM80). We had no regrets! The massage was amazingly awesome. It was the BEST massage I've ever ever had. And it only cost about RM30 (normal price for a single massage was IDR75,000)!! It was way better than Thai massages. In Thailand, while the massages are cheap, they are normally carried out in a simple room with several mattresses on the floor. In Bali, for something like RM5 more than what you'd pay for a Thai massage, the Balinese massage is carried out in a spa, where you have a nice private room scented with essential oils. The facial and hair treatment were fantastic to boot. It was certainly a fabulous treat to end the day.
Day 5: Yummilicious Babi Guling, more spa and bye bye Bali
The other famous delicacy in Ubud is babi guling, which is essentially roast pork that's served in a special sauce. Only one small stall called Bu Oka serves this dish during lunch and it was packed with locals and tourists. It was yummy.
After lunch, we did some more walking and a bit of shopping. Then we returned to Jelatik for another massage session. It was yet another fantastic massage. Definitely worth every penny!
After the massage, we were due to go to the airport for our nite flight. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any delay for our return trip and got home slightly past midnite.
It was almost paradise in Bali - the sun, sea and spa! Ahhh.....simply marvellous. And I love my tan (albeit some uneven spots here and there)! *beam* Bali is definitely worth returning to. I can't wait to plan for the next trip. Hehe. Check out more photos on my Flickr badge.
