Bali 2013 - Day 4

A highlight of the trip was definitely the Mount Batur Volcano Sunrise Trek. More details of the tour can be found here.

We woke up at 1am to get ready as the car will pick us up at 2am to reach the starting point at around 4am to start the trek. We were supposed to have 2 other persons to join us for this trek but they backed out last minute. So it became a 'private' tour for us again which was great as we could really follow our own pace and not feeling bad to delay the other group. 

Journey to the starting point was really long and we fell asleep on the car. When we reached, it was still pitch-dark. We started off our trek and met this young girl who is just 10 years old. At first I thought she was just following someone she knows up the Mountain as it was school holidays for the students then. Never did I expected that she was actually carrying cans of drinks in her backpack and selling them at the top when everyone stopped and rested. Heavy backpack and she was making a living out of it. Gosh... and I promised her that I would get a drink from her if I managed to reach the top and in the end, I did.

Anyway, here's the beautiful views of the sunrise after 2 hours of trekking. It was quite tiring with some steep slopes but totally worth it.

Beautiful Sunrise at Mount Batur

Good thing that Sense Bali Hotel allowed us to do a late check out as we reached the hotel after 12pm. We washed up and went out for lunch. There was this cafe that was just nearby and it has been closed for the days we were there. I was so glad that it opened for business on our last day and we went in for lunch. Gosh, I rather it was closed and we made our way to Seminyak Square. There was only 1 main course on their menu and they did not state any price at the menu. Looking at the layout of the cafe, we thought the food would not be too expensive. But we were wrong. The total bill was almost the same as what we had at Seminyak square but the quality of the food can't be compared to what we had there. Regretted but well, if we never tried, we would never know. 

Nasi Ayam Kedewatan

With time left to departing to the airport, well, we went to Seminyak Square for the last coffee break of the trip. Back at Black Canyon Coffee for french fries and a cup of Cranberry coffee. I have to say, nice way to end off the trip. 

Black Canyon

A great trip with many first times for my friends and well, I have learnt more about myself and my friends along the way. A journey of self-discovery would never be the same without my two friends with me.

Bali 2013 - Day 3

Finally have time to blog about my Bali Day 3 -

Half of Day 3 was for Water Rafting while the other half was to visit Tanah Lot Temple for the sunset. After some search for such an itinerary, we stumbled upon this wesbite. It catered for what we wanted and was reasonably priced. Most of all, it was a private tour where we had our own tour guide and driver to bring us through the day. "Why not?" went through our thoughts. However, we were disappointed with the whole service provided by the tour guide. Though, I had to say, it really brought us to the places we wanted, the tour guide was not performing. He was busy talking to the driver, or busy with his phone and most importantly, at every stop, he would tell us to proceed on without bringing us to the places and giving us some background or history of the places. In this case, why would we need a guide? We could simply just go for a driver instead. Nonetheless, the water rafting was fun and the sunset at Tanah Lot was beautiful. We had no regrets to the activities but were just disappointed at the service. 

Water Rafting:

We were picked up at our hotel at 8am and we were brought to the Ayung River. We were joined by other tourists for this event. To get to the start point, we had to walk down a long route through the jungle. A tiring start of the trip but worth the effort. The crew gave very clear instructions on his comments, ensuring that we knew how to react at each of his comments. This was very important to ensure that the raft would not capsized due to the wrong execution of his comments. 

There was a break in between the rafting where we could purchase some drinks. Not sure how things worked, but the shop owner asked us to pay for the drinks for the crew - seems compulsory but well, the crew deserved it though. 

The 10 km White water rafting lasted for around two hours. For the two hours, we were welcomed by amazing nature - Greens was really appalling. There was also a wall sculpture that we stopped for photo taking. It was said to be the story of Bali's version of Romeo and Juliet. 

After the rafting, we had to walk up steps (this was tiring) to get to the top where we walked to a restaurant. There, we were able to bath and change into fresh clothing. Then, there was this Indonesia buffet awaiting us. Disappointment came for the tour guide. He did not even notice that we had arrived and the driver had to inform him. He did not bother to come up to us to ask about the rafting. He continued to play with his phone while we had our lunch. Well, nothing fantastic about the buffet especially when we compared it to the lunch on Day 2. 

Start of the White Water Rafting

After the lunch, we were supposed to visit Kintamani but we had been there on Day 2. With this, the tour guide made arrangement for us to visit a art gallery. He told us that we were be able to view the artist painting and learnt more about the art industry in Bali. Crap... he brought us to the art gallery where we viewed the painting that are on sales. I reckon if we had bought something, he would have earned some commission. 

Next up, we reached Ubud Monkey forest. There, the tour guide brought us to a stairs and told us to walk down to take a look without really explaining to us about the place and what to expect at the bottom. Totally ridiculous. We went on our own and were quite lost until we saw a group of tourists and decided to tag along. We did not really catch what the guide was talking but we went brought to a small holy temple. 

Monkey Forrest

Then we met up with our tour guide who was on his phone once again. He told us to take a walk around the town and to meet him half an hour later. What a service. 

Tanah Lot Sunset:
Well, same went for the service but my friends and I enjoyed ourselves at Tanah Lot. We reached the place relatively at 3pm and we strolled through the compound at our own pace, admiring the great Tanah Lot as well as the Pura Batu Balong. It was low tide at that time and we would go close to Tanah Lot though we could not enter the premise. We also donated some money just to see a holy snake.

Tanah Lot

Pura Batu Balong

Highlight of the day was definitely the sunset. Seeing the 'egg york' slowly moving down to the sea was simply calming and relaxing for me. Picture speaks a thousand words. Here some of the shots I took:

Sunset from top to right, bottom to right... 

Dinner was back at Kafe Betawi. We simply loved this place. I had this fried rice with satay. Simply delicious. The fried rice was spicy but nice. 

Fried Rice with satay

This night, we slept early as to prepare ourselves for the hike. We needed to wake up at 1am to get ready for the guide to pick us up at 2am. Good night with Bintang Beer!

Bali 2013 - Day 2

"Cycling tour is a must try" went the comment from my friends when they knew I was heading to Bali. So I implanted this idea into the trip and I'm glad both my travel companions loved it too. 

Prebooked the cycling tour together with the Mt Batur Sunrise trek through this Bali Eco Cylcing website. By booking two tours, we managed to get the tours at a discounted price of 750,000 IRD. The standalone price for the cycling trip is 360,000 IRD and that for Mt Batur is 450,000 IRD. 

As I had mentioned earlier that we stayed at Seminyak, we needed to be ready by 7am for the pick up. Luckily for us, breakfast at Sense Hotel starts as early at 6am. After picking up the rest of the tour mates, the first pitstop was not to the Penelokan (Kintamani) for breakfast. Yes, this tour includes breakfast. The first stop was a view of the rice paddy. "This is a Kodak photoshoot spot" went the tour guide. Oh well, the view was great and it felt so green and relaxing to be immersed in the surrounding. 

Rice Paddy View

Afterwhich, we headed to Kintamani for breakfast. Ok well, forget about the breakfast. It was not very great but the place does really portray one of the stunning views in Bali for me - Mt Batur, an active volcano, and its cater lake. Nice weather to accompany the view was the best 'postcard' we can ever get. 

Mt Batur and its Cater Lake

Next up, we were brought to a fruit and coffee plantation whereby the tour guide introduced the plants to us. Okay, this was not really my cup of tea but it was still nice to know some of the plants. We were also allowed to try some of the coffee varieties, ranging from hazelnut to caramel. However, we got to share the coffee cups with our tour mates. Thus, if you are not comfortable with it, I guess you might want to give it a miss or to order a cup of coffee on your own expenses. One of the tour mates ordered the Coffee Luwak, the unusually produced and most expensive coffee in the world. We managed to watch how this coffee is being brewed. 

Coffee related

After the "coffee break", we are finally off to our cycling tour. We were brought to collect our bicycles. One of my friends was not confident in cycling on her own and we were so glad that they offered a tandem bike. The tour guide offered to ride the tandem bike with her. A very good service from them. 

The first stop is to the including a visit to a Balinese home. The tour guide told us the structure of the house and also some of the Balinese culture they have. An interesting insight is how we can gauge the wealthiness of the family by looking at their house compound. He also mentioned how the government conducted their census. The number of people staying in the house to the family nuclei are clearly stated in front of the house.  

Cycling through the village did attract the attention of the locals and the children were extremely excited. We stopped by the rice paddy and was given the chance to walk through the field. Unfortunately, it was not the harvesting period. We also stopped by an enormous Banyan tree for some photo-taking. Basically, it is so enormous that I felt a bit being compressed by it. 

Oh, just to mention that Balinese were celebrating Galungan and they actually hang this Celebration decoration known as penjor (bamboo poles weighed down by offerings suspended at the end) in front of their house as well as along the street. Interesting to know this as we were quite curious about the decoration when we first saw it on our first day. 

Scenes through cycling

This tour includes lunch as well. A nice ambiance restaurant to have a balinese buffet lunch. The satay was great but it was not free flow. If not, I would have grab a few more sticks. Yummy.

After the whole trip, we reached back our hotel at around 4pm. We decided to head to Seminyak Beach to take a look and we managed to catch the beautiful sunset.

Sunset

Dinner was back at near Seminyak square, but we decided to head to small eatery. It was not crowded at all and we actually hesitated before walking in. The rest of the cafes/restaurants along the stretch are not selling local food. I'm glad we went in. We ordered a couple of dishes to share and the food was quite nice.

First of all is the pineapple rice. It was a little oily but the taste was great. The second dish was the chicken satay rice with kangkong. The satay sauce was quite different from that we tasted in Singapore. It was not very 'peanut'and gave a sweeter taste. The blanched kangkong with the chili was a great one. Without the chili, it was just normal though it was fresh. But once you mixed it with the chili, it was real spicy. Trust me, if you do not take spicy food, do not order this dish. Last but not least on the table was the gado-gado. Totally different from what we get in Singapore. It consists of more leafy vegetables. I liked! Avocado shake was the drink to end off the dinner. Thick and nice.

Balinese Food

Before heading back to hotel, we bought a 10,000 IRD gelato as desserts. Cheap and yummy to end off the day!

Bali 2013 - Day 1

Taking an afternoon flight is always not a good choice for a short flight. We reached Bali at around 1pm via Tigerair to Bali. From the airport, if your hotel does not offer a transfer, you can simply get a cab and travel down. Take a look at this link. It states down the fixed price for the different destination. The official taxi counter is located outside the arrivals hall (exit arrivals turn right). Pay the fare accordingly and the cab driver will lead you to his cab. To note, we stayed at Sense Hotel Seminyak and the price should have been 60, 000 rupiah. However, the counter told me to pay 80,000 rupiah for our hotel location. Not wanting to create a fuss upon arrival for just SGD 2 dollars, we paid accordingly and board the cab. 

The journey was quite short, taking around half an hour to reach. The Sense hotel is situated along the lane near to the Seminyak Beach. It is also within walking distance from Seminyak Square which is at Jl. Laksamana Oberoi/ Kayu Aya, Bali. This street is more lively and nosier due to many boutique hotels and restaurants/cafes/pubs. Sense Hotel is actually a good choice for a quieter night rest. 

The cost of the deluxe room with breakfast for per night was around SGD 150. The cost included an additional bed for the three of us. Quite affordable and I had to say, the service crews are great. They are very attentive to our needs and even helped us to confirm our tours when we were not in the hotel . Thumbs up for them.

1. Deluxe Room
2. Swimming pool

Anyway, for Day 1, we did not plan much activities since we reached in the afternoon. After check-in and wash up, we headed to the Seminyak Square. This place became a routine place for us to settle our dinner for the next few days. 

Lunch was definitely on our mind as we did not had any food on the plane. We settled down at Kafe Betawi after browsing through the menu. This place is quite nice to hang out, given that there was not much crowd.

Here's my first meal for the trip - Nasi Uduk Ayam. Nice and comfy food as it tasted like food that we can find in Singapore. To note, the meat was a little tough though overall, it was great. 

Nasi Uduk Ayam

After eating, we decided to walk along the street in hunt for Bintang Supermarket which is at Jl. Raya Seminyak No.17, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia. I read online that this is a relatively big supermarket that sells many things. I am a supermarket-lover when I travel. It is always interesting to see what they sell. I love to buy back interesting food stuff for myself or as souvenirs. However, this hunt was a real long hunt. I would recommend to take a cab if you are someone who does not like to walk. But to us, walking and do sightseeing at the same time was not that bad afterall. I did not really note down the timing we took but I guess it was around 45 minutes to reach the supermarket. 

After touring in the supermarket for an hour or so, we were happy with our buys. Walking back to our hotel was a little smoother, given the fact that we no longer need to keep looking out for the destination. We even pop in to some smaller shops.

Back at Seminyak square, we saw this pushcart selling corn. Not a roadside food lover, but I could not resist this. There are two flavours to choose from - Spicy or Salt and Butter. Great food.

Grilled corn by the roadside

This pretty much ended our day 1 at Bali. Time to hit the bed as we had a whole string of adventurous activities for the next few days.

For a summary of our trip, click here.

My getaway from Singapore - Bali 2013 Prelude

Finally settled down from my 2 getaway trips from Singapore - First to Bali in late Oct and a relatively trip to Taiwan in Nov. Here's the prelude to the Bali trip while trying to sort out the photos I have took. And before that, I am now thinking and looking into a third and final trip for 2013, that is to Perth. May my wish come true!

Bali (24 -27 Oct)

Cheap tickets and the desire to travel out of Singapore as soon as my hectic work schedule slows down was the pushing factor for this trip. Tigerairway was having their promotion during April and the deal went as low as around SGD150 for a trip to Bali, but without any check in luggage. Going to a Beach and relaxing trip does not require check in luggage was the thought for me then. I notified a couple of friends on this deal and 3 of them agreed on the trip. Out of the 3, 2 know each other and I thought why not. Travelling is all about meeting new people and therefore the 4 of us confirmed. But I guess, 6 months was too far stretch for one of us and she pulled out in the end. Nonetheless, the 3 of us went ahead for an adventurous instead of a chillax trip. We booked day trip out of Seminyak for the 3 days. For night life lovers, I guessed Seminyak would be good. For shopping and chillax lovers, Kuta would be great as recommended by the guide. For people like us who like nature, Ubud would be good as less travelling time to the destination. As for us, we booked our hotel - Sense Bali Hotel - without doing much research and confirming our itinerary. Thus, our travelling time was quite long. But nonetheless, we took the time to rest and relax. 

Day 1: 

We reached Bali at around noon and we took the time to relax after checking in - Walked to the Seminyak Square for meal and to the Bintang Supermarket to stock up. 

Day 2:

Booked the Bali Eco Cycling trip which brought us to Penelokan (Kintamani) for breakfast with stunning view overlooking the active volcano, Mt. Batur and its crater lake. Then off to start off our cycling trip where we will pass by Balinese plantation, travelling through lush forested areas, plantations, small villages and lush rice paddy panoramas, including a visit to a Balinese home/compound. Pretty nice relaxing day trip where tourists get to see the other side of Bali. No worries if you do not know how to cycle. Go for a tandem bike or just hop on to their van. 

Day 3:

Booked a private car which brought us to Water Rafting at Ayung river, Ubud Monkey Forest and Tanah Lot for Sunset. Supposedly there was a guide to bring us round and the duty of a guide was supposedly to inform us of the place. But he was not doing much but to bring us to the destination, dropped us off and picked us up again. I guess, we could just pay less for a driver. Nonetheless, we did enjoy ourselves that day.

Day 4:

The highlight of the trip was here. We woke up at 1am to prepare for our Mt Batur volcano sunrise trek. Amazing trip which only 3 of us went with a private guide. The couple who was supposed to join us backed out int he end. A 3 hours trek up but the fabulous sunrise blew our tiredness off. Totally worth the lack of sleep, the treks for it.

Day 4 was the last day in Bali. And I guess the next time I am back in Bali, it would definitely for some other volcano sunrise trek.

Till I blog on a more detailed Bali trip with more photos, here is the summary of the beautiful Bali, captured by your truly.  

Bali Beauty