20 March 2008 -Written by Samantha-
Our honeymoon to Bali – Part 2
*So sorry for the late late update k! |
Day 4
We woke up very early to get ready for our 1 day trip which starts at 8.30am. We planned the places we wanted to go the night before and then spoke to the tour guide on our preferred destinations before we started our journey!
The places we planned to go are
- Kintamani to have a look at the volcano Mt. Batur (we ‘sua ku’ never seen a volcano before ok!)
- Ubud for babi guling (It means roast pig, a must have in Bali!)
- Turtle island (not an island of a shape of the turtle but go to the turtle sanctuary)
- Pura Besakih (Bali’s biggest temple)
Our first stop was Turtle island. We need to take a boat from Sanur beach to Turtle island which was about 20 minutes boat ride. To be honest, we’ve never seen real-life turtles so close. I believe closest will be underwater world in Singapore. Not sure if it was a turtle or tortoise. Hehe.. You don’t only get to hold the turtles to take photo with them but there are also eagles, bats, snakes and hornbills that you can hold. Joshua was very engrossed with the baby turtles. After he walked one round he went back to play with the baby turtles again. Hehe..
Next up, Ubud for lunch! (Before that we were brought to the usual tourist places that the tour guides will sure bring you and hope you will buy something so they get a commission such as the batik factory and silver factory). We’ve been told that babi guling is a must try in Bali! So we arranged with the tour guide to go have that, as you know we love food! Ubud is the centre of arts and crafts of Bali. It’s by the mountain so if you’re not after the seaside you can go to Ubud. It’s a nice place. The place we went for babi guling is Ibu Oka. The owners cook and serve at their home! Bali homes are like Chinese houses in the olden days where you have a big courtyard and individual ‘villas’. The babi guling, according to the tour guide is roasted with the pig’s own blood with the organs cleaned and spices stuffed inside. Have a look at our photos! Yummy! Actually it is really a must try and the skin is thick but crunchy and the meat is very tender. It is the Indonesian style of our Chinese roast pork rice (‘siu yok fan’).
Bali is actually a big island and travelling from one tourist attraction to another is quite far. From the central city up to Kintamani to see the volcano is about 1.5 hours! So that’s our next destination after lunch. Joshua thought we were going to the volcano but in actual fact we were only going to a hill top to see the scenery! The volcano erupted a few years ago and hence we can still see the black lava that covers the volcano. Next to the volcano there is a very big lake. The scenery is quite nice actually. Too bad it was hazy otherwise can take poster-like photos! :)
Self edited panorama :)
After we came down from Kintamani, our final destination was suppose to be Pura Besakih, but it was already quite late so we have to give up going there as it is quite far also. At the end the tour guide brought us to Pura Tirta Empul, which is known as the holy spring water temple. The highlight of this temple is the mountain spring flows down to the temple where they’ve built several spouts where the water flows through each spout has a different function e.g. for health, for wealth, to make a wish, etc. etc.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 6.30pm after 10 hours of travel. Not too tired actually because can sleep in the car! Hehe.. For tonight’s dinner we planned to go to Ultimo, an Italian restaurant which we’ve already surveyed previously. We cannot believe the price when we looked at the menu! You’ll know why later. Read on please! The ambience of the place is quite nice, with an open kitchen concept. It’s like a fine dining restaurant. So what we ordered were:
Samantha
Set dinner menu which includes a garden salad, pasta, steak and sorbet as dessert
Drink – house wine
Joshua
Cream of asparagus and seafood pizza
Drink – Bintang beer
The food was good actually! Guess how much was our bill? For sure you think it’ll be at least RM150 and above right? It was only about RM65!! Shock!
Day 5
After a whole day of travelling the day before, it was supposed to be a relaxing day but we ended up renting a motorcycle to roam the town! Our intention was to go to the factory outlets!! :P It’ll just so convenient to just have our own transport don’t you think? The bike rental was 50,000 Rupiah (approx RN17.50) per day with half tank petrol. Not bad. If we were to take taxi here and there won’t be that figure definitely.
The street from Seminyak to Kuta is just a long street so it’s quite easy to get around without getting lost. The factory outlets are very close to Kuta along the main road called Bypass Ngurah Rai. This is the only main road in Bali with 3 lanes I assume because all other roads are just like trunk roads and are very narrow. The factory outlets there are selling old season’s surf wear like Quicksilver, Oakley, Rip Curl, Billabong, etc. You can get really cheap surf wears there but you’ll need to spend time digging through a lot of clothings!
We had our lunch at one of the restaurants closeby the factory outlets and it serves Indonesian Padang cuisine. The waiter will just bring many many plates of dishes and put on your table when you sit down. How it works is you just eat the food you want to eat and leave the rest alone. You’ll only be charged whatever you eat. But I think it’s really not that hygiene isn’t it (imagine the dish has been placed at many tables before).
After lunch we dropped by Carrefour hoping to buy Indomee goreng! Yummiest dry instant noodle and you can’t get it in Malaysia. Unfortunately they’re out of stock! :( Well, nevermind. Luckily we’ve roamed the sundry shop close to our hotel and knew they have stock there. Well, just paid a visit to Carrefour in Bali that’s all!
Dinner was nice. We planned to go Jimbaran for seafood dinner by the beach as highly recommended by Eric Siah. There was pickup service provided by the restaurant so it’s good for us because it’s about 20 mins away from our hotel. Taxi would be expensive. There were at least 20 seafood restaurants there according to the waitress and they basically sell the same thing, grill seafood using coconut husks. You just need to choose your seafood from their seafood counter and the attendants will weigh and tell you how much before you go back to your seat and wait to eat.
We’ve got lobster, red snapper, calamari, sea prawns, and big lala. Yummy! They are served with rice and vegetable and not forgetting their dipping sauces which are really delicious! We’ll let you drool over our photos ok! This was the most expensive meal for us for it was worth it. Got one whole lobster ok!
Highlight of the day – I haven’t sat on a bike since I was 4 years old I guess! My legs were trembling!!
Day 6
A lazy day before we head back to KL the next day. Slept till 10.00am and then head for spa at 11.30am. After that we were thinking of hitting the beach. Where can not go to the beach in Bali! So we decided to go to Legian which is in between Seminyak and Kuta. Surveyed the street and selected a German restaurant for lunch. I had a big sausage with mashed potato and Joshua had pork ribs. So big portion!
On our way to the beach after lunch, Joshua decided to get a ‘Bintang’ T-shirt just for fun. It is actually more popular than Hard Rock or Planet Hollywood T-shirts ok! We don’t even see anyone wearing those but ‘Bintang’ T-shirts are everywhere! See the model by the beach below. :)
To be honest, the beach wasn’t that beautiful as we’ve expected. It is quite dirty actually and we were unlucky that during our visit there was a beach clean-up going on and piles of rubbish (mostly dried leaves and twigs were piled along the beachside) but there is definitely no less of girls in bikinis walking around though. Hehe..
Dinner was at a restaurant close by our hotel called Rumours and it is very popular apparently. Every night when we pass by to go back to our hotel it is always packed. So we decided to have our dinner there. Well basically it serves Western food also. Casual dining environment and the food were quite good too. The price was even better! Having Western food in Bali is really cheap as compared to KL.
This sums up our whole holiday at Bali!
Highlight of the day – Bought wooden and shell bangles from the trader by the beach for only 10,000 Rupiah each (approx RM3.50) and of course the ‘Bintang’ T-shirt!
Day 7
Woke up, pack, check out, and take the plane back! Haha.. That’s it! We both agreed that unless we go in a group, don’t think we’ll be heading back to Bali.
Highlight of the day – eating the very famous nasi lemak on the Air Asia flight can be considered or not? :P
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