Bali Day 4: Surfing at Kuta Beach & Bintang Beer Shirt

The next morning we had nothing planned. In fact we all woke up later than usual. Slowly had breakfast and walked the roads of Kuta town. Compared to Kuta’s bustling night life, their morning is totally different.

Shops were slowly being opened, owners offering their prayers for the day in the form of banana leaves folded into a container shape with bananas and flowers in it. Everywhere we went, we saw this offering in front of their shop regardless how big or small their premises were.

The main area looks rather dull in the morning.

The only thing left for us to do is to explore Kuta beach and that’s what all of us did. Initial plan was to wear Bali shirt with sarung. But i guess the sarung part was a bit too drastic lol

Our first impression of the beach was, WTH happened to it?

There were just piles of rubbish all over the place. Locals were all clearing up by hands. Probably the sea brought it to their shores unexpectedly.

We were then suddenly greeted by a jogger. Well he didn’t exactly greet us but probably asked us to move away, lol.

We continued strolling down the beach.

David caught red handed. Daniel and David got closer to get better shots of the surfer lol.

Getting lessons before going out to the sea for the 2nd time.

We then headed back to our hotel to pack. Before reaching, we walked around to those shops that are already opened. I was looking for a shirt to buy back but ended up buying Angeline a dress. The price at Kuta is slightly more expensive comparatively to Pasar Seni Sukawati. At least we don’t have to go through the tyrant that yelled at us.

I finally found the shirt that i wanted, a Bintang Beer shirt. Now that i have checked that off my to-buy list, we headed back.

We totally forgot about our welcome drink and got it before entering our room. It was more like a GoodBye drink ROFLMAO. This is the only proper photo i have of the pool in Oasis. Looks pretty awesome right ?!

Just like Redang, some girls were there sunbathing and they couldn’t be bothered with the amount of guys photographing them.

Not gonna post all the photos cause i found out kids are also reading my blog lol.

After packing we left for the airport.

Making our mark on Kuta beach.

At the airport, we took some crazy group shots with Yoga and our driver. I realized how everyone else were looking at us. Hahahaha.

Don’t forget to prepare 150,000 rupiah for their government tax. That works out to about RM 55.50. Without this sticker on your boarding pass, you wouldn’t be allowed to go through.

We had our lunch at the airport and the service was just damn slowwww. Better to have your lunch/dinner somewhere else before departing.

As we left Bali, i sighed in relief because this trip has given me the most headache even prior to the trip. The amount of people who tried to scam/cheat us. Thank God, everything worked in my favour. This is probably the last time i will be having 16 pax in a trip, though we finally had only 13.

On the way back to KL, i was already planning on the next trip which was to Philippines !!! We bought the tickets before this Indonesia trip and all that was left was the itinerary.

People get high on drugs, alcohol …. i get high planning for trips, HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Bali Day 3: Ben Chong has a different meaning in Bali

We headed back to Sri Ratih Cottage after dinner on the 2nd night. We were all free to do anything for the night and so the guys and got into the pool. The ladies on the other hand decided to stay dry and conquered the lobby area hogging their wifi spot; facebook-ing, tweet-ing. It’s like as though we were the only residents in the whole cottage.

We all went back to our rooms after an hour or so for a good night’s sleep. The next morning we had our complimentary breakfast before heading to Kuta Beach for our final night.

I realized i left out pictures of the rooms in Sri Ratih Cottage. Here they are

The rooms are very spacious, in fact too spacious lol. Good thing if you have big backpacks like us cause you can just lay them anywhere. Same goes with the bathroom. There’s just ample of space in the room. Never bothered checking what channels were available cause i immediately dozed off once i got onto the bed.

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Bali Day 2: Trying the most expensive coffee in the world

After bidding Mount Batur and Hotel Surya goodbye, we then headed to Ubud. Another amazing town that anyone who drops by in Bali should visit. Spending a night here is definitely recommended. Everything is away from the hustling and bustling of town life like Kuta beach.

On the way to Ubud we did make some detours and the first stop was lunch.

Gahhhhh just realized the photo colours are off. So much for batch editing -_-!

The best part of our lunch was that it was buffet style. So we kept eating until the locals gave a weird look LOL.

They had this crazy spicy sate that i kept taking but once the fella preparing gave me a stare, i stopped. Hahaha. We were just spoilt we the amount of food.

The building that we were at is built right at the edge. Check out the unfinished metal pieces sticking out. After lunch we drove to a nearby coffee farm where we were introduced to the animal that is incharge of making the most expensive coffee in the world.

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Backpacking to Philippines #php10

It was during last year’s Zero Fare when we bought our tickets for Philippines. It was before we even left for Bali, Jakarta and Yogyakarta! Crazy i tell you !

I never had any plans to travel right after Indonesia but with the total price for return flight RM 45 flashing on my screen, who could resist ?!

That’s right, 45 ringgit for a return tickets to Philippines. This was way before Airasia hiked up the price of check in luggage. You can say that we were lucky.

In the Philippines, we will be joined by our local Pinoy Ambassador, Hannah !

As usual, i won’t be going to the typical places but will be going far up north, Northern Luzon where we will stop at Vigan, Laoag City, Pagudpud and finally at Manila.

This time around, my bag has been significantly lighter cause the clothes i am bringing are light weighted ala jersey types. We would be traveling in public buses in certain area so a light bag would be a good bag, lol.

My DSLR is out again. It has been hibernating for God knows how long.

Every trip, ever since Cambodia i have been using Crocs as my footwear. Not only is it comfortable but easy to try especially when it rains and after i wash it due to dust and sand. This is actually my third pair T.T For some reason, each pair goes missing either on the final day of my backpacking trips or the week after the trip. Hopefully this pair stays put with me and doesn’t walk off on it’s on.

Found a fantastic money changer in Equine Park. The rates he gave me were so much higher comparatively to Penang.

Passport check!

Flight itineraries check! We will be boarding 4 airlines during this whole trip; Airasia, Philippines Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air and Malaysia Airlines.

Those on twitter, feel free to follow the hashtag #php10

First stop, Tunehotels LCCT !

Bali Day 2: Hiking up a semi active volcano, Mount Batur

Upon reaching Hotel Surya we divided ourselves to the rooms that were allocated to us. Because Wai Seng fell sick and had to forgo the trip, we had an extra room. We all decided to give the room to our driver and our guide, Yoga

I can still remember clearly that Yoga kept asking me if i was sure of giving him the room. The driver himself was baffled, LOL. Since both of them will be with us for the next few days, why not give them some proper place to rest since we have one room extra.

We were later awaken at 3 in the morning and it was freaking cold ! It wasn’t as windy as Genting Highlands but the temperature was cold.

Most of us were still in daze and once we got into the van, we dozed off.

After a short drive we arrived at the starting point of the hiking trail. If you are wondering why are we even hiking in Bali, well that’s because most of us here love hiking and when i was told that it’s possible to hike up Mount Batur, i thought no further and requested it.

A normal hike is nothing compared to hiking in the dark where visibility was minimum. So i requested for a few guides to help us out, if any required assistance.

It started off by walking through a paddy field lookalike and after half an hour, we started ascending.

We finally arrived at the top after a grueling 3 hours hike, just in time for the sunrise. Hiking up in a terrain that used to be lava is just crazy. Not as stable as i thought. We were greeted by the caretaker who had a hut which was over looking the lake and Mount Agung.

One of the guides that sold Coke as well as helped some of us carry our bags

The ladies

The guys

In Cambodia, Ai Ling stepped in a puddle of water at the 1000 lingas river and this time around Emily had a broken shoe. We took a similar photo to the one in Cambodia. So in Philippines it’s gonna be Angeline’s turn? *hides*

It was really windy and we were far away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It was simply peaceful. I even spotted a foreign couple just laying there on the grass enjoying the cool breeze and scenery that this place had to offer.

After resting for a while, Daniel and David decided to hike up to the peak while the rest of us climbed towards the semi active crater.

Besides having the chance to hike up a semi active volcano, we also had the chance to meet several extra members when we were there. Codenamed, the Volcanic Dogs. I can’t described how tired some of us were but the minute these dogs ran around us with their waggling tails, we were all just pumped up again. The two golden retrievers were owned by the caretaker. They were given the name Kiki and Oza.

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