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.

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.

I highly recommend this place to anyone who is putting up a night in Ubud. Remember Sri Ratih Cottage.

After breakfast, we packed up and moved towards Kuta town.

On the way we stopped at Goa Gajah.

Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave was built in the 9th century and it’s listed as one of UNESCO’s heritage site, thus being one of the must visit places for us

After putting on our sarungs, we took a short walk to the cave.

It’s not some huge cave with bats hanging upside down and funky smell but it’s more a man made cave i think. It’s quite small with deities places at every corner.

One thing that i never did in Cambodia was to camwhore. I didn’t have much evidence of my face in any of those places. So this time around i tried to snap more of myself, though most of the time it comes out crappy.

It was very dark in the cave and i forgot to lower down the power of my flash thus Daniel and David giving the WTF look at me. Hahahaha sorry guys ROFL.

Lingas in one corner of the cave in Goa Gajah.

There was also carvings of Buddha on limestone but i could hardly see it.

Some of the smaller temples in the compound were destroyed during the last major earthquake. So only the remaining ruins were left on the site.

After Goa Gajah, we moved on to Pasar Seni Sukawati.

We never bought any handicrafts or shirts along the whole journey here in Bali. Simply because this very market which is away from the main Kuta area sells very much cheaper.

We only had 30minutes here but it was the worst 30 minutes in Bali. We all spread around and tried looking for things that interest us. Most of us wanted the local shirts and while bargaining i found out one of the stalls gave us a very good deal.

So i went to the rest and told them that the other stall was cheaper and asked them to go there. The owner overheard and shouted at us, saying who said there cheaper? The daughter also joint suite and were babbling their lungs out. Ai Ling, Angeline, Emily and I got a shock of our lives but being Penangites, we maintained cool and said the other lady did offer cheaper and we walked off. I glanced back and the lady was still fuming.

After purchasing from the other store, a total of 30 plus shirts, we purposely walked in front of the other store where the lady shouted. Hahahahahahahahaha. The lady stared at us as we walked off. Well she deserved it. I was paying for my shirt and i have every right to choose another stall if the price was right. She and her daughter had no reason to shout at us.

In our van, we laughed our lungs out talking about the expression of the her face when she saw how much we actually bought.

Don’t play play with Penangites!

After half an hour we stopped by Pondok Kuring for lunch.

While waiting for lunch to be served, some of us took time to clean our camera gears. For some reason that lens looks like mine, lol

We had pigeon their local chicken specialty for lunch. We had extra portions because Wai Seng couldn’t make it for the trip, just like how we had an extra room while in Mount Batur. So we gave the extra portion to our driver who has been excellent during the whole journey. He opened up to us especially me after we showed that we are a happy go lucky bunch of travelers.

I could remember how many times he asked me if i was really giving he and Yoga the extra room as well as this lunch

While waiting for the rest to finish, i roamed around the restaurant and this flower which was hanging above my head at the entrance caught my attention. I haven’t really mastered macro or close up shots but i think i am getting there. Lol self confidence kicking in

Slowly one by one appeared at the entrance and we got into our van before heading to The Oasis where we will be putting up for the night.

In our trips, usually the final day we would stay in a slightly better place and The Oasis at Kuta beach was hit all the criteria; not blood sucking expensive and superb environment.

All rooms face their gorgeous pool which runs from the lobby to the end of the building. Here’s the messed up part, i never had one decent shot of their pool !!!!!!! Sigh. What a waste !

From Sri Ratih Cottage to The Oasis, we were back to the usual size room which was better. Sometimes too big a room can be a bit eerie in the middle of the night XD

The room had oldish-slab-of-stones as their tiles. There’s a third bed, sofa-like, which could easily be used by another person. Everything here was compact and clean. After washing up, we gathered at the lobby before walking to Kuta beach to meet up with Yoga.

There was a miscommunication before we gathered, so i would like to apologize to Jess and also Steven

From the Oasis to the Kuta beach, it was like a 15 minutes walk where we would pass through the main shopping district. Everyone was going like oooo aaaaaaa and couldn’t stop looking around lol.

We finally met up with Yoga and we were off to Tanah Lot !

To Tanah Lot, it took us like half an hour but luckily there wasn’t any rain.

Unlike other places, we needn’t wear sarung.

Unfortunately the temple on this cliff was closed.

We had our wind therapy again. Loved every second of it. Just make sure you have your sunnies or cap or hat intact, if not it will just take off without you knowing.

We then walked to the temple you see above. The temple is on the right side, near the water. It’s said that below the temple has a water source which emits pure clean water though it’s near the sea. Not really sure about it but we didn’t get close to the temple as it was really crowded.

Seriously, the breeze at Tanah Lot was just fantastic. I would have equally enjoyed the breeze at Uluwatu if only there wasn’t any rain in the first place

Moments after i took this shot, i saw Aaron with a bloody leg. It seems he slipped when he was walking towards us. We then moved on to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

On the way there, Yoga was telling us about the Ah Gua (tranny) that we see a lot in Jakarta and Jogjakarta are actually called Ben Chong in Bali. HAHAHAHA. So we immediately turned to David whose surname is Chong and told him, whatever it is don’t name your son Ben ! ROFLMAO

Yoga suddenly starting feeding a fruit bat out of a sudden which scare the few of us, LOL.

After a short walk we reached our makan place.

When the workers at this restaurant saw Aaron walking awkwardly, they realized of his bloody leg. They immediately brought him in and took out the first aid kit box. They cleaned his wound there and then. Talk about excellent customer service

The table that they arranged for us was damn long. It gave the impression of the Last Supper, hahaha.

Each dish slowly made it’s way out of the kitchen and before you know it our tables were jam packed with food. We stuffed ourselves to the max and then left early to Legian area.

There we were shown where the Bali bombings happened. We were dropped at Legian itself. Some of us, decided to have dinner again and some of us decided to walk. Ai Ling, Emily, Angeline and i decided to walk. In fact, we just kept on walking to God knows where. After a while we realized we reached Kuta area. We stopped by Mc Donalds for desert before heading back to the Oasis.

After dropping our stuffs, we walked again and suddenly Ai Ling mentioned about Vingie challenged her to do a tattoo. So Ai Ling got curious and asked one of the nearby shops about getting one.

She decides to have her name tattoo-ed on her hand but this tattoo is only temporary

I tell you the time we took or rather the time Ai Ling took to decide on whether she should do the tattoo, we could all have done a few laps in the swimming pool. HAHAHAHA. She just looked so tensed when deciding whether to go for it.

After that, we called it a night.

Final post of Bali and our wonderful journey in Indonesia will be up soon. Stay tuned

]]> http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/08/bali-day-3-ben-chong-has-a-different-meaning-in-bali/feed/ 10 http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/07/bali-day-2-trying-the-most-expensive-coffee-in-the-world/ http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/07/bali-day-2-trying-the-most-expensive-coffee-in-the-world/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:58:03 +0000 satkuru http://satkuru.com/blog/?p=2968

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.

The so called mobile coffee maker, LOL.

We were given samples of what they make in this farm, from different types of coffees to chocolate drinks. Noticed the cinamon in the cup? They use that to stir, how unique is that

Unripe coffee? ROFLMAO. This is where it all begins before it ends up in your cup of Starbucks or Coffee Bean.

Finally it was time for the most expensive coffee in the world to take center stage. Having one of the most kiam siap groups to date, we all ordered a grand total of ……… *drums roll*

ONE cup of luwak coffee ! HAHAHAHAHA

It was simply too expensive for us. More over it’s only a backpacking trip. So we all took one sip at a time and seriously, it look so pathetic. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We then carried on towards Ubud and as we got closer we could the strong Hinduism architecture in ever household. In fact each house has it’s own temple and a priest would do prayers for each family. Super ganas !

We stopped by at a nearby temple and this is where devotees would cleanse themselves, something similar to cleansing in Ganges river.

After the temple we finally reached Ubud town. It’s a very quiet town compared to Kuta. I simply love their buildings. We were left to explore the town for half an hour and guess what we found ?

Babi Guling ! Sorry non halal for the next picture. I have always heard about this and finally we had the chance to try it out.

… and so what’s my verdict on Babi Guling? Over rated.

Probably we weren’t in the right store to eat it but i would take Siew Yok or Char Siew Fan anytime lol.

Keat Meng standing in front of the shop, hoping they would have a branch in Malaysia soon, lol.

We then checked into our hotel. Initially we were suppose to stay in a different place but last minute we were bumped up to this awesome cottage called the Sri Ratih Cottage. A huge leap from Sri Surya for sure. LOL. Everyone was excited seeing how the place was. I will write more in detail about this place in my upcoming entry

After giving everyone their room keys, we had our welcome drinks and zoomed off for dinner.

Each place we stopped was specifically chosen so that all of us had the chance to photograph something nice. So for dinner itself we had at Panorama Bar & Restaurant.

Before hand, i gave them our names as an assurance that we would be coming and seeing that majority of us are chinese or in fact all of us are chinese expect me, hahaha, they prepared for us chopsticks. Ganas sial.

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.

Elise for some reason showed extra affection towards Kiki and i asked Angeline, how come Elise calls Kiki in the different pitch. It gave me the impression that she had/has a dog with a similar name if not the same. Of course after a few days returning from Indonesia, i found out that she and Lasker indeed have a dog named Kiki. LOL!

As i mentioned earlier that we took a short hike towards the crater and there Yoga actually showed us certain places where hot steam is being released. He then gathered water in a bottle and left at the mouth of the hole where the steam was released. Not long after the water was hot. He even left a banana there to steam, lol.

When we went to the crater the Volcanic Dogs religiously followed us. Probably they got bored and were excited to see new faces

When we waited for Daniel and David to decent, we were given hard boil eggs for breakfast and some of us fed them to the dogs. They were simply adorable. So adorable that Angeline said that she doesn’t mind owning a Golden Retriever.

The Volcanic Dogs just love to get our attention !

Final group photo with Volcanic Dogs

After close to 2 hours, we started our hike down but this time we could see the places we had been through. It was definitely an experience to be cherished and meeting the Volcanic Dogs was definitely the icing on the cake !

Now that we were done with Mount Batur, we headed back to Hotel Surya and packed our stuffs before heading for lunch.

*Pictures courtesy of Phingelicious.com*

I never had any pictures of Hotel Surya in daylight and so i had to resort in hijacking Angeline’s photos. The picture above shows you the van we used to move around and the building behind is the place we stayed. We had that whole building to ourselves, hehehe.

Yoga informed me that the hotel actually had breakfast for us though it was already past 10am. Whenever food is concerned, none of us would put a pass.

We then rushed to our rooms to shower and gathered outside of our rooms before heading to our next stop .

]]> http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/07/bali-day-2-hiking-up-a-semi-active-volcano-mount-batur/feed/ 6 http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/06/monkeying-around-in-uluwatu-and-jimbaran/ http://satkuru.com/blog/2010/06/monkeying-around-in-uluwatu-and-jimbaran/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:49:39 +0000 satkuru http://satkuru.com/blog/?p=2739

After GWK (Garuda Wishnu Kencana), we were ferried to South Western part of Bali. Uluwatu was the next stop and i have always seen pictures of the temple (Pura Uluwatu) at the edge of the cliff. This place is 70meters above the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean.

If you have read my previous entry, you would have noticed in one of the videos where Yoga (our guide) had told us that the temples here are strict when it comes to ladies who have their monthly thingy. The other missing part that he also mentioned was about our attire. To enter the temples, one would need to put on sarung ( a cloth which is like 1.5meters in length. The main idea of such a rule is to cover your legs. Those with long pants would bypass this.

Just when we were getting all excited with the Sarungs, it started drizzling. Huge droplets of water came down from heavy looking clouds above us. Yoga quickly gathered us and brisk-walked to the edge of the cliff before the rain got any heavier.

Already walking under the rain with my DSLR was hard enough, we had to pass through a few thugs. I means thug-looking monkeys.

Yoga shouted at us to hold on to everything, including specs cause this monkeys could be ruthless.

After walking along a dirt path, we arrive at the edge of the cliff.

Thankfully the rain then stopped. The sea breeze here is simply crazy!

Warning: Reduce your volume before watching the video above. The sea breeze sound is deafening. Some of us who were standing at the edge of cliff were extra careful not to be blown away to the Indian Ocean, lol.

One for the album.

We were then welcomed by the resident monkey who was really baring it all. When i say baring it all, i meant he was really showing off his stuff.

From afar we could see the Kecak Dance performance  but we didn’t have the chance to watch it. Don’t miss it if you are happened to be visiting Uluwatu. It’s some sort of a monkey dance + fire. We simply didn’t have enough time and budget *coughs*.

After Uluwatu, it was time for dinner at Jimbaran. Jimbaran is  a famous dining spot because it’s on the beach. But unfortunately,we had to eat in their premises.

We were greeted by their local girl who would put a flower on our ears before entering. So we took turns to snap a photo with her including me

First time having Point Of View for this kinda things, lol.

Noticed anything ? HAHAHAHAHA

Dinner was not bad actually, i mean judging from how much we paid. Everyone was hyped up on what was installed next. The next thing we were about to do was the highlight of our whole Indonesia trip.

It was torturous!!! I practically died and reborn again a few times for this activity. It was the one time where i felt i was as blind as a bat. Simply relying on my useless torch light which could barely shine. Thankfully Angeline’s futuristic LED torch was super bright.

I will blog about it this activity on the up coming entry. But before that let me continue from where we left at Jimbaran. After dinner, we had travel for 3 hours to Hotel Surya. It was the nearest and most affordable place to stay in that area.

We arrived at 11pm and stepped out of the van, it was freezing cold! We quickly distributed the keys to all.

Stay tuned for the crazy thing we were about to do !