Last day in Bali.

We searched hi and low for this Carrefour. Supermarkets are my love and a MUST-GO in all my vacation checklist. Other than Carrefour, we went to Giant in Day 1 too. Its hard to give locations in Bali, one must really search the map well. We actually saved offline map on our phones to navigate our directions around.

Supermarkets are almost everywhere.

Look at the amount of MAGGIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything is in cartons over @ Carrefour.

If you were to ask me what are MUST-BUY items:

1. For Ladies, PADS AND PANTYLINERS.
2. Indonesian Chilli Sauce
3. Magnum (to eat there of cos)
4. Shampoos
5. Hair Oil

Have a wonderful BALI trip!!

Two days ago, we went Water Rafting, and today, its time to become a tourist! From the same tour agency (Ewig Tour), we rented a car with chauffeur (10hrs) for USD$56.

So here’s what we did for the entire day:

Ubud Monkey Forest > Rice Terrace > Kopi Luwak > Mount Kitamari > Temple > Dropped off at a “night” market.

Rather than having a packaged tour with fixed itinerary, I liked it being flexible. No worries if you have not thought of where to visit, the friendly driver can also do some recommendations!

The journey up to Ubud was quite far. Throughout the journey, I had to sleep due to motion sickness. I remembered the driver had to stop at a few “checkpoints” where policemen were stationed to conduct checks. The driver mentioned that as long as you give them some coffee money, they wouldn’t bother you. Hmmmsss.

Anyway, our first stop: Ubud Monkey Forest 

Opening Hours: 08:30am-06:00pm Admission Fee: INR 30,000 (INR 40,000 (wef of 1st Jan 2016)

These monkeys here are not caged, and they roamed around freely. Literally, EVERYWHERE! Besides monkey, there were deers too!

These monkeys are very smart. As there were some mini stalls selling bananas, these monkeys will hang around the area when they spotted people buying the bananas. Not only smart, they’re greedy too! They attempted go steal the whole bunch of banana from a tourist! Don’t worry if you don’t wanna buy the banana to feed them, cos you’ll still see plentiful of them and there will be free food around for them too! Mischievous babies too! I was really quite scare of that monkey climbing onto me, and he was so cheeky! He put on my glasses for me! Haha. Its free, to interact with them. Oh, if you’re lucky, you might get free show too. *they got caught red handed by many eyes. oopppsss*

I think we kind of overstayed here. But watching these monkeys, is really fascinating.

2nd stop: Rice Terrace

During the ride to rice terrace, we drove by the streets where handicrafts were made. They looked beautiful.

 The vast rice terrace. I’ve never seen or been to a rice terrace before, hence we actually went to climb it. Like Singapore’s roads, these terrace roads had “ERP gantry” too (but they called it donation, minimum INR 5,000). And there seems to have to no way one could escape it, cos its a one-way route. But anyway, we still continued walking, and paid about 4 “ERPs”? Haha

It was an unique experience, not something that you can find in Singapore. 

We almost lost our way while exiting. Haha. Oh ya! EAT MAGNUMS THERE (anywhere in Bali) !! Its only about $1.50SGD!!

3rd Stop: Kopi Luwak Bali is really famous for this, 猫屎咖啡 (Cat’s poo Coffee). Believe it or not, this is said to be one of the most expensive coffee in the world.

We were brought to tour around the plantation and tried on the fruit of the coffee bean. From the first image, are the coffeebeans which are not riped yet. When they are riped, it turns red. And one can eat them! We tried the fruit, and whats left, was the seed (as shown in the picture above, bottom middle). So this is what’s being swallowed by civet (3rd picture, top right) when they eat the fruit.

After digestion (coffee bean doesnt get digested), these cats would then poop out these seeds where farmers would further filter and proccess them.

After the tour, we were given sample tea/coffee to try. I personally love the mangosteen tea.

Fun Facts: Did you know that Kopi Luwak contains no caffefine?

I’ve so much to share, but I think my readers might get bored. So here’s a link to understand Kopi Luwak better.

Next, we’re up in Mount Kitamari The weather up here is very cooling! We didn’t climb the volcano, just merely sat at a fantastic view for our lunch. Right across us, is the beautiful scenic of Mount Kitamari. We had our buffet lunch here for about INR120,000ea. (I think, can’t remember the exact cost)

 Thats our friendly driver! (for the past 2 days)

Next next: Temple.

Indonesia’s temples are sacred place. One must be properly dressed before entering the premises. In there, we see people praying (like duh!) and even a pool where people dip in to cleanse themselves.

No photography allowed inside, so here’s an entrance photo(:

Our last stop was back to Kuta. Initially, we googled about Night Market around Kuta and found this location. Showed the driver, and he sent us there. BUT that wasn’t the night market we were expecting. *sobs* We were looking for pasar malam kind of night market. This night market that we went was just a street coffeeshop/eatery that opens at night. Disappointed, we just hang around the area.

Exploration day! Visited almost all the malls around near our place. Took a cab from our Villa to Kuta Square, for about IDN15,000. Always take cab with meter, unless you really know the price well.

Its a pity that we did not do any sports activities, otherwise, its a MUST-DO in Bali

Nevermind that we did not do water activities, at least we went to the beach (Kuta Beach)! There were many people there learning to surf and it really seemed like a fun thing to do. But maybe there were too many people there trying to hard-sell their services (probably due to being a tourist area), I feel quite skeptical about the pricing.

Along the beach, there are many many shops around, so no fear about not being able to find food!

We went Kuta Square, Discovery Shopping Mall, Kuta Beachwalk

Kuta Square

I would say, this place is equivalent to Singapore’s Bugis Street. Took too much videos, so here’s an image of Kuta Square from Google. Oh! There’s a departmental store here too! Bought some souvenirs back for friends&relatives here.

Discovery Shopping Mall

If you love A&W, this place is a MUST visit, because there’s A&W here. Oh waffle ice cream! YUMMS. I think I’m either too excited about all the food and shopping here that I had forgotten to take photos or that my phone is kept somewhere that I cannot reach. (Couldn’t find any photos for today)

Beachwalk Mall

The atas place! The architecture here is quite nice, compared to other malls, and you could also find many local/international delights here!

These malls are very easy to spot, as they are very nearby each other. Cooked dinner for supper! 😀

Attempted to cook poach eggs! Halfway there!!

Day 1 in Bali was relaxing, hanging around our Villa area. Grocery Shopping.

Day 2, was when we really started. Instead of buying packages, boyfriend booked online from a private tour agency for our water rafting! $28USD each for water rafting, which includes transportation, water raft equipment and lunch. (No other hidden cost!)

Google it out, ewig tour.

The car came to our villa and picked us up about 9am and the journey to the rafting location was pretty far (say about 1-2hours?). Upon arriving, our driver did most of the coordination for us, told us where to wait for the truck to bring us to the starting point. He’s really quite nice.

Bored while waiting for the truck +a very serious gastric pain. Yea, I water rafted in pain.

The truck consisted about 20 people, and off we head to the starting point! The journey down to the stream was no joke. It was SO SCARY! It seemed as though I’m going to fall off the cliff. Don’t worry, I’m survived.

The raft was very nice, and it was a very good experience. It was my first time rafting too! Had no photos because I was too busy with the water. Water Rafting took us about 2 hours and my SJCam went flat halfway through.
After the raft, they asked for tips. Ohwells, I think we’re kind of cheapo, cos we didn’t give tips! Haha. Escaped the tipping (Because we didn’t bring $$). But of course, it would be nice to tip them, probably about $2SGD? (I think)

I thought the journey down was horrible, the journey up was even worse!! Going against gravity is no joke. It was so tiring till the extend that I almost gave up. Literally KO-ed.
After all these tedious affairs, I still think Water Rafting is a MUST-DO list when visiting Bali!
My only regret is not taking more photos!!!

Openly took this photo from Google :p

Halo!!
Flying away on this long weekend (7 Aug-11 Aug 2015) to BALI!!!
Lately, due to the volcano eruption, lots of flights were being cancelled/delayed as Bali had closed their airport operations for safety purposes. Honestly speaking, I was VERY afraid that my flight might get cancelled too!

(Luckily, not!) So here I am, flying to BALI!!! Because it was for my birthday and our 1st Anniversary celebration, boyfriend booked a honeymoon villa for our stay at Asuri Villa!

Airport transfer was included in our villa booking, hence we saved the hassle from traveling on our own. Oh, did I mention, it was my first time visiting Bali!!

 

 

 

Beautiful room we’ve got!! and a private pool!. Oh yea, the pizza float is not included! We brought that from Singapore. Rented the float from beachyfloat. Check out their webby for more info!

The place was really nice! I took a video of the room, but …. I don’t know where is the video now. *sighs*
But anyway … I’m not sure if I want to recommend this Villa as I encountered some unhappy events throughout my 4 nights here.
***Day 2: After returning from our day trip, we came back to realise that our newly brought yakult was opened and 1 bottle was missing. Thinking that it was a small issue, we did not bring it up.
*** Day 3: In the evening when we were planning to go out for dinner, I realised that my perfume was missing! Someone had definitely stole it, cos I was still using it in the morning.

 

ANGRY!! The lioness in me had exploded. Complained, requested that I DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO STEP INTO THE ROOM. Not even for housekeeping. The manager came next morning to apologise and said that he would do an investigation.
Investigation carried out, and he mentioned that the culprit who stole the yakult admitted but not the perfume thief. (Like hello, who will admit that they steal an expensive item in front of everybody.) The manager thought the thief took a small amount of my perfume but was shocked when I told him the whole bottle was missing. Thankfully, I brought the travel pack there, and not the entire bottle.

The manager was nice enough to ferry us to a nearby mall on our last day and sent us to the airport for free as a compensation. So, should I forgive them? I guess I should …

So my advice to people out there, don’t bring valuable stuffs, or lay your things around. Always ensure that your bags are locked, and things are all kept before you leave. A locked door, does not equate to a safe door. Not everyone is as honest as you are.