What a short 3D2N trip to Bali. Before I could tan myself further, I was back to Singapore yesterday evening. Trip kakis include Xinghui, Jiahui, Danlin, Marvin, Weetze & Dennis.
Day 1
Slow lazing day. The transit at Jakarta wasted half a day before we reached Bali. Check into Hard Rock Hotel at ard 1pm and met up with Dennis' guide friend, Koman, to discuss day 2 itinerary. Afterwhich we explored Kuta beach - nothing much there, only plenty of surfers. We hit the pool later and had a wonderous Balinese massage in the hotel.
Pubbing at night in the hotel. There's a popular rock band playing at the pub every night. The male lead has superb vocal which could rock the hell out of you.
Day 2
Tanah Lot temple. One of the 6 holy national temples in Bali. Suspended on a huge rock offshore which was carved by incoming tide, the beautiful snake-sea temple has over centuries of history. Was a pity that we did not manage to get to the temple due to high tide.
Nusa Dua Beach. The best beach for sea sports. Had fun with the banana boat ride and Para-sailing. Cool cool cool.
Dreamland. The sea is so blue. and lotta surfers.
Uluwatu. Spectacular spot for viewing sunset. Uluwatu is populated with monkeys. We had to wrap a sarong before we could walk uphill to the temple area as we were too skimpily dressed. The monkeys seemed to be well trained for stealing ... poor Weetze, his specs were kena stolen right before his eyes. The Keeper (there were many keepers ard) would then trade food with the monkey to get back the specs for the him. Weetze had to pay a gratitude sum of money to the keeper in order to take back his specs. We had also witnessed many other tourists whose hairclips, specs etc were stolen.
Jimbaran Beach. Well-known beach for its seafood. Not cheap and the food is not nice at all. A place to kutok tourists. But I did enjoy the ambience. Dining by the beach is cool, nice breeze, with acoustic band perfomance and fireworks right before our eyes.
Day 3
Beach Volley @ Man-made Beach in Hard Rock.
Shopping at Kuta. We walked around Kuta Square and the market place. The market is so big... we only managed to cover half. Me and Xinghui had great time haggling for a good price. We are a great tag team with planned strategies before we undercut the sellers. We bought super comfy slippers at less than SGD3, sourvenirs from range SGD0.50 - SGD3. hiak hiak...even better rate than Bangkok. We did our manicure(without nail color polish) at only 50,000rp = SGD7. Damn cheap with satisfactory service (arm scrub inclusive)!!
It is a shame that we did not manage to visit Kintamani - famous for its paranoma Batur lake and active volcano.
The KFC in Bali is really Finger Linkin' Good. Much much much better than the KFC in Singapore. The crispy chicken is tasty and not oily at all. Their set meal is usually accompanied with rice ball to make it a complete meal.
Supposed to go Bali for rest and relax, yet it ended up to be a rush trip. We were ambitious to squeeze too many events in a day as there are too many places we wanted to visit (Singaporean mindset - must make sure every cent we spend is worthwhile). Felt so drained after the trip thou is just a short 3D2N and the purpose - R&R is not achieved.
Should go to Tioman, Redang or Phuket next time where there's nothing much to shop and not many places of interest to visit so that can purely concentrate on sun-bathing, seasports and chill out at a slower pace.
