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- Bali part (2) -

Back from a 4D3N trip to Bali, Indonesia with Joycelin last week!

It was a much-needed break from work for the both of us and we had a lot of fun doing sea-sports, going out for food haunts and enjoying our favourite - Balinese massages. Life is so gooood in Bali.

Bali, in my opinion, is not the place to go to if you are looking for pristine beaches and clear waters to snorkel and dive in. Their beaches can be littered with rubbish (Kuta Beach especially) and the variety of fishes in their waters will not impress those who have been to popular diving destinations. But Bali has it's own unique appeal that makes me want to visit it once more.

Bali makes you feel like a laid back islander once you step foot on it which is what we urbanites need. There, life goes a little slower and is all about taking your time. I love Bali for the friendly Balinese, the Indonesian cuisine (Indomie Mee Goreng!), their slow pace of life and the stunning sunsets by the beaches.

As it's our first time in Bali, we wanted to do more activities to cover different areas of Bali instead of exploring the different restaurants and hotels that were aplenty there. The next time, I'm definitely going to hotel-hop because I heard there are really beautiful villas there.


Day 1




Upon reaching Depasar Airport, we're greeted by plenty of smiley taxi drivers wearing either red and white or blue shirts with something like 'Denpasar Airport' written on it. These eager taxi drivers will keep following you around the airport while you're trying to find your sense of direction and these 'touters' seemed dubious and scary to us at first.

Joy found out online that the trip to our hotel in Sanur would cost around 95, 000 rupiah by taxi (source), which is available for booking at the taxi counter in Denpasar Airport. This is about 3 times cheaper than the hotel transfer so we decided that we would book a taxi at the airport's taxi counter and get to the hotel ourselves.

Unfortunately we didn't managed to find a taxi counter and while we were trying to navigate around the airport, one of the 'touters' targeted us and followed us around. At first we were a little wary but gave in when we managed to bargain the taxi fare to 100, 000 rupiah since we couldn't find the taxi counter anyway.




Luckily, our worries were unfounded.

He offered to carry our luggages and was eager to answer our questions about Bali. After knowing that we are Chinese, he played (my guess) the only chinese song he have - Endless Love sang by Jacky Chan. It was on the loop throughout the journey and repeated for about 4 times hahahaha!

Slowly, I've come to realise that Balinese are really nice and friendly people who just want to make a decent living from the many tourists who have invaded their homeland. Walk into any shops, look around, try on anything, ask for the prices and if you don't want to get it, feel free to tell them and they will say 'thank you' with a smile when you leave. This is something you don't see in many reknown shopping paradise. Other than that, they are really meticulous in making sure that you are always comfortable should you happen to join a local tour. Many a times, the guides will keep saying "I'm sorry" to us if there's any jerk in the car for example.

Anyway back to the trip!





We booked a hotel located in Sanur which is about a 45 mins drive from the popular Kuta Beach. It's a pretty quiet area, just a 10 mins walk from the beach and smacked between many restaurants and little shops. My personal favourite is that there's a local convenient store just opposite us! Perfect for grabbing late night snacks.

Checked-in to a huge room that's a little too big for two haha!











Both of us agreed that this room will be able to fit both of our families plus with extra space for us to run around. There's also a porch before the room with a big tub, chairs and table for guests to chill AND an area behind the toilet for the wardrobe and safe.

We freshened up and left for dinner at The Rock Bar in Ayana Resort and Spa. The drive there took 45 mins whereby you will see the car slowly winding up a huge piece of rock and into a secluded area. Initially, it feels as though I am heading to a rather unpopular place with no one and no cars around... but once you reach the lobby you will know why this place is raved by so many.







This place is stunning!

It made us re-think our hotel options and we almost have the urge to switch over UNTIL we googled the place and found out that the cheapest one night stay at Ayana Resort and Spa costs roughly USD$245. Holy cow.

The Rock Bar is probably the closest I can get to Ayana till I win the lottery.




Beautiful place.

And as you can see, we were under-dressed and pretty out of place as compared to the rest of the guests who were at least in smart casual wear. Oops.




Check out the bar hanging by the rocks! Picture taken while we were waiting for the travelletor down to the bar.








Thank god the staff still kindly ushered us to our seats despite our casual wear and this became the least of our concerns as we were immediately mesmerized by the stunning view in front of us.






Here, you can hear the tidal waves crashing onto the rocks, feel the sea breeze in our hair, taste the slightly salt-ish air, hear the light music in the background and watch the sky change colours as the sun sets. The pictures doesn't do any justice to the myriad of colours in the sky but this is the best I could take with my trusty LX5. I placed my camera on the low wall and set my shutters to 60 sec.






The food ain't anything special and they only serve sides which doesn't fill up our hungry stomachs, but you can give me dried yams and I'd gladly take it. The amazing view and ambience here is just out of this world!






While we were enjoying our sides and drinks, I suddenly noticed something gliding on the empty space about 3 metres away from Joy. Then I realised it's a snake omg! I quickly alerted Joy and both of us were stunned for about 5 secs before jumping out of our seats to move to a safer area. Thank god the snake was gliding in a direction away from from us and the staff were quick to catch it before releasing it into the sea. Well, The Rock Bar definitely tries to bring you closer to nature hhahaha.

What a night.

- to be continued -

Labels: Bali, Indonesia, Travelogue

- Bali part (2) -

Back from a 4D3N trip to Bali, Indonesia with Joycelin last week!

It was a much-needed break from work for the both of us and we had a lot of fun doing sea-sports, going out for food haunts and enjoying our favourite - Balinese massages. Life is so gooood in Bali.

Bali, in my opinion, is not the place to go to if you are looking for pristine beaches and clear waters to snorkel and dive in. Their beaches can be littered with rubbish (Kuta Beach especially) and the variety of fishes in their waters will not impress those who have been to popular diving destinations. But Bali has it's own unique appeal that makes me want to visit it once more.

Bali makes you feel like a laid back islander once you step foot on it which is what we urbanites need. There, life goes a little slower and is all about taking your time. I love Bali for the friendly Balinese, the Indonesian cuisine (Indomie Mee Goreng!), their slow pace of life and the stunning sunsets by the beaches.

As it's our first time in Bali, we wanted to do more activities to cover different areas of Bali instead of exploring the different restaurants and hotels that were aplenty there. The next time, I'm definitely going to hotel-hop because I heard there are really beautiful villas there.


Day 1




Upon reaching Depasar Airport, we're greeted by plenty of smiley taxi drivers wearing either red and white or blue shirts with something like 'Denpasar Airport' written on it. These eager taxi drivers will keep following you around the airport while you're trying to find your sense of direction and these 'touters' seemed dubious and scary to us at first.

Joy found out online that the trip to our hotel in Sanur would cost around 95, 000 rupiah by taxi (source), which is available for booking at the taxi counter in Denpasar Airport. This is about 3 times cheaper than the hotel transfer so we decided that we would book a taxi at the airport's taxi counter and get to the hotel ourselves.

Unfortunately we didn't managed to find a taxi counter and while we were trying to navigate around the airport, one of the 'touters' targeted us and followed us around. At first we were a little wary but gave in when we managed to bargain the taxi fare to 100, 000 rupiah since we couldn't find the taxi counter anyway.




Luckily, our worries were unfounded.

He offered to carry our luggages and was eager to answer our questions about Bali. After knowing that we are Chinese, he played (my guess) the only chinese song he have - Endless Love sang by Jacky Chan. It was on the loop throughout the journey and repeated for about 4 times hahahaha!

Slowly, I've come to realise that Balinese are really nice and friendly people who just want to make a decent living from the many tourists who have invaded their homeland. Walk into any shops, look around, try on anything, ask for the prices and if you don't want to get it, feel free to tell them and they will say 'thank you' with a smile when you leave. This is something you don't see in many reknown shopping paradise. Other than that, they are really meticulous in making sure that you are always comfortable should you happen to join a local tour. Many a times, the guides will keep saying "I'm sorry" to us if there's any jerk in the car for example.

Anyway back to the trip!





We booked a hotel located in Sanur which is about a 45 mins drive from the popular Kuta Beach. It's a pretty quiet area, just a 10 mins walk from the beach and smacked between many restaurants and little shops. My personal favourite is that there's a local convenient store just opposite us! Perfect for grabbing late night snacks.

Checked-in to a huge room that's a little too big for two haha!











Both of us agreed that this room will be able to fit both of our families plus with extra space for us to run around. There's also a porch before the room with a big tub, chairs and table for guests to chill AND an area behind the toilet for the wardrobe and safe.

We freshened up and left for dinner at The Rock Bar in Ayana Resort and Spa. The drive there took 45 mins whereby you will see the car slowly winding up a huge piece of rock and into a secluded area. Initially, it feels as though I am heading to a rather unpopular place with no one and no cars around... but once you reach the lobby you will know why this place is raved by so many.







This place is stunning!

It made us re-think our hotel options and we almost have the urge to switch over UNTIL we googled the place and found out that the cheapest one night stay at Ayana Resort and Spa costs roughly USD$245. Holy cow.

The Rock Bar is probably the closest I can get to Ayana till I win the lottery.




Beautiful place.

And as you can see, we were under-dressed and pretty out of place as compared to the rest of the guests who were at least in smart casual wear. Oops.




Check out the bar hanging by the rocks! Picture taken while we were waiting for the travelletor down to the bar.








Thank god the staff still kindly ushered us to our seats despite our casual wear and this became the least of our concerns as we were immediately mesmerized by the stunning view in front of us.






Here, you can hear the tidal waves crashing onto the rocks, feel the sea breeze in our hair, taste the slightly salt-ish air, hear the light music in the background and watch the sky change colours as the sun sets. The pictures doesn't do any justice to the myriad of colours in the sky but this is the best I could take with my trusty LX5. I placed my camera on the low wall and set my shutters to 60 sec.






The food ain't anything special and they only serve sides which doesn't fill up our hungry stomachs, but you can give me dried yams and I'd gladly take it. The amazing view and ambience here is just out of this world!






While we were enjoying our sides and drinks, I suddenly noticed something gliding on the empty space about 3 metres away from Joy. Then I realised it's a snake omg! I quickly alerted Joy and both of us were stunned for about 5 secs before jumping out of our seats to move to a safer area. Thank god the snake was gliding in a direction away from from us and the staff were quick to catch it before releasing it into the sea. Well, The Rock Bar definitely tries to bring you closer to nature hhahaha.

What a night.

- to be continued -

Labels: Bali, Indonesia, Travelogue