I’m back from my trip to Bali with my family!! After hearing once too many times of “How was Bali?”, I’m going to blog about this as well as I can so I can just answer “Go read my blog”. Haha.

Day 1:
On the trip from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur, we had the misfortune to be in one of Air Asia’s older Boeing 737 planes. It’s certainly not as comfy as the Airbus 320 fleet they have.

Anyway, later on from Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar, thankfully we got to sit in the more comfortable Airbus with more leg room and better leather seats for the three hours flight. Three hours is quite a long time to be stuck in a seat with nothing much to do. So, I whipped out my camera, and took some snapshots. Thanks to traveling with a child under 12 years old (my brother), we got to board the plane earlier and hence got better seats nearer to the front where the plane’s wing provides a good addition to photos.

By the time we arrived at Bali, it was night and there wasn’t much time left to do much except to check into Harris Resort, which was in Kuta area, and then go for dinner. My first impression upon traveling the streets of Bali is that the streets are amazingly narrow for such a populated area. It’s amazing how the people here drive. And even the tourist buses have to be downsized for easy manoeuvring. And another thing about Bali, taxis are everywhere in the town area, which can be a good or bad thing. Good thing is, you don’t have to worry about transport. Bad thing is Bali taxi drivers love their car horns, tooting their horns every time they pass by tourists, in hopes of attracting customers.

Day 2:
We decided to take it easy this day, but things don’t always turn out as planned. Well, walking from Kuta Beach to Kuta Square in the hot noon time sun isn’t exactly my idea of taking it easy. But at least the coconut palm trees provided shade for most of the way. Poor brother, he got tired out and tired kids can really get cranky, so we popped into Matahari departmental store to cool down and calm him. First day at Bali and we got conned into going to visit some resort upon exiting the store. I think the allure of having a free ride back to wherever we wanted after the visit was overruled judgement. So, that is how we ended up wasting almost the entire afternoon, being extensively surveyed about our holiday pattern and a short visit to the resort, the only consolation was that we did get to visit Karma, a really high-end villa style place. At USD1000 a night, the three bedroom villa doesn’t come at that price for nothing. But then, with no direct access to the beach, I don’t see what’s so fantastic about it. Although, it’s locality is quite good, being beside the Four Seasons, which is equally, if not more pricey.

After that, we opted to be dropped at the Discovery Shopping Mall at Kuta area, which is one of the newer shopping places in Bali.

Late lunch was at Pizza Hut, and it’s got to be the most expensive meal I’ve ever had at a Pizza Hut. Gee, the Indonesian government sure charges a lot of taxes, and plus service charge, the meal cost us approximately RM120++ for 5 people. And we only ordered a regular sized, stuffed crust pizza, two pastas, a salad, chicken wings and drinks. Insane. I think my eyes gawked out after seeing the bill, sure did feel kind of heavy-hearted spending that much on a meal like that. It wasn’t even some kind of hotel for goodness sake. But never mind, we learned our lesson to read the fine print, because some places really do charge more percent of tax than others.

Day 3:
Chinese New Year!
We decided to hire a driver to take us to the countryside area of Bali. It’s not that expensive, at a hundred plus ringgit a day, considering that the car is a spacious and quite new Toyota Inova that comes with a driver.

Before going off to Kintamani, where I was later to discover, it’s still a pretty much active volcano, we made a stop at a store selling silverware and jewellry and an art house. After much bargaining and attempting to leave at the silver store, we managed to get a bracelet for about RM40+, the original price tag was RM140+. And at the art house, the same tactic was used to get an arcylic painting at RM140+ instead of RM300++.

We couldn’t really get that close to the Kintamani volcano itself, and instead stopped at a mountainous area overlooking the picturesque lake that sat at the foothills of the volcano. From there, we could see the blackish, cooled lava that had settled after the volcanic eruption a few years back and formed a distinctive patch of land. This was also where there were two restaurants, at one of which we had lunch al fresco while absorbing the views and cool mountain air.

On the way back from Kintamani, we stopped by Sanur beach, which has some resorts that look kind of oldish and the beach was public and thus was pretty crowded with locals as it was a Sunday. The sheer number of motorbikes parked in rows at the small parking lot available was an indication of not only of the popularity of motorbikes in Indonesia, but also the general economic background of the people. Nevertheless, it was an eye-opening experience walking along the beach and seeing how drastic the difference between the rich and poor is.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to stop by Ubud, which is the famous arts, crafts and cultural town of Bali. I was dozing off in the car when I suddenly awoke in the midst of Ubud’s mainstreet where quaint, little shops and boutiques were lined up at the sides of the narrow road. First up, we went to the arts market where the heat and smells were almost unbearable. But one funny thing I observed is that some of the store keepers attempted to talk to us in Mandarin. As we passed by a row of stalls selling watches, I suddenly heard “Zhen de, zhen de (Real, real)” shouted by the sellers, which I didn’t realise was Mandarin right away. A rival seller then shouted “Jia de, jia de (Fake, fake)” in answer. Haha. Undoubtedly, those watches sold are all fake of course. Anyway, we didn’t end up buying anything at the market, since the prices they quote were exorbitantly high, trying to rip-off us tourists I guess, and we weren’t really in the mood for shopping then, what with the heat.

Day 4:
Today was supposedly another “take it easy day”, which always seem to go awry. Anyway, we visited The Oberoi resort, which is one of the first resorts in Bali and designed by a world-renowned architect. The resort was located off Seminyak area, a sophisticated but more quiet area compared to Kuta. It was really tranquil, but the priceyness of it was kind of intimidating.

Then after that, we went by taxi to the Kuta Galleria, big mistake of the day. It turned out being a pretty much unoccupied shopping place with nothing to see. So, hesitant to call yet another taxi, decided to rough it out and walk to Legian Street which was a few hundred metres away. It does not sound far, but the streets were not ideally made for walking, the pedestrian pavings were either non-existent or in bad shape, since we were not in downtown area. Coupled with the noon time sun, made for another display of childish defiance on my brother’s part. By the time we got to Legian Street where there were more shops, my brother was demanding that we found some place to eat and sit down. Thankfully, after lunch, my brother cooled down and cheered up. And we proceeded to look around the area.

Unfortunately, after much further walking, my sister’s Hush Puppies sandals gave way and we had to resort to taking a taxi back to Discovery Mall to get her new shoes. Gosh, shoes in Bali are expensive, the same Scholls sandals that I got at KL for RM112 cost more than RM200 at Bali. Same goes for the other shoes. But we did settle for something less in the end, and my sister was back on her feet.

Day 5:
We got the same driver we had the other day, and this time went around the resort sight-seeing. We started off at Nusa Dua area, which is typically known for the watersports. The area is really high security, as you enter the whole Nusa Dua area where several resorts are located, every vehicle has to drive through a detector as the multiple cameras look at all angles of the car, even underneath. Plus, many resorts here in Bali use detectors to check every vehicle that goes through their doors, one of them even had a sniffing dog. That scared my brother as the guard opened the car door at his side and there was a scary looking Alsatian.

First up, we went to the newest resort in the area, the Conrad. The whole place exudes a calming and sophisticated air, but it’s more contemporary style than Balinese style. Plus, the lifts are so cool, infinity mirror! I just couldn’t resist taking photos, again.

We went to so many resorts that day, the Conrad, Melia, Nusa Dua Resort and Spa, Ayovdya (formerly Hilton), Amanusa, The Legian and a few others I can’t remember the name of. And so many skimpily dressed people were everywhere. However, skimpy is not always good, I accidentally saw a cellulite and thong combination, erm…

At the Nusa Dua Resort and Spa, found out that it’s one of the pioneer resorts that was previously owned by the government. This place is older than me! Opened by the then President Soeharto in 1983.

My brother had a blast having a go at the traditional instrument they had in the lobby. Somehow, he managed to play quite nicely, to our untrained ears. Haha.

The Spa here is serenely quiet and set admist lush greenery. The purple “umbrellas” at the entrance of the spa itself caught my eye…

Before going off for lunch, we made a stop at Amanusa, one of the famous Aman resorts which are so expensive to stay at. Situated at a hilly area overlooking the ocean in the distance, it really is picturesque. The whole place seems so laidback and serene, and there are less people here, due to the priceyness. However, the staff is very accomodating and friendly, even though we were just there to visit. They even offered to take a photo of us when they saw us taking photos.

After that, it was time for a late lunch at Legian Street. Did I mention how expensive eating in Bali can be? There are mostly cafes, restaurants and fast food chains there and food and drinks can get expensive after all the tax and so on. They serve the fizzy drinks in old school glass bottles, that are 275ml, but still way more expensive than what a 325ml can of drink would cost here in Malaysia. And when I went to the supermarket, imagine my shock when I saw that a small packet 200+ml of milk costs more than RM2, why it only costs RM1 here. Importing stuff to Bali must be pricey and transportation costs further increase the costs as goods have to be transported from the port at the far east of Bali island. Gee, makes me really appreciate living in Malaysia.

After that, it was almost time for sunset, so we set off to see The Legian resort, which situated near to The Oberoi resort and the famous Kudeta restaurant where the hip and trendy group gather and it’s the place to see and be seen. The resorts, as are most of the high end resorts in Bali, was beautiful. Plus it was along the beach and we walked along it while the sun set. Ah, how relaxing and thankfully it was cooler by then.

Day 6: Last Day
Awoke to cloudy dark skies, and it was a rainy morning. So bad that the streets in Kuta were stricken by flash flood, inefficient irrigation I suppose.

On our way to the Ngurah Rai International Aiport at noon, we made a quick, last minute stop at one of the souvenir shops at Kuta and got a few items to console ourselves, because before that I had not managed to get any souvenirs for my friends. My mum on the other hand got some of the locally made home deco items which were amazingly cheaper than what we previously saw. So after that, happy with our purchases, we were on our way home. Ah, how nice it is to be back in Malaysia. One of the first things I did was to start smsing people Happy Chinese New Year. Drats global roaming, it cost me RM2 per sms back to Malaysia, there went my handphone credit.

Overall, Bali is a really nice place to visit, if you’ve got the time, money and love the sun. However, I think that visiting this place just once is enough for me. Afterall, I’m not a surfer girl, sun worshipper or resort junkie. And this post has been really long, quite unlike me. But there is so much to say about Bali that a short post would not suffice.