Bali - There & Back..

Bali - been there and back.. I have been wanting to blog about the trip for weeks.. So, what's the formula for the delay? Busy + laziness + procrastination = no blog entry.. I did have a pretty good time over there.. could have been better if we could stay for another few days.. didn't really get to spend much time at the beach.. the entire trip was tiring but it was worth it.. eh... went to Bali but didn't spend much time at the beach?? you must be joking.. well, the truth is we were on company activities for the first 2 days.. and only left 3 days to really try to visit as many tourist places as possible..

What did we do? We were placed at Grand Inna Bali Beach Hotel, Resort & Spa, Sanur.. Sanur does have a pretty clear nice beach with soft white sand.. we were told that Grand Inna is the highest building found in Bali which is also one of the oldest as it was built before the rule of not allowing buildings higher than 4 storeys to be built in Bali.. I guess it's for the prevention of bad aftermath of natural disaster.. They also have a club right opposite the hotel called Sector Bar.. which we had a blast there after our gala dinner which was held at the hotel itself... why was it a blast?? cos we get to order anything our heart desires.. everything paid for... how often can you drink till your heart's content without ever having to think of the hole growing bigger in your pocket..

Yup.. we definitely did try the Balinese Spa.. I think we got a pretty good deal.. 200,000 rupiah which is about RM 70 for a 2.5 hrs session... includes a simple foot scrub, body scrub, full body massage, flower bath/soak (i guess that is what it's called.. it's actually just a bath tub filled with SOME flower petals and warm water.. it is definitely not as what I've always seen in the movies where you can only see flower petals in the tub.. ), sauna and jacuzzi.. moreover it's the spa in the hotel.. if you're a spa person you would know that hotel spas are generally more expensive..

We had a group dinner by the beach at Jimbaran Beach where we were escorted by police all the way from the hotel.. wahhh... sounds impressive right... I was amazed too.. It is a really romantic place for loving couples to have dinner.. seriously... well, it definitely wasn't romantic for us considering the amount of people dinner-ing together.. and the food wasn't too good.. but then the feeling was good.. dinner by the beach with the sound of waves splashing on the shores.. you can more or less feel the romantic-ness if you were there having a nice meal with your other half..


I think our travel agent, Liberty Travel did a pretty good job.. we were welcomed and treated with class and good services.. I mean I felt pretty grand actually.. unfortunately, the only thing about the arrangements was the food.. I guess most of us was not too happy about the food.. It was lucky that we did manage to try some good food when we were going around on our own.. one of them was the Babi Guling.. it's actually rice with i think different parts and organs of a pig..


I actually tried it twice.. So, which one do you think tasted better? The first or the 2nd one??.. the food presentation of the 2nd Babi guling that I had was definitely better.. but the taste of the 1st one was pretty unforgettable... it was super spicy till most of us were almost in tears but the funny thing is that we couldn't stop ourselves from finishing the meal.. it cost us about 20,000 to 25,000 rupiah for the Babi Guling meal.. which is around RM 7 to RM 9.. Their nasi campur was pretty good as well and the good thing was that it was dirt cheap.. 7,000 rupiah for a plate of nasi campur which is like RM2.50 a plate.. I dun think you can find that kinda pricing in KL.. the portion was not big enough though for the guys.. but for me it was just right....

Ok ok.. enough bout all the food and stuff.. maybe I should move on to the nice places that we visited in Bali.. where should I begin with... yes yes.. we moved ourselves from Grand Inna to Harris Kuta, in Kuta.. this hotel has a more modern design.. simple and clean.. and it's walking distance to the Kuta town.. where all the shopping and the nightlife of Bali is.. we did manage to go for a short surf at the Kuta Beach on our last day for a short while.. hehe.. something is better than nothing... ok ok.. let's move on.. we shall start from the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park, Jimbaran, Bali..


Well, basically there is nothing much here except for sight-seeing... there is the 70 meter-tall statue of the Hindu deity Wisnu..


As for this is the mythical bird Garuda..


Well well.. this is the Wisnu's hands.. which was located further down from the park.. which was pretty far from the Wisnu's statue.. why would the hands be so far from the statue?? well apparently it's just newly built.. cos many tourist questioned why the great Wisnu deity has no hands..

Then there is Dreamland which is the surfer's paradise.. where the waves there are good for surfers.. too bad we couldn't get the best out of this place cos we didn't know how to surf.. am sure it will be a great place to be if we were..


Then we have the Ulu Watu Temple.. overlooking the beautiful Bali ocean.. the scenery is seriously breathtaking.. but then they have many notorious monkeys there.. whoever comes here must be real careful with their belongings especially those that are easily accessible like their glasses, caps, etc.. cos these monkeys are real good snatch thieves.. even my small hair clip was grabbed from my hair.. luckily it didn't pull off strands of my hair.. I seriously wonder how my hair clip tasted like..


well well well.. what I really wanna say bout this place is the sunset there... it is really beautiful with it's breathtaking view.. I have only one word to say... breathtaking..


We did go watch the Balinese Barong Dance.. it was pretty expensive.. and most of us didn't really enjoy the dance maybe cos we were kinda late, miss part of the dance and didn't quite catch what they were doing.. Anyway, we did make it up by taking more photos.. As we were on our to Kintamani Volcano, we did stop by to the beautiful paddy valley.. really a nice place to take photos.. with it's beautiful green rice terraces..


The Kintamani Volcano can only be seen from a far.. having lunch overlooking the mountainous volcano.. the air there is cooling.. but aside from that.. there is basically nothing much about the place..


We definitely cannot miss out the beautiful Tanah Lot Temple.. it is really a beautiful temple suspended on a huge rock offshore.. the rock has been carved by incoming tides.. I really love that place.. I would have love to watch the sunset there.. the temple will look like floating on the sea when the tide is high.. but nevertheless.. even the with it's low tide.. it is still a beautiful scene..


There are quite a lot of shopping outside of the Tanah Lot Temple.. aside from that we were also brought to Ubud for shopping... shopping there is pretty cheap but bargain is definitely a must to get good pricing..

Aside from that we went to Holy Water..


Pura Taman Ayun..


Some other photos that I kinda like..


oh ya.. not forgetting the bottled drinks of Bali.. hehehe..