I've decided to do a post on the Bali trip me and John went on.. This was in August '09. It was our first trip together and it was a birthday treat from John. I think this is gonna be a super long post... LOL
13th August 2009
We arrived at at Bali on a late flight, we were damn excited when we reached there. My first time flying Garuda, all I can say is that I'm not gonna fly with them again, ever. We had to take a short bus ride to the airport building. Didn't manage to get any photos, cause we were flying with alot of Singaporeans (they bring their kiasu-ism with them wherever they go).
We stayed at Bali Rich Luxury Villa, it was a real treat... We had our own private pool which is great for John cause he is super shy.. Believe it or not, that was his first time in a pool since he hit puberty haha..
The first thing we did when we reached our villa was to check out the whole place, I liked the place once I've stepped in.. It's a house that we have all to ourselves.
This is the chill out area right outside the our room, it's kinda like our favorite place, after the pool. We would be sitting there talking, and then just jump into the pool whenever we felt like it..
By the time we settled in, it was around 2 a.m. and we were feeling hungry. Guess what we had for our first meal in Indonesia?
Yup, we had Mac. We arrived in another country, only to claim Mac as our first meal there. Kinda sad isn't it.
14th August 2009
Every morning we had breakfast cooked for us at the villa.
It's nice when you can wake up to this every morning, with eggs cooked the way you like ;). Ate breakie, had a quick shower and we were off..
First on our itinerary was the Barong and Kris Dance. It's like an Indonesian musical. You have a group of old man playing traditional musical instruments on the left and the performance on the right. John enjoyed himself, cause he remembers watching it on his first trip here when he was young; however, i felt kinda uncomfortable cause the mask and all spooked me out a little. I've never really liked masks, find them very freaky.
Anyway, moving along, Made (our super nice driver) brought us to this place for a drink and to let us stretch our legs. This place serves 'shit' coffee. Literally. It is known as Luwak coffee.
This furry creature, whose arse you are looking at now, has its shit made into coffee. The taste of the coffee wasn't as bad as I had expected because the berries you see after the bum shot is all they eat.
After taking some tourist-sy photos, we went back on the road.
The roads in Bali are kinda scary because we were traveling up a mountain, the roads there were pretty narrow.. We were stopped by a lady, without saying anything she started chanting and sprinkling water over our vehicle, I was getting a little freaked out, then our driver explained that she was doing a blessing for us, for a safe journey. And part of the ritual involved her sticking some rice grains onto our foreheads.
We were feeling hungry, so Made (pronounced: Mah-di) brought us to this awesome place to eat. This was one of their local delicacy: Babi Guling. This place that Made brought us is well-known for their babi guling.
It is basically a pork dish cooked with local spices and it comes with roasted pork skin. I didn't really like this on the first taste, cause the spices tasted kinda funny, but after a few more spoonful of it, I couldn't stop. Damn, now I really have a craving for Babi Guling :( It was so nice, that it got me and John hooked on it. So much so that we practically ate nothing but Babi Guling throughout the duration of the trip.
After we had our stomachs filled, we continued on to Garuda-Wisnu Park where they are creating the largest statue of the God Wisnu and the Garuda (their national bird).
These are only some of the parts of the whole statue that they are planning to build.
This is what the completed statue is suppose to look like. Can you imagine how friggin' huge this thing is gonna be ?!
Some more photos...
After spending some time there in awe, we continued on to our next stop: Uluwatu Temple. We were really looking forward to going there to catch their Kecak Dance, because the backdrop for this dance is the sunset.
We reach Uluwatu temple at about 5.30 p.m. with the performance starting at 6 p.m. But all we could see were these:
Because the tickets were sold out. We were so disappointed, cause that was what we were looking forward to the whole day. Anyway the view there was magnificent, our camera is not doing it any justice.
We headed back to our villas, bought some babi guling to cheer ourselves up, and chilled in the pool...
15th August 2009
Made was nice enough to invite us to his home, because he wanted us to have a small feel of what real Balinese life was like. When we were on our way there, we say this bunch of school kids. They recognized the villa's vehicle and knows that there are tourists inside, so they started chasing after us. Made slowed down and they caught up.
They were so excited to see us and even posed for us when they saw us taking out our cameras. Adorable boys..
This was what we saw when we stepped into Made's place, to think that he was actually kinda nervous before we reach, because he was embarrassed that his home wasn't nice enough. We then learned from Made that this compound is shared by 2 families, his and his neighbor's. This is apparently how it works for the Balinese. They share all things and take care of each other. This place used to belong to his Great grandfather, and was passed down the generations.
That small shelter thingy is where they will entertain their guests, kinda like a chill out corner..
On the left is his soon-to-be kitchen, it wasn't completed yet, he's getting it done bit by bit as he don't bring home much
On the right is this area where they perform their religious rituals. Majority of the population in Bali are actually Hindus.
I don't know what this is called, but this is where they host their weddings and funerals. And every traditional Balinese family has it:
At the back of this whole area is where he kept his pigs. Pigs are supposedly profitable (since they use them for their famous Babi Guling), but even buying them to rear can be quite expensive for them. Therefore, Made only had 2 pigs, but they were huge though, larger than I imagine pigs to be.
After introducing us to his neighbours and a tour, we left for our next temple tour. After a long ride, we finally reached the Temple by the Lake.
We were lucky enough to be there on a day when they were holding a ceremony. Not everyone gets to witness it.
We didn't manage to get what was going on. Nonetheless, it was interesting to be able to witness such a ceremony.
Anyway here's the lake
And that's the temple
They would have to row our on the boats in order to access the temples.
It's time for lunch, we were actually driving along the padi fields, to get to the next temple we were heading to, when John asked Made to stop at this small local eating place. He refused to eat at any place that was meant for tourists.
We tried Nasi Campur, something most locals eat. A yummy combination of Satay, chicken and beef floss. This nasi campur we ate here was a little different from elsewhere because the rice they used was red rice, it's was my first time trying it, and I remember it being nice.
Tehbotol: Our new found favourite drink, it was a lil odd at first, but it grew on us. It's made from this flower which they kinda use it in almost everything, even their shampoos.
Simple food, but it's delicious and our bellies are happy. A meal for 3 at under 5 Singapore dollars.
We continued on after the meal, to Batu Karu Temple, one of the oldest temples in Bali.
Here we had to make a donation (which was kinda compulsory), and we had to put on sarongs, as bottomwears that do not cover pass your knees are not acceptable in the temple grounds. It is a sign of disrespect...
We saw this sign that was at the entrance of the temple, showing the people who are not allowed to step into the temple. Read and be amused.
Here's a photo of John in a sarong, he had this constipated-like look on his face cause he didn't really like wearing a sarong. If you ask me, he looked like the temple jaga.
Although old, the grounds of this temple are still being use to hold holy ceremony, thus alot of the areas are restricted. Most of our photos were taken from the outside.
Our next stop was the Tanah Lot temple, the temple by the sea. If you haven't notice by now, all the temple entrance look somewhat similar. This is my favorite temple among all the others that we have visited.
I don't mean any disrespect, but this statue looks like it is doing a sensual dance. LOL
This temple like the Batu Karu temple is closed off to the public as it is still a place of worship. But I like how this temple looks, like it is on an island.
The sun there in Bali is really bad, 15 min under the sun and you get sun burnt. We decided to take refuge at the eating place which has this superb view of the sea and the temple. It was really nice...
This was the last stop of the day. We were tired because of the long hours of traveling, we Singaporeans are just so used to reaching places fast, having to travel hours to get from one place to another was torturous.
We went to buy get some dinner from this shop that Made goes to for babi guling (yes, again~). Babi guling to the average Balinese is considered expensive food (it cost about S$2.50? I think...). So the locals don't get to eat them too often.
This one comes with this deep fried pork skin, which was superb, but very fattening...
16th August 2009
This was the last day of our trip in Bali, we were set to fly in the evening the next day, so I've decided that we should just stay in and relax, before we return to Singapore. We spent most of our day in the pool.
The only time we went out is to go to Uluwatu temple to catch the dance. In true Singaporean fashion, we got there at 3.30pm to catch tickets for a 6.00 pm show. We don't wanna missed it again as that was gonna be the last chance we had to watch it.
Since we had so much time to spare, we went around snapping photos.
Breathtakingly beautiful... But it is so much more beautiful when you are there taking it all of it.
Finally, the time for the show came, as we were early, we managed to get the best seat (with Made's help of course, making sure we got them).
This is the stage...
And this... is the backdrop...
This is the 'Kecak & Fire Dance', what we came to watch. Very nice with the sunset as its backdrop. This whole big group of guys are responsible for all the chanting and sound effects for this whole performance, what they basically do was to was to chant 'cak kak' almost throughout the whole show. Anyway the people you see behind them, they were not suppose to be there, but there are just too many people there to watch them, so they had no choice but to squees
I was kinda disappointed that the show did not turn out the way it was suppose to be, because the place was simply too overcrowded, can you even spot the actor below?
As all this was going on, the sun was setting...
It was a great experience, all the 'cak kak'-ing can get to you after awhile, but then you just get used to them and start to enjoy it as part of the performance.
Our last dinner in Bali, and Made brought us to this place for... you guessed it Babi Guling!
After we were done, we head to the car. Made left the lights on, so the battery died. John offered to push the car, Made was horrified and he started calling his friends for help, but no one was nearby or free to help. So Made very reluctantly agreed to let John push the car. He was so grateful after we got the vehicle to start, he hugged John very tightly. I think all the guests he used to drive around was never like us, we treated him more like a friend than a driver.
When we reached back to the villa, we had quite an emotional farewell with Made, he was really a great guy. He said he was not able to send us to the airport the next day, cause he had to drive this other group of guests. We can see that he was genuinely sad to say goodbye, and that saddened us..
Just a few last shots of our villa before we were due to leave for the airport.
This was what we woke up to every morning...
The goofy receptionist...
Our last picture together with Made and our ride for the past couple of days. Anyway Made somehow managed to send us to the airport, when we asked him how did he manage to do that, he just mumbled something.. Haha...
Last shot of Bali, a place that left a lasting impression...
