Third Day in Bali

Day 3 : 17/June/2007
Mandala, Gitgit Waterfall and Lovina

On the third day, we had to move to the other side of the island, Lovina. Lovina is famous for it's black sand beach and also dolphins.

Leaving Balisani. The interior of this hotel is really beautiful. Those were rattan lamps.

Taking a bus shuttle to Lovina costs Rp 150,000 pax and to hire a charter car with driver is Rp350,000 and they could bring us to see around the mountains and visit some place. So we hire a charter car with driver and hit the bumpy roads to Lovina.

We first stopped at Mengwi, a place once lived by an ancient king called King Mengwi. We went to King Mengwi's garden, Taman Ayun.

Taman Ayun

In Bali, you can see offerings like in the picture everywhere, in front of every shops in Kuta and Legian, on the corner of every streets, in buses and cabs. Every morning, ppl will put those offerings on the ground or in bus or cabs for good luck in business and also protection.

Theater built for the king and his royal family.

Roof of every building were made from a part of trees, which I don't know what they call.

Watch tower in the garden.

View from the top of the tower.

The tower is quite tall and the steps are steep.

Barong lion, protector of the island.

The Barong were made from rice grains.

This is the praying site for King Mengwi and it is not open to public. But the wall surrounding the temple are low and we could sneak view the temple over the low walls but not allow to enter the temple.

After a long walk and exploration of Taman Ayun, we had our very first local Bali meal at a roadside stall, like our warong. It's very windy with nice paddy field view. Kids are flying kites, dogs lazing in paddy roads.

Another lunch by the paddy fields.

It's Bali very famous local meal, Babi Guling. Very very spicy.

And we continue our long journey across the mountains to Lovina. It was very chilly like Cameron Highlands, only that their scenery are tonnes more beautiful. And it's too beautiful I had to ask the driver to stop and let me take some pictures. Little kampung houses, paddy squares....all tiny tiny, so cute leh.

In an hour or so, we reached Gitgit waterfall, the highest waterfall in Bali. It's quite a long walk into the forest to get to the waterfall. A lot of local souvenir shops along the way and they looked at us with Bambi eyes, begging us to buy their stuff. Kids were carrying cheap bead necklaces for sales at Rp10,000 each. I wanted to buy but was afraid if I buy even one tiny little beads, lots of peddlars and local ppl will flock me with hopes asking me to buy theirs too.
And the waterfall is darnnnnnnn beautiful................water flowing down fast and I was all wet although I was standing quite far from the water splash.






5pm, we reached Lovina. Along Singaraja we were so worried looking at the condition of this town. No gwai-lous and no souvenir shops. OMG OMGGGG....it looks like ghost town, with just local ppl.

When we reached Lovina, we were quite reliefed to see many hotels and resorts there. Should be a touristy spot, right? Wrong. The place we stayed, Surina Resort was really beautiful, almost 4-star standard but the town has no life, except than their local serenity little life.

Disappointedly we went down to the beach with towel and everything, ready for a sunset swim but the beach.....were unswimable. Ironically, the silent beach still has a lot of pesky beach peddlar, coming over to sell things to us. Well, the beach is famous for dolphins sightings but not for surfing or swimmng. Sigh.....

But at least we get to see sunset by the beach. I wanted to stay there longer until the whole egg yolk sink into the sea but we had to runaway as we see somemore peddlars coming our way.

Sunset at Lovina beach.

The black sand beach has nothing to offer other than black sand.

We walked for quite a distance into town area looking for dinner. The whole street was sooooooo dark and I was getting worried. No sign of more lively touristy activities or pubs or restaurants, we stopped at OK looking cafe and had our dinner. Regret regret, we should come over to Lovina at all. Should stay at Kuta or Jimbaran instead.
Sigh....
And so we ended up watching 'A Sound of Thunder' in the hotel room.
And decided to move back to Kuta as soon as possible.

Fourth Day in Bali

Day 4 : 18/June/2007
Kuta

Packing and moving out from Lovina was our first thing to do on our fourth day in Bali. It felt like prisoner here, with no life and nothing good to eat.

Took the shuttle bus out to Kuta town. Stopped a while at Bedugul, chilly fruit market at highland. It was really cool here.

Ppl here are really good at balancing.

After 3.5 hours of torturing ride, we reached heart of Kuta. And with both hands with heavy luggage, we looked for cheap and sleepable hotels. We took a chance to enter a small alley because we saw lots of gwai-lous coming out from that small alley. And it turns out that the small alley leads to an entire new world. There were souvenir shops, pubs, cafe and hotels along the small alley. yayyyyy......

We checked into AP Inn, cheap and condition not bad. Lots of gwai-poh sun tanning by the pool.

And on the fourth day, I finally get to feel the sea water. The sea was soooo cold and waves were so strong and high that I was being washed away easily. Surfboards were everywhere in the sea and I had to be alert to stay away from being hit by the boards. It was really really fun just soaking in the sea without much swimming (you can't swim with heavy waves like that) or surfing (you need to join classes before you can surf).

I'm really glad that I'm in the middle of civilization again.

Bali chicken rice.

Pork rendang.

Ayam bertutu.

Bali ladies are really friendly with the gwai-lous.

It's actually a common sight to see a single foreign guy with a Balinese woman and a single foreign lady with a Balinese guy. Escorts they called themselves.

Surfing McDonalds.

Pizza at Fat Yogi (and as usual, really delicious). And we watch an hour of World Trade Center.

Almost every pubs and cafe are airing movies from privated DVDs. And DVDs* are really cheap overhere, only Rp10,000 and if you buy 5 get 1 free and if you buy 100 you get 30 free. And I bought Sex and The City Season 4. Wanted to buy more but Fai was worried I will get caught. Ceh.....

Fifth Day in Bali

Day 5 : 19/June/2007
Kuta

Last day in Bali. Flight at 8pm and we still had a whole day to do last minute shopping for souvenirs.
And a last look at the beach and the surf dudes.

Here's a pretty gwai-poh with smallest boobs I'd ever seen.
Don't say why I didnt took any pictures of the sexy gwai-poh. This one was a good take!

Hard Rock Cafe, Bali.

Fai bought a classic Hard Rock shirt for his brother. RM80 ler...so expensive. >_<

My pink dream catcher I bargained for 10 minutes.

Herbs and mushroom chicken.

Jumbo combo

Chomp chomp chomp

Chomp chomp

Frankly, the food in Hard Rock Bali were not as good as I thought and with the international price like that, it's really not good at all compare to the street cafe we went to for the pass few days. Chilis and TGI Friday are way better.

Bye Bye Kuta street.

Bali lamp post.

Fai was sad to leave Bali.

Going back....

And on the way back, I got the stupid motion sickness again. Feeling nauseous all the way back for the whole 3 hours. 3 hours aaakkkk!!!!

Sigh....I missed Bali life so much. So carefree and easy, no wire bond shit to worry about, no fake report to write....sigh. Good times really flies fast.