Bali Trip - Second Day (27 Apr 09)

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Our second day in Bali. We had our breakfast in our hotel. Nothing much interesting at the breakfast buffet line, the usual stuffs -breads/toast with butter or jam, fried rice, pancakes, fruits, and coffee/tea/juices. I guessed we cant complaint much since its a budget hotel. Nevertheless, they have a nice swimming pool in the hotel. So after enjoying our breakkie, we took opportunities to stroll around our hotel and of coz 'posing' session again.. :D

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Nice cosy place to hangout after a swim

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This hotel are surrounded with lots of greeneries

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Fountain frog beside the pool

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The outlook of the hotel from the poolside

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Taken at the garden of the hotel

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A very Balinese 'feel' mural

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At the pathway leading to the hotel entrance.. Still got time to pose ya.. Keke..

After the 'shiok sendiri' photography session, we were once again greeted by our 2 friendly guides. Our first destination for the day will be heading to the artistic heart of Bali - Batubulan for the Barong and Kris Performance. Barong is the mythical beast whom protects the Balinese from evil spirits. I guessed we had arrived the earliest at theatre. There was basically an empty theatre. I was telling Hubby that it feels like we had 'booked' the whole place for ourselves. Hehe.. Dream on... But I guess 'early birds catches the worm' as we had the opportunity to snap a few pictures there before the others arrived.

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See, its so EMPTY!

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Playing with the traditional musical instruments..

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We were standing at the places where they perform..

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We had the place all by ourselves.. :)

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VIP sitting at the front row.. Hehe..

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Another VIP here.. So 'kembang sendiri' ya..

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Empty seats here.. But a few minutes later, it is packed with other guests...

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Taking photos with a pretty Indon gal at the entrance

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A young child joining her father at the musical band..

After a few minutes waiting, all the other guests thronged into the theatre and the performance started. I guessed I am pretty blurred with the whole performance even after reading up their synopsis. Hehe.. Well, all I can summarized from the whole show was Barong is a mythical beast that protect the Balinese from the evil spirits. So guys, some of the snapshots of the performance..

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A beast making its entrance for the show..

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A lady servant dancing..

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Another character in the performance.. He added some humor component to the show..

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I believed this is one of the evil spirits for the show..

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Kris performance..

I guessed I am pretty much 'lost' at the whole play. Wakakaka.. So after the cultural show, our next destination was to the famous Kintamani, a mountain village which lies 1400m above sea level. We had our lunch there, overlooking the stunning view of Gunung Batur and Danau Batur. Gunung Batur is an active volcano. According to our guide, the last time it erupted was back at early 1990s. The air in the area was so cool and refreshing. It was definately a MUST SEE in Bali.

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The restaurant where we had our lunch...

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A very blue sky.... BEAUTIFUL!

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Me looking at the sky...

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Hubby doing the same pose.. :P

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Gunung Batur- the active volcano..

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Gunung Batur and Danau Batur as our background..

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Danau Batur

After lunch, we had dropped by a coffee plantation to see how coffee was produced. We had managed to sampled some of the different types of coffee during the visit. My favourite among the bunch will be the Ginseng Coffee which has a nice coffee and ginseng aroma. Some of photos taken during the short 'Coffee Break' tour..

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A sleeping 'luwak' aka civet that was used to produce the most coffee at the plantation - KOPI LUWAK

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Ginseng roots..

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Coffee making in the process...

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According to the guide, this is Daun Sirih


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My fave- Ginseng Coffee, second cup from left

After the coffee break, we went to visit the holy spring at Sebatu, which is called Tampak Siring. The hallowed spring of Tirta Empul in Tampaksiring dates from legendary times. In popular folklore, it was made by lndra when he pierced the earth to create a spring of amerta, the elixir of immortality, with which he revived his forces who were poisoned by Mayadanawa. The waters are believed to have magic curative powers. Every year people journey from all over Bali to purify themselves in the clear pools.

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At the entrance...

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Locals bathing in the holy water...

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Hubby's turn..

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My turn..
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And our tour guide too...

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And the holy water came from here... Hmmm...

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The 'atap' made from some special material that can last 30 years..

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This Koi fishes was really BIG in real life..

After the visit to holy spring, we proceed to Ubud which is not only a haven of art galleries, museums and retailers ranging from painting, carving, textiles and etc but it is a royal city of ancient Bali. Basically, we didn't manage to snap many pictures here since we or rather shall I say 'I' was pretty engrossed with SHOPPING... After a visit at the retailers, we proceed to Ubud Palace with beautiful traditional houses which serves as the residence of Ubud King.

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Ubud Palace - meeting room

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Some of the statues at the palace..

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Another statue..

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Vandalism happens anywhere even in palace.. Sigh..

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Flowers at the palace..

It's dinner time again after our visit to Ubud. This time we will be having Crispy Duck for dinner. The restaurant was situated at Kuta area. Both of us loved the crispiness of the duck. YUM YUM.. The dish was called 'Bebek Presto Goreng' where Bebek means itik in Bahasa Melayu.

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The name of the restaurant..

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Some sourish soup which its not my taste..


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Can u see how crispy is the Bebek?

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Stir fry kangkung again...

After our dinner, as usual we headed back to our hotel. We took our bath and out we go again, strolling along the hustle bustle of the busy street at Bali. That's all for our second day, stay tuned for my next post..

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Bali Trip - First Day (26 Apr 09)

Friday, May 1, 2009

Yippee! Our long awaited honeymoon finally is here. BALI will be our destination for our honeymoon. We had booked a 4D 3N package during the recent MATTA Fair. We got ourselves the earliest plan by Air Asia at 10.55am. We hopped into the taxi we called earlier and here we go to LCCT to board our plane.

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LCCT here we COME!!

While we were waiting for our flight, we had our breakfast there. We had Marrybrown in LCCT. If not mistaken, this is the third time in my entire life til now I had patronized them.

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Nasi Lemak set from Marrybrown

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Me enjoying my cuppa coffee

After having our breakfast, we had some snapshots in LCCT since we had to wait before going in to the departure hall. So guys, some of my 'nothing to do', 'syiok sendiri' shots below....

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Everyone can fly - AA..

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Waiting game....

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Our departure gate - T6

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Me and Hubby posing together b4 getting on board

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We are heading here now.... T6 gate.. YOOHOOO!!

After 3 hours of flight, we finally arrived at Bali.. Hooray! We were greeted by our tour guide for this trip at the arrival hall. There are so many people (tour guides) holding cards with names. We had to take a few minutes to look thru and search for the correct one. That was hard but of coz we managed to search for the right one. Phew! We were taken to our vehicle and there's another guy who is the driver for our whole trip. I am quite impressed coz we had 2 people that takes care of our trip.

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The signage that greeted us at the Ngurah Rai Airport

We were taken back to our hotel situated around Legian Street, Matahari Bungalow. We had rested awhile in our room, unpacking our stuffs. Since we had some leftover time before out guide come and pick us up for our first destination, we decided to take a short stroll around the busy street of Legian. There are many shops selling stuffs like clothings, crafts, paintings, hats, and etc along the street.

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Do u realised the froggy seems to be looking at the camera?? Hehe..

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Caps/hats seems to be a hot selling item here..

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Different types of dresses for ladies..

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It's actually a bag.. Kinda cute design..

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According to local, this GOD acts as their guardian..

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Hustle bustle around the street... Driving in this place definately not for the faint hearted..

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Motorcyclist are spoilt with choice of many designs of helmet..

After the short stroll, we were taken to Jimbaran Bay, a fishing village for our seafood dinner. It was considered to be Bali’s most idyllic beach of golden sands. One of the attractions is the daily sunset-departure of the local fishing boats. There were other tourists like us who strolled around the area. I was amazed that the whole beach was filled with seafood restaurants. Again, its snap shots session at the beautiful beach before dinner is served.

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The tables all set up for diners..

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Me posing here..

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Pointing towards the beach.. Waiting for sunset..

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Me scribbling something there..

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My blog name.. :)

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Hubby taking a stroll while carrying our bags..

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Me again...

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Me- close up...

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Hehe.. Me again..


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My shadow 'boxing' with Hubby's..

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Hubby looking at the beach view...

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Playing with water anyone?

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Pitiful Hubby coz need to carry so many things..

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Man and the sun...

The following are a series of photos taken before and during the sunset..

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Before sunset..

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During sunset.. It was so beautiful..

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Us, with sunset as our backdrop..

After viewing and admiring the breathtaking sunset view, our dinner was served. We had grilled seafood for our dinner. The taste of the seafood was above average but nothing really fancy to me. We had grilled fish, 'sotong', prawns, and crab for seafood served on our platter. There is stir-fry kangkung with belacan for our vegetable selectiom and cut fruits as our dessert. We ate a grilled sweetcorn/ 'jagung' from the stalls nearby too. The 'jagung' was superb but its too dark already so I didn't snap the photos of it..

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We were waiting for our food to be served..

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Their famous brand of mineral water - Aqua

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Cooling coconut drink

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Groundnuts served before our main dish

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Seafood corn soup.. Taste wise average only..

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Grilled seafood platter

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Stir-fry kangkung belacan

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We were seated at table 6 for the nite..

After our dinner, we went back to our hotel. Of coz Bali is a place that never sleep. Therefore we decided to visit one of the pub in our hotel area for a drink. First night in Bali, we ended up with a drink of their famous local beer, Bintang beer. So stay tuned, for my next post for our second day in Bali...

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Bintang Beer

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