Bali Rendervous

Its seem my travel to Bali has not been updated. Sorry about that folks.

Bali land of paradise have so much to offer. As I told you earlier, I chartered a van to bring me around as I prefer to explore Bali at my own leisure. Here are the places that we visited.

Our itinery for the first day were as follows:

We were picked up by Mr Suweca at our hotel in Kuta at 10 am. Our first stop is at a Batik Shop cum Factory. Here we learned how batik is produced with handwritten or block imprinted. Then, we proceed to silverware making. Seriously its for the commercial side that they are promoting not exactly for the arts of making batik or on the minting of silverware. We decide to skip the wood carving item as we are more excited to visit Kintamani.

We proceeded to Kintamani with a stop over at Bali House. Here Mr Suweca explained on the fundamentals of the positioning of a Bali House. At the main gate, there is a board inscripted with the number of people who stayed in the house. The layout of the rooms in the house compound is very unique. A kitchen is separated from all the bedrooms. In the centre of the compound, there is an open bedroom which comprised on a double bed and a curtain surrounding the bed. This normally will be reserved for the elderly (parents or parents inlaw) of the head of the house. Unmarried children are supposed to sleep with their parents until they reach the age of puberty. Balinese are very staunch Hindu. Every household will have a mini temple in their home ground. When we were here, we got the privileged to learn on the Balinese culture based on their calendar. Its very lengthy to explain it here, so if you ever visit Bali, try to ask the local to explain about their calendar. It very interesting how they see the calendar for birth, marriage, special occasion and so forth.

Our next stop is the Kintamani area. From here, we can see beautiful scenery of Bali. We had our lunch at the Halal restaurant there. Amid those illegal hawkers who were touting us to buys the goods that they peddled, otherwise this place is awesome for the view and the cool breeze. From where we sat in the restaurant, we can see Mount Batur and Lake Batur. The scenery is so beautiful. I just cant upload the photo here in this blog cause I think there is some problem with blogger. Couldnt see that upload image icon...:(.

After battling the touting hawkers to get a good spot for the scenic photo, we rushed back to our van to avoid the hawkers from touting us further. Ah! this is what I dont like about Indonesia. Anyway, just be careful when you are approach by them. One thing to remember, Never ever look at the item nor ask for the price if you are not interested at all. Once you open your mouth to ask or take a good look at the goods that they are offering, they will keep touting you until you suffocate. If you really want to get the goods that they are peddling, bargain as much as 70%. If you cant get at that price, leave them. See if they are willing to let the goods change hand at that price. You will be surprised!

Next we stop at the herbs and coffee plantation. Its is not big actually, but it is worth visiting. You can see all those herbs tree. Cocoa and local indonesia fruit tree are also planted here. Bali coffee which is famous is being serve here together with the local cocoa. There is a demo on how coffee being roasted the traditional way. A small shop selling coffee, cocoa and some spices can be found if you want to get that for souvenirs. Honestly, I find that their cocoa taste better than the coffee. So we decided to purchase 2 packet of cocoa to bring back to Singapore.

Our last stop for the day is visting Sukawati Market famous for their souvenirs. Time is quite limited there and we had no time to really explore the shops. But we manage to grab a few bags and tshirt for souvenirs. Anyway, no regrets though cause most of the shops are practically selling the same items.

Before heading back to our hotels, we requested that Mr Suweca drop us at Jimbaran for the sunset dinner. But we were late and missed the sunset. Anyway, we enjoyed the seafood and the atmosphere dinning at Jimbaran. We were then sent by the guy from the restaurant to our hotel after that heafty dinner.

On our 3rd day in Bali, we decided to explore the nearby area on our own. After breakfast, we walked to Kuta Beach which is only 10 mins from our hotel. But we didnt reached Kuta beach in 10 mins cause on the way there are shops selling DVD's at a very reasonable price. We stop at a few shop but decided not to get anything cause we do not want to burden our hand while strolling Kuta beach. It was at about 10 am, Kuta beach was already crowded with Bule (Indonesian slang for Whiteman) Wah! Its too crowded until you really got no nice spot to sit and enjoy the sound of the waves of Kuta. We strolled until our feet sore and decided to return to the hotel for a dip in the pool.

We had a short nap after swimming and then return to Jimbaran for the sunset dinning again. This time round we did see the sunset but its for a glimpse. Ah ha, I didnt realised that the sun set to fast and never wait for anyone. Serve us right for taking a nap after that lapping in the pool.

I had to stop now and will continue on the next posting. Got to run some errands ...laterz.

Bali Indonesia - Introduction

We had just came back from Bali last two weeks. Bali, Indonesia is known as a paradise Island of Asia. We spent 5 days 4 night here.

We departed from Singapore Changi Airport direct to Denpasar Ngurah Rai Airport by Garuda Airlines. Beside Garuda Indonesia, Singapore Airlines do have direct daily flight to Denpasar, Bali. Lion Air, a budget airline operated by Indonesia company recently operated a daily flight from Singapore to Denpasar too.

Due to the peak period in Indonesia, as July was a school holiday there, plus its Summer holiday for the Europe and America sector, the flight was heavily booked. Hotels, resort and private villa in Bali especially Kuta, Nusa Dua and Seminyak Area were heavily booked eventough there are surcharges imposed. We were lucky to get the accomodation of our choice even we had to pay a minimal surchage of US$10 per nite. The room was booked way end April. The surchage for the accomodation surcharge was increased to US$25 when I last checked online before departing. My advice for those who intend to go to Bali, try avoiding July and August as the surcharge for accomodation can downturn your budget by US$25 to US$50 per nite. If really you can't avoid that period, do make your booking for accomodation earlier to avoid the heavily increased hotels surcharges.

At Denpasar Airport - For Asian, who do not require visa on arrival, please proceed to your extreme right for immigration clearance. The Ngurah Rai airport have many counters. This are separated into two - for those who need VISA on Arrival, then please join the queue that stated so. We had no idea that the counter we queued to get our passport checked was the queue for VISA on Arrival until after about 30 mins when it come to our turn. We were told to go to the extreme right counters for those who do not need visa. If you are from Asia, you do not require any visa on Arrival. The visa on arrival cost US$10 which permits you to be in Indonesia for 7 days.

While queing up for your passport clearance, you can see there are pamphlets being lay out on racks. If it is your first time there and you have no idea of what to do or overloaded with information that you get from surfing the internet, then grab some of the pamphlets. These pamphlets contain tour information, map of bali, spa services and some dining joints. With it, you can then plan for your outing or do comparison for tours or spa. If you would like to do you own DIY tours, do charter a four wheel and a driver. If you like you could drive yourself. The brochure that I picked up mentioned that the rental of car is apprx US$35. But if you are not patient enough, then I suggest that you engage a driver. Why? Cause Bali road can be very congested at certain time of the day. Only the local will be familiar with the road and they jolly well know what time to avoid which road. Plus, its not that expensive to engage their service. We did too cause we really want to enjoy the tranquality of Bali and absord the greenary and serenity of the surrounding, not busy looking at maps and getting ourselves lost.

If you need a good thrustworthty driver who give good service, contact this guy that drove me around Bali for my stayed there.

Mr Wayan Suweca - +620818564399

I can assured you that Mr Suweca will provide you a best memorable bali tour. By the way, if you do ever want to engage his service, do tell him, that I recommended you. Its not that I get any commission out of it, No I did not. But as I said earlier, we were very happy and pleased with his service and would very much like others to experience his good service. He charged apprx RP400 000 - RP450 000 for a 10 hours service. Oh ya, he is a Licensed Korean Speaking guide in Bali. Beside bahasa Indonesia, he do speak good English too. So no need to worry for being conned by those street muggers who offer you good and cheap price. Remember, no good deal is to cheap. Be wary, if its too cheap, than its too good to be true.

Ok, thats all for the introduction on Bali. Our tour will begin in the next posting.