Bali Day 2 - 23rd Mar

Day 2 marks the start of our sightseeing of Bali.
It's the first time I'm in Bali and hence I was eager to set off.

After polishing off the small and average breakfast at our hotel, our driver, Dewa arrived at 9am. We will be covering the Western Bali today.

Our 1st stop was to view a traditional Bali dance performance - Barong Dance. It cost us Rp55,000 each for this 1 hr show. The whole dance was performed in Bahasa Indonesian and we were provided with a paper with translation of the story behind.

We were then brought to a long car ride (around 1 hr or more) to Tegallalang rice terrace fields. The view was fantastic and definitely worth the ride. We were amazed by the greenery before our eyes.




But beware! Lots of hawkers peddle on the street and will try to get your buy something from them. All you had to do is to reject them kindly or ignore them. If you displayed any sign of interest, they will stick to you all the way.


Next we were brought to view more cultural aspects of Bali and was brought to the Holy Spring Water Temple. Here, devotees pray and bath in the water for health and well-being. Tourists are allowed to do it as we saw some of them in water as well.
However, for females, please take note that when you're menstruating, you're not allowed to enter the temple premise (don't ask me how they know. But it's always good to respect their culture). This "rule" applies to many temples of Bali.






Just these few stops alone already took us cross noon. Our stomachs were rumbling and Dewa drove us to a restaurant with a view to of the Kintamani volcano and the lake. We understand that the last time the volcano erupted was in 1999. Hence the slopes of the volcano are still lined with black dark soil. It was quite misty on the day we go, and hence we'd a misty and foggy view. It's a buffet lunch at the restaurant (cost us Rp70,000 each) with average food (but the fries here are very nice).




We were then brought to view a waterfall, which I feel is not really worth the ride down. By then, it's already evening time and we were brought to take a walk at the Ubud market. Many locals were there buying food and offerings for their upcoming New Year celebrations.







After the market, we decided to head back to our hotel to wash up and chill out.
Unsure of where to dine, we seek the advice of our hotel receipt ion and was recommended to go to Nomad at Ubud Centre. Our hotel, which provide complimentary transfer to anywhere in Ubud, brought us there and we were really glad we took their suggestion.


The restaurant ground level was nearly filled up and we were brought up to 2nd floor balcony to dine. The menu was extensive with reasonable pricing. We tried the tapas platter, king prawns (myself) and desserts. The dinner really ends our day on a high note =)

Bali Day 1 - 22nd Mar

After a 2+hr flight from Singapore, we reached the Denpasar airport and began our first Bali trip.

The trip did not start on a positive note when I "sprained" my left wrist and forgot to pack in my laptop and DSLR chargers on the departure day.


When we exit from the airport, we were welcomed by our driver, Dewa, whom we'd contacted via email several weeks ago. He was recommended by one of the contributors in a forum I frequent. We were swiftly brought to a Suzuki APV, which can comfortably sits 1 driver and 5 adults and bag gages.


I told Dewa that I need to buy a camera charger (as I know my laptop is fully charged and I only need to use it towards the end of my trip). He dropped us at the Discovery Mall to check out whether we can get what we want.
After some search, we managed to purchase my DSLR charger at Rp500,000 (around S$70) which I believed may be a rip-off. I decided to just pay and not let this little mishap to spoil my long awaited holiday.


Dewa was in the carpark patiently waiting for us and off we go to the next stop - Hard Rock Hotel to fetch my sister & family who were at Bali 2 days before us. After picking them up, we head to Ubud, which is around 1 hour ride away.

At around 6pm, we reached our accommodation - Green Fields Hotel and Bungalow. From what we understand from Dewa, the place is very popular and is always fully booked and we're lucky to have gotten 2 rooms. Well, I guess it's always good to plan in advance and travel during off-peak periods.


Both of our rooms are in the same block. 1 on the ground floor, and 1 on the 2nd floor. My room was on the 2nd floor and I was very happy when I saw how spacious and nicely done up the room was. And from our balcony, we can view a good sunset with paddy fields at the foreground.








After settling down, we head towards the famous Crispy Dirty Duck eatery to try its Crispy Duck (of course). The duck is indeed crispy, but not really fleshy enough to our liking.

We ordered the pork ribs as well, after the dinner at the next table raved to us about how tender and good it was. I would say that it's indeed tender and slightly above average, but definitely not the best one out there. Apart from these, we ordered Gado Gado and some calamari. The portion here is not really big, nice portion for a typical Asian lady. So if you have a huge appetite, do order more.







After the dinner, we strolled back to our hotel (less than 15 mins walk) and turned in early for the long day tomorrow.