Bali Day 2 - Ubud & Tanah Lot

 Good morning! Simple breakfast was served in the hotel I stayed during my visit to Bali. Enough to fuel us for few hours before lunch! As for the second day in Bali, we were scheduled to visit Ubud in the morning and Tanah Lot in the afternoon. At 9am sharp, the timely Mr. Putra fetched us from the lobby and off we go to Ubud. 

The distance between Kuta and Ubud is not very far, but it took us about an hour plus to reach Ubud due to single-lane traffic everywhere (but with surprisingly well-surfaced roads), cars travelled at an average of 60km/h. It would be a boon for motorcyclists, but not for time-constrained tourists like us! Our first stop was batik factory. Batik is also well-known in Malaysia, but seeing the process of making one is quite interesting, especially with the tools and mechanism which look obsolete in today's world.  

Next stop was silver shop. The most interesting spot was the burning of silver and cooper to melt them together, creating a stronger composition. 

Third stop was the coffee shop. We were exposed to the process of making coffee, especially the famous Luwak coffee! Yes, Luwak coffee is the faeces-looking ingredient in the picture below...

... and it's the faeces of this cute little animal!

Nearing to the end of the tour, we were invited to taste every flavour of coffee they have, of course hoping you would purchase some at the end of the tour. Surprisingly, we have to pay a some amount of money to taste Luwak coffee, which we didn't in the end. This shows it is not cheap to buy it...

Then, we headed deeper into Ubud for its market. Souvenirs, souvenirs everywhere... We realised our Bahasa Melayu knowledge gave us advantage in communicating with the locals, but they use some different words compared to ours, for example, petang (afternoon) as soreh. 

By noon, Mr. Putra brought us to Bale Udang for lunch! It's a very, very nice place, I instantly felt that the trip is perfect and value for money with such wonderful place for lunch!

The food were awesome, and the beautiful environment makes photos vibrant in colour. This is by far my most favourite photo of me in the whole trip :)

We arrived back at our hotel before 3pm, just in time for our next tour guide to fetch us to Tanah Lot at 3.00pm. Due to some miscommunication, he went to the wrong hotel and came late, about 3.40pm. Thankfully, we still able to make it to Tanah Lot around 5pm, so we still have time to spare before the sunset at 6pm. 

 Tanah Lot was my most anticipated destination in Bali before I arrive there, and luckily it does not disappoint me. Just look at the temple from a high point, see the waves splash on it, the magnificent temple stood there in all of its glory. 

A daring photographer who will go to any extend to get a nice photo.

This is what I'd call a perfect sunset... It was like so near till we can grab the sun... literally!

Mr. Putra earlier on had handed us a complimentary voucher to dine in Hard Rock Cafe, thus we asked our Tanah Lot tour guide to drop us there while on our way back. Delicious meal, cosy environment, soothing music... Perfect way to end the night. 

Bali, Indonesia - Day 1

 Greetings from yours truly! Behold, here is a simple post to update my recent trip to Bali, Indonesia. Partially sponsored by a travel agency, which the truth is I have won RM1000 worth of travel voucher. But still, I had to top up an extra of RM300 plus for the flight ticket. Well, it is fine considering accommodation is covered and the flight is booked quite near to the departure date. 

Flew with MAS, was surprised that it actually came with a meal!

Arrived Bali after 3 hours of flight. After passing the long queuing custom, my jaw dropped when I saw like a hundred of tour guide waiting in the arrival hall, all holding their customers' name. I also have airport transfer to the hotel, therefore I need to search mine among the hundred tour guide! I walked back and forth twice, before I was able to spot my tour guide, Mr. Putra!

Mr. Putra brought us in his Suzuki APV to our hotel named Harris Raya located in Kuta, which is just 15 mins away from the airport! After checking in and freshen up a bit, we were off to explore the city of Kuta and rush to Kuta Beach to see its sunset. 

It is quite a long way actually, about 30 mins needed to reach Kuta Beach from our hotel, seeing the distance in Google Map certainly deceived us. However, the walk was rewarding as there were plenty of stalls on the road side with beautiful hand-crafted items for viewing pleasure.  

A beautiful staircase to a hotel...

The 'gateway' to Kuta Beach!

By the time we reached Kuta Beach, we were shocked to see the sun was setting swiftly! It was just 6pm and it was completely gone in 15mins! That was when we learned that the sun set earlier in Bali!

Not far away is Beachwalk Mall, this is a place where you can find all the branded stuff. I found that the price for branded items here is not far off compared to Malaysia. So, I left ended handed eventhough my previous intention was to get some cheap branded item here. 

My friend was looking for a night market, thus we went on searching for it, unfortunately without any aid in any form of navigation. After asking direction from one of the many convenience stores, we were shocked to arrive at Legian Street. The Bali Bombing Memorial site were right in front of us once we came out from the street. (202 people are killed by bomb in year 2002 by a violent Islamic group in Kuta)

The memorial site is located on the busy Legian Street, with plenty of pubs and tourists from Australia. 

As we failed to search for the night market after a long walk, we were famished and decided to try out a shop not far away from us. I ordered ayam betutu, since it is a famous delicacy in Indonesia. Not bad I would say, the skin and meat were soft and you can remove all of its meat without using your hands. 

Day 2 - Ubud & Tanah Lot