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

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3

My third day in Thailand was the day to explore deeper into the beauty of Bangkok, or the ugly side of it. After our breakfast, we headed to Saphan Taksin and took a ferry ride (30Baht) to Pier 5, Ratchawongse Pier. Our main objective was to have some great local food in Chinatown, eventhough we filled our stomach almost to its brim from the buffet breakfast. 

I used up most of my Baht, so I exchanged another two thousands Baht in a nearby bank. On our way to Chinatown from the pier, there were many stalls and shops selling reasonably but still bargain-able price goods such as handbags and wallets! Ladies would love it! However, Chinatown was a disappointed, perhaps it's merrier after daytime? There were not as many food stalls as we expected and I only spotted food such as BBQ corns and bananas among all of the stalls. 

Opposite of Chinatown there was a bird nest shop which offers, well, bird nests in the form of raw and cooked dessert to its customers. Depending on the quality of bird nest, customers can enjoy bird nest drink from as low as 100 Baht! 

Frankly I would say I like the way Thais eat their bird nest very much! It can be offered in burnt coconut, which will blend the taste of the bird nest with the refreshing coconut juice! Then, honey can be used to increase the sweetness of the bird nest. Lastly, sweetened gingko and half-boiled egg can be added into the bird nest to make it a more filling dessert!

After that sweet bowl of bird nest dessert, we saw the ugly side of Bangkok. Some tut-tut drivers couldn't earn much from their daily customers, thus cooperated with some shops selling souvenirs and jewellery so that they can send the customers to the shops and gain some commission from their purchase. 

We wanted to go from Chinatown to Siam Square by tut-tut because we never tried it before, and it seems like a must-do when visiting Bangkok. So we hopped on a tut-tut eventhough the driver sounds ridiculously absurd by quoting us a fee of 40 Baht for the trip. The first place he dropped us was a jewellery shop, but all the items were too expensive for us, we ended up empty handed leaving the shop. Then the driver took us to a normal souvenir shop, then beg us to buy something in order he can earn a bit of fuel money. Bought a 70 Baht fridge magnet from there since a friend of mine asked me to buy a magnet for her. What I don't like is the driver will ask how much the item you bought cost, because he want to know roughly how much commission he can get from that purchase. 

After the tut-tut driver dropped us off at Siam Square, we paid a visit to the... err... Hello Kitty Cafe in Siam Square. Everywhere is pink and with Hello Kitty pictures!

Then I finally have a chance to try out Thailand's McD! Tried its pork burger but it was not as amazing as some claimed. 

After the filling lunch, we walked for 15mins to reach Platinum Mall. It's a heaven for people who doesn't care about brand but price. Most of the items can be bargained and dirt cheap! The only downside is the mall is situated quite far from the nearest BTS station, so you'll have a tough time walking back to the BTS station with a handful of bags!

It was Bangkok's rush hour, a very familiar scene if you think KL...

Lucky we don't have to endure the bumper-to-bumper traffic by hopping onto BTS. We then headed to Unicorn Cafe, located in a quiet corner of Silom. The desserts here were nothing to shout about, but the decoration was certainly something especially for those who are in loved with unicorns! Unicorns were everywhere!

After lots of walking in the streets of Bangkok, it was time to have a relaxing and cooling bath in the bath tub of my hotel room - with the view of the outside world! Don't turn on the lights though, or people from the far opposite will be able to see through the window!

Later at night, a scrumptious dinner was waiting for us on the roof top. The Roof @ 38, like its name suggests, it's located at the top floor 38, with 360 degrees view at the city of Bangkok. While we were halfway enjoying the delicious food, it was drizzling and we have to literally run for cover! Luckily the bar has a roof-covered section where can still continue to enjoy the night!

Managed to capture this beautiful view before the sky pours!

Will certainly give Bangkok another visit in the future, to explore what I have yet to explore. There are just so many!!!

Hua Hin, Thailand - Day 2 (Part 2)

It looks like a scene describe in a childhood fairytale story with walking poker cards but it isn't. It looks like a fun fair but it's not. Sharp eyes will spot the words 'Santorini Park' attached on the ferris wheel. YES! We went to Santorini Park located in Hua Hin, Thailand. 

The highly acclaimed Santorini Park is roughly 2 and a half hours away from Bangkok, Thailand. Entering the beautiful requires a small amount of fee - 50 Baht (RM5), which is worth each penny considering its reasonable price. It also has nicely designed entrance ticket too!

It was super colourful at the inside! Vibrant colours cheer people up and there were plenty of photogenic spots for photography lovers. It's not quite similar to the real deal in Greece, but yeah, it will suffice for now!

Even the washroom was nicely decorated! LOL!

Too bad it was drizzling on and off during our visit at Santorini Park. We had our lunch in one of the cafes to wait for the drizzle to stop and ate something like a local-made laksa. Not really filing and tasty, and not to mention too spicy and pricey. Well, it's a tourist spot anyway.  

After taking tons of photos to our hearts' content, we left Santorini Park and drop by the entrance of Swiss Sheep Farm which is located just 5 minutes away from the former. Surprisingly the entrance fee of the Swiss Sheep Farm is much dearer than Santorini Park, and we chose not to enter the sheep farm in the end as it doesn't look attractive enough for us. Took few photos at the entrance and off we go again.

20 minutes away from Swiss Sheep Farm lies The Venezia. It's a small place which resembles Venice, Italy. Yes, the gondola and canals definitely reminded me of the real Venice! It was a quiet day in the weekday, number of tourists were low, thus a boon for us to take photos in The Venezia. By the way, entrance fee is 50 Baht. 

Besides of Venice, that's a mini Rome inside The Venezia too! The Venezia a small place, basically you can explore the whole place in an hour and leave...

Our last stop was Plearn Wan shopping village. We wanted to go to a Hua Hin night market for dinner, but too bad it was raining. In the end, we spent more time in Plearn Wan before we head back to Bangkok. There were super many food stalls in Plearn Wan, perfect to cure our grumbling stomach! 

Tried the mango sticky rice here. The mango was sweet eventhough its skin is not yellowish at the outside! The rice were milky and sweet, perfecto!

Egg waffle or 鸡蛋仔 is a famous delicacy in Hong Kong, also found in Plearn Wan.Choose two flavours to mix them together. We chose chocolate and hot dog as our combination, weird but doesn't taste bad! 

After savouring different kind of food in Plearn Wan, it's time to say goodbye to Hua Hin. 3200 Baht is the fee for our driver-cum-'tour guide'. Albeit a little expensive, definitely no regrets hiring him to bring us from Bangkok to Hua Hin and back for a day. We also had a comfortable ride in his Altis, and we rested well in the long journey back to Bangkok.

Next - Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3