It never came across my mind that I would step into this famous honeymoon destination. Bali. When I was younger, I always associated this place with love, honeymoon, marriage and with a loved one. Boy, was I excited that I was finally able to see this place for myself. Not with a loved one. But with 3 of my friends to not have fun, but to challenge ourselves to trek Rinjani Mountains.
We took the flight to Bali and the queue was long at the immigration counter.
Once we managed to get pass the immigration counter, we took a hired car to the hotel. The hired car was part of the hotel's package. Once we placed our luggages, we went out for a late dinner.
We heard avocado drink was famous in Bali. This was the first of the endless supply of avocado drinks we had in Bali. Thick, sweet (from the chocolate) and creamy. Yummy!
Fried fish. Nothing special.
Fried chicken. Also, nothing unusual.
This is different. Gado-gado. It's an Indonesian dish comprising a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing.
When I went back to the room, this was the first time I encountered a condom package.
The hotel we stayed for 2 nights (1.5 upon our arrival and 2.5) - Dewi Sri Hotel for USD40 a night for a standard twin room. I shared with my friend and hence, I paid USD20 per night. It was cheap during that period because the hotel was undergoing renovation. We were lucky.
The memorial erected in memory of the victims that perished in the Bali bombing.
Our first stop for the day was to watch the traditional Barong dance. It tells the history of Bali which signifies an eternal fight between good & evil spirits, performed by dozens of professional dancers.
After the dance, the hired car brought us to some handicraft area where we saw batik cloth in the making. Since we have this abundance in Malaysia, we decided to cut it short, and skipped this.
Then, we proceeded to Ubud, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills. We were there to see the terraced rice fields.
This was followed by lunch in one of the restaurants in Ubud. Once again, the hired car driver had an arrangement to bring all tourists there. It was kind of costly, but then again, it was our only experience of fine dining in Bali.
Tried the local beer, Bintang. Normal.
A must-try dish in Bali, bebek which means duck. In spicy gravy.
Fried rice with skewered meat.
After lunch, we were headed to Tanah Lot to see the sunset. A sea temple is perch atop an enormous rock, and the place is completely surrounded by waters of the Indian Ocean during high tide.
Supposedly holy water. It was actually spring water.
Get yourself blessed from the 'holy water'.
My friends and I ventured to the beach below to run with the sea.
The beach. Unfortunately, we could not catch the sunset because it was so cloudy. My friend told me not to worry because we can see the sunrise and sunset clearly when we are on the Mountains.
At night, we were headed to Jimbaran to have our dinner by the beach. It is a famous place to have seafood. At quite not-so-cheap price. Check out the receipt at the end. There were many restaurants along the beach, and all of them sell at the same price. So, any place is good enough.
During dinner, we were also approached by band of musicians to play for you while you are eating. Of course, nothing is free. I told the musician lead that we would like to have a quiet dinner. But we still get to hear the music from the next table. See, nothing lost.
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