4 nights 3 days bali trip

I have just returned home yesterday from a short four days three nights trip to Bali, Indonesia with my family.

My bali driver : www.hirento.com
Time for relaxing and vacationing went off so quick that I certainly felt not enough. Luckily, I had two more extra days on holiday before getting back to work this Friday. In the trip, we stayed at the Harris Hotel Sunset Road. Nice comfortable room. The tour cost per person is RM2000+. As usual, I took quite a number of photographs from the trip, and will definitely share some beautiful shots here. Overall, it’s quite a nice enjoyable short trip!

26th July 2014 (Saturday)

First time going to the newly opened KLIA2, world’s largest purposely-built low-cost carrier terminal. It’s very spacious, luxurious and finally it looked like a modern airport compared to the former LCCT. But at certain point, now it looks more like a shopping mall to me as there are a lot of retail spaces inside.

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Reached Ngurah Rai International Airport (Denpasar) after three hours of AirAsia flight. First destination: Uluwatu Temple. Here, any shot of the cliff would be spectacular. Interesting part of this place is the monkeys; tourists tend to get their attention, and try to guess what’s their response? They can take off small belongings from you so quick that you didn’t notice. One of the monkeys even snatched a sunglasses, climbed up quick to a tree and tried to wear it but couldn’t since it’s big for them.

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Then, we went for a seafood dinner at Jimbaran Bay, a perfect spot to watch the beautiful sunset and also the frequent sightings of airplanes landing since the place is near to the airport. A very wonderful atmosphere as you can dine on the beach with such a picturesque setting.

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27th July 2014 (Sunday)

Today’s tours were mostly on visiting those handicraft or product centres. First was the coffee station, where we were introduced on some information regarding coffee beans and also their famous Luwak coffee. Then, visit to the batik shop, and then to a centre selling silver and gold works. Also went to a shop selling wood carving and handicraft products, and then to a premium outlet selling the famous ‘Polo by Ralph Lauren’ apparel brand. Not interested in all these but forced to spend several hours for those was quite boring. Then, watched a cultural Barong performance and we were all bored and left the place earlier.

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In the afternoon, we went to the Kintamani Batur Lake and Volcano. Along the journey past Ubud, we saw the Tegallalang Rice Terrace. We are at over thousand metres above sea level now, and so the place is cold and windy. This is the first time I’m seeing an active volcanic mountain. There is a huge caldera lake besides the mountain.

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Last tour of the day was the Tampak Siring Temple (Holy Spring Water Temple). The place is best known for the mythical water emerging out from the land of which the locals treat it as holy water. Hence, now, the place is a tourist attraction and many went there to shower with the water. Didn’t do that but at least I rinsed my face and I felt a bit refreshed.

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28th July 2014 (Monday)

Today we went for a boat ride to the Turtle Island Farm. On the boat, we fed the fishes with bread and we got to see them through the glass at the floor of the boat. Interesting colourful small little fishes. At the turtle farms, we got to take pictures with turtles (of course), eagles, bats, hornbills, snakes, etc. But that’s a very small place and the excitement ended quick. Back to the beach, and we felt jealous seeing the others playing the water sports while we couldn’t.

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Then, we went to the iconic Beratan Temple. A lake within mountains, and a temple within the lake. A beautiful and cold environment there. The temple is also featured at the back of Indonesian note of 50 000 rupiah.

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Then, we went to Taman Ayun Temple. A small temple with a lot of pagodas and surrounded by river. Took a group photo here along with all my other tour members.

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Lastly, we visited the must-see place in Bali; Tanah Lot. A temple perched on a rocky outcrop in the sea. During low tide, the temple is accessible and joined to the land. During high tide, the temple appears to sit on an island away from the land. At the time we went there, it’s low tide. We also managed to get there before the sunset. There were a lot of tourists there.

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29th July 2014 (Tuesday)

Today we went to a shop selling the famous kek lapis (layered cake) but we didn’t buy any since we find nothing special of it and Malaysia do have it too. Then, we purchased some souvenirs from the huge ‘oleh-oleh’ (souvenir) centre before going to Kuta Beach. Reached the beach and stayed there for a while under the hot sun while watching people surfing, swimming, building sand castles, sun bathing, picnicking, etc. Then, we walked to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe and to Beachwalk, a popular indoor-outdoor shopping centre that turned out to be the latest modern attraction in Bali.

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And finally, time to go to airport and board the flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

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Hate it when the flight is delayed for over an hour and so, we reached KL very late at night. The stress of walking for almost 30 minutes from the arrival gate to the baggage claim area is already burdening, and then we were told there is no more taxi service provided since many were still on Raya holiday. No taxi service for such a huge airport. Crazy…So, no choice…had to take KLIA transit to Bandar Tasik Selatan and then my sister brought us home. What an end to the trip.