#WHATINTHEBIFFLESWORLD 3.0

Finally decided to blog about my trip to Bali which happened waaay back in July. There were almost a thousand photos taken during the trip (Rong brought her camera and we used our iPhones as well) and even though Rong have already sieved out a folder of photos and edited them, I want to pick out some as well, hence me delaying the post time and again cos I haven't had the time to edit them. Heh

The reason why I decided to do it now is because well firstly, school's out. Secondly, recently I went to Capella for some event and that place has a fleeting vibe of Bali. I'm having some serious Bali withdrawals. Hell, I'm having a getaway withdrawal now. My graduation trip plans are all scheduled next year, so unfortunately for the rest of 2013, I'll be stuck in Homeground :( Date me out anybody, hahaha since I'm so free now. Anyways, another reason why I wanted to blog about it now is that I feel that my memory is getting worse as the days goes by (is there some pills that I can take or something!?) and I want to jot it down here for keepsake and so that I have this for future reference.

This trip was a birthday celebration trip for Rong (but since my birthday is just 10 days apart from hers, I guess technically I'm celebrating mines too la). Our birthday is in the month of August, but because August is the Hungry Ghost Festival month and us being superstitious and just as a precaution, we decided to go in July. All in all, We went to Bali for 4 days.

AirAsia Go was having a promotion where if you book a hotel from them, you get the returning flight for free. We stayed in Jas Boutique Villa which is located in Seminyak. My friend mentioned about this villa before as a passing comment and since it was listed on the hotels and villas list from AirAsia, we decided to go with my friend's recommendation. We paid $387.97 per pax for both the flight and accommodation. It is not exactly the cheapest around, but I thought it was okay considering it is a villa.

Prior to the trip we actually did quite a bit of research (mostly Rong) and we came up with a list of places we wanted to visit. For me my main plan for this trip is to learn how to surf and play water sports. With the list of places that we wanted to go, we realize that transport is a major consideration and to avoid any hassle of hiring a cab that will scam us or whatnot, we decided to hire a driver. After researching online and numerous email exchanges with different vendors, we decided to go for "Mr Bagus Car Guide" service. Let me tell you a trick that I've learned when it comes to pre-booking, especially for overseas like the hired driver service - You need to be shameless and HAGGLE. I have this haggling trait from my mum, and I will go all out in haggling. My best haggling for this entire trip is an almost 70% discount off something which I will share in the next post ;) Anyways, after some haggling via email (YES you can haggle via emails, its possible hahaha), we managed to get a 10% discount off the total fee which amounted to 1,260,000 rp/$135 for 4 days of driver service. The driver; Jorn, was with us from picking us up from the airport to sending us off. It's about $11 per person per day, we traveled to quite a number of places around Bali, so personally I think its pretty reasonable. You can email to enquire about their services here.


DAY ONE

Bali > Sea Circus > Potato Head Beach Club > Jas Boutique Villa > Tanah Lot > Naughty Nuri

We arrived in Bali at around 11.55am, Mr Jorn (our driver for the trip) was already there waiting for us to drive us to our villa. Our Villa is located at Seminyak, which is about 10 minutes drive from Kuta. Kuta, from what we googled is a very touristy place and the traffic can get pretty crazy, so we opted to stay in Seminyak which is a much more upscale area. Hot spots like Potato Head Beach Club, Ku De Ta and higher end boutiques are all located at Seminyak.

First up was lunch at Sea Circus. Sea Circus is an upbeat place that serves a mixture of Western and Mexican cuisine. What I like about this restaurant is that it is super quirky. The colors, the decors, everything was colorful and they have an amazing toilet. I'm serious. Their toilet decor and especially the sink is just wow. That was what I exclaimed when I went to the toilet anyway. I thought the food was okay only thou!

SEA CIRCUS ADDRESS:
22 Jalan Kayu Aya [Oberoi Rd], Seminyak, Bali.

Phone: +62 361 738 667

Potato Head Beach Club

We didn't really stay there for long, just went over to see what's the hype about. Its essentially similar to Tanjong beach club; somewhere you can laze at, drink and swim in the infinity lookalike pool. 

POTATO HEAD BEACH CLUB ADDRESS

Jln. Petitenget, Seminyak, Bali 80361, Indonesia

t. +62 (361) 473 7979 

Sunset at Tanah Lot

We had out dinner at Naughty Nuri which is popular for their BBQ Pork Ribs. According to Ladyironchef, they are the "Best Pork Ribs" in Bali. I didn't try many pork ribs in Bali but I thought they were reaaaaaaaaally good. Plus it wasn't expensive, the total bill came up to about $50 for 3 of us I think, I can't remember the exact price, but do make a trip there if you're in Bali!

NAUGHTY NURI ADDRESS

Jalan Batubelig 41, Kerobokan, Seminyak, Bali

Tel: +62 361 8476722

We ended the night with a dip in the pool back at our villa. Here's a look at Jas Boutique Villa:
Our villa has two bedroom and each bedroom is equipped with a rain shower. On top of that, the master bedroom has a bathtub! Breakfast is included as part of the package and I'm really impressed with the service of the staffs at the villa. They usually serve their breakfast from 8.30am onwards. We needed to wake up at 3am the next day and supposedly we won't be able to enjoy the breakfast served as 3am is way to early, but the receptionist offered to prepare some light sandwiches for us to heat up so that we can have something to munch on the next day. How thoughtful! :*

DAY TWO

Lovina Beach (Dophin Watching) > Temple > Babi Guling > Rice Paddie > Shopping  > Ultimo

So as mentioned, we woke up at 3am the next day because we were going to dolphin/sunrise watch at Lovina Beach! Its a 2 hours-ish ride to Lovina from Seminyak and in order to be on time at around 6am to catch the sunrise and dolphins, we had to be up reaaaaally early. To clarify, the driver that we hired, his job was to ferry us around. For the rest of the activities, we have to pay for it at an additional charge, but it depends on how good your haggling skills are. This was the very first activity on our list that requires haggling, and because we didn't have a gauge of the possible discounted price, we were charged at 300,000rp/$30+ per person to dolphin watch. I believe it could be cheaper, so ALWAYS haggle when you're in Bali! 300,000rp is honestly a rip-off already, it could have gone down to 200,000rp at least. Meh 

Dolphin watching is just spectacular! Its definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We had to go far out to the sea to be able to see them; at least 30 minutes on the boat (as seen below). Even though the boat looks tiny and possibly a little unstable, the ride was survivable. Its actually pretty stable and we just spent the 30 mins looking at the sunrise and just feeling the sea breeze. I love it.   

The entire ride plus dolphin watching took about 3 hours. There were a few times the dolphins was JUST RIGHT BESIDE US. Its amazing! I was completely in awe.

We went to some Temple after that

and then we proceeded to Ubud, a town that is located amongst rice paddies. It is widely know for its arts and culture here in Ubud. Jorn dropped us off at this restaurant Ibu Oka that apparently serves one of the best Babi Guling (which is roast pig served with rice, like our Ayam Penyet, but Ayam Babi? haha ) in town. Its the "If you're in Ubud you HAVE to try this" kind of thing. It cost about $5 per serving.


It tasted really good! I love food (in case you haven't already notice) and I especially LOVE them sinful. This is sinfully good! The pork is tender and the spices they used was flavorful. For a "Zhong Kou Wei" person (which essentially means a person that love heavy flavored food), I rhink the pork was marinated well and I love the chili! Okay the only downside was the roasted pig they served me forgot to do a waxing beforehand, so there's still a few stray strands of pig hair around which is honestly gross. Rong's one was okay, and she's not exactly a fan of sinful food, so you know where it went to ;)

After lunch we did some shopping and then we went to visit the rice paddies!

On our way back to the villa from Ubud, we chanced upon this lamp shop and we asked Jorn to stopover for awhile, so that we can grab a few shots of it. It's cheap to get it from Bali (about $20+) but we had no idea where to hang it at home la, so we decided against buying it. We stopped over at a Dreamcatcher shop as well and my god, I'm in dreamcatcher land. Its SO CHEAP to buy from Bali. About $5 - $8 for the big ones!

We ended the night at Ultimo Italian Restaurant for dinner. Saw Ladyironchef and another friend recommending it, so I thought we just had to try it. Plus it was within the affordable range. The restaurant was crowded and we had to wait for a good 30 minutes at the bar before they get to seat us. There's an alfresco area that is super lovely, but we didn't manage to get a table there which is a pity because there was a live band playing that night. I like that they served us bread and breadsticks as appetizer, which by the way is nice.  

Sorry we didn't manage to take any picture of the food cos the lighting wasn't so great and we were so hungry by then! But the pastas were really good and it's pretty affordable. Our total bill came up to about 300,000+rp/$32 (FOR 3 PERSON OKAY) but that's because they voided one dish away due to some scrub looking metal found in my pasta. It wasn't a big issue la just that we didn't want a new plate of pasta because we were already halfway into the meal, so they voided that item off as an apology!

ULTIMO ITALIAN RESTAURANT ADDRESS

Jalan Kayu Aya 104X, Oberoi-Seminyak, Seminyak, Bali

Tel: +62 361 738721

And that, my friend, was the end of day two!  

Whoa this is really a long post man. 

I'll write about day 3 and 4 in the next post, so keep a lookout for it :)

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