ýÎKþÍÑg~~悲恸与喜悦的交响曲: June 2019

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Bali 2019 - Day 7

7 days in Bali passed like a blink of an eye.

I love Bali, for real

Final views of the villa before bidding goodbye

The road outside the villa.

Common area of the villa

The lobby/ dining area where you can peek into the kitchen

Your breakfast choices

Set B comes with butter roll. The strawberry jam is awesome! Yoghurt is homemade i guess, not the commercial flavours you find in the stores. And the omelette is made to perfection

Set A comes with egg sandwich, yoghurt and fruits. Each portion is created with such detail and effort. I hoped that the food portion had been larger. But there was a small footnote on the whiteboard mentioning that they can provide us with more food for free if it was not enough. Noticed it only when we came back to Malaysia ha!

The surprisingly not expensive food that you can order from the villa if you do not want to get to Ubud centre.

The 5 villas with different set ups and designs. Japan, Indigo, Lotus (our villa), Banyan, and Alang Alang

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1235pm from Denpasar. Fatah came and picked us up by 9am, and we arrived at the airport at 10am. The process of boarding was smooth and in fact the plane took off 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

Us with Fatah before entering the airport

Remember to contact Pak Yanto if you were to set foot in Bali. It's definitely worth every single penny. He can plan many activities for you as well.

Pak Yanto -

Facebook: Yanto Bali

Instagram: ytobalitour

WhatsApp:

+62 81 755 6488

+62 81 2365 40997

That's all from me, hope you enjoyed reading the Bali trip diary, just like how much i enjoyed in reminiscing the experience. I would definitely revisit Bali some day. That's for sure. ^_^

Check out my previous few posts in Bali

Bali 2019 - Day 6

Nusa Penida - a must go in Bali. It really wouldn't be complete without stepping your foot on this paradise. It houses the most photogenic sights Bali can offer.

Nusa penida is located real near to Bali island, and is reachable by speedboat. I booked the tour from Klook, which seems to be the best option for group tours in most of the destination i went. I tried them out during our Hong Kong trip which turned out to be perfectly amazing. Anyway, remember to check out this great blog that has all the information you need to know to get to Nusa Penida. The west side is more popular so I would suggest going there first. There are a few hotels on the island too.

It cost me RM219 per person as i was staying in Ubud. That was the price from Klook which included pick up. Pan Yanto charged me 750k IDR for the trip, not including transfer which costs 200k IDR (Roughly RM248 per person). Driver Nata picked us up from our hotel at 630am, and we reached Sanur Beach in less than 45 minutes

The speedboat

We took the Angkal boat. Do remember to keep the return ticket to redeem your pass back

Stop no. 1 : Kelingking Beach

Kelingking beach below - the trademark of Nusa Penida, Bird's eye view of the beach. It was quite steep and due to time constraints, I didn't venture down any further. In fact, many people stop at this point, which is the best point in my opinion for phototaking.

This is how steep the cliff was. With only wooden railings and some bamboo poles for support

We spent around an hour there and headed straight to Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong. As the name suggests, the road is real BROKEN! I guess 75% of our trip were on those roads. Only 25% had tar

The problem with Nusa Penida:

1. Jam

2. The deplorable condition of the roads

It's a Monday afterall. Imagine coming on a Sunday, or peak season. Duhh...

A glimpse of how bad the road condition is. Better not come with a full stomach. For those who get travelling sickness, you might want to pack some prophylactic medications before embarking on this journey

Look at the turquoise waters!

I guess that's how the beach got the name broken. Through the entrance, the angel's billabong was formed

The beach was so amazing I could spend a whole day just looking at it

Stop no. 4 : Lunch, of course

Lunch was provided by Klook. You'll get to choose for a main course and for a drink.

Stop no. 4 : Crystal Bay

Nothing much to be excited about since I'm not snorkelling. We were done with lunch around 145pm and headed to the last stop of the day. The trip was 45 minutes long and we just dozed off even though the road was super bumpy. The waves here at crystal bay were more calm and there are loads of people. As the last stop of the tour, vans could be seen making a bee line to the beach. We spent just 30 minutes for a dip in the water and got moving back to the harbour. The boat departs at 430pm but you do not want to reach at 430pm as you have to wait for this boat to return for your second trip. It seems that there is only one boat so you definitely do not want to miss the first trip.

Us with the driver while waiting to ascend the speed boat. It was quite a 'private tour' as there were only 2 of us in the van. The guides here mostly use Toyota Avanza, or vehicles similar to that to ferry tourist. Due to the road conditions, buses are unable to negotiate the turnings. Hence most of the tourists here come on a 'private tour' haha....Lucky me. Pak Gong (nama glamour) is a local guy who has been in the service for nearly 3 years. He speaks some English and is a very cheerful guy.

We arrived at Sanur beach around 445pm and our Klook driver was already waiting to pick us up. The organisation by Klook team was simply amazing. You do not need to worry about anything. They are simply ready, punctual and friendly. Salute to those people for being so professional . We reached our hotel at 6pm, just about sunset time.

Our hotel only had 5 rooms (or villas). 4 on the right and a smaller one on the left. Total luxury

Enjoying the view of the villa swimming pool

Stop no. 5 : Dinner

Being the last night in Bali, we decided to go for another gastronomic dinner in Ubud. There are so many trendy cafes to pick from. We were so spoilt for choices.

We hopped on the bike again to get to Ubud centre

Introducing....cafe du Monyet! Elegant retro designs

Beautiful isn't it

Dinner main courses

Last dinner in Bali. Real western style serving. The vegan mary was wonderful. Real vegeterian style. Ubud is also famous for its vegeterian restaurants. While my wife chose the Coq Au Vin, which was stewed chicken drumstick. The potatos as well as the extra fries we ordered were amazing. Not the usual fries you have in Malaysia. We even ordered an appetizer monyet platter. In the end, we could not finish the extra fries and ordered for a take away, even though i was a real big eater

Cost: 414k IDR

We left heavy hearted, with good memories of Ubud. Good night Bali, au revoir!

Friday, June 28, 2019

Bali 2019 - Day 5

Finally had a good sleep and have a relaxing day. Gonna check out from Rhadana hotel and head to Ubud ! Since it was a free morning, I had the chance to explore the hotel a little. To my surprise, they have a gym upstairs =D

Meeting room on the 5th floor

Stop no. 1 : Urban styles cafe

Fees: 86k. Considerably cheap for a hotel cafe

Lunch was at a nearby restaurant, within walking distance from Hotel Rhadana

Reasonable pricing, much to my surprise

Simple looking but cosy cafe

One of the best food in Bali i had for the past few days. Seriously....it's not that this one is awesome, but the previous ones.....

Total cost: 86k IDR

Bought some water at at nearby mart. Water from the hotel tasted yucky. So we ended up buying for mineral water. In fact, we have been drinking this water since arrival in Bali. Did you know if Nestle produced mineral water? This is new to me haha...

There were a few options to get to Ubud from Kuta.

Hire a driver. Pak Yanto charged us 300k for the one way trip
Grab - 165k, to be paid in cash
Bus. It seems that there is a shuttle bus the travels from Kuta to Ubud and vice versa. 80k per trip.

Hence, the choice was obvious. In no time. the Grab driver picked us up from the hotel and we were on the way to Pumpkin village villa. According to the Grab driver that picked us up from the airport, there are many drivers from Kuta to Ubud, but not the other way round

Stop no. 2 : Pumpkin village villa, Ubud

Look at the azure sky, and the big garden that greeted us during check in

Hotel lobby which is simple yet elegant. Pumpkin village villa is a row of villa in the outskirts of Ubud. I opted for this villa as we planned to spend the last couple of days in Bali in style.

Our own villa. All to ourselves! Picture speaks more than words, so here you go

We only informed them that we are coming for honeymoon, but the set up was out of expectation

Booking.com gave it a 9.4

I'll give it a 10!

It was only 230pm when we checked in and settled down. There was a whole lot of afternoon time to spend in Ubud. Ubud being a small town has many attractions. We were extremely lucky that the villa actually had motorbikes for rent! I was still wondering where to rent a bike.

Ubud city centre revolves around monkey forest area. If you think it sounds like a village, you are definitely wrong. It is actually a small town that is SO SO westernised. 90% of the people i see are whiteman. And the shops there are customised to serve westerners. They can speak good English! Good compared to the average Indonesians I mean. We headed for a massage session by trying out the Balinese traditional massage

Stop no. 3 : Balinese traditional massage

90k IDR for a 60 minute massage. Pumpkin village villa charges 180k for the similar therapy. You can find many of these parlours along the streets. Some as cheap as 80k per hour

Stop no. 4 : Dinner at watercress cafe

Fees: 454k , considered moderately expensive

Dinner definitely had to be in Watercress Cafe!

A simple search on google will show you very good reviews on this restaurant. Keeping in mind the number of western cafes on parade on this street, standing out from them all definitely needs some effort. We were lucky to be able to order our cocktail during the happy hour 5-7pm, which promises a buy 1 free 1 cocktail!