The Endless Bali I

Phew! Finally I could find my leisure time to share this post to you, too late to be posted I know but better than never right?. Okay, I won’t talk about how’s popular Bali on this earth (universe knew already! :P) though sharing my four-days-quick-jaunt in Bali is my little pleasure for this blog. I think :). It’s been almost four months all pictures for this post stayed inside my hardisk, I was too busy to gather them and write about this (If I don’t want you to call me lazy!).

Bali as I knew is endless. Coastal, mountains, diverse tourist attractions, excellent food by international and local restaurants, sophisticated art forms, and the culture plus friendliness of the local people, everything is there. Renowned as the Best Island in the world by Travel+Leisure magazine in 2010 was a little acknowledgment for Bali, the goddess island.

My quick jaunt to Bali almost didn’t happen. I was thinking to skip it for another year cause I wanted to spend my last seven days in my house. As I knew, my 30 days in Indonesia was too short to be enjoyed, though. I was too busy among random things, from attending friend’s gathering, handling some administrative requirements for my parents (excited for that gift! :)), shopping (annual-shopping I think :P), and many more. Spending a week left in the house was my plan before, but Ruli, my best friend reminded me that I would be regret if I didn’t go anywhere while I was in Indonesia, he meant outside city. I said I did cause I had a plan before to have a little traveling at least I could feel a thing called vacation. Singapore and Hong Kong were on my list before cause I do not need visa to travel there but as I said, those random things really chopped my time.

Then I started back thinking about Bali. Four days, and I went with my sister. We took flight from Surabaya on 23rd August by 9am from Surabaya and landed by 11am in Bali. Let me say my jaunt was three days cause we spent our first day mostly inside our hotel (I was quite tired that day and decided to start walking around near our hotel). We stayed in a little yet nice and comfortable hotel in Kuta. We started walking around Kuta at 4 pm and visited Beachwalk to take a peek to that mall. We took coffee and pastries at Rollas Coffee&Tea and enjoyed our late- noon-convo there. I made a call to hire a car for the next day and finally found that we would go to Ubud!. We passed Kuta beach to see sunset that day, sadly the sunset wasn’t dramatic enough to be wowed and in the evening, we walked through the Kuta street and felt the evening vibe back to our hotel. iPhone pictures from our first day.

The next day Ubud was our destination outside Kuta. We left our hotel from 9am and went straight away to get our breakfast. We were so excited visiting Bebek Bengil ‘Tepi Sawah’ and had no regret to wait 40 minutes until the restaurant was ‘really’ open. My sister was waiting in the rustic gazebo while I was busy exploring around the rice field. The scenery of the rice field was stunningly green while the Balinese instrument was melodious in the air, pretty much made our morning. So calm, refreshing, and oh the food, we had no doubt to say that Bebek Bengil was on our must-eat food in Bali. The food was too heavy for breakfast :P (at least for me) nonetheless the crispy duck, various sambals and the Balinese satay were too-yummy indeed.

After breakfast we went to Monkey Forest (to see monkeys? :P) and spent like an hour before we continued our day in Ubud to Pura Tirta Empu. No picture to be attached from Monkey Forest even though I took some (no deliberate pics, sorry :P). Visiting Pura Tirta Empul, a Hindu temple in Tampak Siring was more interesting than Monkey Forest. Tirta Empul is well-known as a place where the Balinese have come to bathe in the sacred waters for healing and spiritual merit. Some pictures taken with iPhone and NEX from Tirta Empul visit. Oh I heart the detail of the building around the temple.

Our driver suggested to pass Kintamani for a second before we went back to hotel. Enjoying the blues there was appeased. The weather was so cold and windy, and oh now I feel regret I didn’t stop at Luwak coffee shop along there (pfft!). Just an iPhone picture for Kintamani.