Bali - We're Back

We're back from Bali! What a great time of rest. Here are the highlights in pictures:

Who wants to be a Millionaire? Their currency was so confusing, we kept mixing up the zeros especially since they don't have comma separators.

First things first, it has been quite some time since we sat a non-budget airline. To have them serve us food was quite a welcome. Note the chocolates on the side. :)

We arrived in the evening and saw this splendid cumulus cloud just before reaching.

By the time we reached the villa, the sun had already set. After unloading our bags, we quickly made our way to Jimbaran beach, where it is famous for its seafood. The food was... meh but the ambiance was something else. We could hear the thunderous waves crashing as we dined on the beach.

Here's how our room greeted us. Soft lights casting a dim yellow glow plus wide windows on two sides of the room to give ample light. Unfortunately for KS, there was no door to the toilet and the sliding glass doors provided those in the room to view you taking a dump or sitting in the bath tub.

Despite being a little tired, we still made it a point to swim in our private pool that very first night.

Our villa at Pat-Mase, Jimbaran, has 3 bedrooms, a private pool, a kitchen, a jacuzzi, a living room and a path to a larger public pool. We had to take a cabby from the reception to our villa since it was quite a distance to walk. Here are more photos of our villa:

View of my room from the master bedroom.

The living room with sofas that you will sink into comfortably on a lazy afternoon.

We even had our own jacuzzi but it didn't look like it was recently cleaned so we skipped that.

We even had our own cook who came to make us breakfast in our kitchen. In about half an hour, he whipped up a lovely breakfast for us:

Here's a video on the first sights/walking into the villa.

There were many water-filled-bowls-with-flower-petals thingy all over Bali. This one is flanking the entrance at the reception area of our villa.

On the way out the next day, we hired a driver and a van to take us around. Along the way, I noticed the eclectic mix of buildings that lined the roads. There were no standard looking shoplots, some looked like they had been there for centuries with their fading walls and shrines while some looked like it was carried over from Australia like this one: (I couldn't take more photos as the local scenery whizzed past as the van whipped into smaller roads and ignored uneven roads)

Their petrol stations too were quite nicely designed.

One of the first few stops we took was at this wood carving place. This was the only "cute" carving I could find, the rest were pretty serious arty stuff.

Thereafter, we headed to the volcano, Kintamani, if I'm not mistaken. Had lunch there overlooking this gorgeous view. The air was cool too so that was quite pleasant.

Then we headed off to a spice factory. Here is the cat that is responsible for the world's most expensive coffee:

...which Jan ordered and tastedNo, that's not what you think it is. That is the kopi sai, not miaw sai. Still, Jan said it had a very sandy texture which I refuse to imagine.

After that, we headed to our spa and had a two hour relaxing massage. Bliss.

The next day, we went to Tanah Lot to see the temple in the middle of the sea. First thing that caught my attention was this kite:
Heck, I've flown many kites but this was really something, sailboat in the sky. Was quite tempted to buy it back but not that I fly kites anymore.

Here are more shots of the temple grounds:
This was the temple which we couldnt' set foot on due to high tide. The waves were huge and crashing all over, quite scary when you think of being sucked into a swirling vortex of rolling waves and into the depth of sea.

Here was a huge bat which Jan tried to befriend and feed. Unfortunately for her, he didn't respond to her advances.

We tried the famous Babi Guling. It is made from various parts of the pig and we just ate whatever we couldn't identify. Blessed are the oblivious.

Stopped by Kuta Beach, which was brimming with bikini clad tourists with sunburnt shoulders. It is a happening area, full of people at all times, apparently.

And finally, we went to the second temple, the Uluwatu temple to watch the Kecak dance or Fire Dance. The place was teeming with monkeys who tried to snatch everything from sunglasses to dentures if they could. This temple was not as stunning as the Tanah Lot one but the cliffs were certainly breathtaking.

And here we were waiting for the dance to start and since I couldn't take a good shot of the setting sun, instead I took a photo of people bathed in the sunset and taking photos of the sunset.

Would I go back to Bali again? For free yes, but if I had to pay, I'd rather travel somewhere else next time.