AWESOME BAWESOME BALI

My family (me + wife + baby) made our first trip to Bali recently. Through the years, we’ve heard our friends and family visiting Bali and the amazing place it is but was always pulled back by the fact that they don’t have a clean beach. My wife and I absolutely love beaches and have thus far only made travel trips to places with nice beaches.

That aside, we decided to give it a go. So as usual, we booked the plane, the hotel, the driver, for a 5 days trip.

These are some of the amazing things that we encountered throughout the trip. The irony of it all was we only went down to the beach by our hotel for like 2 minutes throughout the entire trip. :P

Day 1: Tanah Lot

A definite must go. The only regret we had was we did not spend enough time here. The view here was really breath taking and refreshing. Spending half a day here just chilling by the sea and admiring the batu-bata would be something we would really like to do the next time we’re here.

Day 2: 

Tegallalang Rice Terrace

Nothing but greenery here.

Paddy Field on the Hill

Kintamani & Lake Batur

The view here from the top is really spectacular with the volcano mountain on the left and the huge lake on the right. Most of the mountain is covered in black stuff from the outflow of the lava. Forget about walking down to the end of the road as you’ll be heckled by traders. Pick a restaurant, sippa cuppa coffee and enjoy the view

The Volcano

The Lake

Tirta Empul

This is one temple that puts culture back into perspective. Being born, bred, raise, indoctrinated in Malaysia, the schema is always… the gong (big and small), gamelan band and the keris is a definite culture of the Malay. But in this temple, you see all of that (even the music played is similar to that of a Malay traditional band)… for a HINDU ceremony. At this point of time, I just stood still trying to reconstruct the schema that I have been brought up believing in. I’m not going to speculate what came first, who adopted who (just like how our Negaraku ended up being some song from Hawaii “Mamula Moon”)… but the great big lesson here is this… there’s no such thing as supremacy. One culture is adopted from another and no one culture is superior from another. When you start making supremacy claims, you end up being the butt of the joke.. i.e. like how Hang Tuah is actually my brader.

The source o the Holy Water	Hindu Warriors 	BSB + 1
Amazing Balancing Act	Kids preparing for their dance	Bathing in Holy Water

To Hishamuddin, I apologize for calling you a racist when you raise and kiss your keris. I now understand you were also standing up for the rights of the Hindus.

Day 3:

Garuda Wishnu Kencana (GWK) Culture Park

If you feel like you have some spare change and for some reason feeling very charitable, then the GWK park is somewhere you might wannna go (Entry fee is IDR50k p/pax). There’s nothing much here except for 2 big statues; Wishnu and the Garuda.

Wishnu

Garuda

Gila

Krishna Ole-Ole Bali

This is seriously the FIRST place anyone should visit in Bali. It’s a shopping centre with everything you would be looking for in Bali (paintings, handicrafts, bags, clothes, food, souvenirs…..). Prices here are fix at a very very reasonable rate and you’re spoilt for choices here. The best part about this place is it gives you a feel of the price of the items for your further reference when negotiating with traders throughout your trip (Bali is one place you need to bargain… bargain…. bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… bargain… ). So if you’ve not have much experience in bargaining, do visit a few pasar malams first before going.

Our driver/ tour guide / baby sitter

Our trip was made perfect by our wonderful driver, Suryanto. When looking for a driver, our biggest worries were: 

i.Drivers that bring you only to places which they earn commission – like Kuching, Sarawak drivers;

ii. Drivers that keep jam breaking and make you feel like throwing up 

Suryanto was definitely none of the above. He was an excellent driver (trust  me, you’ll need one as good as him cause the roads in Bali is super small with loads of car). Not only did he bring us to really good and cheap restaurants, drove super smoothly, was super friendly, honest in every way possible, became our tour guide (he was not obliged to cause he was only suppose to drive us around), he also helped us to carry our baby girl around!!! We really appreciated the extra effort he put in. Allowed us some romantic hand holding moments. He really made out trip a memorable one.

So.. if you’re going to Bali and you are looking for an awesome driver to bring you about, here’s his contact:

Email: booking@rentcarinbali.com

HP: +62 8123842670

The rest of our 4th and 5th day was spent just strolling around town.