Why Bali is worth a Revisit - Part 2

Perhaps many of you have visited Bali and places like Seminyak, Kuta, Jimbaran and Nusa Dua strikes a familiar chord with you. However, Bali is simply more than just these places and the beaches it offers. More than often, those around me will say “I don’t like Bali that much because all you get is beaches and temples” which I can empathy but will definitely disagree. How many of you have taken the path least trodden in Bali to discover its diversity and charm? I am not talking about Tanah Lot, Uluwatu or Discovery Mall but a little something that you will likely not find in any tour package or review.

Have anyone of you tried the famous Bali coffee? I believe you would have but do you know which brand is the more preferred brand? Its ‘Bola Dunia’ brand of coffee both powdered and bean form. Wouldn’t you want to know whether there are any coffee plantations on the island or better still to visit one of these plantations? I have and I will say that it’s a refreshing experience as compared to the beach activities offered all over the island. You will get to see how it was grown and roasted. To top it off, you get to sample all the coffee brews right from the plantation itself. If you have heard of ‘Kopi Luwak’ or more widely known as the Civet Coffee, you can find it here and you may also see the civet itself at the plantation. For the uninitiated, Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world due to its out-of-the-world aroma and taste that is strong but does not leave a strong after taste. But what made this coffee so expensive is due to the low supply of the beans as these beans are harvested only after the civet has picked and eaten the best ripe coffee beans and passed out the digested beans from its rear. Yeah, so the next time when someone tells you that his or her coffee tasted like shit, probably it does!

Why Bali is worth a Revisit - Part 1

Bali 28th - 29th April 2011

If you are thinking "Bali again??" I would answer you "Why not?" Seriously, do you have anything against Bali or do you have anything against me going to Bali again? After all, the Island is only an alphabet away from having the meaning of return i.e. Balik (Indonesian/Malay language). Bali in total is 5,600km² which is approximately 8 times the size of Singapore. It is a place that you can go back again and again but experience different things in each trip! For me, this time round, I am sharing this island together with 3 Hong Kong friends (N, K and M) and we are all in high spirit.

We have booked a Villa in Ubud this time round as we had more people thus bringing down the cost per head for the rental. As our flight arrived in the evening, we agreed that it would not make sense to head to the Villa directly and waste the rental, so we chose to stay the night in a budget hotel in Denpasar, "Pop! Harris Hotel". Overall, I would give the hotel a 4/5 for its cleanliness, bed and room facilities. But the best thing about this hotel is that it only costs us S$41 per room per night and that is S$20 per head! Location wise is not really good but with car rental cum driver at such low price, I am not complaining. Excited? Wanted to know more about this hotel? Go here!

Bali 3 Days 2 Nights Rejuvenation and Relaxation

Bali Rejuvenation

If you knew me or have read my blog for sometime, I am pretty sure (90% confidence level) that you will say "Bali again???" Well, what can I say? It is definitely the top choice in my list for a rejuvenating holiday away from the hectic Singapore lifestyle.

This time around, I took advantage of the promotion from the Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Resort. This piece of property is previously managed by the Le Meridién Group but has since been taken over by Pan Pacific Group and is going through a major overhaul of the facilities and rooms. As such, they are offering their Villa at a bargain of USD220 per night! Some may say that striking the jackpot is a once in a lifetime event, well I would say to get such a low price for a Pan Pacific Villa is in itself a once in a lifetime event.

This trip will only span for a short 3D2N but due to our flight ticket, we have to make it 3D3N instead. Our flight reached around 2340 hour and due to the late arrival, we decided to just get a budget hotel to spend the night instead of wasting the one night in Pan Pac. This time round, I took the Singapore-Bali flight on my own and has booked a separate ticket for my wife as she is having an evening event that she has to attend to and could only take the later flight, so instead of taking AirAsia, she took Singapore Airlines. On my arrival, I was being greeted by a familiar face, Pak Made! He has always been of great service for car rental and IMO, he has one of the best rates in town! So if you need his service, you may visit the following, remember to quote me (Johnathan from Singapore) for better rate:

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 5 & 6

22 – 23^rd March 2010

Brian has feedback to me that for my holiday postings, it is tiring to read it on a day-by-day posting as the initial part will be interesting whereas leaving those days at the end of the holiday dry and boring... Well, its kinda hard to leave out the details in those days as the blog is supposed to be about the LTs and thus to live out the motto of the blog, it got to contain those LTs. OK OK, I will try to shorten my last two days of my Bali trip so hopefully this doesn’t get monotonous.

Most of us (Saved for a few) woke up late for breakfast but none of us felt that there is any need for apologies thanks to the chatting till the wee hours and the oh-so-comfortable bed. We left for a day of blissful massage and spa at Murano Spa for the whole family and I have to repeat myself again, IT IS SUPER CHEAP!!! How cheap??? A 3.5 hours service including Balinese oil massage, body scrub (Choice of Green tea, Milk, Javanese Lulur, Boreh), hot flower bath with fresh ginger tea and a twin combo choice of pedicure, manicure, scalp massage, foot massage or facial wash and all these for a mere IDR290,000 or approximately S$45! Do not miss this for the moon! I know there are many other famous places like “Jari Menari” and “Body Works” but I chose Murano Spa as it is not as crowded as those two, reasonable price, non-religious massage as and most importantly there are both masseurs and masseuses (Jari Menari only has masseurs). Geez, I guess I have gone overboard in recommending the place and that made me sounds just like their agent… Haha!

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 4

21^st March 2010

I know it has been long and plenty have happened since I last updated the blog but since I have officially tendered my resignation and will be joining a new company on 1^st July, the remaining days in ComfortDelgro are less hectic as it used to be for I will only be required to do the handover work to my other colleague. Having said that, it meant I have more time to do blogging than resting after works… yay!

I shall continue with my Bali trip as there are still 3 days to go. Prior to having my in laws, my mother and sis joined us today in the afternoon, my wife + J + I drove to Kuta today after checking out of Astana Kunti to see the beach and the atmosphere there. The drive only took us a mere 10 minutes and the road is smooth, unlike the day before which is totally horrendous! Kuta has a long stretch of beach and littered with peddlers selling gado-gado, temporary tattoo (Hanna), bows, drinks, local street food and renting of surfboards. Generally, it is pretty much like Legian beach, which is situated slightly up north and the weather for that day… well, smoking hot! You literally feel the burn on your skin so remember to pack that SPF 50 sun block.

J, my brother in law. Avid angler and photographer.

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 3

20^th March 2010

Have you ever experience a situation whereby you are dead sure that certain thing is going to happen but yet in the end was caught by total surprise to the point of despair that what we are so darn sure didn’t happen? Well today is one of those days! My brother in law, J was due to join us today and the plan is to pick him up from the Ngurah Rai Airport in the noontime. We woke up late (Intentional) and plan to start our day slowly… hey, we’re in Bali right? What’s the hurry? I never liked hectic holidays like those offered in tours as you have to move from hotels to hotels and spots to spots and adhere to their timing… Geez, how does one enjoy those? OK, enough digressing. J supposed to board the flight at 1000hr and we gave him a couple of calls around 0930hr but no one answered the call so we thought he’s on the way or something. So I proceeded to prepare breakfast for my lovely wife while she snoozes. When breakfast is ready, I wake her up to enjoy our breakfast at the nice little hut outside our room. When we’re done, we received a call from J and his conversation with my wife is somewhere near to the following:

B: Are you boarding already?

J: Nope, I am still at BR’s house. Why the need to go so early?

B: Huh?!?!?! You flight is at 1000hr!

J: Is it? But my flight itinerary shows 1530hr.

B: The timing has been changed to 1000hr. I thought you have performed the online check-in, how could you not know?

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 2 (Part 2 of 2)

19th March 2010

After checking out of Tjampuhan Spa Hotel, we are on the hunt for Babi Guling, which is a local specialty, especially so in Ubud. Babi is Pig while Guling meant Roast so Babi Guling is… you guessed it, Roast Pig! The most famous restaurant that serves Babi Guling is a restaurant called Ibu Oka. Do note that there are two Ibu Okas restaurant with one being most frequented by tourists, which sit right on the Ubud centre itself and the other one located slightly out of town. Since we have Pak B to drive us, we headed to the one out of the cultural centre itself to avoid the many tourists that will flock to the restaurant as well as to avoid fighting for a meal in Ibu Oka for they only roasts one whole pig a day. The price is reasonably cheap but yet skewed towards the higher end for the locals. Pak B mentioned that local would usually not feast on the Babi Guling except during wedding as the price is way too steep for a meal at IDR25,000 (4 regular meals’ worth for the locals) for scrap meat or IDR40,000 (6-7 regular meals’ worth for the locals) for choice meat. The portion is generous at that price and it is truly an authentic Balinese feast. Highly recommended and two thumbs up for the Okas!

The Ibu Oka branch located outside Ubud Centre

Bali: The Isle of Gods Day 2 (Part 1 of 2)

19th March 2010
Part One

Today is going to be a long and exciting day as I have made plenty of plans for sightseeing. I managed to engage a certain Pak “B” to drive me around on the rented Avanza and the fees that he charged is very very reasonable at IDR150,000 which worked out to be around ±S$23 or ±US$16 for the entire day! Although it is fun to drive and explore on your own, when time is of the essence, it is always better to get a local driver and in this way, both parties win. I get to have a driver at a very low price and Pak “B” gets to earn roughly a week’s worth of his monthly salary for a single day’s labor! Please see below on the list of questions you might ask and the hopefully satisfactory answers to those Qs:

Q1- Tour package also provide a driver, so what’s the big deal?

An – Yes they do BUT bear in mind that tour operators charge you the driver’s cost per pax. Pak “B” charge per car and Avanza can take up to 6 pax excluding the driver! Go figure.

Q2 – Tour package shows you much more places, right?

An – Yes they do, including places that you may NOT want to go. For my case, I just pick up one of the many brochures from the airport, go through the itinerary, choose where I want to go and show it to Pak “B”, voila!

Bali: The Isle of Gods (Day 1)

18^th March 2010

Both my wife and I have long planned for this trip to bring both our parents for a vacation in Bali. The plan was conceived 9 months or so in advance to benefit from the cheap promotion flight offered by Air Asia. Care to make a guess of how much we paid for a return ticket? It costs us around S$55 excluding the airport tax in Denpasar Ngurah Rai Airport. We bought a total of 7 tickets for my in laws, my sister in law, my mother, my sister, my wife and myself.

[Tips: Remember to keep IDR150,000 for the airport tax while taking the flights to return from Denpasar to wherever you hailed from]

[Tips: For those that require a VISA to enter Bali, you may get it at the airport itself. As for those that do not require one, you may proceed to the right of the VISA checkpoint and keep walking till you reach the custom checkpoint]

The vacation however will be in two parts i.e. my wife and I will be traveling to Bali earlier to enjoy some of the exploration on our own from 18-20^th March whereby we will be joined by my brother in law (Last minute addition) on the 20^th itself. The rest of the group will be joining us on the 21^st March itself. I have rented a car (Toyota Avanza) for the entire trip as it will allow me to explore more and this time round, I am really looking forward to seeing more of Bali and its surrounding. Driving in Bali is very enjoyable as the people here are “gentle” drivers which I am very much inclined to believe is due to their religion that beckons its followers to respect all living things. Speed limit in general all over the island is 50kph.

[Tips: The Toyota Avanza that we rented costs us only US$20 per day and the fuel economy is decent. Petrol in Bali is cheap at ±IDR4,800 per liter i.e. approx S$0.70] 

3 Days 2 Nights in Bali

Under my previous employment with United Fiber System Ltd (An SGX listed company dealing with pulp manufacturing for the production of papers), I have to travel to Indonesia quite often to understand the operations of the mills as well as to liaise with the mill's third parties e.g. bankers, auditors, government officials, etc. The 3 usual location is Jakarta, Banjarmasin and Ale Ale (You don't want to be here!). Anyway, my point is that my very first virgin voyage on flight is given to the company and Indonesia is the very first overseas country that I have ever travelled to, thus, I am supposed to be excited BUT due to its much ladened ugly news on the Jakarta riots coupled with gorish photos, I have very bad impression of the place and believe me when I said I had this nauseous feeling when I stepped onto Jakarta's ground.

Bali Here I Come!

Its been quite sometime since I updated my blog due to the shuttling between Singapore and Malaysia to do up my house in Port Dickson. You see, I have decided to DIY most part of my house by applying the scrooge as hell attitude of the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. It was rumoured that during his younger days, Ingvar was about to buy some furnitures and was totally surprised with the price of the furnitures and ask the store owner why such simple furniture costs so much. In replying the question from Ingvar, the store owner said that the cost to assemble, store and deliver the goods has already made its way into the total price of the goods, thus the high price and some even to the extend of absorbing the after sales support costs. Disgusted, Ingvar told the store owner that he doesn't need all that and quipped that he could assemble and deliver the goods without any need for after sales support and further asked for a discount for the goods he is about to purchase, to which the store owner said "Then you might as well go make one yourself". Ingvar took this seriously and started to think along this line as a business i.e. to strip the goods bare and let the customer choose whether they would like to assemble and deliver their own goods or pay a premium for someone to do that, thus the birth of IKEA. Also, IKEA provides a simple tag/manual so that customers can understand how the goods work, which in effect allow IKEA not to have an after sales support centre, thus cutting cost for the company as well.