Bali high
6 days in Bali and before we knew it, it was back to reality... Bali is indeed the land of a thousand possibilities. There are so many things to do and see that you can never grow sick of it. For now, here's the lowdown on the trip:
Tue, 29 Dec
We gather at the airport at 6.30pm (most of the girls are late :P) to check in, then head to the staff canteen for a quick bite. Everyone's excited.On the plane, P takes a hilarious photo of what 'Flying with AirAsia' looks like, but I won't post that...
We arrive and negotiate the tiny roads to check into our Tunes hotel on Legian beach (also tiny, but clean rooms) then wander out for 3am supper at one of the many bar/restaurants still open. Sample good club sandwiches, burgers, bitter ginger tea and 'soda gembira' (happy soda - a mixture of milk, rose syrup and Sprite which tastes like fizzy bandung) before heading back to shower and sleep.
Wed, 30 Dec
Breakfast is a Balinese version of bak chor mee, and strong sweet teh-O (or just 'teh' around here). We pile into a minibus and M's amazing driver takes us up a mountain to see some ceremonial gardens. We stop by a restaurant with an awesome view of the padi fields for lunch.
Make it through another bum-crunching couple of hours to catch the 'sunset' at Jimbaran Bay - there wasn't really one, but the sight of the waves crashing against the rocks was fantastic.
We spend at least half an hour doing group shots with P's wide-angle cam, then finally retire to wander the upclass shops in Seminyak. Dinner is a sumptuous seafood feast right on the beach, accompanied by freshly-roasted corn.
Thu, 31 Dec
Repeat of yesterday's breakfast. The others haven't eaten so while a few peeps go to deposit our bags at tonight's destination (the villa), we stop at the 66 Corner Cafe. I have an affogato (expresso + vanilla ice cream) to cool down.
M brings us to a nice shop selling handmade silver jewellery, but most of us quickly lose interest and end up taking turns to hone our self-defence skills on a punching bag (!!).
Late lunch at another idyllic restaurant in the mountains (these just seem to pop out in the middle of nowhere). Next is a couple of (disappointing) surfwear factory outlets, and a pitstop at Carrefour (ahh, globalisation) and at a roadside store to buy fireworks (ahh, no law against those here!).
After negotiating past some road closures, we arrive at Mykonos, a Greek restaurant where we've made reservations for a grand New Year's Eve dinner - gyros, spanakopita and baklava galore! S cannot stop smiling beatifically.
We then hightail it back to the villa, one for the girls and one for the guys, and they are blessedly spacious - cue ANTM moment! - Having missed the New Year countdown, we make up our own and spend the first few hours of 2010 setting off fireworks - something different I must say.
Fri, 1 Jan 2010
Breakfast in the villa restaurant, then it's off for white-water rafting! This is really fun, except for the time it takes to get into all our protective gear and settled in rubber dinghys. Our lovely guide, Maday, delights in yanking on the backs of our lifejackets and attempting to make us fall off the boat, not with the force but with his shocking yells - proving all rafting guides to be the same the world over (thinks back to Argentina).
Post-rafting, Pl complains of stomach trouble so we deposit him back at the villa, then go in search of lunch.We fall onto the babi guling (roast pig) and a fizzy, cooling drink that tastes like Jolly Shandy (but claims to be non-alcoholic) without further ado. Then it's wandering the streets of Ubud, sampling gelato, homemade jams, and the excellent range of massage services til late.
Pl calls appearing to be deathly ill so we 'hurry' back (in parentheses cos our takeout dinners -still- took almost 45 minutes to prepare)... Most of the group want to climb the volcano, the rest of us see them off in the lobby. For some reason it feels like i'm seeing them off for the last time.
Sat, 2 Jan
Spending the day in a small(er) group is a breath of fresh air... We take a quick dip in the villa pool, take out breakfast from a cafe in Ubud, then begin to retrace our steps from the day before. By the time we make it back to the main stretch of Monkey Forest Road, we're hot and sweaty and decide to go for another round of spa/massage :)
Finally we join the volcano-climbing bunch for dinner at a surf n' turf restaurant with a live musician who's singing all these great English oldies but is mangling all the words. After dinner, drive around looking for more massage places but there's no place that will take all of us. Finally head to the Grand Mercure hotel which is the nicest so far.
Sun, 3 Jan
Late start to the day - we have a great continental breakfast while waiting for the guys to rent scooters. They're finally back and we form a slow-moving motorcade to Kuta beach, which is FULL of vendors pinching my arm trying to get me to rent a mat to sit on, get a bracelet, get a massage, get a henna tattoo, get my hair braided... sorta like Venice Beach back in LA, but Bali-style :)
We rent a bunch of surfboards and proceed to get knocked up by the huge waves. After having my back twisted in previously unimagineable ways and being konked on the head several times, I give up and stick to bodyboarding.
Finally we wander over to a mega-mall and have a pricey but fun seafood dinner at Bubba Gump - fresh reminders of the States! As usual, it seems like everyone there is celebrating a birthday, so there are no end of rowdy songs (I don't know but I been told... someone here is gettin' old). We jump in and get J a strawberry sundae for his upcoming 21st! They also have an extra cheer here for ppl who order a margarita - it resembles the native traditional Kecak dance (Janger, anyone?)
On the way back, I get to ride pillion on K's scooter - this is scary and requires a lot of TRUST. We lose sight of P in front of us, stop for directions and wind up getting directed to the wrong Mercure. Might have been quite a scary experience, but I'm thankful for K who kept calm throughout - and had his phone on him :)
Mon, 4 Jan
Last day in Bali. We pack up, return the bikes, cab to the airport. Having skipped lunch, we tuck into McD's (they sell rice burgers and glass-bottled tea here, cool) and play a round of Query before heading back into the terminal...
Survive the flight back to Singapore. Dad picks me up and decides to give 2 of my friends a ride all the way home. Get yelled at by mum for taking detour to buy delish hawker food at Dunman Road... and not calling back. Try blaming it on wonky phone screen, but to no avail.
Tue, 5 Jan
Have to head to Medtronic office cos my pump has malfunctioned (again). It doesn't seem to like vacations...
Anyway, they have to send it back to the States (to fix the mysterious Button Error. seriously) so I'll have to go back to insulin shots for now. Stumble into office and try to shake off holiday mood... it's back to the grind!
Tue, 29 Dec
We gather at the airport at 6.30pm (most of the girls are late :P) to check in, then head to the staff canteen for a quick bite. Everyone's excited.On the plane, P takes a hilarious photo of what 'Flying with AirAsia' looks like, but I won't post that...
We arrive and negotiate the tiny roads to check into our Tunes hotel on Legian beach (also tiny, but clean rooms) then wander out for 3am supper at one of the many bar/restaurants still open. Sample good club sandwiches, burgers, bitter ginger tea and 'soda gembira' (happy soda - a mixture of milk, rose syrup and Sprite which tastes like fizzy bandung) before heading back to shower and sleep.
Wed, 30 Dec
Breakfast is a Balinese version of bak chor mee, and strong sweet teh-O (or just 'teh' around here). We pile into a minibus and M's amazing driver takes us up a mountain to see some ceremonial gardens. We stop by a restaurant with an awesome view of the padi fields for lunch.
Make it through another bum-crunching couple of hours to catch the 'sunset' at Jimbaran Bay - there wasn't really one, but the sight of the waves crashing against the rocks was fantastic.
We spend at least half an hour doing group shots with P's wide-angle cam, then finally retire to wander the upclass shops in Seminyak. Dinner is a sumptuous seafood feast right on the beach, accompanied by freshly-roasted corn.
Thu, 31 Dec
Repeat of yesterday's breakfast. The others haven't eaten so while a few peeps go to deposit our bags at tonight's destination (the villa), we stop at the 66 Corner Cafe. I have an affogato (expresso + vanilla ice cream) to cool down.
M brings us to a nice shop selling handmade silver jewellery, but most of us quickly lose interest and end up taking turns to hone our self-defence skills on a punching bag (!!).
Late lunch at another idyllic restaurant in the mountains (these just seem to pop out in the middle of nowhere). Next is a couple of (disappointing) surfwear factory outlets, and a pitstop at Carrefour (ahh, globalisation) and at a roadside store to buy fireworks (ahh, no law against those here!).
After negotiating past some road closures, we arrive at Mykonos, a Greek restaurant where we've made reservations for a grand New Year's Eve dinner - gyros, spanakopita and baklava galore! S cannot stop smiling beatifically.
We then hightail it back to the villa, one for the girls and one for the guys, and they are blessedly spacious - cue ANTM moment! - Having missed the New Year countdown, we make up our own and spend the first few hours of 2010 setting off fireworks - something different I must say.
Fri, 1 Jan 2010
Breakfast in the villa restaurant, then it's off for white-water rafting! This is really fun, except for the time it takes to get into all our protective gear and settled in rubber dinghys. Our lovely guide, Maday, delights in yanking on the backs of our lifejackets and attempting to make us fall off the boat, not with the force but with his shocking yells - proving all rafting guides to be the same the world over (thinks back to Argentina).
Post-rafting, Pl complains of stomach trouble so we deposit him back at the villa, then go in search of lunch.We fall onto the babi guling (roast pig) and a fizzy, cooling drink that tastes like Jolly Shandy (but claims to be non-alcoholic) without further ado. Then it's wandering the streets of Ubud, sampling gelato, homemade jams, and the excellent range of massage services til late.
Pl calls appearing to be deathly ill so we 'hurry' back (in parentheses cos our takeout dinners -still- took almost 45 minutes to prepare)... Most of the group want to climb the volcano, the rest of us see them off in the lobby. For some reason it feels like i'm seeing them off for the last time.
Sat, 2 Jan
Spending the day in a small(er) group is a breath of fresh air... We take a quick dip in the villa pool, take out breakfast from a cafe in Ubud, then begin to retrace our steps from the day before. By the time we make it back to the main stretch of Monkey Forest Road, we're hot and sweaty and decide to go for another round of spa/massage :)
Finally we join the volcano-climbing bunch for dinner at a surf n' turf restaurant with a live musician who's singing all these great English oldies but is mangling all the words. After dinner, drive around looking for more massage places but there's no place that will take all of us. Finally head to the Grand Mercure hotel which is the nicest so far.
Sun, 3 Jan
Late start to the day - we have a great continental breakfast while waiting for the guys to rent scooters. They're finally back and we form a slow-moving motorcade to Kuta beach, which is FULL of vendors pinching my arm trying to get me to rent a mat to sit on, get a bracelet, get a massage, get a henna tattoo, get my hair braided... sorta like Venice Beach back in LA, but Bali-style :)
We rent a bunch of surfboards and proceed to get knocked up by the huge waves. After having my back twisted in previously unimagineable ways and being konked on the head several times, I give up and stick to bodyboarding.
Finally we wander over to a mega-mall and have a pricey but fun seafood dinner at Bubba Gump - fresh reminders of the States! As usual, it seems like everyone there is celebrating a birthday, so there are no end of rowdy songs (I don't know but I been told... someone here is gettin' old). We jump in and get J a strawberry sundae for his upcoming 21st! They also have an extra cheer here for ppl who order a margarita - it resembles the native traditional Kecak dance (Janger, anyone?)
On the way back, I get to ride pillion on K's scooter - this is scary and requires a lot of TRUST. We lose sight of P in front of us, stop for directions and wind up getting directed to the wrong Mercure. Might have been quite a scary experience, but I'm thankful for K who kept calm throughout - and had his phone on him :)
Mon, 4 Jan
Last day in Bali. We pack up, return the bikes, cab to the airport. Having skipped lunch, we tuck into McD's (they sell rice burgers and glass-bottled tea here, cool) and play a round of Query before heading back into the terminal...
Survive the flight back to Singapore. Dad picks me up and decides to give 2 of my friends a ride all the way home. Get yelled at by mum for taking detour to buy delish hawker food at Dunman Road... and not calling back. Try blaming it on wonky phone screen, but to no avail.
Tue, 5 Jan
Have to head to Medtronic office cos my pump has malfunctioned (again). It doesn't seem to like vacations...
Anyway, they have to send it back to the States (to fix the mysterious Button Error. seriously) so I'll have to go back to insulin shots for now. Stumble into office and try to shake off holiday mood... it's back to the grind!
Labels: vacation
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