Bali - My 3rd day (9 Nov 2011)

One of the items in my shopping list for this trip is to buy painting and some home decoration. Painting can be found almost everywhere in Bali, be it in Kuta, Legion, Depensar, etc… But the best place to buy them is at Ubud. There is a whole street filled with painting shops in Ubud and even a few galleries where you can view painting and choose one or two to bring home.

Ubud is approximately 30 minutes drive from Kuta and as I had planned to go to Sukawati Market, Denpensar, Jimbaran Bay and Ubud on my 3^rd day, the best option is for us to get a driver to drive us around. As this Bali trip was a last minute decision, all my plans were made in the hotel, and as such I did not email any driver that Tripadvisor recommended.

There were a lot of private drivers along the street, but we have “doubts” about them as there will definitely be bargaining of prices. We were afraid that bargaining will result in unhappiness and having an unhappy driver to drive us around for a full day will certainly be quite torturous.

Fortunately for us, at the Bali Airport, I had taken a pamphlet with an advertisement for private driver and decided to give them a call to book a driver. The rate turned out to be RP$400,000 for 10 hours. In my opinion, It was considered quite reasonable.

After breakfast, I called up the pamphlet tour agency and the coordinator said that the driver will reach at 11am at my hotel lobby. As our 1^st encounter with the spa driver was so punctual, we reached the lobby 5 minutes before 11am.

However, this time round, we waited for 15 minutes and the private driver had not reached yet.  We gave the tour agency another call and she said that the driver will definitely reach by 11.20am. After waiting until 11.40am, there was still no sight of the driver. Again, we called them up and finally the driver reached at 11.45am.

The reason given was that they were caught in the jam. As they will be driving us for another 10 hours in a foreign land, I had no choice but to hold back my anger and smile… I told them my plan for the day which included Sukawati Market, Ubud, Denpasar and Jimbaran Bay. The translator told us that there is a place called Kampung Bali that has local prices and asked if we will be interested to go.

We thought that why not, since it was on the way. When we reached Kampung Bali, I was surprised as it was a 100% tourist place, and quite a small establishment. The moment we stepped off the car, the shop staff pasted a sticker on our tees. I suppose this was for the commission to the driver on the things that we have bought. Kampong Bali sells everything from dresses, jumpsuit and souvenir like what we found in Kuta and Legion Street, but of lesser varieties. Yes, the price was cheaper than what we found in Kuta and Legion, but it could be that I am a bad bargainer. In the end, we bought nothing at Kampong Bali. Sorry driver, no commission for you…

Sukawati is a small area of small stall market place that sells about the same stuffs as Kuta and Legion. I didn’t buy anything there since I had already bought what I wanted at Kuta and Legion. I am not sure if the price is better there, but if you asked me if it is a MUST to go over there, I will say you can give it a miss as the products that you can find at Kuta and Legion are much more updated.

Next stop to Ubud is the best trip of the day. I simply love the arts street though I didn’t have a chance to stop by as I don’t know that I have reached Ubud Arts Street!

The whole street is filled with lovely arts and if you think that Bali is all about resort type of painting, then you are wrong. There is a lot of contemporary painting too and abstract contemporary painting is exactly what I am looking for.

The driver drove us to a Semar Kuning I Gallery, where I managed to take a picture of small kids doing painting. Taking pictures are actually not allowed inside the gallery.

Semar Kuning 1 (Arts Gallery)

It is quite a big gallery in my perspectives and it has all kind of painting. I purchased my first contemporary painting over there at RP300,000. Half price from the initial RP600,000 that was quoted. It is still way cheaper than if I were to purchase it via Ebay or buying it directly in Singapore.  They are able to roll up the painting and hence, it is easy to check it in with your luggage or simply, hand carry it.

Next stop is at Ubud Market. Ubud Market is a very big place with many streets filled with shops and some of the shops are selling trendy stuff too. I love some of the rattan decoration that I found there, but as my house is of modern contemporary design, I had to give it a miss.

Ubud

Ubud

Ubud - Dog outside a shop, photo taken from the car

Ubud - One of the shops

Ubud - Feeding a hungry dog

Added to that, prior to this trip, I had told myself that I am not going to have any impulse buy, so for all the items that I don’t think I am going to wear or use, I will just simply say “No” to them. Well, so in a certain way, yes!  I have succeeded! 

I did purchase another painting at RP350,000, half price again from what is first quoted. The 2^nd buy was definitely a better buy than the first and I seriously think that the seller will not go much lower than RP350,000. However, the second buy also made me feel that my first buy was too expensive, as the first painting was smaller and look more “common” than the second. I stopped my shopping spirit at Ubud after my 2^nd painting as I still have 2 more stops before my itinerary for Day 3 ended. 

Denpasar is a “city” in Bali where the shopping malls are. We stopped over at Ramayana Mall and well, even though internally, it looked quite old and cheap, it is actually Robinson.  You can find good stuffs inside too if you took a slow and good look inside. Man’s shirts were selling at less than SGD$20 and there were also children’s clothing selling at cheap price too. My boyfriend bought 3 shirts at less than SGD$60. After Ramayana Mall, we were dead tired and hence, we proceed to Jimbayan Bay for our dinner.

Jimbayan Bay is a place for people who wanted seafood and it is by the beach. There are lots of bad reviews about the place actually, stating that the restaurants over there were overpriced. However, there seems to be one restaurant that still enjoyed good reviews on Tripadvisor - Lia café. I had specifically noted down the address and showed it to my driver but as I expected, he drove us to the main stretch of seafood restaurant and seemed to have no intention to drive us anywhere else and stopped at the carpark. He said he don’t know where the place was. After reading so many bad reviews about other seafood restaurants in Tripadvisor, we decided that we should only go to Lia café for our dinner and thus, we decided to get off the car and try to find the place ourselves.

Lia café is not at the main stretch of seafood restaurants and is further south. We had to walk 15 to 20 minutes in the dark trying to find it. We were lucky that we were walking in the right direction or else I supposed we would have to go with one of the seafood restaurant that the driver drove us to. I am quite surprised that the driver didn’t know the way and even said that this stretch of restaurants was the only eating place in Jimbaran Bay. Well, Lia Café was located at the other end and there were also other restaurants located there. I have also read a few reviews that drivers do get commission if they drove us to the restaurants they have connection to. However, let’s just give him the benefit of doubts…

Reaching Lia Café, it looked quite run down but you will be dining with your feet in the sand. You can choose to dine out on the beach or indoor in the restaurant. The menu look reasonable with Lobster at RP$30,000 per 100grams for fresh lobster (dead lobster) and RP$45,000 for Live Lobster. We chose fresh lobster since we have eaten that in Phuket and it tasted good too. The lobster weighs 1.1kg and it cost RP$330,000. It was pretty reasonable and once again, I strongly believe that you will definitely not be able to find this price anywhere in Singapore. For people who are not lobster fans, you can also try the fish. We had a red snapper which cost around RP$7,000 per 100grams, I chose a small one of 900grams that cost us RP$63,000. Ironically, it was even cheaper than the raw ones that you can find it in NTUC, a supermarket in Singapore.

Lia Cafe @ Jimbaran Beach

Lia Cafe - Live Lobsters

Lia Cafe - Fish and Prawns

 The lobster came with a fish soup, vegetable salad, stir-fry vegetables, fresh fruits and rice. Both lobster and red snapper were grilled and they tasted really good! The best time to go Lia Café was at 5pm+ to view the sunset. However, I do not have the chance to view it though as it was already too late when we reached Lia Café.

Some photographs of Lia Cafe food:

Lia Cafe - Menu

Lia Cafe - Dining table on the beach with our feets in the sand, facing the beach

Lia Cafe - Our Coke

Lia Cafe - Soup and Salad

Lia Cafe - Red Snapper and Stir-fry Kang Kong

Lia Cafe - Lobster

Lia Cafe - Lobster and Me

Lia Cafe - Enjoying the lobster

If you want to know where Lia café is, the address is Jalan Pemelisan Agung Jimbaran - Beach. And if you are facing the beach, you should walk toward the left, and just go down all the way and you will find a whole lot of restaurants in that area with Lia Café just located inside. Note that there is a service charge of 10%.

Overall, I was very pleased with the service, food and price and the view too.

After dinner, we had to walk back to the carpark where the driver parked his car. He didn’t even bother to ask if we were able to find the restaurant or where is it so that next time he will know where it is.

He just drove us back to our hotel and by the time we reached the hotel, it was already coming to 9pm and we passed him the RP400,000. My advice is still to go for recommendation for honest driver that people provide in their reviews. I regretted that I didn’t do the same.

Bali - My 2nd day (8 Nov 2011)

There was free complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant and we woke up quite early for our complimentary breakfast.

Here are some photographs of the buffet setting: 

Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 1

Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 2

Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 3

Sugar Spices - Buffet Omelette Station

Sugar Spices - Dessert Spread

Sugar Spices - Waffles Station

Sugar Spices - Bar

My Breakfast Selection

Waffles

Omelette



After breakfast, we went back to our room for another 2 hours rest before going for our spa at Bali Green.

There are a few reasons why I chose this spa. Firstly, it is in Kuta, so not much travelling is required. Secondly, it is recommended by Tripadvisor and thirdly, the spa also provides free transportation to and from our hotel. Last but not least, the price is reasonable too.

The driver was very punctual and she reached before our agreed time. The journey was pretty congested as the roads in Bali are very narrow and a surprising number of cars on the road. It took 15 to 20 minutes just to travel from our hotel to the spa location but I have to say that I was comfortable with her driving skills so it was not too big an issue.

When I reached the spa, my initial thoughts were that I will be disappointed as it looked very small on the exteriors.  It looked quite similar to the spas that are located in shophouses in Singapore. But after entering the spa, the staff brought us to the lounge area and there, I was very surprised as there was an outdoor spa area consisting of small little huts that have a sense of personal touch to them.

Bali Green - Huts



Bali Green - Outdoor Spa



Bali Green - Outdoor Spa

Bali Green - Lounge Area 2

Bali Green - Lounge Area 3

Bali Green - Outdoor Spa

There is couple spa and also the option to choose indoor spa if you prefer having the luxury of air condition in such a hot weather in Bali. I chose the outdoor spa as I have tried indoor spa numerous times in Singapore. Walking into the hut, there are 2 spa beds and there is also an attached bathroom in every huts where you can shower and enjoy your flower bath without having the need to walk so far.

The spa staff can speak decent English and was very polite to us too - not pushy and let us have the option to choose whichever package that we are happy and comfortable with. In the end, we chose the 2 hr 30 minutes package, chocolate indulgence and coffee. The package cost RP220,000 or around SGD32 each.

The spa session started with washing your feet with flower warm water for a few minutes, then warming up your body, massage and scrub before ending off with a polish. In the midst of my scrub, when the masseur was applying the chocolate on my body, I could feel the weather changing and it felt like it was going to rain soon… oh man… and the chocolate was quite cold.

I thought that after a while, it should be ok but it got progressively colder and colder as it was raining quite heavily and the fan was blowing at us. I think the masseur know that we were cold and hence, they asked whether we wanted to turn off the fan. It was a welcome suggestion from them!

The masseur left the chocolate to harden for 5 to 10 minutes before she came in to rub on it which become the chocolate scrub. It was quite rough, but I am ok, since I have a tough skin. =)

The scrub is done one side at a time. After your back is done, the masseur will apply some chocolate polish on your body and similarly, she will leave it to harden for about 10 to 15 minutes before coming back. After the polish, we go to take a shower to wash off all the “polish” on our body and then immersed ourselves in a flower bath tub that is large enough to hold 2 people at once. After this, we were then served with biscuits and ginger tea.

The overall experience with Bali green is very good except that I prefer a strong warm up that will “crack” my body to relieve the tension in my body. And if the chocolate is warm, it will be better or perhaps, when the weather turn bad, an additional towel or blanket to cover our body will be great. We decided that we will come back on our 4^th day.

We then had our spa driver drove us to Legion Street, near Kuta beach where the shopping was. =) Shopping time! 

Kuta Street is a very long stretch of road where there are a lot of shops and restaurants, with a slip road to turn into Kuta beach. The road was congested with traffic and almost every few steps that you walked, you will hear, “massage?”, “Transport?” or the occasional horn to warn you to keep aside but most of the times, it will just be taxi drivers asking you if you require transportation.  The footpath is narrow and very uneven. Hence, do remember to be careful and not just busy browsing over the shop.

Kuta Beach and Legion Street are one of the busiest tourist locations. As such, whenever you ask for price, you have to bargain hard. Bargain at least half or more of the price as they will ask you to give another price. But of course, to help Bali economy, you may want to consider bargaining lesser if paying another few cents (in Sing Dollars) doesn’t really matters to you. For me, as long as I can get this item at a cheaper price than what I will need to pay in Singapore, I am fine.

Along Legion street, there are many higher price shop like Billabong, Ripcurl, Bali Lace, Polo Ralph (I have no idea if they are real or not as their prices are almost down to 50% sales) etc… They are definitely marked down much cheaper than in Singapore, but I did not buy any as I am not a Surf brand fan and I don’t know if they are open for bargaining. I didn’t try at all and I doubt that the prices are negotiable too.

Poppies Lane I and II are small streets that are linked to Kuta Beach. There are small little stalls there that I prefer as they are selling dresses,  jumper suits, a lot of other souveniors and fake brands. I bought a jumper suits at RP$60,000, a tees at RP60,000 and a dress at RP70,000. Note that if you think that these prices are still too expensive, do not buy at Kuta and Legion. You can get something cheaper at Ubud!

After walking in such hot weather for 2 hours, we got really tired and decided to flag a cab to go back to our hotel. This time, we waited till there was a Blue Bird Taxi before we flag our hand for it. From Kuta Square to our hotel, it only cost RP$14,000 and the meter started at RP$5,000.

Putting our shopping loots down, we proceed to have a light wash up and rest for a while. By this time, the sky is dark again and it was only 6pm+. This time, for our dinner, we walked out to try to find the restaurant that the hotel receptionist recommended to us for seafood. The restaurant name is Ma Legion.

He told us that it was at most a 10 minutes walk and yes, indeed, we reached the restaurant after a 10 minutes walk, but it was situated at a very dark lane. Along the way, we were once again asked numerous times if we needed transport. One of the private drivers was so pushy and rude that he even scolded us “Ba Ka” when we said no and kept walking. This constant pressure of people offering us transport is something that I really hate in Bali.

Finally we saw Ma Legion and unfortunately, this is not the kind of restaurant that we wanted. The restaurant is located near the sea from where you can enjoy the sea view and breeze with a romantic dinner. Yes, the view does come with a price and which we confirmed after looking at the menu.

The restaurant setting is more western style, and what we are looking for is a restaurant like Savoury in Phuket. Just to side track a little, I really love Phuket as eating lobster at Savoury is so cheap and the ambience is good too!  

For what it’s worth, Ma Legion is also a place that is suitable for guys that wanted to propose to their girlfriends. =) I believe they can set up a place where you can immerse your feet in the sand while you dine just beside the beach.  If my memory didn’t fail me, I believe the lobster was priced at RP120,000 per 100g.

 We walked out from the restaurant and the sky became darker. What make it worse was that we had to walk pass the driver who scolded us Ba Ka previously. And yes, he was looking at us and grumbling something to himself which I doubt was anything decent. Well, I might be wrong.

We were really clueless on what to eat as Kuta beach is quite far from our hotel and all the restaurants that I have researched on before I go to Bali are way too far. We passed by SA Café (Wana Segara 31 Tuban Kuta, Bali, Indonesia) and there are a few groups of Caucasian dining in the restaurants. Looking at the menu, the prices are reasonable too, and so we walked in.

This is a casual, homely, restaurant that serves both Western and Indonesian food. We ordered a tenderloin and fillet at only around SGD$8 each. It was served on hot plate with a fresh vegetable salad serve before the main course. However, the portion of the meat was very small and it did not taste like tenderloin at all. The quality of food was more like the steak from the Western stall in any foodcourt or coffeeshop in Singapore.

SA Cafe - Tenderloin on hotplate

SA Cafe - Tenderloin with Salad



SA Cafe - A Glance of the Cafe behind me =)

 But I have no regret dining there as I really do want to try something different and in order to do that, I have to try a different restaurant. Moreover, we don’t really have too much of an option too. I noticed that while we were dining, more and more people started to walk into the restaurant. I believed they could be having the same dilemma as I do and when they look at the crowd in the restaurant, it would seem to them that this restaurant might not be that bad a choice. I had to say that for the price that we were paying, it was indeed not that bad!

After dining, we walked back to our hotel and what surprised me was that there was a Birthday Cake from the hotel for me. Yes, it was my birthday and I was so happy! It was indeed a very pleasant surprise. Thanks Aston, Kuta for the cake! =)

Aston Kuta - My Birthday Cake!

Just for information, we had room service that night too, as the dinner that we had in SA café was not enough to fulfill my big stomach requirements. We ordered Ayam fried Bee Hoon and Seafood Fried Mee. The food tasted really good and the price was reasonable too. In total, we spent around RP107,000 after 21% tax + service charge. And well, there was really nothing to complain about as we can have our supper by the bed. I forgot to take a photo of that however as I am just too hungry. =P

Bali - My 1st day (7 Nov 2011)

Singapore to Bali is only a 2hr 30 minutes flight and hence, travelling on budget airline is a good way to save cost. For this trip, I was travelling on Airasia.

I reached Bali at around 7pm and I was surprised that it had already turned pretty dark. The sky looked like 9pm in Singapore.  To be honest, I don’t really feel good about it since it is my first time there and I prefer daylight to feel “safer”.

I have done my research on Tripadvisor prior to this trip and many travelers recommended taking Blue Bird taxi. Unfortunately, there are no Blue Bird taxis around outside the airport premises. Perhaps, I didn’t wait long enough? I had no choice, but to go to the kiosk where another taxi company operates.  From Bali Airport to Kuta (which is less than 15 minutes away), they quoted me a fixed price of RP$50,000, equivalent to around SGD$7.20.  Seems like not too bad… until you hear how much it cost to travel from my hotel to Airport on Blue Bird taxi – RP$17,000. Just for information, the exchange rate of Rupiah to Singapore dollars is around 7000.

Blue Bird Taxi (Taken from http://www.indonesiamatter.com/)

After I paid at the taxi kiosk, there are 2 persons that brought us to a dark carpark just infront of the airport exist. 1 of them, without asking, help us to push our luggages to the carpark and carried them up the taxi. Afterwhich, he requested us for tips. Having the thoughts that he will be going with us in the taxi, I have rejected to give him on the spot. Reason being that I will prefer to give him tips upon reaching safety to our hotel. He wasn't too happy when I told him that I will give it to him later and walked away. 

Tips - these people are "porters" that will help you to carry luggage and requested for tips. Do not let them carry your luggage if you don't want to give tips

Tips - Blue Bird Group Taxi is highly recommended as they work on meter. There are other taxis that have meter, but from a lot of reviews, they are reluctant to turn it on. Note that there are a lot of blue taxi with a bird painted on them. Blue Bird Group Taxi is in Light Metalic Blue with Bluebirdgroup painted on the side of the taxi.

I reached my hotel, Aston Kuta and checked in at around 7pm+. I was pleasantly pleased that the hotel staff was pretty fluent in English, hence, there was no problem understanding each other. As usual, we need to place a deposit for the hotel stay.  The deposit was SGD$100 and a receipt was provided.

We were also given the choice of using our credit card, but we prefer cash since we do have some Singapore Dollars on hand. Our room is on the highest floor, level 6 and the room is furnished with a contemporary resort setting. I didn't take any photograph of the room, but you can easily find it at Aston, Kuta Website. The photographs from the website did not differ too much as the hotel is still very new.

I have took a few photographs of the hotel as follows:

Swimming Pool (Daytime)

Kids' playhouse



Near Lift Lobby



View outside hotel (Daytime)

After settling down, it was around 8pm and we decided that eating our dinner at the hotel restaurant was our best bet since it was already very dark outside.  

The hotel restaurant, Sugar Spice, is very nice, with good ambience and some of the seats face the pool. It was pretty quiet at that time of the night with a few tables occupied. Browsing through the menu, we found that the prices are very reasonable for a restaurant situated in a hotel and the food tasted not bad too. 

Entrance of Sugar Spices (Daytime)

 

Swimming Pool View from the Restaurant (Sugar Spices) (Daytime)


We ordered Soto Ayam Bee Hoon (RP$35,000) and Nasi Goreng Ayam (RP48,000). The Soto Ayam Bee Hoon Soup came with a bowl of rice too!

Soto Ayam Bee Hoon

Nasi Goreng Ayam

Apologies that I did not take a close look of the food photo.

Till now, I am still wondering what the reason is for that since there was already bee hoon. =)  What was definitely more expensive than even Singapore restaurants are the drinks, the coke cost RP21,000, which is equivalent to SGD$3. The total cost is RP151,250 inclusive of 21% service charges and tax.

After finishing our dinner, we went back to our hotel and rest for the day while watching television programme the whole night and planning our itinerary for our 2nd day.

Bali (Nov 2011)

Earlier this year, I had already travelled to Taiwan and so, I really have no intention to go for any more travelling for the rest of the year. However, I came upon a really cheap package deal on Expedia for 2 people to Bali – slightly less than SGD$700 for a 5 nights stay in Aston Kuta (4 or 5 stars), and inclusive of flight. It was too good a deal to miss and as such, I made the last minute decision to purchase this deal to travel to Bali for a short getaway.

I will be posting my daily trip experiences and also individual event summary to ease reading. I hope this blog will be useful especially to first time travellers to Bali.

Do stay tune to this blog!