Yesh! Final installment to the Bali trip. Day 3 at the island started early with plans to visit another temple. But first, we veer off course for MCC's hotel site inspection lol.
At the breakfast table... the Hindus diligently offer flowers, incense and prayers at every nook and cranny...
The drive to Sanur, which is more or less 40mins away from Seminyak, was uneventful, with more traffic. The weather brought hope to us though, it was more or less sunny, but what we have learned is that the weather here changes as it please.
MCC wanted to check out a hotel (jeez I can't remember the name) in Sanur for a company event, so all of us just tagged along to give our professional opinion hehehe.
My first visit to a Bali beach but we're not spending much time there :(
The waves like super shiok, they break far out from the beach. I wandered on my own here as the others were looking at the meeting rooms etc (boring!).
Then have to self capture sommor -.-
Wish I'd brought my swim stuff and go in for a dip at least!
Random unidentified bird teethering all over the lounge of the hotel.
With that out of the way, we proceeded to the Tirtha Empul temple, or Holy Water temple. The temple is somewhere off Ubud, which means more driving into the heart of Bali. It took us an hour or so to reach. And when we did, it started to drizzle ever so slightly! Why!!!
At least it wasn't a very heavy rain sort, only small drizzle... Can definitely live with that hehehe. Just that we were covered again like a bunch of immigrants kekeke.
Mum took this shot but I wasn't ready. Still, quite pleased with how it turned out ;) Looked like I was posing.
I'm sorry I can't tell you more about the significance or the history of the temple other than that the name is derived from the springs that flow through the temple where the Hindus go for purification baths (didn't read enough of the place). Also, just nearby the temple, on a higher point is a large villa where President Sukarno will stay whenever he comes for visits.
We spent about half an hour wandering around the temple. It isn't as huge as the temples in Cambodia, but still, has its own charm.
The waters that flow into the temple comes from nearby mountains. Very cooling and freshens you up instantly. Many come here to take a dip as it is believed to cleanse from evil.
As I was taking the shot above, I heard MCC calling out to me and gesturing wildly hahaha. She wanted me to take a shot of this cute little Balinese girl!
When I pointed my camera at her, she was very shy and scrambled over to her mother's side to hide hehehehe.
Look at her miniature dress! So adorable or what?!
Po pi po pi.... better health, wealth, and love :)
Way past lunch time! Dewa has more makan places up his sleeves. A 30-minute drive past paddy fields, vast fields and along small roads later brought us to this restaurant overlooking beautiful tiered rice terrace :)
I wish I could bring this view back to my office cube :(
Lookie those two lau langs hahahaha
Our orders took their own sweet time to arrive. At least the view here is great. Lemon squash drink :D I must say that the weather in Bali is very pleasant. Occasionally sunny (with intermittent rain at the wrongest time $^%$*$#), it's not humid at all! We hardly sweat, which is great.
We decided to try something different. This is pork curry. Sounds like awesome but it's not at all like curry as we know! It's more of a spice-infused soupy... something. And the pork meat is chewy! Not really nice :\
Vegetable soup! An absolute pembuka selera lolol.
Some sort of nasi bakar I think... Scroll down for the outcome ;)
And gado-gado again -.-
Mix up the nasi bakar with miscellaneous greens, sambal - this is very yummy.
Dewa's nasi goreng if I'm not mistaken.
And of course, nasi campur! I'm getting addicted to this stuff.
Bali's version of otak? A mixture of chicken internal organs, liver, blood, and various spices. The others were very apprehensive about having this. I took a small bite, it actually tasted not bad leh. lol.
Food here kind of average, considering we've tried better ones around Bali. Can't remember exactly how much the meal is, but it's definitely more expensive than the average meals we've had.
By the time we were done, it was already around 3:30pm or so. So we thought maybe we could take that long drive back to Jimbaran, which is really close to Seminyak. No surprises the traffic was bad again -.- There was a kite festival-cum-competition going on in Ubud, so the traffic is extra bad. We caught a few lorries carrying kites as huge as the lorries! Awesome.
We had a bit of fun choosing our seafood hehehe. They only serve seafood here, nothing else (well, except rice). We ordered clams, scallops, squid and cumi-cumi :D
This fler was standing outside the stall when he saw me taking pictures, then he went in and posed with the bakar stuff.. :X
Nice shot hor?
I simply love the chili dip. It's like those steamed kembong fish dip then mixed with Thai chili dip with a squeeze of lime nom nom nom.
The whole restaurant is smoky from the grills. We stepped out of the place smelling like burnt rubber kekekeke. Dewa whisked us off to Cozy, where we had an hour long full body massage! We wanted to go straight 2 hours, but as we finished dinner a bit late and the place closes at 10pm, so 1 hour it is then...
(After massage, insert beer and keropok here again kekeke).
Day 4, final day here. The lau langs have an earlier flight at noon, so after breakfast and packing up, we escorted them to the airport... Poor them, have to fly in to KL, transit for a couple of hours before flying to Penang then drive in to SP some more.
MCC and I have a later flight at 8pm! So we had the whole day to ourselves ;)
Started off at this quaint place in Kuta where we were supposed to dine the first night we were here, but it was too packed then.
Tekor is a name for a plate of sorts made by banana leaves lol.
Ginger ale with lime is a superb combination.
This is the best butter garlic spread I've ever had! Bit cheesy at the same time. Sapu finish all :D
The portions by Tékor were HUGE.... We instantly regretted ordering 3 items instead of 2. lol.
Front left - gado-gado AGAIN. Probably the worst version of gado-gado we've had in the entire trip! Too much cabbage, too little peanut sauce, combination felt very 'chunky'. Too many things going on that didn't seem right together...
Can't say the same for the nasi campur though. Was very good.
We ended up packing these Tékor chicken back hehehehhe. Had them after going for round 2 two-hour massage kekekekekke. This. Is. The. Life!
By the way, we were fed with stories by Dewa how the bombing affected the people in Bali... Soon after the massacre, taxi drivers avoided the area as the place was believed to be haunted. There was a case where a taxi driver picked up a few angmohs around the area soon after the bombing. But halfway through, his passengers disappeared.... Luckily the religious part of Bali took over and they did prayers, etc, so now everything is back to normal.
Ok, that wraps up the Bali adventure.... found this baby bird in our villa just outside my room. Poor thing was injured and couldn't fly. Handed it to the hotel staff to take care of it.
Oh that reminds me of a little incident that happened to me when I was in the atas outdoor shower of the villa lol. It was already dark when we got back, so I was taking a shower when I felt something wet and sticky on my left foot - for the briefest moment, I turned to look but there was nothing.... Until I noticed a frog in my shower! Super hamsap frog! Then nvm hor, after a bit his buddy came out of hiding - this other was a massive fat one.... could barely hop and can only manage to wobble... walao. -.-
K, that's enough crap... Bali is awesome... but I think next I'll skip the touristy areas and head for Ubud and the greens and the beach more :)
eyer @ hamsap frogs
ReplyDeleteThe outdoor shower exposed to nature, the mosquitoes didn't pay you any visit meh?
boiboiboiboi @ 1 & 2 hour massages!!!
no wor, bathing time was alright but just sitting still will get you a few bites from those pesky things. We do light up the mosquito coil to keep them away though.
ReplyDelete:D massage has become a necessity :D