Day 4 - The evil side of Bali

Time to move to our next destination - UBUD, which is an area in the middle of Bali - the so-called center of art and culture of Bali.

Since it's a travel day, we decided to hire our local driver Deddy and have him drive us to a few destinations before checking into our next villa.

First stop - Bread store - Eddy really liked the first piece of french bread he bought 2 days ago. We found some random bakery and he bought a long french bread - 'not as good', he claims. I personally think he was just too hungry 2 days ago :)

We drove through the city of Denpasar - it had so many wonderful sculptures everywhere (like the one in the picture here). Each sculpture had some story behind it, since Bali is the 'land of Gods'.

We were then brought to Celuk (jewelry) Village and Mas (wood) Village - supposedly famous for their silver jewelry making and wood sculpturing skills. They end up to be just tourist scams - they take you to a small destination, give you a 2 minute, totally set up presentation of the art of making jewelry / sculpturing, and then take you to a shop for you to buy stuff. We left so quickly I think the village people were stunned.

On the way there Eddy spotted an art store and we stopped to check it out. There are some pretty good arts, our favorite was one of the Elephant god one. The price they wanted was a bit ridiculous though. We ended up not getting it.

We went to central UBUD for the famous 'Ibu Oka' lunch - crispy roasted pig meal, with some blood sausage and some unknown veggies. The meal is like $1.50. The place is across from Puri Palace (where the King used to live). They only open for a couple of hours during lunch. If you miss their limited servings, sorry, please come again another day. There were many locals as well as tourists enjoying this delicious meal. The pig was roasted so well that the meat peels off without any force, it was amazing...

In the early afternoon we got to Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) - it was really not interesting at all...other than a really old sculpture and a really small cave with a few elephant king statues, there really wasn't much - felt like a tourist trap to me.
Next stop is Klunkung in the District of Candidasa. It is the old court house where people used to get prosecuted. The ceiling is painted with scenes from Hell (punishment for evil doing). It was very impressive. Thumbs up.

克倫宮 - 法庭屋頂的繪畫. 有印度史詩的爭戰故事, 提醒王公貴族和平相處; 也有 警世的地獄酷刑, 告訴眾生 諸惡莫作.

Then we got to Pura Besakih - so called the Mother of All Temples - what I call the 'bad side of Bali'! All temples by now are starting to look the same, but the bad experience here is that the people here are so mean and they force you to pay money to rent salons, both male and female, and they want to charge you entrance fee, and when you get up to the temple (10 min uphill walk) there are only certain sides you can go in, you can't go to the main one (if you do they want extra money paid to this little kid who says he's the keeper of the temple) - anyway, an overall BS experience. I don't think I'll ever return to that place again.

Lastly, we got to Pura Tirtha Empul (聖泉寺) - the story for this temple is that there was an evil power that tried to poison the entire village, and the good god made water coming out of this temple 'saint water', if the village people got sick, they would come here and wash themselves here, and they would live. Even till today, villagers still believe in the healing power of this water and come to take baths in the open water here. Amazing...

Day 3 – Tanah Lot bike ride adventure

Today is a lazy day. We got up early (must be jetlag still ^_^), enjoyed our in-villa Balinese breakfast, got mixed juice and watermelon juice for a change – and fell right back asleep on the pool lounge after discovering our secret housemates – a little birdie and its mom living secretly on the poolside tree. Mother bird is smart. She would fly back to the tree, look around, then suddenly disappear. Had I not been starting at her discreetly, I would have never discovered the nest with the baby bird.

At 2pm we finally decided to get our lazy bums up and do something. Today’s plan was to either go to Tanah Lot, or walk around in Seminyak and shop at Geneva (wholesaler for little gifts). According to the villa, Tanah Lot, the temple of the Ocean, is located 45 min north west of Seminyak. After a few struggles (from Vic), we decided to ride the villa-provided mountain bikes to Tanah Lot. With a general map in hand, and a rough direction from the villa employee, we set out for our adventure of the day.

In Bali, they drive on the left
In Bali, the roads are not even
In Bali, there are motorcycles everywhere
In Bali, it is about 100F (38 Celcius) in May
In Bali, no one rides bicycles – especially on the main roads
In the whole world, riding a bike to a tourist location in the summer heat without a clear map… they call that ‘crazy’

And yet here we are, two Asian tourists with very thick sun screen lotion, riding alongside locals on motorcycles, disregarding the ‘you’re nuts’ looks, checking out the rice fields on the side while yelling ‘Turn Left’, ‘Turn Right’, ‘Are you still behind me’…

Finally I see the ocean far far ahead. We stopped for a brief water brake, all of a sudden, I had a blackout when standing up.. too dehydrated.

At last we arrive there. We parked our bikes, and went to get ticket to the humongous park.

The special place is the temple in the middle of the ocean. When the tide is down, you can walk over to the temple. Unfortunately when we got there it was high tide. We still enjoyed the view and the ocean air, and had this HUGE coconut to replenish our fluid - to be honest, I don't really like coconut unless it was really really chilled.

We then began our adventure again - going home was all about memory - there were no signs back, we had to use our memory to turn left or right. The sun was half down already and we were worried we'd get lost in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, both our memories were still kind of good and we managed to get back to the city without any wrong turns.

We biked directly to Made's Warung of Seminyak (we liked the food so much we wanted to try it again). Surprisingly, this warung was so much bigger and nicer, yet at the same price and with equally excellent food. Awesome find!! We were so hungry that we ordered a full table of food...we stuffed ourselves, and quickly rode back home - we went to bed with the amazed gazes we received from our villa staff after they heard of our adventure....

Day 2 - Seminyak and Kuta 水明漾與庫塔一日行

The result of 20 hours of flight, swimming in the afternoon sun, and a wonderful 'in-villa Balinese massage' (Eddy even started snoring because it felt so good) , we had to force ourselves up from our private massage bed for our in villa dinner (which was good, btw), though we kind of sent the food down our throats and crawled to bed.

We woke up real early the next day. The beauty of early morning sun was something we hadn't enjoyed in ages! After we ordered a Balinese and an American breakfast with mango juice, strawberry juice and coffee, we jumped in the pool for a morning swim. Soon the bell rang, and our cook came to make breakfast for us. Yes, that's right! after all, this is paradise! :)

Breakfast proved to be as wonderful as I've read on the travel forums. The sweet and spicy Balinese mie goreng (fried noodles) turned out to be the best of the whole trip (as I think back now), the juices were tropical as they should be, and the Bali coffee will surely wake you if you were still half asleep ;)

二十小時的飛行加上昨天玩水一下午又享受了雙人按摩後太舒服的結果是幾乎閉著眼把送進villa的美食草草吞下肚, 晚上九點不到兩人就癱軟在美麗浪漫的公主床裡一覺到天明.

天才剛亮的六點多兩個人就醒了. 很久沒享受到清晨的感覺, 倆人興奮的討論早餐要吃甚麼. 決定先來一份美式一份巴里式早餐(Mie Goreng), 加上芒果汁, 草莓汁及咖啡. 不一會兒廚師就來按門鈴了.
沒錯! 廚師是到你villa來料理早餐的, 不然就不叫天堂了:) 今天的早餐是超美味的一餐 (日後證實不知為何villa第一次早餐都會特別棒). 那甜中帶辣又口感超棒的印尼炒麵(Mie Goreng), 簡直讓人欲罷不能! 果汁也很香濃, 果然印證了我在小記上讀過千遍的傳說. 真是百聞不如一'吃'啊 :)


After breakfast we spend some more time at the pool and took a little nap before we set out to discover Seminyak and Kuta. Our plan is to stroll south along Seminyak beach (5 min walk from our villa) until we hit Kuta. The weather was super hot, you're about half wet as soon as you step out onto the road. Roads are fairly small in Bali, and not very well maintained. We found some cows in a field right before we hit the beach. It's an interesting phenomena to see cows, villas, farm land and five star beach resorts all together.

The beach was interesting too. Very pretty near where we live (Northern Seminyak), but as you approach Kuta beach, the sand starts getting dirtier, and hawkers start approaching you from out of nowhere. Kuta streets are very small and narrow. Overall, it kind of feels like Taiwan 20 years ago.

After a couple of hours of walking, we're already starving and the few juices that we found were not cold!! How do people even drink that in a 35 degree weather like this?! We're starting to miss our villa already :) Wish that pool was in front of us! Finally we found the famous Poppies restaurant, hidden in this tiny little road that didn't seem like a road. Poppies has a really romantic environment with lush tropical garden and cute fish pond in a hidden environment, but we thought the food was just ok and a bit overpriced.

After lunch we set out for Matahari - Bali's supermarket/Mall type of place. This one in Kuta is a popular and touristic one, almost every shop owner speak fairly good English. We tried to look for phone chips but it didn't work, so we gave up, and started looking for avocado smoothy instead. We found it in the restaurant next to Matahari. I believe the owner is Taiwanese. The smoothie was thick and tasty and they put chocolate in it. It was the best drink in Kuta so far.

We walked around in Matahari for the afternoon and didn't really find anything interesting. We were mostly just looking around to see what Bali has to offer. One thing I noticed was that they have a lot of sex symbol toys and sculptures everywhere. Very odd for a conservative place like Bali, I must say.

Finally it was night time and as we wandered back to a packed, seemingly popular restaurant that we had discovered earlier while strolling the streets. We then found out it was the popular and famous Made's Warung (warung means store, stand or restaurant in indonesian), I was happy because I did research on it and they supposedly had very good and cheap food - which they did have, indeed. This is a relaxing restaurant that encourages you to share tables with strangers and meet new friends while you're dining. We ordered Nasi Campur - a rice dish with 5, 6 different sides like curry and peanuts and vegie and fish to go with rice. They also had spare ribs in young papaya that turned out to be my most favorite dish.

After dinner we had no more energy to walk back, so we used the restaurant phone to call our villa, and they came to pick us up - what service eh?! :) They served us our afternoon tea eventhough it was 9pm, and we
played in the pool first before enjoying a nice bubble bath in the huge outdoor bathtub, with chilled champagne and the stars above us...

Life is gooood.....

吃過美味的早餐, 玩玩水又在池邊躺椅上睡回籠覺後才慢吞吞的出門. 兩人決定放棄免費的專車, 要慢慢沿海散步到庫塔去. 雖然有點遠, 又熱, 巴里的路又小又沒維修, 我們仍決定這是最佳城市探險方式. 不然如何看的到路邊田裡的牛寶寶望著對面的別墅, 緊臨著五星級海濱飯店, 中間夾雜著矮屋, 還有無所不在的大小廟宇呢!! 水明漾的海邊蠻幽靜, 也乾淨, 越往庫塔沙灘便越髒亂, 小販也多許多不時來跟著你. 我們走走停停約兩小時到庫塔市中心, 喝了很多現打果汁都差強人意, 主要都不冰, 等我們找到網上出名的Poppies Restaurant 以快餓扁了. 庭園式的Poppies 很美, 滿園綠綠的花樹加上小池塘營造出很棒又羅曼蒂克的氣氛, 不過食物倒是差強人意沒啥特別, 價格也蠻'觀光'的. 一至認為ok罷了.

吃玩後又晃到太陽百貨(Matahari, 巴里的百貨公司). 聽說附近有好喝的酪梨汁, 找很久才找到. 果然又冰又濃又好喝. 終於有心情逛街了 :) 太陽百貨還不錯逛, 後悔沒買一組超可愛木雕牛家庭. 最特別是很多男性特徵樣子的雕塑, 在保守的巴里顯得蠻怪的.

逛到晚上去中午經過時很多人的餐廳才發現它就是我想去的Made's Warung. 它以隨意的氣氛, 平易近人的價位及鼓勵併桌交朋友的方式出名, 果然不讓人失望. 它的青木瓜排骨湯讓我現在想到還會流口水呢!!

吃完飯打電話請villa來載我們, 因為走不回去了. 有人隨時服侍的感覺還真棒呢:) 回家後villa又送上下午茶, 我們又和星星夜游一會才到大浴缸裡喝香檳洗泡沫澡, 唉, 還是老話一句, 人間天堂啊...

Amazing Villa Ulin

During our 12 days stay in Bali, We stayed in three different villas. The first villa is Villa Ulin in Seminyak. Located in the west side of Bali, Seminyak is a booming town with lots of European/balinese mixed styled villas.

When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed with a cold drink before our butler took us to our honeymoon villa #8. I've seen many pictures of Villa Ulin online, but when the villa appeared in front of us, all we could do is repeat the word 'Wau'. Especially Eddy, he couldn't stop complimenting the place!!

First in sight is the open air, fully equipped kitchen on one side of the pool, then the infinity pool which Eddy couldn't wait to dive into, and our own private massage parlor (where we had the best balinese massage that very same night) on the other side. Inside the house is a small but well decorated living room, adjacent by the bedroom with an aweome Pricess bed overlooking the pool, followed by the third room with closet and european style dual sinks . Where's the bathroom?? Open the door in the third room, and you will see a HUGE, dreamy roman bathtub full of rose pedals, a western style shower and bathroom, all in open air. Talk about a la mode Naturel :)

We were given a bottle of red Balinese wine as honeymoon gift, there were 12 drinks and a couple of bags of snacks in the fridget, all complimentary and refilled daily. We also have complimentary daily afternoon teas, which we can have at anytime during the day, and a one time 1 hour full body massage for 2. We quickly decided to stay in, have the massage (which turned out to be one of the best massages we've had in our trip), and have dinner in our lovely villa.

我們的第一棟私人別墅 Villa Ulin位於巴里島西岸的水明漾區. 近兩年來在Kuta被炸兩次後, 歐洲人投資移到Kuta以北的水明漾區, 建造出許多現代感強烈又不失巴里風味的私人別墅.

當我們踏進Villa Ulin #8 時, 口中只能不斷的發出讚嘆的 '啊' 聲. 一進門就映入眼前的私人無邊際泳池, 池邊有可放平的躺椅, 半戶外的廚房及餐廳, 美麗的庭園造景, 竟然還有私人的按摩涼亭和按摩床, 簡直豪華透頂!

不過這還沒甚麼, 進了小而巧的客廳, 隔壁就是臥室. 告訴你一個秘密...當期待已久的公主床出現在你面前時, 心裡會有一種莫名的幸福與感動! 而充滿玫瑰花瓣的羅馬式澡池, 更是將蜜月氣氛提到百分之百.

當我們管家告訴我們, 桌上一瓶紅酒是送我們的蜜月禮物, 冰箱裡的十二罐各式各樣的汽水及多種零食都是免費並且每天補充, 還有免費下午茶可以隨時送來, 並問專人按摩要排幾點鐘時, 我們知道, 巴里島傳說中的天堂就是這裡了...

Our 1 month long honeymoon

May 3 - Honeymoon here we come!
After almost 4 months of waiting and planning, we're finally on the way to our honeymoon. 14 hours LAX to Taipei, 3 hours wait at the airport, and 5 more hours from Taipei to Bali. All this effort to the other side of the world, just for the world famous 'villas' in Bali, the Twin Towers of Kuala Lampur, the nature of Chiang Mai and the impressive Bangkok.

On our comfy flight across the Pacific, Eddy is happily pretending that he reads Chinese magazine.

經過幾個月的準備及盼望終於開始了我們的蜜月旅行. 此行目的地 - 風聞已久的巴里島, 東西合併的吉隆坡, 純樸自然的清邁, 及日漸繁華的曼谷. 看Eddy笑得那麼開心在翻他完全看不懂的中文雜誌, 就知道他心情多棒了.

May 4 - Day 1 in Bali
After many movies and naps on the plane, we finally got to Bali'. The visa process was fairly fast. Bali people are all pretty friendly. The workers heard we were in our honeymoon, and told us to 'make lots of Bali babies'. Haha. Funny Balinese ;)

Our local agent John sent his driver 'Dedy' to pick us up from the airport. Dedy, nice and genuine young man, was waiting near the supposedly Bali-famous Dunkin Donuts at the airport with our name sign held up high. First he took us to a safe money exchange place, and we instantly became multi-millionaires. Like Eddy says, we're millionaire... in Bali only :)

We then asked Dedy to take us to a supermarket to buy some drinks and insect repellet - it was super hot and humid, and we heard about the 'friendliness' of the Bali mosquitos ... On top of coke and mosquito repellent, we also bought a bottle of Bali champagne to celebrate our honeymoon.

At the cashier, we were supposed to get like Rp 10,450 back, we got Rp 10,200 plus 2 candies. We were puzzled...we didn't want any candies. We thought they were cheating us because we were tourists, so we went back to ask for the extra Rp 250 that they need to give us. We didn't want no candies! The cashier spoke no English and we were pointing at the receipt and showing them the change we got. She finally took back the candies and gave us two more Rp 100 coins and said 'understand?', we said... no, we don't understand, and walked out thinking 'we're so smart...

When we told Dedy (who was waiting outside), he said that the Rp 100 is so small and useless that sometimes they will give candies to replace it. It's part of the custom. We felt really embarrassed. How come no one mentioned that on the travel forum? hahaha.. guess that's our first Bali adventure.

經過好多部電影及好多飛機餐後終於到達天氣很熱的巴里島. 過海關速度還蠻快的. 辦公人員聽到我們是來渡蜜月的都很高興的恭喜我們, 然後一致都說'多做幾個巴里寶寶喔'. 哈哈, 超熱情的巴里人 :).

一出關不一會就看到寫我名字的牌子. 我連絡的當地agent John照約定請他一個司機Dedy來接我們去我們訂的私人別墅. 免費的呢! Dedy 人好, 又老實, 一路上告訴我們許多當地習俗等. 我們先請他順路帶我們去換錢. $US 1 換 8800 盧比. 換一百多就成了百萬富翁啦! 真爽 :)

成了百萬富翁後就又順道去當地超市買些防蚊液, 可樂, 巴里香檳等. 算完帳後要找一萬四百五回來, 收銀小姐卻給我們一萬二百外加兩顆糖. 我們想, 又沒要買糖幹麼給我糖又少找錢, 是不是看我們是遊客要強賣糖? 又折回去找收銀小姐, 比手劃腳一陣後,她嘆了一聲, 拿回了糖, 給了兩個100銅板, 說了句 'understand?' 我們還是一臉茫然的說 'no', 心裡暗想還好有注意沒被當凱子. 沒想到回到車上 Dedy 才說用糖果代替一百元銅板是很正常的事, 因為一百元盧比大概就只值一顆糖. 哇哩勒, 早說嘛! 本姑娘現在可是百萬富翁, 要不是聽過太多 '巴里賺錢魔術', 哪會在意區區兩顆糖呢!! 好吧! 巴里行第一堂客 - '小錢 = 糖果'. :)