Monday, May 11, 2009

Bali trip

The day after I came back from JB/Nusajaya, I went to Bali with Ayu. It was my first visit to Bali and also my first flight on Airasia. My view on low cost flying? Now everybody can fly! Including infectious germs. Good thing they 'fog' the cabin with disinfectants before take-off. Funny how some people thought it was part of the airline's gimmick and special effects. Btw, I never thought I could eat maggi 20,000 feet up in the sky. I'm sure it will make you feel at home right away..hahaha.

We stayed at Barong Resort in Ubud. Most Malaysians like to stay in Jimbaran, Seminyak or any other places closer to the beach. But I don't like crowded beaches and I want to stay near the padi fields. Ayu didn't like this idea. To her we could always go back to Kedah to look at sawah padi. I told her Kedah doesn't have padi bukit.

entrance to our villa...and the public pool
Villa comes with private pool...
I was shocked to see this boutique next to our hotel...Ayu was drooling..

Ubud is located about an hour drive from the airport. As soon as we reached the hotel, we knew we picked the right accommodation. I won't say much, just look at the pictures. The hotel's location is midway along monkey forest street. The public park is 100 metres to the south and the famous Ubud market is 100 metres to the north. Ayu was extra excited because Uluwatu boutique is just next door. Tak ku sangka...

the famous Ubud market... beli kain...
If you like arts and handicrafts, then Ubud is the place for you. We could have spent whole 3 days just exploring Ubud. But since it was our first trip to Bali, we hired a car and a driver to experience everything we could. So we went to all the usual tourist spots. We were very very close to wake up early in the morning and scale up a volcanic mountain to catch the sunrise. But it would be too much for both of us.

buffet lunch with a view...we wanted to climb this mountain, tapi takut tak larat..

sunset at tanah lot...


Good thing we made the trip short. Not that I didn't like the place but the longer we stay, I'm not only burning my pockets, I might burn my pants and underwear to ashes as well. Unless you have deep pockets that run through your legs, 2 nights are just right to keep it within reasonable budget. It depends on what you want to do really. I wanted to look at landscapes and Ayu wanted to shop in markets and bazaars. At Ubud, we both got a bit of what we wanted.

kopi luak anyone? seafood lunch at Jimbaran beach...Ayu had lobster that day...

Weather was sunny and it hasn't been raining for quite awhile. I don't like the idea of wearing shades. Everywhere I go (not just Bali), I want to see landscapes as it is, in it's glorifying natural colours. Unfortunately this comes with an expense. It was here in Bali that I first noticed something peculiar with my eye sight. After we came back, the symptom persisted. One visit to the specialist, I was diagnosed with retinal detachment.

It's unfortunate for this to happened and it took away some excitement after coming back home. But I'm thankful that it happened now for me to treat it early. If not I wouldn't have known both of my eyes are affected and its too late for any kind of treatment. Anyway, Bali was a good trip and we will definitely go back one day. To me I can say that literally, there was more about Bali than meets the eye!

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