Bali - Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot was the last destination during my 2-full-day Bali Trip. After a long journey from Tampak Siring, feeling hungry and enjoying the pure Balinese scenery with all of them wearing their traditional attires the whole journey there, we quickly searched for Halal dining place upon arriving.

Somehow, Masy and Zonaku vanished from our sight and we unanimously agreed that they have already gone into Tanah Lot without waiting for us. Bella said they were going to the toilet together but when she went out, they were no more. We had our lunch at one of the stall there, having our meal that we brought from Malaysia.

I think we spent more than 1 hour there, went to the toilet, performed our prayer, ate our lunch, ordered a bowl of Bakso that couldn't be finished due to the weird taste which from my tastebud, didn't really that weird..haha. The prayer room was an open wall building where we could perform ablution in the toilet 10metres away from the prayer room. There was a large picture of how Mecca was during the 60's and I wanted to take a photo of it, but completely forgotten =p.

Famished and done with our prayers, we walked slowly toward the seashore to watch the majestic view. There are stallls selling crafts, souvenirs along the way there.

This is one of the biggest shop here where you can find t-shirts and all sorts of souvenirs. It's a smaller version of Krishna. But there are things like Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt that you can't find in Krishna were sold here. I bought one and when I showed it to Jard, she was a bit furious. Ahhahaha!! Coz the cotton feel is as nice as the one he bought from the HRC official shop. Hahaha!!

This is the entrance towards the seashore. Xiyad was staring at the statue for so long and it kinda creep me out. Hahahaha!! Once we entered, we finally meet up back with Masy and Zonaku which were hungry but yet happy to explore the whole place while waiting for us to meet back. Hahahaha!! Sian~~~

The ducks were playing and drinking the clear salt water. Err salty right? It comes from the sea..haaha..I didn't really know how I could snap a nice photo to portray the story on how the ducks live peacefully by the sea here. This is just the best I could do.

The beach was filled with people. It's because that evening was the climax of the Galungan festival where we could see people coming down from the temple with their traditional attires and there were 2 huge dolls that resemble their gods were marching down.

Some of the locals were going back to their homes as the festival was nearing its end.

You can see the march was going down from the temple. There were Balinese and tourists everywhere wanting to witness the ceremony themselves.

 

Cembam and Xiyad waited me at the spot where most tourists were gathering and I went a bit deeper to the seashore to take better pictures (konon). Actually it was my first time experiencing the wave of other country's sea. A strong wave unlike Malaysian. Wooosshhhh~~~ So much fun!!

Cembam and Xiyad waited here.

Gambar lumut yang menawan. Air tengah surut when we were there so I could go further towards the ocean.

 

The wave in action..BURSHHH...SPLAASHHHHH!!!

When I saw how nice the view when you went further, I thought "it's a waste if Cembam and Xiyad are not here". So I went back to them and slowly guided Cembam with Xiyad on her chest in that carrier so she could be here as well. It's pretty slippery but carefully, we managed it just nice.

Cembam and Xiyad with the temple as the background. Xiyad was watching the strong wave!!

Xiyad still attracted by the wave

Us!! me with my HOng Kong t-shirt!!

Alhamdulillah Xiyad was inside the carrier the whole time nicely. Not being cranky. Good boy!!!

Then we took back our stroller that we placed near the tattoo stall. Thanked the guy for giving me permission place it there. We had an ice-cream there. The one like Gelato that I would always pass by whenever I went to Pavilion. So this time, I don't really think about 'mahal' coz I just want to finish my Rupiah!! Hahahaha

We bought some souvenirs from the shop I mentioned above and leaved the place around 7P.M. Our last destination!! The journey home was not that long because our Supir used a different road and we were full unlike the journey to come here where we were hungry. Hahahaha!!

Cembam wanted to have a KFC for dinner, so I bought the snack plate for her which a bit different from Malaysia. The chicken portion was also smaller to compare. Had a chat in Wafa's junior suite, eating maggie and we went to bed ready for our early morning flight. Our supirs were really punctual!! They arrived around 3 A.M.

I gave them both 50.000 rupiah each when I was shaking hand with them as our last token of appreciation for being such a nice supirs for us.  Unsure if I'm going there again..but we really had a blast!!!

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Bali - Garuda Wisnu Kencana - the gigantic monument in the making

Garuda Wisnu Kencana is a private cultural where they are in the middle of assembling a gigantic monument-in-the-making, Lord Wisnu and his Garuda.

When we arrived at the place, it was one sunny evening where most of the tourists need to put their sunglasses on. I scouted the area from outside and brought out my son's stroller. And it was not a wise decision coz the terrain was not a stroller-friendly one. I had to put it somewhere where the staff there could look after it and continued to explore the place by holding my son in turn with my wife.

Left : Lord Visnu from below

Right : One of the sacred place where they performed their respectful prayer.

 

The entrance fee is IDR 30.000 per pax. I saw a picture in the google where tourist had their dinner here. "Under the sparkling star". I think if you plan to have a dinner here, it might be a good idea. Well, hoping it would be a clear starry  night.

 

 

Or you can just take some photos in front of the statue as a token of memory being here =]

The Garuda statue. It's really big and looks like one of the character in Thundercats, the one served under Mambra. Hehehehehe

 

This it the view if you are standing right in front of the Garuda statue. There are alleys on the right and the left side of the fortress-like terrain here. Each of the alley stores every parts of the monument that are still in progress

And this is the view if you are in the middle of the field.

 

 Left top : Places you could visit here

Right top : You should check the schedule before coming here if you wanna watch the dance performances.

Bottom left : It's an open air dining place. You should try the coconut drink. But well, it might not be any different than the coconut you see in your area. =p

Bottom right : Some of the souvenir shops here

For Muslims, there is a mushola here (prayer room) which is located outside of the premise next to the parking area. But in Bali, the prayer hall/place is a unisex one and they don't really provide separate rooms for male and female. The ablution area is also outside for all.

Well, I might wanna come here again once the statue has been assembled completely. It would be so gigantic for sure though. Wanna see a sneak peek on how it would look once completed? Here!!

Yeahh..this is how it would look like upon completion. You can imagine how gigantic the statue would be right?

To sum up, if you really wanna make your visit to GWK a memorable and meaningful you probably should come when the kechak dance and the Barong dance performance are being exhibit, then you had a dinner under the starry sky here.

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Bali - Hard Rock Cafe & Hotel, Kuta Beach and Krishna souvenirs emporium

Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt is a very common thing to be bought as a token of memory of being in a stranger's soil. Well not for me but for most of my friends that I know. Our first destination for the first day is the Kuta beach and the Hard Rock Cafe and Hotel just happened to be just opposite the beach. Great!!

Like any other HRC, the one in Bali is also a place where you could just take some photos and buy the HRC t-shirt. When I was out of the car, the rest of the Memuah have already vanished from my sight. So I snapped some pictures before going into the hotel. The cafe staff let us know that they were not open for business yet but I mentioned to them that I just wanna take some photos.

Then we went into the hotel. There's a circle made of guitars as the landmark in front of the hotel. Alongside of the walk towards the hotel, you can see on your right the tenants were having fun in the pool. It's a huge pool though!! If I have my tele lense with me, I would surely snap some pics!!

Hard Rock Hotel, Kuta Beach Bali


The Pub in Hard Rock Hotel Bali


Hehe..Xiyad and I. Well at least he has grown up so the camera can see his eyes. Hehe


It's bloody expensive, we can't afford it so we just take photo with it. Huhu. Sorry Xiyad.

Bella n Jard bought themselves a HRC t-shirt here. IDR 250.000. For collectors out there, you should know well before hand the price right? Well, for a collector's item it worth the money no?

After a while, we went out of the hotel and took some photos with the landmark while waiting for the others to get back from where ever they went!! Hahaha!! It was the first stop, we didn't get the chance to make an agreement on how long we should spend the time there. So, we were waiting for quite some time. I even walked up to the hotel again to look for our Supir. Huhu 

The Hard Rock Cafe, Kuta Beach Bali

 

Around Kuta Beach area. Most of the tourists rented motorcycles here

I didn't manage to take decent photos of the beach. It was scorching!! I had Xiyad with me so I ended up to have only this photo that I can considered OK to be posted. Sorry. It was really hot noon. It killed my mood to take photos of the beach.

In front of the huge HRC surfing board. From left, Cembam, Xiyad, Montok, Zona, Miyamor and Mulus!!

My son Xiyad would usually make that rock sign whenever he's sucking his fingers. But he won't do it if he was asked to =[.

After a while waiting everyone to gather back, the Supirs were no where to be found. I went back to the hotel trying to find them but to no avail. But when I went back down, they were already at the car. So next we went to Krishna souvenirs emporium!!!

Krishna is a huge souvenirs shop, open 24-hour daily. A vast selection of t-shirts. But the fridge magnets are out of anyone's tastes. Huhuhu. It's air-conditioned and we spent more than an hour inside there browsing leisurely. Nice option if the weather is so hot. I think our Supir really had to wait for so long till we finished shopping. Hehehe. But it's good though coz we don't have to allocate time for souvenirs again. At least for the t-shirts.

Then our Supir brought us to a halal restaurant where we tried the Ayam bertutu which means ayam berempah or spiced chicken. We ordere 1 whole chicken which actually not a whole chicken though. They were 2 pcs of wing portions and 2pcs of thigh portions if you know what I mean. Then we ordered some veggies and chicken soup to wet the rice. If not it would be too dry. We didn't eat the food we bought ourselves for this first-time lunch.

Our lunch!!

Es buah. Cembam's drink which in the end finished by me. It's like a fruit cocktail

Bali doesn't serve or sell Teh (tea+milk) like we usually have in Malaysia. So no teh ais. Only teh O ice with choices of with sugar or non-sugar. But the food really was nice and I couldn't believe I finished a really big portion of the food there. I'm on my way to a bigger muscular body..err I think..

Then we headed to our next destination..where? Stay tune!!

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Bali - Sanur Avenue. On-wheel Photography

6th September - 9th September were the dates that have been waited for a year. I've booked the dates by mistakenly looking at the 2012 calendar last year for the school holiday when in fact, I was actually looking at the Singapore's school holiday. Only after I finished booking that I realized it. Hahaha!! But as the wisdom said, "things happened for reason". U gonna find out the reason later =].

This is Memuah Bali trip (Memuah is a group of happy fun people that I met by blogging and eventually we became close friends in real life). I brought my wife and my little Xiyad along in this trip. Eventhough 2 days before the trip, we were stunned by a 6.4 Richter earthquake that was reported happened in Bali, but once my Supir (driver) texted me that it happened far away from the Bali island, we were relieved.

 We arrived at 10P.M, the Supir was really punctual. They have been waiting us since 6P.M!! 2 Avanzas picked us up and we went straight to our hotels. Due to 'grabbing the best deal", we had 2 different hotels to accommodate the 8 of us. 2 of us stayed at Puri Kelapa Garden Cottage and the rest of us stayed at Sanur Avenue.

 

Sanur Avenue was such a nice place to stay. The rooms are vast, the bed was big and it's really clean. The staffs are friendly, breakfasts were nice too. The breakfast was served in the living area outside of our rooms. We have a table for ourselves!!

First day. we moved at 9A:M. A bit late because my 10-month son slept late the night we arrived so he was still sleeping in the morning. I had to bath him right after he opened his eyes, poor him crying in that bath tub =[. But we had to stick with the plan though.

 

credit picture to : ArabellaMiyamor

These are our Supirs!! Ieron, left and Madi. They are punctual, friendly and really helpful. The tentative was already drafted by us before we came so the rest was up to our Supir to amend it so we could cover them in the best way possible. The first thing our Supir did was to swap the first day tentative with the 2nd day. The reason was to cover the nearest place first on the first day. Ok!! So the finalized tentative was;

Day 1 :

-Kuta Beach

-Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe

-Krishna (souvenirs emporium)
-Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park (GWK)

-Uluwatu (Kechak Dance)

Day 2 :

-Tegallalang Rice Terrace 

-Tampaksiring

-Kintamani, Mount Batur volcano

-Tanah Lot

 

For this post, please enjoy the collage of pictures I took while I was in the car. I snapped as best possible composition as I could. I call this on-wheel photography =]. 

Top left - Our Sanur Avenue from the main road

The rest of the pictures tell us the local industrial activities that the Balinese have around Sanur area. 

Top left : Not as busy as Kuala Lumpur for sure.
Top right : "Please wear helmet" awareness poster. They call it 'helm' there.
Bottom left : Puri Kelapa Garden Cottage. The place where 2 of our friends stayed for 2 nights.
Bottom right : Statues are very common things that they used to decorate their entrances, their rooms and lots more. After all Bali is the Gods Island!!

Continue in the next post!!

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