Pulau Bali - Pulau Dewata

Isla Bali - La Isla de Dios | 巴里島-神島

From the airport, we were taken to Kuta seaview hotel. I walked to the concierge and show them the voucher Fung had booked for me from Jakarta. They gave us both a hot towel to sooth our exhaustion of long travel and hand us the key to the room and the breakfast voucher in an envelop. The room boy took us to our room, rested our baggage on the divan, and switched on the lamp. I gave him some tip and he went off as we unpacked and got a shower.




After the shower, we went out to the lobby and inquired about the tour service. We were told that we can hire a cab for the entire day or 8 hours for three hundred thousand rups. We haggled a bit and told them we would reconfirm after we come back from lunch. We went down to the Kuta street, as we walked down, a girl from Made's travel held us down and tried to sell us their tour package. We politely decline their service and instead asked them for direction of nearest resto. We walked down to Poppies lane 2 where a nice open air resto is situated. I ordered a pork satay for myself and a gado-gado for Vicky plus a Balihai to quench the thirst. Drawing from my wallet to pay the bill, we left the resto and windowshopped down Poppies lane 2. There were a lot of shop selling souvenirs. We soon got Vicky some nice loose kains, and I got myself an easy leather sandal. We walked down to the minimart and got some sunscreen and drinks afterwhich we went back to the hotel room for a rest.



We got out of our room after a while to the swimming pool. Lot's of bule from Ozzy suntanning on the their bench. I brought a book with me to read while lying one of the bench. We took a couple of dips in the pool. I didn't know how to swim :-( so I just wallowed like bull. I drained myself on the bench and enjoy our pack of Djisamsoe, only smoke for ocassion. I've quitted smoking for a long time now. Vicky swam quite well. At least she could float, and I couldn't. After I finish my bottle of balihai we went back to our room, shower and went to bed. We woke up at seven pm and had our dinner at Mc Donald Kuta. Only in Indonesia, you got rice served at Mac Donald. (Liza Correction: rice is also served in mcd philippines) Yeah, it's really junk. I had to go back and forth adding water to my soup coz it was too salty. But we were lucky to get an extra ice cream cone, coz the waiter past their 60 seconds serving time.



We strolled down Kuta beach but it was too late and dark so we changed our direction and went down to Pasar Legian. We went to a shop that sells all kind of souvenirs at fixed price. We bought some milk Lulur for masking and body massage. We also bought some oil and perfumeries. It was not long and they're closing shop coz it was already eleven pm. We walked back to our hotel past thru the still busy Kuta street and Hard rock hotel. We turned in right after we tried our Lulur :-)



We woke up late the next morning the tour guy had to give us a call. We got ready soon and went to the hotel resto for free breakfast. The drivers were waiting in the front of the hotel. We paid the tour guy all the fees and got on the Kijang. The driver first took us to Batubulan where we see ex presidential palace and bought some batik. We continued our way to Celug, where they made silver handycrafts. I bought Vicky an earrings and we went on to Ubud area. We ate at the sidewalk stall that sells babi guling - suckling pig. Balinese food is a bit salty for us. We walked across the stalls and toured pasar Ubud, a market that sold traditional Balinese souvenirs at a very cheap price. We bought some kains, sarongs, and cat's scuplture there before we went back to the car. Our haggling skills came in handy. A wooden carved flute was offered at 75,000 rups, but we bought it at 20,000 rups.



From Ubud, we went to Tegalalang. On the way, Vicky keeps appreciating the cat's sculpture everywhere. There were so many shops that made and sold scupture to order. When we reached Tegalalang, we stepped down to the steep valley bank. The locals farmers were peddling their coconut fresh from the tree. I bought two fresh coconut and ate the coconut meat using the splinter cut from its shell. Vicky really enjoyed the young coconut meat. You couldn't find it in Taipei. Taiwan's coconut got no meat. We took pictures here at Tegalalang because the cascading ricefield view is really beautiful. I met some Indonesian tourist from Kobe who kept speaking Japanese. Bad for me too, during this trip with vicky, I spoke more Chinese than Indonesian.



We headed straight to Kintamani fearing that it maybe too late and rainy that we couldn't see the nice view of Gunung Batur, the great volcano and Danao batur, the crater lake. We stopped at the parking lot near Park View Restaurant and were chased by street peddlers. I was so angry we went back to the car and parked some place else. We found a better spot where no peddlers around and enjoy the view of Gunung and Danau Batur. A tour leader passed by and told us history of Gunung Batur. We took pictures and went back to the car.



The driver said he wanted to take us to Tampak Siring, it's a nice Pura where they had a water fountain devotion. We took pictures at the fountain and met some Taiwanese tourist from Kaohsiung. Vicky were happy to meet some co-villagers. When we entered the Pura, we were required to wear kain band at our waist. This is Balinese tradition to respect the temple. We still had little time after and stopped at a Painting Gallery. There were a lot of painting to be seen, but we're no curator, and we weren't buying. We only appreciated the sales politesse and we excused ourselves and headed back to Kuta.



It was pretty late when we got back to our hotel but we still took the time to go out. We went down different direction and swept the entire Legian market, and Kuta's small lanes. We stopped at a small saloon to give me a haircut, and we continued windowshopping until our stomach sang "Bengawan solo". I first saw a Dunkin donuts and went in to quench our appetite with all kinds of flavor. After the donuts we sat down the tatami in a small Sushi resto where we ordered a Big Sushii buffet and miso shiro. I also ordered my favorite Ocha. Full with the dinner, we took a leave and visited Hard Rock Hotel Souvenir shop and back to our hotel thru the makeshift of drainage repairs.



The next morning, we hired the cab for four hours to take us to Pasar Kumbasari in Denpasar, to a Pura and Museum, to Buddhist temple, and to Joger's Pabrik kata kata. At Pasar Kumbasari we saw a grocery store that sells all kind of Balinese handycraft at very cheap fixed price. They seem to sell their stuffs worldwide. I had their namecard saying they have an office in Princeton Calfornia. At Joger's we were delighted with the message on their T'shirts. I bought a Flu Burung-bird flu t'shirt with a message Burung kami sehat-sehat saja- Our bird is all fit and fidlle. From Joger the the driver took us straight to the Airport where we bid farewell to Bali, the island of Gods.

We reached Jakarta late at eleven pm and went straight to bed after we packed all our stuff. The morning after we have to prepare for our flight back to Taiwan. In the morning, Andre and Frida came to pick us up for a Dimsum at Samudra in Angrek mall. We filled our palate there and went down to Gramedia for some linguistics books I want to buy. After that, Andre drove us to the CGK airport and we bid farewell to eachother. Our flight CX766 had a transfer in HK, and we arrived in Taipei about midnight. It was quite a long and packed trip, and we enjoyed it. So long Jakarta, See you Bali.

ax