And wtfish to myself for not taking picture while having breakfast! #@$(*&(*!!!!

After breakfast, all of us walked to Kuta beach with the intention of taking a very nice group shoot there. Almost of us wore the white shirt we bought at Sukawati Market and I realised that Jess and I were almost identical in clothing! Haha!

Finally reached and stepping on Kuta beach!

When we reach Kuta beach, we were very disappointed. We expected to see clean, white beach but all we could see was piles and piles of rubbish! Apparently, the month that we went there weren’t right as it was the rainy season and the waves was so rough and choppy that month the sea would ‘vomit’ out all the rubbishes to the shore.

But we applauded the hard work of the Balinese people as they religiously sweep and clean the beach everyday to clear of the rubbish. Imagine if this happen in Batu Ferringhi, probably no one would even bother to do so except for a clean-up gotong-royong like once every 3-4 months? -.-”

Nevertheless, we still took a lot of pictures there.

All can only swim at the area bordered by 2 red flags. Otherwise, face the risk of being swept away by strong undercurrent or being hit unconsciously by rock. Don’t say I never give warning ah!

Like a small child, I went about to look for a wood twig and wrote my name on the sand to leave a temporary footprint on the beach.

Satisfied, I added in Sat’s. Then we took picture of our names with our foot in it. Lololololololol!

And I took picture of AL writing her name.

One thing good about visiting the Kuta beach during this season is able to watch people learning surfing! We saw a group of people trying to surf at that time and those with super LONGGGG lens took few closed up pictures of the surfers.

I on the other way, had to take the ‘whole’ picture of the surfers as I mounted wide angle on my camera body.

Somehow I got bored with shooting the surfers in whole; I turned my interest to a dead puffer fish. See, closed up shoot! Lol!

Then we explored a little bit more by walking down the beach. Off and on people would just jog passed us; local started preparing their stall for the day; some did offering on the beach.

After that we walked back to the hotel. Along the way, I saw a beautiful dress hanging at a shop and I went in to enquiry about it. We haggled a little, and when Emily said she wanted to get one too, we offered her an attractive price at 200.000 Rupiah in total. The shop owner finally agreed and I left with wide grin on my face. Why?

Because Sat paid for the dress! Yippee!

While we were haggling prices with the lady shop owner, the group split up. Some went directly back to the hotel; some went for a little exploration in Kuta. After securing a good deal, we stopped by McDonalds again because someone needed his fix. Lol!

Seeing that we have about 2 more hours to spend, we wandered around Kuta too. And we stumbled upon a marketplace! And there are like plenty of souvenirs and T-shirts which I feel like buying but couldn’t because I have no money. Sat eyed on a Bintang shirt there after much bargaining, the price is still high for that type of quality. But knowing that that’s the least price the lady could offer, we got no choice but to comply. Of course if we feel it’s not worth it we could walk away, but since that’s the last time we could shop in Bali (who knows when will we come back again) Sat just paid her the said price.

Situated opposite the street market, there’s a posh looking souvenir shop which offers goods at affordable price. The goods sold there are of good quality and it smells good too even though I know the smell probably came from the incense/joss-sticks offered by the local early in the morning. Lol!

4 of us spent quite some time in the shop. After realizing we had little time left to shower and pack up; we quickly paid for our stuff and walked back to the hotel.

Once reached at the hotel, we saw Lasker and Elise happily sipping their welcome drink by the pool. We totally forgot about our welcome drink which we haven’t claimed yet! Sat immediately went to claim them from the cafeteria. When the drink came, all of us toasted for the smoothness of this trip and the rest continued talking and giggling while I feasting my eyes at the angmoh ladies who were sunbathing at the lazy chair while drinking. Lol.

Then it was the time to go. Sadly, all of us went up to the rooms to have a quick shower, packed our bags and then gathered at the hotel’s lobby after checking out. Yoga was waiting for us there and all of us followed him to the van and off we went to the airport.

Everyone was feeling sad to leave this beautiful country. Along the way to the airport, we quickly collect tips for Yoga and the Mr van driver for their excellent services. We then passed to them when we’ve arrived in the airport. Before saying goodbye, we took like more than 10 group shoots together with Yoga and Mr van driver in front of the van.

I seriously don’t know how many shoots were taken as David set his DSLR on timer and it just clicked away! Lol!

We then went in to check-in, paid the airport tax of 150.000 Rupiah (my rate at that time was RM55.50) and in return, they gave us a very nice looking sticker! Heehee!

My bag weighted like 10.8kg! (I foresee for my China trip next year my bag’s weight will be nearing 15kg)

We had lunch at one of the airport restaurant where Sat and I shared a meal. Paid like 4USD for it. Pff!

After lunch, we walked towards the boarding hall. In front us (Sat and me) were a group of Indians who were arguing with the AirAsia’s stewardesses because they were not allowed to bring in a bottle of CK perfume into the plane. Since the CK perfume bottle she got is the big bottle (75ml), the stewardesses on duty obviously didn’t allow them to board the plane with the perfume. Apparently they claimed that they bought the perfume at the airport and that’s why they couldn’t check the perfume in – or they claimed so. Lol.

In the end, the young Indian lady just threw that bottle in the dustbin, and all of them entered the plane with long, black faces.

Both Sat and me was like wtfish? Lol!

We both agreed that later someone would just take the bottle from the dustbin and use it since it’s new. We thought the lady should just open up the bottle and pour out the content into the dustbin. It’ll be like – if you don’t want me to bring it in, then nobody else will allow using it. Lololololololol!

The flight back home was a smooth one. We reached LCCT on time and then boarded our next flight to Penang 2-3 hours later.

For this trip, I’ve spent like probably RM1,800++ for 6 flights, a 4D3N Bali tour, accommodation in Yogya and Jakarta, food, souvenirs, transportation around and unforeseen expenses like D60 battery. Lololololol!

Hooray! Finally the chapters of Indonesia trip are done. Now I can open a new ‘book’ and probably could start writing them next month! Anyway, if you missed out any of the posts, please do click at the links below.

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The journey to Legion Street somehow felt shorter. Probably the chat we had in the van made it shorter. I remembered us talking about the dessert we had in Yogyakarta, ronde to Yoga and Mr. Van driver.

We even asked them if we could find ronde in Bali since we were sort of carving for it. Sadly, ronde could only be found somewhere in Java especially in Yogyakarta as it’s a Javanese dish. Hearing that, we felt fortunate for able to try a local specialty in Yogya!

Mr Van driver revealed that he knows how to make that and revealed that it’s actually easy to do!

The moment our van entered Jl. Legian, we were excited and can’t wait to explore this street. The area is bursting with live as the whole street is aligned with pubs, shops, clubs, and restaurants on both sides!

Yoga briefed us on the bombing at Legian Street in 2002 and little did I know that the van actually stopped right opposite one of the bombed locations. I felt eerie looking at that place, even though the place is fenced with zinc board. A red banner hangs at the zinc board speaks of peace and criticises the act of bombing.

We got down and I was super fascinated with the colourful laser lights dancing shown from the top of the restaurant (where the van stopped at) onto the pavement. I think I did take pictures of the lights, but I can’t find them in my folder. Hmm.

Yoga then let us to explore the place on our own and even gave us direction to walk back to the hotel as he and Mr. Van driver will only meet us the next day. He even asked us to walk to the end of the street to have a look at the memorial of the 2002 bombing which is situated just few steps away.

So we did. We bid them goodbye and walked towards the memorial. The memorial is beautifully decorated, but somehow I felt eerie looking at the memorial. Right now, when I’m writing this, I managed to find the logic behind the eerie feeling. The memorial is built exactly on the bombing site, the Paddy’s Pub (source from Wikipedia). No wonder I never feel like taking picture of the memorial despite how beautiful it is.

We were indecisive on where to do. Since most of us have different interest on where to go, we decided to split up. Sat, Ailing, Emily and I decided to Touch&Go the shops in Legian. Major of them settled for barbeque ribs as recommended by David’s friend in one of the restaurant there. Another gang disappeared not long after that. We didn’t manage to bump into them, so we have totally no idea where they went. I was told later, they did exploring like what we did, but went back to hotel earlier.

Exploring Legian is fun. There are many things to see. We bargained price for souvenirs with the street vendors.

We got cute magnet fridge here!

One of the unforgettable was to walk into one of the dark alley to change money. -.-“

The story is like this. We wanted to change money as we brought USD with us. As we were walking, we stumbled upon this wooden chart at the street showing good exchange rate with an arrow pointing into the alley. Didn’t know why, we just walked into the alley and found the shop. However, the shop doesn’t look like the normal money changer booth. It’s has a high long counter and best of all, there’s nobody in the shop.

Just when we were about to walk off, someone saw us and shouted for his friend. Then two entered and asked how much we want to change. We asked them how much Rupiah we could get for 100 dollars. They punched the calculator and showed us the amount. Something just prompted me to take my ipod and calculate the rate back. I found out that the rate is LOWER than the chart showed in front. I showed to the rest. Then all of us felt potongstim and quickly walked out of the shop.

We continued walking until we reached a mini-market. All of us walked in since Sat was thirsty. At the end of the shop, there’s a “Money Changer” sign. So we asked the cashier and someone walked in. We asked for the rate. The rate is not that favourable too, but it’s better than the one offered earlier. We wanted to change USD50 only, but we were told they only accept USD100. We were dumbstruck, but eventually agreed. The guy went in to get the money.

However he took quite long that we felt potongstim and left the place.

This place is super happening I tell yo!

We stopped by a tour operator booth to simply check out the price and the activities offered. Then we asked them on where we can find a money changer booth. They then advised us to go for the legal money changer booth, as most operates illegal ones and they charged certain % for commission.

Hearing what they said made us finally realised why the amount showed by the dark-alley-money-changer-shop is lower. They included in commission fee, thus we get lesser than it should be. The guys at the operator booth asked us to look for the ones that show NO COMMISSION! They even pointed us a legal one which is located at the left side of the road upon turning right at the end of Legian Street.

With no idea where it is, we thanked them and then continued walking. Little did we know from Legian, we’ve reached Kuta. We couldn’t find the money changer. Hmm.

We would have continued walking towards the Kuta beach if someone didn’t suggest returning to our hotel to put our backpacks first. So we did, walked past the shop lots bearing big brands along Jl. Bakungsari and stopped abruptly at the Nike shop to check out the price. True enough, the price is slightly cheaper but nobody seemed to be interested in getting the goods there so we walked out of the shop with the salesgirls looking at us pitifully (it’s very hard since they gave such a good customer service), promised to check them out later after putting our bags.

We never came back.

After dumping our bags in the rooms including my camera gear (which explains not much picture of where we went after this sentence), we headed towards Kuta beach; smartly avoiding the Nike shop by taking the street opposite the shoplot. Lol.

It was windy when walking on the road along Kuta beach. Our initial motive was to look for a pub to have a drink, but we can only come across high class pubs/restaurants. Kuta Beach Street is so unlike Legian Street where one can find abundant pubs and restaurants like the Pub Street in Siem Reap.

But we managed to spot a McDonald’s outlet there and my, it was crowded! All went in for ice-cream and the ice-cream was slightly cheaper there. 5.500 Rupiah (RM2) for a double twist of vanilla sundae. Mm~

Done with the ice-cream, we walked a few steps further before deciding to walk back to our hotel room. We took our own sweet time walking, enjoying the strong wind coming from the Kuta beach. We laughed, giggled, cracked jokes nonstop. My, I never felt so relaxed before.

On the way back, we bumped into Daniel, David and William. Apparently they’re looking for a little massage at those massage parlour. Since we spotted few at Kuta beach, we suggested them to go there.

Believe it or not, we… or should I say Sat stopped for another round of ice-cream! It seemed like he couldn’t resist the temptation of MCD ice-cream. But before that, we stopped by Circle K for some beers and drinks. The store is something like 7/11. Beside the store is an ice-cream parlour. Can’t remember the name, but I remembered craving for its sorbet. Weird night craving in Kuta. Lol.

While Sat enjoying his ice-cream at McDonald’s outlet in Kuta town, the rest of us were having beers. I don’t really like beer, but just want to try their local beer for once so I bought it. Lol.

Once finishing the beers, we continued walking until we reached a tattoo parlour in front of the hotel. We contemplated awhile before entering.  Ailing and Emily decided to ‘tattoo’ themselves with henna ink. After agreeing on the price, Ailing sat on the ‘dentist chair’ (Lol) and the man with thousand tattoos on his body started putting henna on her wrist.

I don’t understand why tattoo parlour owner has lots tattoos on their bodies. It’s like a trademark thing is it? Hmm…

After Ailing’s, it was Emily’s turn. While Ai Ling and I waited for the guy to finish up Emily’s henna, Sat went out to the cybercafe to revive his iPhone back. His iPhone was super troublesome that time but luckily it didn’t give any trouble at Philippines. Keke!

Both Ailing and Emily were happy with their henna, but they were told to only take bath after an hour later. So we hang out at the hotel pool area; enjoying the silent of the night. Half of me felt like sleeping at the lazy pool chair but other part of me was worried over Sat’s safety. I have totally no way of contacting him or knowing where he goes. All I can do was to keep assuring myself that he’ll be safe and sound.

Soon mind began super tired and all agreed to head back to the room. I quickly showered and crawled to my bed.

Glad to know Sat came back soon after I konked.

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And guess what came out?

Category : Tasteless?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

What a day to start my Monday. Lol!

Cut all the crap, let me show you the dimsum from Foh San!

The siumai looked pale compared to the one I had in Yoke Fook Moon and Chaw Choon (the famous dimsum restaurant in Butterworth) but tastewise it’s almost the same. Same ingredient mah. Lol.

Mmm~ Delicious but somehow it’s a little bit salty for me. The dimsum I’m going to show you next are the more creative ones. The fried pancake with black pepper sauce and beehive lou mai kai (sticky glutinous rice with chicken wrapped with pao skin).

The 3 sauce chee-cheong fun is yummylicious! But one can’t eat this too much, or else will feel jelak. Go in big group where you can taste many types of dimsum in small serving. That way, the dimsum taste will be memorable and one somehow craved for it. Like how I crave for the honeydew glazed popiah. Lol

It was super packed that day. We had to wait more than 30 minutes for a table because everyone was taking their own sweet time drinking tea even after finishing all the dimsum. The worst thing is, the table we waited for more than 30 minutes almost being ’snatched’ by an aunty who only waited like 5 minutes there. Realising that the people at the next table ate quicker, that aunty suddenly moved to the back, turned her body and waited for that table instead. And the funny thing was, she suddenly talked to the people at that table and then sat on the empty chair like she knows them for ages. And that’s how she got a table for her family.

My sister and I were like wtfish!? New method of getting a place? Lol!

I took the picture after nom-noming halfway. Even at 11 something in the morning, people would still coming in. It made me wonder if they’re there for breakfast or brunch or lunch?

I especially love the dessert above. Cold, honeydew sauce glazed over popiah skin with chicken floss and cucumber filling. Mm~ I have the urge of having that again. T_T

Besides the sweet honeydew popiah savoury, we have two other desserts. Milk custard and fruit jelly.

By the time we finished up the jelly, everyone waved white flag and decided not to noms anymore. But since I’ve made a long list of must-eat, I told them no matter what, the food-hunt must ‘go’ on. Lol. Reluctantly they agreed and off we went to the next destination that I’ll feature in the next post.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/ipoh-dimsum-part-ii/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/tooth/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/tooth/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:00:17 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=2022

The root of all problems. -.-”

Well, actually it’s the another tooth, but this good-condition-tooth ought to solve it all – or as Dr Dentist claimed so. Haha.

Ah well, if I settled it earlier, I would have save like RM300 for the gum-laser and last week’s swelling jab. If only I was braver.

T_T

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/tooth/feed/ 2 http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/ipoh-dimsum-part-i/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/07/ipoh-dimsum-part-i/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:45:03 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=2017 It’s time to talk about food! Slurps.

Ahhh.. How I wish I’m still in KL, where I could with bunch of friends to Sri Petaling for dimsum eventho the dimsum there is nothing compare to the one I had in Ipoh few weeks ago. Haha!

The Ipoh Makan trip was a spontaneous one. It sparked off when my sis requested for dimsum that weekend. Since I got bored of the dimsum restaurant in the neighbourhood, I thought – why not go to Ipoh for dimsum?

And we did! We went to two places somemore! The first one is Yoke Fook Moon Restaurant.

We went in and soon plates and plates of dimsum were placed in front of us.

The dish below I would usually take at dimsum restaurant. However the skin is different from the one I ate in Penang, but it’s still taste the same. XD

This pastry I never tried before and I would have like them if they’re less salty. Don’t know why the stuffs in Ipoh are a bit salty. Hmm.

Our tea. A bit disappointed for not able to have our favourite tea, “Siao yek kan” (Small dry leaves). Next time must remember to bring own tea leaves d.

We didn’t eat much in Yoke Fook Moon as we were saving our tummies for other restaurant. But we drank a lot of tea as we mistakenly ordered tea for 5 people! =.=”

Gosh. Seeing all the pictures make me hungry now. Bad idea on writing about this at this hour. T_T

Time to make a cup of Milo before crawling to bed.

Ah well, except for Manila where the place is more hectic, and smoky and horrendous traffic. But hey, Manila’s the capital and that’s what you usually find in a capital. Lol.

As much as I wanted to write on Philippines right away, but I still have 2 pending posts on Indonesia; so probably Philippines would start in August. Still, I felt that I should post something related to Philippines since I’m still in the post-philippines-trip mood. Lolololol!

Hence a video upon reaching Philippines. Enjoy!

Along the way, there are many statues greeting us. One of many is a wooden statue of a man saluting, and I couldn’t help taking picture of him. He sure looks handsome here. Teehee.

Carefully balancing myself against the very strong wind, I walked there with the rest, occasionally grabbed someone for stability, I think I’ve developed fear falling onto the sea while on walking on high place with strong wind blowing against me; which I shall call it “strong-wind-at-high-place-phobia”. Super long, I know. Lol.

The view is just breathtaking. I couldn’t find a better word to describe, but I think one should visit Tanah Lot to see it themselves, and then they’ll know what I meant. Of course, if the person is not into nature or doesn’t know appreciate such beauty, then it might be a waste of time to them la. Bleks.

We took group photos here with fantabulous view.

Yoga then led us to another place. We walked along the stone path with garden fence guarding us from falling off the cliff.

Then he stopped, turned to face us and said, “This is a good place to take picture of the temple”, and he pointed in the direction behind us. We turned. Immediately all of us lift up our DSLR and shot. Lol!

Then we continued walking.

There’s one part of the walk where we could feel water droplet carried by the wind. Yoga fasted alarmed us, telling that the water droplet is not clean. It came from the drain nearby. Immediately all of us gave wtfish look, cover our lens with lens cap and walked faster.

Walking uphill, we reached another temple. While walking towards the temple, we could see the temple that we went earlier on our right; while on the left is the famous Temple by the Sea.

We weren’t allowed to enter this temple, but there’s a small path leading to the back that promises even more fantabulous view.

After that, we went all the way down to the main course, the Temple by the Sea. Along the way, I snapped many interesting things.

Yoga advised us to walk slowly as the bedrocks leading to the temple are slippery and wet and have many holes. I myself almost fell into one of the holes. @_@

But once I stabilised myself, I found myself looking at the beautiful gift from mother nature.

Even David agreed so with me. Haha!

If I’m not wrong, we did take a group photo here too with the big gigantic waves slamming against the bedrock as background. But I don’t remember using whose camera. Haha!

I was walking and simply snapping around, suddenly I heard someone gasped or shouted. Then I turned. I saw the guys helped Aaron up to his feet. Everyone then went to him. His knee bleed. @_@

Someone passed him a bottle of water to rinse his wound. I overheard that when Aaron fell, the only thing that’s up in the air was his hand holding the DSLR. I was like whoaaaa!

Yoga told us about the popular temple. The temple is built on a rock, thus explained the bedrocks around the temple. Besides being popular for strategically located by sea, the temple also holds a unique, unexplainable story. The temple as we know is surrounded by the sea water; but underneath the temple, inside a cave, freshwater can be seen gushing out of the ground. This phenomenon is magical, or the people there claimed so.

And that explains too, the very long queue of people coming out of the cave.

As much as I wanted to see the freshwater myself, but I was told that I can’t enter the cave, as the place is holy. -.-“

I was like, since when freshwater gushing out is holy? But since I’m in foreign place, and I don’t want to upset their god with my action, so I just look from afar. Moreover, the long queue was quite potongstim.

Sensing us got bored on the place with nothing much to take, Yoga then slowly walked out of the place. We ensued.

While crossing a small bridge on the way out, we saw 3 children sitting and playing water coming from the drain on top leading towards the sea. I didn’t realise that the water is actually from the drain until Sat highlighted it to me. Eww!

Out of sudden, the topic of tranny came out. I can’t remember how it started, but I think Yoga asked what’s ah gua? All of us laughed. Someone explained to him.

Yoga then told us in their language, tyranny is called bencong. Maybe it’s spelled differently, it’s pronounced as ben-zhong.

And we laughed out real loud and hard. Then we looked at David, and warned him NOT to name his future son, Ben. Or else he’ll be a laughing stock in Bali. We all then laughed.

Can’t believe we have this funny-word-session with guide on each trip. In Cambodia, Siya asked about the meaning of langleng. In Bali, we were laughing out head off about ahgua and bencong with Yoga.

I can’t help to wonder what word will be next in our coming trip. Lol!

We were laughing all the way out of Pura Tanah Lot. As the sky was getting dark, the place was still full of people. Throngs of tourists were pouring in; we had to wade through the sea of people to get out of the place.

Despite having people coming in my direct, I managed to take few photos on the way out. Especially if I see interesting things! Lol.

Like the artistic decoration. Or a night creature.

And maybe a well-known shop in the local shops.

I was feasting my camera lens with all the colourful, interesting things when suddenly Yoga took a right turn. I looked up. We’ve reached our restaurant for that evening. Dewi Sinta Hotel, Spa and Restaurant.

This hotel, tucked away from busy street, is truly a hidden gem. Even though we didn’t have the chance to stay or look around the hotel, but while walking towards the restaurant, we could feel the luxury of the hotel from the interior design of the hotel, decorations and also the choice of colour.

Yoga asked the hotel staff for medicine for Aaron’s knee. He went in and took out a first aid box and attend Aaron’s wound. After that the hotel staff showed us our table and we made ourselves comfortable at the table.

We were presented with a plate of spring roll as appetizer; with then followed by a bowl of soup.

The rest dishes came after we finished our appetizer and soup. All quickly took pictures of the food and only attacked the food once everyone has satisfied with the amount of photos they took of the food.

One of their significant dishes is the red sate burnt over the small charcoal. That dish is heavenly! It came with 8 sticks, to be shared by 4 people. I ate one, and kept aside the other one to be savoured later after finished eating.

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I think I fell asleep. If not mistaken, someone woke me up when the van stopped at the side of a busy road. Everyone got down and took their bags along. Blurry, I took my small bag and Sat’s camera bag as he took his and mine big backpacks. We crossed the busy road, walked into a small alley, and turned right into a paradise.

Yoga led us to the hotel lobby which is on the right. The lobby is special – the most unique lobby I ever stumbled upon. The Balinese lobby, as I call it – consists of stone stairs, cushions, pillows and a big wooden coffee table.

Lazily, I sat at the cushions and leaned against the puffy pillows. I suffered from the temporary heat stroke when we walked to the hotel and although I was very grateful for the cooling effect from the stone floor in the hotel lobby, the heat is still unbearable and I had to whip out my foldable fan to cool myself.

Sat and Yoga settled the room registration and then passed us our room keys. Yoga gave us a time to meet up and then all of us went to our room to freshen up.

If I tell you that I was at daze and blur from the sleep and heat stroke earlier, I can tell you that I was immediately cured the moment we walked out of the lobby towards our room. The long swimming pool in the middle of two 2-storey buildings is too fantabulous! I wish to drop all my bags down and just jump into the pool! It’s simply too irresistible!

All of us got the rooms on the first floor of the building on the left side. Our room was still being cleaned when we went up there. So we hid in Ailing’s and Emily’s room to get away from the heat. The room is cosy, and cooling at the same time.

10 minutes later, we were finally able to enter our room. Once got into the room, we quickly took pictures of the room and went shower. Then we dashed out of the room to the lobby where everyone was already waiting.

Checking back my pictures, I don’t know why I didn’t took any pictures of the hotel lobby, restaurant and the pool area! I totally loveeee this place, yet there’s not much pictures! *sulk*

After that Sat led us all to the Kuta beach. I don’t know how he knows to get there, but I was super happy to be in Kuta as it’s a fun place to be! There are plenty of shops to look around; plenty of handsome guys and pretty girls for the eyes feast on; plenty of food to eat! Even though I were only in Kuta for less than an hour, but I already liking this place! Lol!

We reached the famous Kuta beach but we didn’t walk towards the beach. Instead, we were walking along the street opposite the beach to where Yoga and Mr. Van driver were. It was windy and there were sand flying into my eyes! Urgh!

The moment we saw Yoga and Mr. Van driver, we quickly got into the van.

Our van left the busy, tourists-packed spot, towards the outskirts. Our next destination is not that near; yet not that far too. The entire journey was somehow made pleasant by the view of the picturesque paddy fields despite the occasional bumpy ride due to the uneven red road. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the scenery out there as they’re simply too beautiful!

We even passed by the famous Le Meridien Nirwana Golf and Spa Resort which was said to be surrounded by landscaped paddy terraces only and have its own golf course. I was like whoa! Whoa! not because of the golf course, but for the hotel is in the middle of paddy fields. Must be pretty serene and relax waking up to the sight of paddy fields and fresh air in the morning. <3

After about 30 minutes of numbing our butts, we reached our last important must-visit for the entire trip, Tanah Lot. I was super duper excited as I wanted to see this beautiful temple with my own eyes. So to be finally there made me somehow quite nervous.

The moment we passed by the entry toll and into the parking bay, we were astonished to see the amount of people there. The parking bay is full of buses, vans and cars too. Mr. Van Driver drove the van out of the parking bay and turned left into a quieter lane and stopped at somewhere near the makeshift stalls selling drinks. In front of us is an entrance.

We got down and walked in.

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Woke up early in the morning – got ready and went down to have breakfast with Sat. The earliest birds, Lasker and Elise were already there when we entered the hotel’s open restaurant. Ordered their Indonesian breakfast and both of us hogged the hotel free wifi and did facebooking, check emails, twitters while waiting for the food to come. Jess and Steven came later, followed by the rest.

Food came (no photos again cz I didn’t bring any camera with me) and I ate them up pretty fast as I was hungry. Then we went back to our room to pack our stuffs and gathered at the hotel’s open lobby. I went around and took final few shoots before one of us suggested on group photo.

Since everyone loves this place and loves taking photo, who can say no to this suggestion?! Haha.

All of us boarded the van and we left Sri Ratih Cottage for our next destination in the morning, Goa Gajah. Along the way, we saw an accident. Actually I didn’t notice it, but Sat was pointing and forcing me to turn my head back and snap the off track jeepney. Heehee.

It was a happy, sunny day. I loveeeee taking photos of the outside world while on the move.

I’m not going into detail on Goa Gajah since I were not allowed to enter(Pffff!) and what I did was playing games on iTouch and camwhoring. Muahaha!

Then I got bored and started taking pictures of the area.

And this time, the cow didn’t come early to accompany me (pfffff again) and I felt the wait was longerrrr than yesterday which was rather potong stim. The van driver left the van soon after everyone got down, so humbug!

About nearly an hour later, the rest came back and off we went to the other destination, a silver jewellery making centre. Along the way, like usual I took many pictures while I think I should put them up here.

I don’t remember the name of the shop, but once we got down a man (the centre’s guide) greeted us and started talking to us. We were led to the shed where a man was making something related to the jewellery. Sorry, I don’t really remember what was he doing as I was in the toilet when the guide was talking and I was busy ‘talking’ to a dog in a cage once I got out of the toilet stall. Haha.

But I did take few pictures of the process. I think he was making a pendant.

The picture above abit blur – but don’t care la. Hehe.

Then the guide took us to their gift/souvenir shop. Inside, I couldn’t light my eyes of many, shiny, beautiful jewelleries. I thought of getting one or two, since the price is not that expensive. But then I thought of my purse. The amount of money in my bag.

And my hope dashed.

I could only look around, feast my eyes with those beautiful things and left the store immediately. Sat looked happy knowing that I walked out without buying anything and he sort of ‘console’ me. Lol.

Everyone then went back to the van and we went to the next stop – Sukawati Local Market. Before getting down, Yoga did tell us that it’s okay to bargain to about 70% of the said price.

No pictures of the Sukawati Market since I was busy bargaining instead of snapping.

Acknowledging that, we quickly got down and walked straight to the end of the market. There are ladies from the far right shop calling us to have a look at their products. Someone asked for price, and true indeed the price dropped slowly. Few of the guys were already picking up the design of the shirts they wanted.

Since we just reached there, Sat, AL, Emily and I decided to scout at the inner side of the market. We realised they’re all selling almost similar stuffs, so we stopped at a stall owned by a tall lady and asked for the price of a T-shirt. She offered lower. We went back to the gang and told them about it.

Then Sat decided to try his luck by asking the ladies of the shop if they could counter offer what the tall lady’s price.

Out of sudden, one of the ladies got so angry (or probably agitated) and shouted at Sat back. She said in Bahasa Indonesian, “I already offered you very low price. In fact, every stall here will give you the same price. If you don’t like, then don’t buy here. Go other place!“

Immediately four of us gave the WTFISH looks to her.

Feeling angry for her at yelling at my boyfriend, I scolded her back – “Why are you shouting? We’re only asking for lower price. If you can’t offer that price, just say no. No need to shout like that.“

And she kept hissing and pulling long face that we decided, that’s it – we’re SO NOT going to buy anything from her. So we walked back to the tall lady’s stall. I’m unsure if the rest bought something from that shop or not, but all I know is all 13 of us bought plenty of stuffs from the tall lady because she’s charming and couldn’t stop smiling and the best of all, she jokes too!

That’s what you call top notch customer service!

Because of that, we closed deal to about millions of rupiahs with her! I could see everyone was looking at her with green eyes. She was grinning from ears to ears and when we passed her money, she counted with a big smile on her face. I teased her on able to make a kenduri for her village soon for her new-found good fortune and she just laughed and nodded her head.

When we left her stall, we purposely walked to the shop and flashed our goods to the lady shouted earlier to sort of ‘give’ her a lesson for screaming at her potential customers. I don’t know if she realises that she lost a big business that by us flashing in front of her, but I hope someone tells her about it. Haha.

Yoga asked us on the goods we got since we showed up with many bags and big broad smiles. I can’t remember if we did tell him on the shouting incident. Hmm.

It was a long journey to Kuta, but we didn’t feel that since there are many things to see along the way. One of many is the monument park. The Upt. Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat Bali. Our van slowed down and stopped at the side for photoshooting.

We didn’t get down since we didn’t have the time to do so. So we took pictures from the van itself. That time, I wish I had telelens for zooming. T_T

The picture is senget but don’t care laaaaa! I know that I can straighten it at Picasa but I’m lazy! Bleks!

Just when I thought of taking another nice shot of the monument, Yoga asked if everyone is done with photoshooting and someone yelled yup! and Mr. Van Driver maneuvered his van back to the busy road. -.-“

Yoga then spoke again, asking us if we were feeling hungry. That time it was about 1 in the afternoon. Or was it 2.

But I know that I felt hungry the moment Yoga spoke about lunch. Haha.

Yoga then told us that we were going to stop by a restaurant along the way for lunch. I was joyful as I felt like biting (food) something soon. So yay!

Our van turned left suddenly and stopped in front of a white minimalist concept restaurant with high glass windows. Expecting to dine at a normal restaurant, I was seriously at awe and disbelief. Never would I be expecting to have lunch at such restaurant on a trip. Even my Japan trip a year ago, we ate at either the hotel restaurants (since it’s included and provided by the hotel) or normal looking restaurant tucked somewhere in the outskirts or hidden somewhere in the building built underneath an overhead bridge.

Like usual, we were greeted warmly and led to a very long table. The restaurant is spacious, the ceiling is very high up and the wooden chairs and tables colour complements the white wall and the high glass windows. In the middle of the restaurant, there are long tables with many spread of food – if I’m not mistaken.

Barely 5 minutes of warming our butts against the chair, the ever-smiling waitresses came to us with menu for drinks and placed a glass of water in front of us. Seeing the glass of water, we didn’t order any drink (yeah, we’re super kiam siap! ) and the waitresses presented us our food soon.

It was Indonesian food again! Whee!

But somehow the taste is different from the one we had in Ubud. I finished up the food pretty fast as I was hungry. Some of them were talking and laughing while eating. Some jokes were pretty funny that I ended up laughing too.

Few girls went to the toilet and came back praising on the toilet design. Curiously, I went to the toilet too. I wanted to bring my camera there, but it would be too weird to do so. So I just went empty handed. True enough; the toilet is so mind-blowing. It’s one of those open toilet concept (as in open up, not mixed gender ah!), with waterfall at the front of the entrance, open wall at the side of the washing basin, overlooking greenery. Obviously the toilet stalls are closed, or else there’s no privacy when doing business. Lol. The washing basin is made of stone, and if I’m not mistaken, there are pebbles at the inner corner of the floor beneath the washing basin. I’m writing all this down based on my memory, so please correct me if I’m wrong. Haha.

Mental note to myself: Bring camera to toilet if the toilet is beautifully designed. Haha!

We left the restaurant soon for Kuta after I came back from the toilet.

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