bali

7D6N in Bali (Part 2)

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Continuing from Part 1,  I will blog about Day 4-7 in this post in Bali :)







Day 4
The day after Valentine's Day, we rented a scooter from the street just right across our hotel. Intitially they quoted us 80k rupiah but we managed to bargain to 50k (SGD 5) woohoo! Before renting, remember to check that they have already filled up the petrol for you.

 After our buffet breakfast in our hotel, we took the scooter out for a ride and with our handy GPS, we decided to head straight up to Pandawa Beach, also known as Secret Beach to the locals. How did we find out about this beauty? All thanks to one of the locals working at a bread shop at a newly opened shopping mall just right next to our hotel! (Sorry can't remember the name of the shopping mall :()

It was a one hour journey ride here, with lots of narrow roads and we passed by lots of villages and took quite a lot of short cuts. The journey was rather tough, so if you're not an experienced rider, you may want to opt for taking a taxi here instead!





Taking a break along a narrow road





And of course, we had to pass by some really pretty valleys!


Look at my bf's face.. Lol


We had to pay an entrance fee to Pandawa Beach, which is only about 5k rupiah (SGD 0.50) to the officer before heading to the beach! We passed by some really pretty statues and monuments along the way :)

Luckily the weather was in our favour that day because the moment we reached Pandawa, it stopped raining!!


Finally we've reached!!

Unlike the waters in the main area of Kuta which is clearly polluted, the water here is SO DAMN clear and BLUE. No filter needed to capture the beauty of this place, cos it IS indeed beautiful on its own!


Whee! Now it's time to change to our swimsuit and start sunbathing/kayaking/swimming!


Anyway, there's no snorkeling offered here due to the nature of the water. It seemed to be that Bali's beaches have too much waves that makes it impossible for us to even swim in the sea -_-

That said, it doesn't mean we can't have fun!!


Look at the super clear blue sea!





Okay, so we also went kayaking which we rented from the shops (see the umbrellas area) for only 20k for the entire day!! (SGD 2) Mad cheap -_-




We went to the other end of the beach, which was less crowded and there were lots of crabs and small fishes!




After our adventure at Pandawa Beach, (and thank goodness that we finished all our water activities), it started raining super duper heavily so we ran to the shops and had Bakso (pork soup noodles) for lunch while waiting for the rain to subside.. But sadly it continued raining even heavily so we ran to our scooter and rode in the pouring rain back to Kuta :( Not to forget our helmets were filled with water.. Freaking disgusting but what an experience! :P


Washed up and decided to venture to Legian/Seminyak for some awesome dinner!
According to our itinerary, we HAD to try the pork ribs from Naughty Nuri's so again, GPS led us to Naughty Nuri and there was a long queue forming outside already!

We had quite a hard time locating the place because GPS wasn't so accurate about the exact location. But in any case, ask for directions if you're lost! We went about for several rounds (and were sooo damn hungry) before finding Naughty Nuri's.


Because of the long queue, customers had to sit together in every table so we got to share our table with some other couples, all from different countries :) The aroma of the bbq-ed pork ribs were all over the restaurant... and luckily the food arrived really fast! (at least it came before we died from hunger lol)

(Photo obtained from Naughty Nuri's website)


Our very own Naughty Nuri's pork ribs!




Ready to dig in!!

And yes.. my boyfriend was so hungry (and satisfied with the pork ribs) that he ordered another plate again for himself -_- Haha but it was so damn good!!!!!


We spotted many of the locals also there queuing up for the food! I thought it tasted quite like the sauces they use for Singapore's satay, just that the pork ribs were a lot more flavourful and the meat was tender and juicy. So so good!

Naughty Nuri is located at Jalan Batubelig, 41 and I think it's quite near Seminyak?
Check out their website here for more information :)


Day 5
Woke up at 7am for our breakfast buffet (HAHA yes.. we have the breakfast buffet every single day cos its damn good!) while waiting for our Gede tour driver to come pick us up at 8am.

He was a friendly and rather young man who came just right on the dot! We were still having breakfast and he waited patiently for us to finish. Also, he brought some refreshments in the car so we could have it while we're thirsty! Super thoughtful of him :)



First stop was a trip to Batubulan Village to catch the Barong and Keris dance


During this whole time, I was quite scared of this weird looking thing....

I mean c'mon.. look at its hideous hair... Okay he really looks like the Mamee monster


After the show, we bought a souvenir for them.. Not your ordinary keychains or what but a customised T-shirt with my bf and I on the shirt! And it cost only 90k rupiah :)



Next stop was a trip to the Art Village Batik and Silver Smith Village.

Indeed an eye opener and a different type of batik (see my Bali Part 1 trip to Lembongan) This time, they painted the batik by hand and the colours were so pretty!

In fact, I was quite tempted to buy some of the batiks there but they were so costly :( About 320k - 500k for one batik itself!




Okay everyone here is literally an artist here.. This looks exactly like a tattoo design to me though! Haha

Watching the staffs melting the silver to mould into accessories

And there, painting it so the silver can be stronger and last longer


One thing I didn't like was that the salespeople were rather pushy about the accessories :(
And it was a freaking reputable shop for goodness sake! And people are allowed to bargain? That just shows they can mark up the price anytime if they want to. Argh.

We left and went to the next stop - Dewa Putu Toris, an art museum showcasing the local artists' artwork. 




And here we can see some of the locals starting on a new painting..

Have to mention that the museum is so beautiful in its own way too!

So many different artworks painted by artists all around Bali..


Many of the artworks (especially if its a huge canvas) will go for 3 million rupiah (SGD 300+) and above. But we managed to bargain the price of a really gorgeous art piece to 1 million rupiah! (SGD 100+) 

The art piece that we purchased :) A scenery of Ubud rice paddy field

We had a great time touring around this art museum, definitely a must visit when you're in Bali!

It was about lunch time so while our tour driver was driving us to Ubud, we requested to go to the famous Ibu Oka to have the signature suckling pig everyone's been raving about! And he was so nice to accommodate our request, and dropped us off at the restaurant while he waited for us somewhere near.



Before entering the restaurant, we gotta go pass a narrow alley so it's quite hard to spot. But no worries about that, they have a signboard just right a the entrance! Plus they have quite a lot of outlets around in Ubud too :)


Can't wait to have lunch!


While we entered the restaurant, we were quite surprised that there were already quite a number of customers, given the fact that it was quite hard to locate this place.

It almost felt like we were in the forest while dining here because of the lush greenery we were facing while having our meals :)




Ibu Oka - Suckling Pig served with rice


Both pictures are the same dish but presented a little differently? Anyway this one came with a soup :)



The suckling pig was a tad salty for my liking but the taste was alright :) and the meat was so tender and good!
The meal wasn't very expensive (food in Bali is seriously cheap pls! but not all - depends on where you go) so we were quite pleased :)

Just right behind the restaurant they have their own mini "zoo" where they kept parrots, squirrels, and some other animals.






This parrot is seriously super adorable pls! We kept on rubbing its head and when we stopped, it tilted his head forward for us to rub it again!



At the narrow alley~ And seriously super narrow.. Hahha

Next stop was the Ubud's Palace whereby the King and his family resides in. The outdoor gates were opened to the public for photo taking but we were not allowed to enter of course.





Caught sight of some locals entering the palace.. Can't help but wonder are they the King's servants? Hahaha



After exploring the Palace, we went to Ubud's Market (super huge like Bugis street!) which is just right opposite and of course, started shopping again! We felt quite bad about having our tour guide to wait for us in the car but he insisted it was okay... :(


Anyway there are lots of shops located both on the first and second floor, and rows of them on the other side too.  Quite big for us to explore within a day so we went to the second floor (because there's aircon) and stumbled on this organic coffee cafe!


They sell Luwak coffee which are made from "coffee" beans collected from excrement of civets and in other words, the particular animal's feces. 

As I'm not a huge fan of coffee, I didn't buy but my bf did. Had second thoughts about trying but when I did take the first sip, it was really fragrant and good!

It's only available in Indonesia so try it if you're here!

How the shops in Ubud Market looks like
After our shopping, (bought lots of pashima scarves, souvenirs, and couple shirts for my bf and I ;p) we headed to the Tegalalang rice terrace. Indeed a beautiful sight!


We actually climbed down to the middle of the mountain just to take this shot.. And I almost tripped. Freaking scary! Imagine falling to the pit bottom -_-


And there're some restaurants facing the paddy fields too! But due to time constraint, we didn't check out the restaurants :(

Also, we found two cute little puppies owned by a local!
SUPER ADORABLE and they're only 2 months old :)




After having to hug them I felt abit sad to leave Ubud :(

We had a nice time touring with our tour guide, and what's better is that it only costed us 400k rupiah for the entire day of tour! (SGD 40) 

Super worth it as our tour guide was very patient throughout the entire journey and even take the initiative to chat with us during the long car ride to Ubud. If you're interested to know more about our tour guide, please drop a comment below so I can get back to you with his details! :)


While back to Kuta, we went to Kafe Batan Waru for our dinner. 







Bf's local delights 



While I settled for my wholemeal tuna sandwich with a salad at the side :)

Food is really good at Kafe Batan Waru, worth a try! It's located just right along Jalan Kartika Plaza.



After that, we walked around Kuta.. and all the way to Kuta Beachwalk, which is Kuta's most well-known shopping mall, housing major international brands such as Zara, Topshop, Pull & Bear, Victoria Secret and many more. 

Love is still in the air because there were still decorations everywhere. Bought my Victoria Secret toiletries at only 1/2 of Singapore's price! 




I love you toooo ;)

End of Day 5... Time flies so fast when you're having fun :(


Day 6
It's cafe-hunting day! Have been reading up Ladyironchef's blog a few times about the restaurants and cafes to try out in Bali, and the one cafe I've been dying to try out is Revolver Espresso Cafe.

We rented our scooter and relied on our phone's GPS to bring us there :)





Thanks to his tip about the cafe being located just opposite the clinic, we managed to find it. If not, it'd have been impossible to find the cafe since it's at the back alley and the signboard is barely striking enough for anyone to notice.

The moment we entered the cafe, the aroma of coffee immediately greeted us and the layout of the cafe was so damn pretty!! You wouldn't have expected it judging from the entrance of the cafe.. Hahaha that's why never judge a book by its cover!






Lunch was one of their gourmet sandwiches and it was certainly good! The portion was quite generous and filling :)

We went back to Kuta in the evening after a long day of walking around Seminyak and found this Turtle Conservation Society just right along the beach of Kuta! Mr Turtle (that's what he told us to call him) brought us in and showed us the turtle eggs!

Almost everyday, turtles will come up to the shores of Kuta at night and lay their eggs and Mr Turtle and his team would immediately block the area from the public to ensure that the turtle would not be frightened away. And it's been ongoing for years.. What a hero :) It's his love for turtles that constantly drives him to saving the turtles from falling into the hands of uncivilised locals, who will steal the turtle eggs and cook them for their own selfish purposes!

Given the fact that Kuta Beach is a popular tourist destination, it's making it harder for them to locate the Mother Turtle and her eggs :( But so far, they've successfully saved many of the eggs and they'd bring the eggs back to the center and hatch them before releasing the baby turtles back to the ocean!




A picture with Mr Turtle and his motorbike that has stickers of turtles plastered all around it~

We hope to be back by next year so we can release the baby turtles together with Mr Turtle soon :)

We were craving seafood for dinner and eventually, settled at Seafood House for dinner located just 10 minutes away from our hotel. There were tanks of different live fishes and you could get to choose your own fish and have it cooked to your own preference - steamed, grilled, deep fried etc.





Yangzhou Fried Rice

Deep fried grouper with soya sauce


Yum, ready to dig in!

Assorted vegetables with oyster sauce

Cereal prawns

Sadly, the food was quite bland for our liking :(
The cereal prawns didn't even taste like cereal prawns at all! And is it a blatant lie that the restaurant claims that their chefs have years of experience? -_- 

The rest of the food was really bland.. Not much taste. What a shame because the fish was really fresh, and it was cooked to such a poor standard. I even made a complaint on Tripadvisor but the management replied that it was up to one's taste and preferences?! Wtf.. I seriously can't imagine anyone would freaking like their food to be cooked to such standard and say that it's good unless that person has lost his/her tastebuds.

Day 7 
The last day of our trip :(

Since we still has our scooter with us (only to return at 3pm), we rode out to the alley near Kuta Beachwalk because there is where Fat Chow Restaurant is located at!
Fat Chow was rated number one by Tripadvisor's members so obviously we had to give it a try before leaving in the afternoon!




Mini Pork burgers (can't remember the name) But I swear this was foodgasm straight up in the mouth! The moment we took our first bite, my bf and I exchanged looks and gobbled the whole thing down :P Hahaha! And that was only our starter ;)

Dear ordered the indonesian satay with rice (goodness I really cant remember the names of the dishes) and he said it was damn good!

The wanton soup that set us craving for more.. The prawn dumplings were sooo good! so juicy and tasty :)

And I guess I found my true love - Vietnamese salad. Omg this has got to be one of the best salads I've ever had in my whole life! I've always hated vegetables.. but not this one ;)

After one of the best meals in Bali, it was time to go back to our hotel to pack our luggage and head to the airport for our flight back :(

Bali has been both good and bad but nonetheless, the food won our hearts over!
Hope to be back soon to try out the other restaurants that we didn't have time to go :)



l

From Bali with love xx

I guess I didn't research about the airport tax part but PLEASE have extra change when you're at the airport! When we were about to go into the departure hall, we were told to pay 150k per person for airport tax -_- I was like "wtf?! we have spent all our money...."

So we ended up borrowing money from a kind stranger and went back to Singapore to transfer him back. Thank goodness kind souls still exist in this society!




Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the post as much as I've enjoyed writing it ;)
If you've any dying questions about Bali do leave your comments before and I'll try my best to answer as much as I can. 


BYE! And I will be working on my Krabi post next.. That's another exciting one to blog about ;)

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