I'm finally back from my one-month holiday.. Oh boy, yes I know wth "one month?!" It kinda just happened.. Especially the Krabi and Kota Kinabalu trip. Hehe ;)

Basically if you didn't know, I stayed in Bali for a week, Krabi for another, and 2 weeks in KK, which makes up a month! (But seriously, everything passed within the blink of an eye! Wtf the next thing I knew was us packing our luggages and leaving my darling Railay beach.. Sad times)


I'm so thrilled to be planning my next holiday (am thinking of a 2 weeks islands-hopping around Thailand) but that is way too long because currently I'm pok-kai at the moment. (my definition of BROKE, BO LUI, NO MONEHH)


Anyway my first trip was Bali, which we had planned since last October.. and it happened that our trip falls on the week of Valentine's Day! So bahaha we spent our Valentine's Day in Bali and that's where I will get to later.

Well, this post will cover mainly where we went and explored, and of course some tips and tricks to work your way through Bali to ensure you'll have a blast here!
I did ALOT of research beforehand and also took some references from others' itineraries, and came up with my own itinerary! So if you're planning a trip to Bali anytime soon, you'll get a better picture of how Bali is like ;)


Things to we took note of/did before going to Bali

• Note that their plugs are different from Singapore's, so make sure to get an adaptor!
• Buy a simcard at the airport! We bought ours and it's called Telkom simPATI. RP 300k for two people which is about $15/person :) 2GB per sim card.. if I'm not wrong.
• Change your currencies in your own local country. Have heard a lot of bad experiences about changing money in Bali, and even encountered it ourselves. They try to take in some commission though their shop signboard stated they do not take any. And the rate is higher in your own country anyway!
• Look look but no touch touch ya. Saw on Tripadvisor about the shopping experience.. but I just had to experience on my own! I got a tiny weensy bit interested in a dress so I took a look and the shop owner just kept on mumbling "cheap cheap i give you cheap" in my ears for the next 20 minutes and even blocked the entrance to prevent me from leaving the shop! Well now we all know that Bali is infamous for its aggressive shopowners..
• Book your tours online/along the streets of Bali. (They have quite a lot of travel agencies) You can bargain up to 50% off the listed price! I booked my tour online at only $40 for two people to a trip to Ubud and Kelud.

Upon reaching our hotel, we were greeted by the friendly staffs and also had our welcome drinks :)





We unpacked our luggages before heading out to book our tour for the next day to Lembongan Island for snorkelling and water activities. Super good thing about having the simPATI card is that we could always rely on it to bring us to the best restaurants nearby when we have no idea what to eat for dinner! :P




Our hotel is located really near the central of Kuta, so restaurants, cafes, and shopping centres were nearby within walking distance.

We explored Discovery Mall (just a 5 mins from our hotel!) and I was pretty curious how much the toiletries were going for at their local Guardian pharmacy. Glad I did because guess what?! Maybelline baby lip balm at only $1.90?! (ok can't exactly remember the price but they were mad cheap) Wtf I grabbed two immediately and stocked up on my Hada Labo moisturising lotion and other essentials. They were so cheap! Prices you can never get even if you head to JB.. hahaha.


After our happy hauls (eh.. I'm not the only one who did shopping at Guardian hor HAHA) we settled at a nearby italian restaurant. According to Tripadvisor, they had a pretty decent rating and the restaurant also seemed to be one of the more popular ones along the street.

 



 They had such lovely service and attentive staffs! And there were lots of europeans in the restaurant too, so means that the food has to be good right?


Overall the food was just okay, but value for money given the portion of the food.
It's located just opposite Discovery Mall so it's rather noticeable.

Day 2
A day trip out to Lembongan Island!

(Note: I am not sure if they have closed the area temporarily because if you guys have heard, 9 japanese divers actually went missing in the same area the day after we went. The waters of Lembongan is well known for its strong undercurrents and have been known to kill several experienced divers in the past, even those who have logged more than 40 dives. Can never predict what will happen when it comes to Mother Nature..)

We booked our tour with Marcus Tour Agency just a one minute walk away from our hotel. They picked us up as promised, and off we went! Boarded the super huge ship that has buffet breakfast and lunch, and the dining area looks like a restaurant itself.. There were also bands performing live and an upper deck so we could look out to the sea!





It was about a 30-45 minutes ride to the pontoon at the Lembongan area.


In case if you're wondering what is the pontoon like, it's an all-in-one entertainment platform that is build on top of the waters of Lembongan and you could take up amateur diving courses, snorkelling, seawalker activities, submarine tours, banana boats, parasailing, playground slide (into the seawater!) and many more while also enjoying a massage/sunbathe at the upper deck.









 After the tour, we left the village and went back to the pontoon for our submarine ride and lunch before heading back to our hotel! :)
One thing grateful about the pontoon was that they also have showers and lockers so we don't have to worry about our belongings and can shower anytime after our water activities.



Settled our lunch at a Mexican salad shop (well, holiday doesn't mean unhealthy eating right?!) and went back to our hotel to rest!


Day 3 (Valentine's Day yo!)
Woke up at 7am to go for a bicycle ride around Kuta and also do some exercises with an awesome view of the sea!




After that, we headed back to our hotel for our breakfast buffet. Okay did I mention that for the past 7 days in the hotel, we have NEVER ever missed a single day of breakfast?! It's damn delicious please.. and best of all, it's FREE FLOW BUFFET muhahaha. Hotdogs, bacons, noodles, porridge, croissants, wholemeal bread, cereals, fruits, salads, omelettes, fried rice and many more!

Looking forward to pancake days especially.. Sadly I didn't capture any photos of the buffet at our hotel because we were just too busy gobbling our breakfast every single day :P


In the afternoon, we headed to our hotel's private beach and relaxed while some of the locals came up to us asking if we wanted to do manicures, pedicures, tattoos, hair braiding, buy their jingly jangly accessories and many more.

Went back to the hotel to wash up and dressed up for Valentine's Day!
Whee spending our Valentine's Day in Bali is so damn special.. but everyone around us seemed rather cool about it so oh well.. it's a important day for me cos my bf used to not believe in celebrating Valentine's Day!! Haha and fast forward to this year's Valentine's Day in Bali.. How to not be excited?!







After that, since it was way too early for dinner, we went to Kuta beach to hang out for awhile. The thing about Bali is that you can never get bored here!!! There's just too many things waiting for you to explore!












And somewhat our chilling at the beach turned out to be some photo taking session.. Lol.

Kuta's Beach is well known for its small waves, perfect for surfers who are beginners.
About 6pm, we took a cab down to Mama San Restaurant (where I made a reservation for 3 months ago omg HAHA) and it was sooooo gorgeous! The interiors, the impeccable service, and the atmosphere just blew us away.

Since we booked a table at 7pm and it was still way too early, the waiter ushered us to the "chill" area at the second floor whereby we just sat down, ordered a few drinks and browsed through the food menu before going back down for our dinner.






Mama San can be considered as a fine dining restaurant because indeed, the staffs were really particular about everything. Made us feel so welcomed and loved hahaha.






We actually ordered quite a number of food from the menu.. Just wanted to try and the waitress's recommendations made us even more excited. There were so many types of cuisines - ranging from thai to indian to chinese and so much more!










Maybe it's all because of our mindset that we thought that the food would come in small portions. But we were wrong! The portions were really huge (perfect for 3-4 people for sharing) but extremely delicious at the same time.

But the verdict?
Literally one of the best dinner in Bali. Both of us couldn't agree more that the food is way beyond our expectations! You'd think that since there're so many cuisines available there're bound to be some hit and miss but no wayyyyy, in fact the chefs (two of them - one is from australia and the other, from thailand) are so good at them all that we stuffed ourselves as much as we could though we were SUPER full!



Easily one of the best dinner in my life.. Omg and at a fraction of Singapore's prices!
A must visit when you're in Bali :)


Anyway, gotta catch up on some sleep right now.
Don't wanna give gym a miss again :( All these feasting has caused me to lose track of my lifestyle arghh.

Byeeeee~


Click here to proceed to Part 2 of my Bali trip!