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!

Am finally back from a one month long holiday!!!!

Muhahaha, yes it's a freaking one month long vacation, and non-stop fun, laughters, adventures, food and soaking up the sun! Travelled to Bali (Indonesia), Krabi (Thailand), and lastly Kota Kinabalu! (Sabah, Malaysia)
This year must be my lucky year since it's not everyday that my boyfriend gets to travel with me for ONE WHOLE MONTH. He's working in the F&B industry so it's really hard for him to take off so I'm really grateful we had all these time to ourselves to bond and go through new experiences together :)


Meanwhile, I'm just uploading all the photos and (obviously) editing them in Photoshop cos they'll look even prettier! (and by that I don't mean photoshopping my face if that's what you're thinking :P)

Bali has been such a beautiful place, with great local delights, vibrant nightlife, and endless shops for us girls to shop to our delight - Think Roxy/Ripcurl bikinis at factory warehouse prices!! 

As usual, I'll be including all the reviews, tips and MUST-DO activities in Bali.


Anyway, the above photo was taken on Valentine's Day.
Yes, Valentine's Day! I spent my freaking Valentine's Day in Bali... Best moment ever :) Except for that one embarassing moment was that I was soooo stuffed from dinner at Mama San (omg I will blog about that later - BEST DINNER IN BALI EVER!) that I had to borrow the opposite pharmacy's toilet to puke my dinner out -_- Such a turn off but whatever.

But Bali has been good to my boyfriend and I! Except for the weather and some of the pushy locals of cos :(
We were practically HARASSED by every shop owners that we passed by. They literally grabbed my arm and I had to seek help from my boyfriend to rescue the distressed damsel.. Hahahaha. And one annoying thing was that we wanted to head over to Nusa Dua Beach but it rained the whole morning and afternoon so we sat at our hotel's nearby Starbucks reading up about the missing Japanese divers all afternoon. Bummer.

Other than that, it was really good!
Bought Ripcurl/Roxy bikinis and surfshorts at only like 1/3 of Singapore's retail prices?!
And the factory outlets were so cheap, way cheaper than SG's so called "outlet stores."
Food was good because we relied on Tripadvisor to bring us to the top rated cafes/restaurants.. Oh man I'm missing the food!



Well, stay tuned because not only is my Bali trip post coming up, there'll be Krabi and Kota Kinabalu too! :)

I know I've totally ignored this space for the longest time ever... and I'm so excited to be blogging again! It's a good habit to pen down my thoughts and blog once in a while everytime I can no matter how cheesy it can get. Good to keep the mind working and my readers.. (I hope you guys are still here :()

Guess what? 
I just came back from a 2 weeks long Bali (Indonesia) + Krabi (Thailand) vacation! Mmm.. feeling so refreshed and energised! I guess I actually grew a little throughout the trip. It wasn't any ordinary trip, not your fancy 5 stars resort or fine dining, but rather, we took the other alternative - chatting and hanging out with the locals, having local food and "trying to" lead the local life. Of course, the buffet breakfast in Bali doesn't count.. (Too damn good to give it up HAHA) 



Some tips to share for travellers travelling to Bali :)

Simcard
We actually bought simcards (simPATI) from the Bali aiport (Denpasar) for both our Samsung Note 3 and Iphone 5 phones, so we could have internet & GPS throughout the trip that could allow us to navigate through the islands of Bali easily. There were so many places to explore!
Costed us about 300,000 rupiah for two sim cards.

Transport
Most of the locals travel by motorcycles, and tourists can also rent a motorbike conveniently from the streets. About 50,000 rupiah per day (they will most likely quote you highly, so be sure to bargain!)
You could also travel by their taxis. Honest ones will go by meter while the others will go by quotation. Well, I guess in Bali everything is about haggling!

I'd definitely recommend getting the rented motorbike, especially if you have your own GPS.

One of the best places that we've managed to find on our own through GPS and our very own handy rented motorbike was definitely Pandawa Beach.

The cliffs, monuments, statues, sea, view.. omg, just too many to name - there were all so breathtaking. What surprised us was the colour of the seawater! Unlike Kuta / Legian / Seminyak's polluted beach that resembles Singapore's,  Pandawa was so different.. It was so clear. We could even see the seaweeds the farmers were growing in the water!

With our bike, we also explored the pretty cafes in Seminyak area (just a 10-15minutes drive from Kuta area) and our best bet? Definitely Revolver Espresso Cafe! And Naughty Nuri's.. and Mama San... and oh my so many!!


Shopping
The local goods that you see everywhere, especially in Kuta Market are all basically the same. I was already bored on the second day, seeing the SAME stuffs everywhere. However, if you were to shop in Bali, go for their surf brands like Roxy, Ripcurl, Billabong, Quiksilver. Most likely the prices are so much cheaper than what you have back home. I got my Roxy bikini at the Factory Outlet along Jl. Bypass for only $15? Also got a super pretty surf shorts (Roxy) while my boyfriend went mad for Ripcurl's surf pants and shirts at their factory outlets, also along the same road.

One thing I did regret not buying was the pink and black Nike Tr Fit 5's shoes :( They were so cheap compared to the ones in Singapore! I saw the same nike shoe yesterday at Tampines retailing at $139 whereas Bali was selling only at $80!

And oh yes, one thing to go for is their sales! If you're lucky, you're bound to snap up some good deals. While we were at Discovery Mall near our hotel (Bintang Bali Kuta), New Balance was having a 1 for 1 sale. And it was fucking cheap! The depressing thing was that we came a little late so our sizes were sold out :'(


Till then.. I will blog more again. Still many things to do ;)


Follow me on my instagram - @gladyspng since I'm using it often, especially when I'm on vacation! In the meantime, you guys could also check out the pictures we took during the 2 weeks ;)