Memories of Bali is one of the earlier Korean dramas I watched and among those that triggered my ‘addiction’ to Korean dramas.
OK, where shall I start? Abah sent Mummy and I to KL Sentral on Saturday noon for our coach to the LCCT. We reached the terminal very early, too early to check in, in fact. Flight departed on time and after suffering kicks and restless leg shakes from the inconsiderate oaf behind me, we reached Bali at 7.40 pm. We were done with the immigration, baggage collection, and customs clearance within 30 minutes. The hotel pick-up was already waiting and it took about another half an hour before we reached the hotel, no thanks to the Saturday Night crowds and the narrow road choked with taxis and pedestrians. We got an apartment unit with a sofa bed in the living room, a kitchenette attached to a corner of the living room complete with crockery, cutlery and even dish washing liquid! [all these were not made available at the Bangkok apartment].
Woke up early on Sunday Morning to check out the beach and to my dismay, I found the beach nowhere as gorgeous as I’d hoped. The sand was not that white – I’ve seen whiter sands on Malaysian beaches! – and not that clean. There were people doing their morning jog and also dogs running around. I didn’t linger there long.
Took the morning hotel shuttle to Kuta. Now Kuta is Bali’s biggest tourist beach area. I found it overdeveloped, over-commercialised, seedy and the word ‘tacky’ kept reverberating in my mind. And it was really tacky. The road leading to Kuta there was lined with an amazing hodgepodge of everything targeted for tourists – hotels from small to big, shops, stalls, restaurants, bars, spas, travel agencies, money changers, photo shops... everything that a tourist could possibly need really. More tacky shops awaited in Kuta selling tacky stuff. We went to find Uluwatu which Lin said stocks hand-made Balinese lace products, from clothes to bed linen. They didn’t come cheap too but the Uluwatu store at Jalan Bakung Sari carried some stuff at a discount [kind of like an outlet store].
We had our lunch at Kebab Place where we ordered chicken noodle soups instead of kebab. The portion made us want to cry, it was that miserably small. We then walked to Centro Shopping Mall about five minutes away before returning to Jalan Legian. It started to rain cats and dogs here and we got a bit drenched. We dodged our way in between stalls [tacky, tacky] and I saw a huge rat [or was it a mouse? I can never tell] and gave a scream. We found another two Uluwatu stores and after walking around a bit more, we took a cab back.
We were Lucky that there was a warung selling halal food very near to the hotel. The service was a bit slow though but worth the wait. After dinner, I placed a call to one of the travel agencies and booked a tour for the next day. You can find dozens of different tours arranged by various tour agencies at the airport; it’s just a matter of choosing where you want to go and which tour company you think can do the job.
The tour company picked us up on Monday morning after 8.30 am. We drove past Denpasar on the way to Ubud. The first village is Batubulan, which literally means ‘moon stone’. Famous for its stone carvings, most of the stone sculptures you see around Bali will almost certainly come from Batubulan. These works are exhibited all along the main road – demons, noble warriors and animals of various sizes and shapes. Batubulan is also a centre for antiques and a variety of crafts, textiles and woodworks and has some well-regarded dance troops. A Barong and Rangda or Keris dance is performed here at 9.30 am daily. The dance symbolises the never-ending battle between good and bad. I didn’t appreciate the dance much though.
We then went to a nearby batik centre but again, this place didn’t impress me much. Our next stop was Celuk, the centre for Balinese goldsmiths and silversmiths. Nearly every family here is involved in some aspects of the delicate silver work. We stopped at a workshop to see a silversmith at work and then to the adjoining showroom but again left empty-handed.
Further along the road towards Ubud is the village of Mas. Mas means ‘gold’ but the craft here is mainly woodcarving and the village offers a myriad of wooden items. The road through it is solidly lined with craft shops. We stopped at one but most of the elaborate and finely carved products were of statues so again we left empty-handed.
After Mas, we entered the area of Ubud. Ubud is recognised as the cultural centre of Bali and is home to many respected local and western artists. I almost bought a painting at the first centre but decided against it and bought one at another centre.
We journeyed on, passing houses, temples [and there were many of them!] and soon we started our ascend up to Kintamani, which is 1500 metres above the sea level. There were wonderful views of terraced rice fields too and I enjoyed the serene view which was enhanced by the fresh air, made fresher from the recent rain. We then stopped at a family-run farm and all kinds of trees were planted there – red cocoa, green cocoa, coffee, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, banana, jackfruit... the land was very fertile here [it was near the volcanic mountain]. The family also runs a small shop selling organically produced food products and toiletries.
We finally reached Kintamani and had a late lunch [at 3 pm!] at a restaurant. Unfortunately, it was drizzling and the rain obscured the view of the majestic Gunung Batur. Soon after the rain stopped, there were mists that denied us the view of both the mountain and Danau Batur [Lake Batur]. Oh well...
We returned back to Legian, but not before stopping at a traditional house to see how Balinese traditional life is lived and later a temple. Mummy refused to enter so I went in with the guide. I much prefer Buddhist temples to Indian temples because the former only have statues of Buddha whereas the latter have really gruesome grotesque-looking statues. We reached the hotel at 6.20 pm, after an almost 10-hour day out [the brochure said the tour duration was supposed to be 8-9 hours]. That night, I dreamt I was treasure-hunting in South America and encountered a large, monstrous statue of some mythical figure. That’s for visiting the temple hours earlier.
Tuesday morning: woke up early for prayers [the sun rises early on this part of the world]. After showering, we finished up packing and had a quick breakfast. See, we had a massage appointment that morning. Our pick-up arrived at 7.35 and brought us to the Green Garden Spa at Green Garden Hotel, about 20 minutes away. We had a relaxing and wonderful massage there but as Mummy was worried about arriving the airport late and missing the flight so we were done 30 minutes before the scheduled time [and missed the steam bath – I didn’t mind this – and Jacuzzi – which I did mind missing!].
We were driven back to our hotel and checked out at 1130, after having a very light meal. There were about two mosques quite near the airport and I was pleased to discover there were prayer rooms at the airport too. I was surprised to actually find some products cost cheaper at the airport than elsewhere [that was a first time for me] but I didn’t part with any more Rupiah because the souvenir stuff just didn’t interest me at all. To be honest, I’m getting sick of the same souvenir items sold everywhere in Asia and it’s getting more and more difficult to find good quality and unique souvenirs to bring home.
The plane departed slightly later at 2.15 pm and we reached KUL at 5 pm. There were really kiasu passengers rushing to get off the plane and they got a rebuke from some Caucasian passengers. They certainly gave a bad first impression of Malaysians and deserved the rebuke.
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Footie footnote: Arsenal beat ManUre 2-1 on Sunday. Excellent, superb, fantastic! Thanks to bosom buddy who text me with the good news. Read about the match here and here. Oh and Liverpool also beat Chelshit 2-0 the night before.
Woke up at 5.30 this morning for no reason and wondered if the Carling Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Spurs was still on. Turned on the tube only to find Arsenal trailing by two goals and thought, ‘Heck, was this the team of young Gunners that beat Liverpool last week?’ My decision to abandon a few more precious minutes on the cosy bed was rewarded later with two goals from Julio Baptista who redeemed himself from zero to hero [aye, he scored an own goal in the first half]. Read the full report here. Now we have to face Spurs again next Wednesday to determine who'll face Chelshit in the final at Cardiff.
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