Eat, Pray, Love 2012

We juz got back from our 4D3N honeymoon trip to Bali. As no one could send us to the airport, we decided to drive there by ourselves and park at the LCCT Zone C parking area which is the cheapest among all the other parking zones over there. Luckily our parking spot was not vr far from the terminal. The daily fee is RM33.50, so it was RM134 juz for the parking ticket.. fuhhh...berpeluh jgk nk byr :P

Ok here's the summary of our itinerary

Thurs - 3rd May

Arrived at Denpasar Airport ~1230pm

Ketut, our driver that was hired by VeraWedding travel agent has already waited for us at the airport when we arrived, he held a board with our names on it, i didn't managed to snap a pic tho. Sigh, should've asked him to hold it longer. haha.. He right away took us to Ubud which takes almost 1.5 hours from the airport. Here are some facts that I stole from wiki.. :) (so lazy to describe it myself)

Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. One of Bali's major arts and culture centres, it has developed a large tourism industry.Ubud has a population of about 30,000 people, but it is becoming difficult to distinguish the town itself from the villages that surround it. 

Along the way to Ubud, we can see some hills and paddy fields. Most of the locals own paddy fields, an dI got to know from 1 of them that the paddy that they harvest are just enough for their family, not for sale. Ubud is a rural and remote area which has less development because they wanted to preserve the culture, and most of them are poor.

It's interesting for us to see and passed by some different villages which has different specialized skills. First we could see a village that is specialized in woods carving, then we passed by a village which has stone carving skills where they carve the Hindu gods to be placed at their home or at the Pura (Hindu temples). Ketut also mentioned that there are other villages which are specialized in batik, marble and so on. I personally think that is cool, I mean let's say we wanted to custom made a wooden chair, we will not have to look for any other place than the wooden-carving-specialized village. 

It usually takes around 1.5 hours to Ubud but, it took us 2+ hours. That was particularly because we asked the driver to stop us at the batik shop. My Indonesian friend told me that I should get bali hand-drawn batik because the quality is good and the design is quite different. So I bought one, and thinking to turn it into a palazzo pants ;) I only bought 2meters though because of its price :P  And then we stopped by their mini mart to get some snacks in case we get hungry at nights :) 

::  At the Batik factory ::

:: At Denpasar Airport ::

We arrived at Kupu Kupu Barong at 4ish. We were welcomed by their friendly staffs who have been waiting for us to arrive. The staff then place a jasmine garland on each us. They also served us cold towel and welcome drinks upon arrival. We even being assigned with a private butler :) I felt like a princess! He brought our luggage to the villa, while we went to the restaurant to enjoy the high tea and there were some kids learning cultural balinese dance :) 

:: Just arrived at the majestic Kupu kupu Barong Tree Villa & Spa :: 

We were quite tired of the journey ( I only slept for 2.5 hours the night before due to last-min packing :P), so we headed back to the villa for refreshments. At around 8+ pm we headed to the La' View restaurant for the romantic dinner which was included in the honeymoon package as well. The food was OK for me. 

:: Romantic dinner at La'View restaurant ::

The next day, we went out to Ubud city by the hotel free shuttle. We did some shopping and visited the Ubud palace. I wanted to see the Monkey Forest as it is 1 of the tourist attractions but was too tired to walk there. It's ok, we have the same place in Penang - Botanical Garden,I guess it's just the same. hehe.. We were there for 4 hours and headed back to the villa at 430pm. It was the 2nd day and we wanted to make use of the limited hours left at our majestic villa :) So we didn't go for dinner, we only had some snacks bought from the mini mart earlier.

:: At Ubud Market ::

:; Hubby and new friends at Ubud Market ::

:: Along th road in Ubud town ::

:: Ubud Palace ::

The next day we went to the spa which was also included in the package. It was nice, with the calming songs and aroma and all, but in term of body-refreshing , I personally prefer Thai massage.

After spa, we checked out from the villa at 12pm..sobs2... :'( I really didn't want to leave that place, but I don't have the $$ to pay for extra nights... double sobs.... :'( :'(

:: Our private villa ::

:: Before checkout, gonna miss this place a lot! :( ::

We arrived in Kuta at around 2pm. We checked in at Mercure Kuta which is just beside the Hard Rock Hotel. The room is cozy but quite small. I wasn't feeling well, so we decided to stay at the hotel until 430pm. Hubby actually wanted me to rest at the hotel , but I feel bad for him not being able to enjoy our last day in Bali. Plus we have already paid for the driver to drive us around Bali for 10hours. It was only RM150! Quite cheap right? The driver fetched us at 430pm and we straight away went to Uluwatu to catch the sunset and Kecak dance show. We managed to arrive on time but it was quite cloudy that the sun was barely seen. It was a huge crowd at the dance show, but luckily we managed to squeezed in. Again this is a wiki-sourced info on the dance :)

Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 150 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped PrinceRama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducingexorcism dance


It was a great show, the actors did some standup comedies too :)  We managed to take some pictures with the dancers.

:: Kecak dance ::

:: Us with the Kecak dancers ::

After that the driver brought us to Jimbaran to have seafood by the beach. The weather was nice. The ambiance even nicer. There was a man by the beach who sells roasted corn. There were fireworks and there was a live band. And in front of us was the sea. :) The food was not so nice, and it was pricey. We were actually paying for the view instead of the food I guess.

:: Dinner at Jimbaran ::

The next day which was our last day in Bali, after checkout we left our luggage at the hotel and went for a walk at the famous Kuta beach. We also walked to the shops. I did a lot of walking and was really tired. I guess it's because of the age factor too. :p 

:: At Mercure Hotel, Kuta ::

:: At Hard Rock ::

:: Kuta Town ::

:: 2002 Bomb incident memorial ::

:: Kuta Beach ::

:: Us at kuta beach ::

Our flight was at 920pm and we arrived at the airport at around 5pm. Feeling sticky, I decided to take bath at the airport and change clothes before I check in the luggage. The  flight was delayed around 20mins. 

:: Bye bye Bali. We hope to see you again in the future ::

We safely arrived at LCCT around 1ish and arrived home at 2ish.