19/ 11/09
We wake up quite early on the second day as Bali Sunrise comes way earlier than Kuala Lumpur.
After the wash up, we keep our luggage as we'll be leaving the serenade Ubud Town for more cultural exploration today and check into the bustling tourist town, The Kuta.
We walk to the Hotel's cafe for our breakfast, its quite confusing as Greenfield and Tegal Sari are just next to each other and its not fence up.. we have to walk pass Tegal Sari Garden to the cafe next to the Salt water pool.
The breakfast offered with the package is juice, fried rice/ noodle/ toast, fruits and coffee/ tea. I hate bread and of course we choose heavy food for our breakfast.
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| My breakfast.. the fried noodle set |
After the breakfast, we still have loads of time before Putu pick us from the hotel for our tour. We decided to walk around and have a couple more photos in the Greenfield.
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| Nice lamp at the Hotel Cafe |
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| This is only at 7.00am |
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| Hinduism Statue in the Garden |
We walk to the nearby places to explore some of the Ubud town. There's a very nice restaurant along the road beside a lotus pond, can't help ourselves to snap a photo there.. Ubud is also the art and craft pulse of Bali, everywhere there's craft and painting shops. The people here start work early also and they are very loyal to their religious, they serve servings to the god many times in a day...
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| Outside an art center |
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| Mum posting at the Lotus Pond theme restaurant |
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| The serving to god, its everywhere... just avoid stepping onto one |
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| The Balinese temple, They called it Pura... Every few houses there's a Pura, see how religious they are? |
We walk back and waited for Putu to pick us at 8am. Our day 2 is very pack of visits to famous temples located all over Bali. Our driver do modify during the pre-discussion to work out the best itineraries for us. Since we depart from Ubud, Putu bring us to the Tampak Siring. The Sacred Spring Temple.
Tampak Siring landed on a large compound, the Holy Spring is located in the middle after you walk pass a few temples. Its of course close for public visit. But do not worry, there's a public pond which believes that water flows from the Holy Spring. Many locals bath there believing they'll shower with bless and good luck.
Most temple in Bali requested the visitors to wrap in a sarong to pay respects to their god.. And women in their menstruation are strictly prohibited to enter. We do need to pay an entrance fee of IDR 6000 to visit Tampak Siring and the guards request for some donations when they pass us the sarongs.
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| The entrance to Tampak Siring |
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| A stretch of restaurants and souvenir shops after enter the gate. |
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| Balinese statue that always hold a yellow umbrella. |
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| The gate way to enter temple... I remember a tour guide was telling some funny stories to a Chinese that related this door to 天狗。 |
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| The Holy Spring |
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| The public Spring |
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| Our self timer photo of us in the sarongs. |
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There are a stretch of souvenir shops that you need to pass through before you can get to the carpark. Since the competition is tough here, many local seller trying to catch the tourist attention to their shops. A tips for bargaining with the Balinese seller, they're desperate to start their business, you can bargain more and they'll sell it to you to start their business of the day. At here, mummy bought some t-shirts and i bought a hand made jewelry and fridge magnet at really great steal since we're the first customer.
Putu was waiting for us at the carpark and ready to bring us to the next destination which is few minutes drive away. The Goa Gajah. (The elephant cave)
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| Welcome to the Goa Gajah |
Again, surrounded the carparks are souvenir shops with desperate seller calling and trying to sell you stuff. We have to walk pass a long pathway down to a valley to the cave. Again, Sarong is required here and we need to pay a fee of IDR 6000. There's a spring here where we see a lot of tourist trying to wash themselves believing to bring good blessing an luck. We tried it also
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| The long path way heading to Goa Gajah |
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| Are these tomb stones? |
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| I tried the spring water also |
The Goa Gajah is actually a very very small cave with 1 statue inside... (speechless)!! But of course, i dare not offense the local believing. I just pay a short visit and then out from the little tiny cave.
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| The tiny cave... The real Goa Gajah |
As we walk pass the row of souvenir shops, i got so obsessed with a long turquoise floral beach dress.. after some hard core negotiation, the seller still refuse to discount to my expectation... but anyhow.. i got it for RM18.
We walk back to Putu and next he bring us to Taman Ayun. We asked Putu to stop us at the roadside stall for our lunch, again, we take another meal of Babi Guling, but this is at the local stalls. Each of us only pays IDR20,000 inclusive of a Babi Guling sets and a teh botol.. Just a quick lunch before we continue our journey to the other part of Bali call Mengwi.
Our next destination is Taman Ayun Temple located at Mengwi. Taman Ayun is said to be the most beautiful temple in Bali, but we're quite surprise that this place is not even crowded. There's only a small group of Caucasian tourist beside us. After paying an entrance fee of IDR3000, we're free to explore the temple by ourselves. The function of Taman Ayun Temple is a place to pray the god,Wisnu in their manifestation. The highlights of this place is the stretch of stupas located in the middle, surrounded by a big garden. The stupas is close for visit and its only open if there's prayers ceremonies.
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| Entrance to the Taman Ayun |
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| Gate to the stupas |
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| The stupas |
We does not spend too long time in Taman Ayun as we have another 2 attractions to cover for the day. We then continue a long journey to a lake call Brathan lake on the ground of the Volcano. Its takes some wind road drives to reach to the place.
After some drizzles, the weather has become more cooling and one of the reasons is the location of Brathan Lake at Bedugul. This place is really famous for tourist and it charges a IDR 10,000 entrance fee.
The Ulun Danu temple is located on a small island on the Bhratan Lake and its famous to pray for fertility and prosperity. The cooling weather and beautiful scenery here makes us spend more time exploring and taking photos. There is also a Buddhist temple before entry to the Ulun Danu. Obviously, i do not really study much about the Hinduism, i'm just admiring the beautiful and unique structure of the Balinese temples.
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| The garden at Bhratan Lake |
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| The Buddhist Stupa |
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| Ulun Danu Temple on the lake |
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| Bhratan Lake... Behind the foggy background is the Volcano |
Without us even realizing, we've visited 4 famous temples in Bali and we then proceed to one of the best side for sunset catching, The Tanah Lot.
The sunrise in Bali is very early but surprisingly the sunset comes rather late... We reach there at 4 something and we have sufficient time to walk at the bazaar at Tanah Lot. This is one of the biggest souvenir market other than Kuta, and believe it or not, price are cheaper compare to Kuta... Kuta price are a real rip off...
In Bali, the Polo are a very famous store... every few shops in a row there's one Polo shop, many claims that Polo are manufacture in Indonesia and thats why the price is cheap here... Do examine carefully, this is not Ralph Lauren, Even their tag only have Polo.. so, you judge yourself if you're buying genuine goods..
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| The Souvenir Bazaar at Tanah Lot |
A huge variety of souvenir to choose from here and its all depend on your bargaining skills to get the great steal. I did not get anything from here, just get some snacks and get myself a temporary henna tattoo for IDR10,000.
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| My Henna Butterfly |
The Tanah Lot temple with its mystical and beautiful outline emerging in the evening skies is one of the most popular picture taking spot in Bali. Its build on a huge rock and at high tide, as the water surrounds the temple, it looks as if its floating. The meaning of Tanah Lot is a piece of land in the middle of the ocean. Such places is of course full of tourist with the multi/ mega camera waiting to catch the best glimpse of sunset. We walk to a further place and wait for the sunset moments too.
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| Tide rising |
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| The Tanah Lot temple |
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| The picturesque sunset at Tanah Lot |
There's also a kecak dance performance take place at the main hall near the entrance every evening and cost IRP 80K, we skip it because we've plan a Barong dance the next day at Batu Bulan. After the dusk fall, we slowly walk back to met Putu and get him to drive us back to the Hotel in Kuta.
The journey from Tanah Lot to the Kuta beach is rather distance, provided a massive jam at Kuta. We only reach to our hotel pass 8.45pm. Putu told us that Bali is practicing a power saving campaign where different part of the city will take turns to shut down their power. Coincidentally, it reach to Kuta beach turn... most of the shops near our hotels are black out. Many restaurants and warungs turns to be a romantic candle light dinner venue.
Our hotel in Kuta for the next 2 nights is Yulia Inn Kuta, which i got at a discounted rate of RM 113 from hotelclub. Luckily our hotel weren't black out, we quickly check in and took a nice, warm shower to wash away the sweats/ dust/ tiredness and change into a new set of clean clothes and off to hunt for our dinner. Kuta area is a never sleep city, it stay awake till late night due to the pubs, restaurant & hotels which is favorable by the foreigner. It also gather the most happening pubs and hotels like Hard Rock Hotel here...
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| Change into my newly bought dress from Goa Gajah in the morning. |
As per plan, we should visit Warung Made just few shops across our hotel for dinner, but because we're late and hunger doesn't allow us to wait to be seated in the crowded Warung Made, we change our mind and dine in a Bali Chinese owned warung... (at least i think so because i see chinese word in their menu).- Warung Murni.
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| Some of the menu... OMG!!! Look at the terrible English translation! |
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We both order a Soto Ayam noodle, some sort like a clear soup chicken noodle but the Balinese one is very oily broth soaking the maggie mee alike noodle with a lot of veges, hard boiled egg and chicken fillet slices. The broth taste slightly spicy. I so love their Teh Botol and i order it once again for my dinner.. We took quick dinner here at Warung Murni as the food taste so so but very cheap for a tourist standard. My meal only cost me IRP 25K.
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| The very very oily Mee Soto |
After the dinner, we took a walk around Kuta town. Most of the shops here are blood sucking tourist trap which you will end up buying expensive wood carvings, paintings, souvenirs, Batiks, etc. Other than that, the Non genuine Polo shops spread through out the town. Surfing brands like Quicksilver, Stussy, Billabong is very famous here too... We spend quite a long time exploring the 40% off Quicksilver outlet but end up buying nothing,
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| The must take photo Odysseys surf school at Kuta |
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| Hard Rock Cafe is a must take photo venue too |
Even its night, but the weather is rather hot and humid, only a short walk makes us sweat. We go into the Hard Rock cafe shop to check the merchandises out, but its too expensive... i shall think twice before getting any of it. This stretch of shops are still powerless except the hotels... we decided to visit places some other time and walk back for a rest at our hotel.
Yulia Inn is about 5 walks from Kuta Beach and its very near to a shopping mall call Matahari. For RM113 per night, we get a twin bedroom with 2 buffet breakfast. The hotel is quite old and a bit run down, but for price we pay for, we shouldn't put too high expectation. But one incident really mark some negative points for this hotel, my mum must drink her 3 in 1 Nescafe no matter which part of the world she travel to, she just couldn't adapt to brew coffee... so, she ask for a pot of hot boiled water, but the water quality really gross us... its chalky with unknown white particles inside and a layer of oil/ wax is floating on the surface.... ewwwww...
The Yulia Inns
Jl Pantai Kuta 43, Bali Indonesia
Tel : +62-361-751893 Fax: +62-361-751055
Website: www.yuliainns.com/ybi
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| Our room with Balcony at Yulia Inn |
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| Tiny swimming pool at Yulia |
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| Its Just at the back of Guardian Pharmacy, you can see the sign board, from the main road, you can only saw the coffee shop. |
