#3 | Bali 2014

After a good month of not posting, and also a long escape to Turkey (Which was an amazing experience for me, which will probably be the next post), I'm back!

I had a short getaway during my April holidays with my family to Bali, and it was my first time there. Imagined the place to be super beach-y and have lots of resorts, it came out to be exactly what I have imagined, but even better.

Geography lesson:
Bali is an island of Indonesia and its between Java and Lombok. The capital of Bali is Denpasar. An idea of how big Bali is, is that it is 6 times bigger than Singapore. Not as small as you thought it is right? According to my tour guide, majority of the population, about 85% are Balinese Hindu, with minority practicing Islam or Christianity.  

The first day we arrived in the morning and had a long drive from Ngurah Rai international airport to Lovina Beach, it is the place where we can get to see wild dolphins at dawn. Along the way we had some stops and one of them was Tanah Lot Temple.

Lime stone formation with wind erosion. 

People have to cross the small part on my brother's left to that "island", its actually the praying area, or rather there is a small temple inside the cave.

After which we continued our journey and went to Holy Hot Springs, which we didn't swim as by looking at the amount of people there... Wasnt ideal. It was tucked in a mountainous area and there were a lot of locals there. The cafe was nice and provided free wifi and selling some of the local delights and drinks. There were also many foreigners there. 

We then proceeded onto our journey to our resort, and after another 2 hours drive, we arrived! Didnt do much that night as we were tired from all that long ride. We explored our rooms, which were like a chalet as rooms were on top of one another in each of that Bungalow like houses. Each room had a balcony, toilet (with no bathtub sadly), TV which had lots of English channels (plus points) and of course, a good bed to sleep soundly in after a long day. 

Breathing in all that fresh salted air 

Day 2 came early as we were asked to be at the lobby by 5am, and the sky was still pitch black. But it was all worth it when we went out into sea and got to see the wild dolphins up close and personal. Honestly I was slightly afraid when we set off as the captain was just taking us out further and further into sea, and we were one of the last boats to set off. Land seemed so far away and there was not any boats near sight. Plus all we had was a life vest and in a sampan boat, sitting on wooden planks. Yep. Scary since the sea looked so vast and we had no idea how deep it was. 

WILD DOLPHINS!! They were really fast and there were alot of boats chasing (or rather scaring) them.

So Day 2 started like this and then we had breakfast, which was typical westernized buffet and we then headed to watch a dolphin show and visited a zoo in a resort nearby. They had like deers, aligators, snakes, pelicans, otters, dolphins and small reptiles, which might kinda be scary to know if one of the animals were on the loose at night while staying in that resort.

After packing our luggage, we headed down to another temple and also went to a cocoa and coffee plantation. The showed us the luwak coffee, aka mao-shi coffee or civet coffee, which is the most expensive coffee in the world. They actually rear civets a species of cat like animal and feed them coffee berries. Their shit after eating that berries is than used to make coffee. And some how many people enjoy it and are willing to pay that high price.... We of course tried, with a cinamon stick, and it didnt taste as great as we thought it would be, but it didnt taste shitty either. Haha

Temple, manage to see a wedding ceremony as well, where the whole village would actually come together and celebrate for that couple regardless if you are close to them or not. Same thing applies to funerals. The whole village would actually wear yellow for prayers, bright colours for weddings and black or white for funerals.

After that we went to Bali's palace where then prince (real prince) of Bali gave us a tour himself. He was really a humble and honest man and his father was really the king himself who have passed away. He and his other family members are preserving the palace as a form of income for themselves and also to pass on the knowledge and allow others to see how it is inside their palace and get to know more about their culture and heritage. 

And then we then checked into our new resort on Kuta Beach, and it was called Mecure Kuta Bali. It is by far one of the best, THE BEST, hotel/resort I have stayed in. I really really really loved the toilet. Because there was a bathtub in there, firstly it was green, secondly, I could lay straight and not drown. It was totally built for my height :)

But other than that, the room was though small, but comfy and good enough for me. I really like the balcony as we managed to get a room facing the beach so we caught glimpse of the sunset and sunrise. They only had wifi in the lobby, just like the previous resort, but the place was very polished, and the swimming pool was also one of the best I have been too. (It was facing the sea and it just makes you feel like you are swimming in the sea!) The sun tanning area was great as well as they had nice sun beds and towels ready available for you.

Sunset from our balcony!

Fried flying fish for dinner! Tasted like normal fish for the body, and the wings tasted like cracker. YUMS

View up from hotel lobby to see the bright round moon

 Day 3, was the day we would be playing our water sports!

Our balcony!

View from breakfast restaurant. 

Soaking up some sun after breakfast. Burps

And so we changed into our swimming gear and headed town to Watermark Beachfront. We went on the glass boat which we can see the corals and fishes clearly under water, also did para-sailing, flying fish and scuba diving. After all that fun stuff, and nearly drowning as I didn't know how to breathe properly in the beginning from scuba diving, we went to an island where there was a turtle farm, we saw other animals like the giant fruit bat, horn bills, snakes etc.

Glass boat!

Unglam but hey! Nice view right? Getting ready for flying fish.

The beach looks like a wedding set.. So gorgeous.

The day was cut short as my dad injured himself, and we had to visit a local hospital. It was really an eye opener to see how Hospitals are like in another country, it was very small and not as advanced and clean as Singapore's. That is why I'm really thankful for living in Singapore and also how well the government and the science/medical field advanced so far and to build Singapore as it is today.

Day 4, had my morning breakfast, its never complete without cereal and veggies :)

Did some shopping around the vicinity, there were lots of massage parlours and big brands, at this shopping street nearby on my resort's left, which I was surprised to see! Brands like Rip curl, Polo, Etude house, Billabong etc. The shopping wasn't great there but it was better at the nearby mall, which I really could not remember the name.. Opps! But it was on the right of my resort and there were even bigger brands like Tony Roma, New Look, Top Shop and even Black ball! Haha you could have guessed where I would have went.

But the best place to shop would still be the local wholesale market around the area. They sell lots of beach wear and light weight clothings, knock offs sunglasses, shoes and bags, and also some trinkets. And I must say, Bali really surprised me alot as there was lots of cafe and nicely graffiti-ed walls.

Food Court in the mall

Later in the evening, it was time to go home, and Bali sky bid us farewell with the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life, the sun was like a butterfly setting down with the sky in pastel cotton candy colours.

Will definitely return to Bali when I can, if I were to use one word to describe Bali's experience: Worthy.
(In terms of the price I have paid, $400 only for a private tour and good services and accomodations. Was a relaxing and refreshing experience.)


If you would like to view more of my pictures/clips on Bali, or any other countries that I have travelled to, my hashtag on Instagram is #sharleentravels, and my Instagram name is @singingspikes. 

Thanks for reading x