Trip to the Jewell of Indonesia. Bali

Were in Bali with my girlfriend, Melissa and another couple Odett and Danny
on 6-10-2004 for a mere 5 Days 4 Nights. Staying in a 4 stars hotel name
Sanur Paradise in Sanur. Thought it sounds expensive, but overall it isn't
expensive at all. Including air return tickets and hotel, it doesn't even
took me more than MYR700 for 5D4N. First Day, rented a Suzuki Jeep (Katana)
that fit 4 persons and headed to Nusa Dua beach. And found out that it's
quite difficult to get used to the driving style there in Bali.

Picking up slowly and trying to mimic the way they drive. Horning is so frequent, and
it's terrible when you're in a cross junction. When it's a green light,
you'll still see other bikes and cars coming in the opposite way. And
certain time was horn even if you stop at a certain red light. Confusing yet
"amazing". At about 4pm we proceed to Bali Cliff Hotel and Uluwatu temple
for sightseeing and waiting for sunset. Magnificent scenery there in Uluwatu
temple. It's located at one of the cliff and there're lots of tourist there,
feeding the nasty yet cunning monkeys and keeps snaping the beautiful
scenery.

For Your Information, Beware of your sunglasses or handbags. Some
monkeys will jump on you and steal your sunglasses where u hangs on your
shirt or head. In return you'll need to buy some snack food to feed them in
return of your good. Well, seems like these monkeys are well trained in
bargaining huh? Amazing... When dusk approached. Met one of my Balinese
friend, Yuni and her co. Dewi for the famous seafood in Jimbaran. It helds
specifically on the sandy beach, and there are so many restaurants for
dining along the beach.

Equipped with good food, live band music that walk up to your table and sing for you. Overall, it wasa nice saturday evening before proceed to Kuta town for a little shop at the Hard Rock Cafe and those small shops, thus getting a glimpse of their nightlife, before surrendering to my exhaustion and head back to Sanur to have a good rest for
tomorrow have a good rest for tomorrow.

(2nd day) Drove all the way head north for more than an hour to Lake Batur
in Kintamani. During the journey the scenery is awesome with the green paddy
field, small huts, and seeing young Balinese kids playing around near the
village. It gives you a peaceful feeling. After an hour plus driving finally
reaching the peak of Lake Batur, which is Bali's largest lake, wrapping up
the cone of the island's third tallest volcano.

It's foggy conditions, and windy yet cooling air thus the scenery was absolutely fantastic. You'll just have to take my word for it. After the roundtrip down the lake, we head to Besakih Temple. One of the largest temple near Mt.Agung. First constructed
more than 1000 years ago and perched nearly 1000 metres up the side of
Gunung Agung is Besakih Temple, Bali's most important temple. Comprising 30
separate temples situated on seven terraces up the hill, Besakih is one
enormous complex. It is large, very well kept, but not always open.

And it seems like almost everyday there're prayers, and certain holy places can't
make it to enter where only proper costumes needed. (3rd Day) Took a boat
and off to Lembongan Island at 10:30am. Before stepping down to the shore,
was asked to try snorkelling in one of the "deep sea". Tried the
snorkelling, and found out that it's nothing great deal compare to islands
back in Malaysia. But one shocking things are, the seawater is freaking
cold.

Later after a few swim we hop on back to the boat and reached to a
small cafe house for lunch and proceed walking around the beaches and
looking for a nice spot to sun tan. The wave is quite rough and good for
surfing. Found out an empty sandy beach and went on lying on the beach and
did some sun bathing and cooling off later in the water. Overall the island
is good for relaxation and get away from the hectic and busy crowd. (4th
Day) Kuta beach. Was in Kuta beach and been surrounded by all kind of
sellers. Selling their services such as tattooing, massage, selling bags,
souvenirs, and etc. Very pushy and attitude guys. Sigh.

Got my self a tattoo before rent for a surf board and tried it in the sea. Though never
experience before, just whack it and never succeed to give a real surf.
Sigh... look easy but never did a good job. Kuta beach is always crowded
with so many peoples. Young and old, everyone is friendly and with beautiful
ladies going topless is not an issue to be found here.

Overall, it's a nice beach for beginner surfers and for someone that always look for peace of mind and relaxation. After surfing, sun tanning, and beauty watching, was
damn thirsty and my whole body felt so sticky and covered with sands and
salty water. Can't stand it anymore, and took the jeep and head to one of
the shopping mall, name Galleria Matahari.

Looked for the gents and cleaned my self in there. Walk around the supermarket and grabbed 3 bottles of 1.5l mineral water. Ahhh... refreshing. It's about 2:30pm and after a few walk around relaxing our self with the half-dead air condition mall, took the
jeep to a refuel and head straight to Tanah Lot Temple, which will be our
last visit to Bali's temple and to round up our Bali trip. Reached there
around 5pm and it's just nice to watch the sunset at later. Tanah Lot temple
is unique and tops my list among the other 2 that visited earlier. It's
built near to the sea where the strong wave kept hitting the curvy unique
stone. And it's erected on those huge stone and was surrounded by nearby
cliff where it's available for visitor to sit down and relax watching the
sunset. Spent about 2 hrs plus they're waiting for the sunset and proceed
home once it reaches dark.

Hungry stomach making noises and head for McD before calling it a day. Final day which is also date of departure... sigh really sad. Honestly speaking you can't really enjoy and conquer Bali with that mere 4 days. I wish I could have longer time there. At least I could train my self to stand up on the surfboard...Argh!! As a conclusion, Bali is
a natural yet beautiful place, but thumbs down for the "irritating sellers"
and "the drivers' attitude".

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