Singapore: Where Are We?!?: September 2012

I have heard mixed reviews on Bali so I was hesitant to plan a trip, but felt I couldn't live in Asia and not take advantage of Bali. I am so glad I took the plunge and booked a trip as Nate and I fell in love with Bali. It's an experience that cannot be summed up in words or pictures, but in my opinion should be experienced first hand. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Bali jump on it as it's an experience you will never forget. Our journey started Friday September 21st as we headed out to the airport. The F1 was in Singapore for the weekend and we were fearful traffic would be rough so we left in plenty of time. Having time to kill we opted to check out many of the strange things that the Changi Airport has to offer. Terminal 1 boasts a swimming pool, fitness center, and cactus garden.

For about $10 you can get your tan on

Getting Fit

The cactus garden is the newest addition to Terminal 1. It is so strange to stand on the roof of an airport surrounded by cactuses and see a runway behind you.. only in Singapore!

After having an amusing time in the gardens it was off to our gate. We boarded and were in Bali two and half hours later. The Bali airport is quite intimidating, but very typical to what you would find in Thailand or Mexico. After getting off the airplane you buy a Visa in US dollars (a bit strange) then wait in a ridiculously long line to get your passport stamped, all while trying to dodge the mosquitoes that are getting a feast out of everyone. Once out of the customs area you enter the baggage claim, which is still in the "secure" area. There are baggage claim helpers dressed in pale blue shirts and khaki pants with badges. They pointed us to the the right belt and as we grabbed our luggage they grabbed them out of our hands and asked us to follow them. Nate and I suddenly realized this was a bit strange but followed them out through the security point at which point they ask for a tip. Not exactly the best way to start off your trip getting swindled as soon as you get your bags. I was rather annoyed, and even more annoyed at how much tip they thought they should be given. I have never witnessed an airport where you run into scammers in a secure baggage claim area from uniformed people with badges. From that point on my luggage did not leave my hand. Leaving the airport you are harassed by the many drivers screaming "transport" at you. We went past the first onslaught to where it seemed a bit more manageable. I had read about the correct amount to pay for the ride from the airport to Seminyak so Nate used his negotiating skills to get the right price and we jumped in the car for the 25 minute trip to the hotel. The streets of Bali are organized chaos. There are lines on the road, but no one can follow them as there are so many little motorbikes weaving around. Turns become even more interesting as you just sort of have to go and hope no one hits you. I took some pics while we were driving...

View out the front of the cab

We arrived at the Legian Beach Hotel and I was shocked to find they search under the car with mirrors before letting you enter. Nate had experienced it before in India so he didn't seem phased at all by this however it made me a bit nervous. We were relieved to see how gorgeous the hotel was, however I was a tad worried about our reservation as I had booked it on a website that had a really good deal going on, and oddly the hotels website had had no rooms available. My worries were justified as apparently, although the reservation booked on the wesbite the transaction was never sent over to the hotel so they didn't have our reservation. Nate and I sat anxiously in the reservation area waiting while they called the website to straighten out the issue. Thankfully they had rooms available so it ended up not being an issue and I had printed out all the booking confirmation from the website. Once we got the room straightened out we were able to unpack a bit and start to kill the many numerous mosquitos that had decided to also stay in our room. Anytime you opened the door about 4 of 5 mosquitoes would fly in. Thankfully I had come armed with bug spray so I sprayed down the room and we ended up getting quite good at killing them. On the third night a lizard decided to join us and well that guy we didn't know how to catch so we figured we would let him stay, although all night I kept thinking it was on me.

Fountain at the front desk.

Looking into the bathroom

Hallway to our room.

Inside the room

Our room.

After some unpacking we headed out to check out the area. Our resort was quite large with one main hotel and then tons of little villas. Oddly all the trees in bali have cloth wrapped around them. I never figured out the significance of it but thinking it has something to do with the temple. The resort was right on the beach so we were in an amazing spot. As we walked down the beach we were amazed at how gorgeous and clean it was.

Plaid material on the trees

Statues were all over the hotel. I decided they had
them wearing sarongs since you have to wear them in
the temples

Sunset on the beach

Our hotel was right behind the red umbrellas

Tons of Surfers. They were impressively good

Notice anything odd?? No one in a bathing suit

Our hotel

One of the pools at our hotel

We didn't realize how much stuff was on our resort so it took us till the third day to find the second pool and also the ocean view patio area. After our beach stroll we quickly headed for our hotel's free Friday dinner buffet. We were a bit early for the buffet so we stopped by the bar for some fun drinks. Our hotel gave us a free signature drink and chocolate covered strawberries as a welcome gift. I was quick to eat up all the chocolate covered strawberries as I didn't find the "signature drink" to be all that tasty. I believe it was mango with some red stuff squirted in it so I went with a strawberry daiquiri.

Strawberry Daiquiri!

Pic of my selection from the dinner buffet- Fish in a banana leaf
Rice, Chicken in lemon grass, Chicken satay, and an egg

The dinner buffet was good, although I was a bit disheartened at the dessert buffet. I love my sweets, but they definitely have a different type of sweet tooth in asia. The desserts were these jelly cubed things, other jelly stuff, green crepes filled with something, or cake cubes that were a bit like pound cake. I found the crepes to be decent as they were actually sweet tasting. I don't understand why they dislike chocolate here what desert bar doesn't have chocolate!

Day two we decided to spend by the pool and at the beach. We started out the day right with a breakfast buffet that was included with our hotel. I was delighted to see they had chocolate croissants. I think i ate 3 :) They also had this very tasty soft pretzel roll. I am a carb lover so I stuck to the carb selection while Nate stocked up on eggs and bacon. The coffee in Bali is super strong so after 4 creamers and 3 packets of sugar plus all the chocolate croissants I was definitely on a sugar high. We changed and headed out to the pool, which we were shocked to find was already packed (this is before we found the second pool). We spent a few hours by the pool before heading down to the beach. We headed into the water to try out the impressively large waves. Nate had a blast body surfing and I took it to the beach to do some reading and watch the surfers. There are tons of vendors on the beach trying to sell stuff, but I found with my hat on and reading my book they tended to leave me alone. I quickly learned you can't be nice and say anything to them as if you said "no thank you" they took that as an invitation that you wanted to chat and would then badger you longer. I had one guy that walked up and standing right at my toes goes "transport" I didn't look up then "transport" so I looked up and go "no" then he asks "why not." Very odd question to ask not sure if that was his typical technique but I can't imagine anyone wanting to get in a car with him. Finally he got the hint after my frustration with him started to show in my voice and he left me alone.

Beach Ready!

Poor Nate never stops working

The caution wet floor sign really
adds to the pic

The pool!

A pic of the beach

After some pool and beach time we decided to do some exploring. We headed out to the streets around our hotel. If you walked down the beach it was more built up and eventually you came to a very fancy mall, which they actually would wave a metal detector around you as you went in. We found a Burger King and decided it sounded delicious and headed in. After we were full on burgers and fries we headed back towards the hotel and then off to some streets where all the local shops were. We found an interesting hand carving shop and went in. The place was covered in carved sculptures. I have no idea how he got so much in there. You actually had to duck as you walked around the store and tried not to knock anything over.

Interesting wall along the road

Street by the beach

Temple by our hotel

Standing behind the offerings

Entrance to the beach

Store where we bought some wood carvings

Street with the local shops

Tried to grab a shot without all the traffic

All the shops in the local part have vendors that will try to lure you into the shops. I find that particularly annoying so I tend to end up not going in the shops, since I hate when they follow you all around. It's also a bit daunting since there isn't much of a sidewalk so the motorbikes end up swerving all around you, which made me a bit nervous. I love checking out the local shops but a few hours was all I needed. That night we went to bed early as we had to be up at 6 am for our Bali Eco Cycle tour.

Day 3 we met The Bali Eco Cycle Tour Guide "Joe" at our hotel. His actual name was Kuta but they always have an English name that they use. It ended up being a 4 hour drive to get above Ubud to Penelokan a volcanic crater rim where we were having breakfast by the volcano. During the drive we did a quick stop at this gorgeous rice paddy for pics.

My early rise hair :)

Once we arrived at the place where we were having the breakfast we realized it was well worth the drive. It was gorgeous as we looked down over the volcano. We ate banana pancakes, which were actually more like crepes and some rice.

The black is actually volcanic ash

After some breakfast it was off to see the Luwak cats. The Luwak cats are famous for producing "poop coffee." The cat eats the coffee bean then once it's gone to the bathroom the poop is collected the seeds removed and sorted by male or female, roasted and wa la poop coffee. It is considered to be a delicacy and quite expensive. The place we stopped at had quite a few of the cats. They resemble more of a ferret then a cat. After getting to see the cats and how the "poop beans" are processed we got to try a bunch of the local coffee. We opted not to buy the poop coffee to try. The coffee we got to try was: lemon grass tea, ginseng coffee, robusta coffee, green tea coffee, and hot coca coffee. I liked the ginseng coffee the best. Nate preferred the teas. After the coffee we got to try some local fruit one of which is the snake skin fruit. An odd looking fruit, but it was quite tasty.

Luwaka Cat

Coffee Beans in Process

Sorting the Female and Male beans. The Female beens
are supposed to be stronger in taste

Beans ready for roasting

I liked this little guy

Stairway to Coffee tasting

Coffee Tasting

Beautiful View

Snake Skin Fruit

After the food and coffee it was time to get on the bikes. The bike ride took us through the heart of the Balinese lifestyle. We rode through the back roads where we got to see rice paddies, villages, and even a Balinese ceremony going on. It was an amazing way to really see Bali and not just tourist Bali. Bali is interesting in that you never see any houses just walls along the street. During our tour they actually took us through a family's compound, which explained why you only see walls. Behind the wall is a families compound which almost is like a mini town. Behind the wall you find not a house but buildings each containing part of what would typically make up a house. In the middle is a very extravagant temple. The family compound has many generations living together and they depend on the new generations to keep it going. The family compound is very self sufficient they use the land to produce their food and typically they have one craft that they are skilled at. The family compound we visited produced bamboo matts. Unlike in the US where we keep our savings in a bank they buy animals as almost a savings account. When they need money for a ceremony of cremation they sell off the animal. The family we visited had quite a few pigs and apparently used to have a cow that they recently used for a ceremony that is held at the family temple. They also use roosters as a way to make money as they hold rooster fights in town.

Drying out spices on matts

The children

The Kitchen

The family temple

Boys Room

Master Bedroom

66 year old woman still making bamboo

One of the pigs

"high five" with the kids. They were so cute and friendly

Splitting up the bamboo

Women making Bamboo Matt

Drying out sausage

Our guide showing us how they make
some of their food

Rooster caged for the rooster fights

The family compound from the road

After visiting the family compound we continued on through the town to the rice paddies. I was shocked that everyone we passed was so friendly screaming out hello. The little kids all ran out on the street to wave and get high fives. There were tons of dogs through the town that just roamed the streets. They seemed to belong to people, but were allowed to roam where ever they liked. Once we arrived at the rice paddies we were able to see how they planted the nursed riced sprouts in water.

Me Standing in the rice paddies

After the rice paddies we biked through a town that happened to be having a ceremony. They were blessing a renovated temple. They believe the spirit leaves the temple as it's being renovated so they need to invite the spirit back in. The men are allowed in the temple, however the women must remain in the back and are the ones who bring the offerings to the temple. We also happened to see a statue made of styrofoam from the new year festival of the 10 headed god.

Styrofoam statue of the 10 headed god

Temple Ceremony

The last part of our bike ride we stopped at a 500 hundred year old Banyan tree. The roots of the tree hang down and they have to trim the roots so they don't hit the ground. The inside of the tree is actually hollow so you could walk in and take pics.

Pointing out the roots

Tree from the inside

Temple near the tree

At the end of the bike portion of the trip we stopped and had lunch at a Balinese restaurant. The lunch consisted of rice, noodles, smoked chicken and duck. I stuck with the rice as noodles as the chicken tends to be the dark meat, which I am not too fond of. For desert they gave us a fruit plate. It took us about an hour and half to drive back to the hotel, which was much better then the 4 hour drive there. We decided to end the night with some room service as we were both exhausted.

Day 4 we did some more relaxing by the pool and beach. We decided to take advantage of the second pool we found and the patio that had a view of the beach. Nate spent a good amount of time body surfing as I laid on the beach reading my book.

View from our ocean view patio

Lunch more burgers and fries :)

After a day in the sun Nate had gotten a rather fierce burn, but thankfully we were able to some find some aloe. That night we headed out to Jimbaran to the Rock Bar at Ayana Resort. It took us about an hour to get there thanks to some crazy traffic and a taxi driver who took us right into the heart of it, but thankfully the resort and bar turned out awesome. The resort was impeccable and gorgeous so we had fun walking around and taking photos. The rock bar is situated down on the cliffs so you are literally right on the water and can hear the waves crashing all around you. To get down to the rock bar you have to get in this little cart that takes you down the cliffs. Apparently it's typically ridiculously crowded, but we lucked out and had no problem getting in.