My first Bali Trip

Today is the last day of our trip in Bali and I am at Tanaya Bed & Breakfast now, waiting to go to Tanah Lot, the famous temple in Bali. Hopefully we (June and I) will be able to catch the sunset :) Yesterday's sunset @ Kuta beach was not that spectacular, probably due to the constant rain before that. However, it was a beautiful sight to see all the surfers going at the waves, again and again. The waves was great for surfing. Instead of sipping pineapple juice or anything like that, we bought cup noodles and coffee/milo. Haha and I realised I get a headache without coffee. June says I am hooked :P

First day which was supposedly Friday did not happen. I couldnt find my old passport and was not able to collect my new passport at the Immigrations. What a boo boo and June sacrificially postponed the flight to the next day so we can travel there together. I really thank God for her :) And also thank God for the counter staff at the airport who waivered the cost for postponing the trip (I saved on almost $200 phew...)

First night, which was second night actually brought us to the rustic hotel, Taman Harum which June finds very beautiful and I find kinda scary as we walked in there in the dark, with all the statues in the garden (later on I get used to it as you see it everywhere else in Bali). A small but cosy room with a mosquito net covering the beds. There we were, first night in Ubud, Bali finally :) The long awaited stay.

Outside the room

Below are the views outside our rooms :) The statues which I find scarrryyy....

The swimming pool which is right in front of a large paddi field :)

Our sumptuous breakfast...

The day began with shopping, shopping and lotsa shopping. We got some pretty good bargains and bought quite a lot of clothes and stuff. Talking about Chinese New Year shopping. Lotsa of bargaining going on, using the calculation as our main form of negotiation for the price. The locals will usually give us the final price we want, saying that it's for good luck as it's bad luck to turn away a customer.

There were no mirrors so we took turns to take pictures of each other to see how we look :)

Ate at the famous Ibu Okar which sells their famous suckling pig - babi guling

The people have crackers with every meal haha

Their teh which taste like our herbal tea hee, nothing like the teh we order @ our kopitiam :P

We got to find out later on that it costs a lot to raise a pig in Ubud and a pig can be sold for millions of rupee when it grows up. That's why the dish is so popular. Every family needs at least a pig which is required for a wedding or a funeral and they rear their pigs so big that it can feed  a hundred! We love the people, they are VERY warm and polite. We love the food, especially the tea (the ginger tea which we managed to get the recipe. We love the culture, the architecture is beautiful, paintings are everywhere.

I was captured by the picture, the look was simply mesmerising...

The locals bathing by the river...They were just clad in sarong, in full view of passerbys...

We love the scenery, though we din get to see the nice view of Kintamani (the volcano), we saw the lovely rice terrance which can be harvested every 3 months. The first time that the volcano erupted was in 1963 which created the lake we were caneoing on :) When a volcano is going to erupt, the villages will first experience earth tremors so they will start to evacuate the place.

Our canoes :) There are many storage spaces within to put our camera, mineral water etc ...

It was drizzling so we had to put on these cute ponchos which comes with the pants too...cute ah

Poor June, she had 2 mosquito bites on her face...

The temple by the Lake Batur...

The fish farm. We got some bread and threw it into the water but sadly, not fish came up...

Some locals doing fishing by the lake...

Our lovely lunch, the fish was super fresh...

The majestic volcano which was covered by mist due to the rain...

June with Rachel, our guide for the day :)

She's a real cool lady, iron lady I say...

The rice terrace. Rachel told us that we can get an affordable meal at the hut (left of the picture) and sit there the whole day. I wish....It's so lovely :)

The paddi fields. The woman hard at work...

After the lunch was facial and then more shopping and lovely dinner at their restaurant.We had the famous Nasi Campur and crispy duck. Yummy. And the to-die-for cake - Death by chocolate.

The famous crispy duck...

Nasi Campur

Death by chocolate...

Look at how satisfied June is :P Yeah, we finished all the food!!!!

Everywhere you go, you see women carrying stuff on their heads. From their luggage to sand used for construction, you see them balancing the things very well. This is because women are trained from young to carry the offerings (which is very heavy) into the temples and hence, their sense of balance is fantastic. While it is a patriarchal society, the women is bali are very important. They carry offering, take care of the children and work in the fields. i really have to salute them :)The people are very superstitious people and are extremely faithful in their offerings. You see offerings every few steps you go in boxes made from pandang leaves with biscuits and flowers.

Yesterday, we went canoeing in the rain and the mist practically covered any nice scenery we could probably see. Cos this is the rainy season so we have to come back again during their warm season in mid of the year. The lake is said to be crystal blue and the mountains different colours under the sky. We fed the ducks though and get to visit the villages where the ingenious balinese stay (the 'forgotten' ones who are the northern balinese who are poorer). The children who took the clothes given by the tour guide were so estatic, as though it's a treasure. This is indeed a far cry from the kids here in Singapore, even those staying in a children's Home.

More to await ...

In Tanah Lot which is the temple on the rock, we saw lotsa people there. Well, while our agenda was to witness the beautiful sunset, we were so carried away with shopping that we almost missed it! Shopping and women :P It was a lovely place and time passes almost so quickly and before we know it, the sky was dark and we had to head to the airport for our trip back to Singapore.

I bought 2 mousepad that talks about the lifestyle and customs in Bali. It was really cute :) a person in bali sleeps in the day, surf (not the net but real surfing) in the afternoon and drinks beer at night haha. There are simply so many beaches over here and the waves were amazing! Many people who go there just to surf, it was a spectacular sight.

A sweet and beautiful moment :)

A guy chatting June up :P

Just renting a motor bike at 30000 ruppee for a day,you can travel around the place easily but one has to be truly skilled cos the traffic is certainly not easy to manuvouer around. There are many rules to follow such as the drivers at the right lane have to give way to those at the left.

There was a regret in my heart though as i missed an opportunity to go deeper into spiritual conversation with a lady who was doing my nails. We had some pretty good conversation and i realised my name, jasmine was pretty popular over there ;p She asked me, "Are you a buddhist? " and i said i was christian. Following that was a pause and we did not continue further. i am not sure what my hesitation was about. Maybe I thought I was 'respecting' her by not being confrontational but it remain as a regret with me as God spoke to me through Romans later through paul as he shared that he will preach the gospel to where it is not known. Next time, next time i will do it :)