Trip to Bali (18th
Jan 2017 to 26th Jan 2017)
18th Jan
It was on 18th morning when I started on my journey to
Bali with my family. Locking the house for 8 days was one worry.....but a
healthy change was more attractive. Jet Air took us to Singapore where we were
supposed to spend some 10 hrs waiting for our onward flight. It was already
evening there. Forced to spend wee hours there ..we took a lounge accomodation.
Food and partial sleep here was enough for our early morning flight to Bali by
JetStar.
19th Jan
Our hostess in
Ubud had arranged for a cab and Mr. Vyan was quite a smart young man.He could
understand our english and answer most of our questions. He located a
restaurant for our breakfast before starting to Ubud. Bread and coffee for
breakfast. Picturesque drive took us to Ubud after an hour and half. Our hostess
Nyoman was a friendly courteous lady.
Accomodation was two rooms with two kitchens. Hot water was available. So ready
for a 3 day stay there. Just adjascent to our rooms was a small paddy field.
Ducks Parrots and lot of birds were there to see. Ready to eat packets came
handy for lunch for me and wifey. Children went out to have Pizza. Evening took
uber to reach Ubud palace.....which was closed at 6PM. Walked around....had
dinner at indian hotel Queens of India.It was delicious.
Could not find a transport
for return to our room. Contacted the hostess who sent her husband to pick us
up. So sweet of her. Good night!
20th Jan
Had breakfast at our place and started by vyan's cab to
taman ayum temple. It was a slight drizzle there but not very annoying. Huge
temple surrounded by a well groomed park. after a few pics there we proceeded
to jatiluwih to enjoy the sight of rice terrace there. It was a treat to eyes
with volcanic mountain also in view there. Had
our lunch...nasigureng fried rice an indonesian veg item. Then proceeded
to lake temple at budugal. again a park enclosed floating like temple. went on
a boat ride there. spent sometime looking around. Time to start return trip to
ubud.Prepared rice and had it with tomato gojju right from geetha's kitchen.
Curd was there.....and hit the bed...not before shru took some pics of night sky. Good night!
21st Jan
Next morning it was massage time. After breakfast
masseuse came home to give a whole body massage to me and geetha. She was very
proffessional and did a wonderful job. Meanwhile Shruthi and Suhas had taken
cycle for a big cycle ride. Unfortunately shruthi found it very high ...and
preferred to take a long walk. Suhas enjoyed his bike ride. In the afternoon we
met at a nearby restaurant called Te[I Seri where huge tender coconut almost
filled our stomachs...followed by nice food. In the evening went to Ubud palace
which was right in themiddle of a busy street. Not much to see...but
surprisingly a saraswathi idol was there. decorated doors and carvings are the
highlight of all these temples. But.....no diety at all! This was another
experience taking uber bike ride me and geetha with two different riders. we
returned home by uber cab and children half walked half rode the bicycle. It
was pulav rajma chaval and rice prepared at our house there. Good night!
22nd Jan
Bye to ubud today. breakfast was khara bath. Taxi booked
to Amed via batur lake view point. reached amed where hotel sunshine coin had a
room waiting for us. This was a right at the beach only entrance to this was
not very convenient. Bliss hotel next door was a good place to eat as read on
internet. It really was. had sea at our foot all thru the evening till rain
forced us inside. Night we had dinner at Nadbrahma a newly opened indian eatery
....and it was awesome southindian thali there. We did not regret climbing
those steep steps for the restaurant. Good night!.....no it was not so good.
Shruthi suddenly screamed bedbug.....and we all were worried. then saw that it
was only on one cot...and adjusted on the other one. Disturbed shruthi found
another accomodation next day
23rd Jan
Hotel had a breakfast for us at 8AM. As two scooters were
booked for the day were at our mercy. We had earlier tried to catch sunrise at
6.30 but were disappointed. Rode a bike after quite some time. we had an
appointment with robbie for snorkeling at a nearby beach. Very bold we were
till got into water with equipment and panicked later. anyways children had a
good outing there. I tried a small distance with the trainer again ....but
panicked once the fishes started to eat from my palm inside water.....and
insisted for return to shore. It was rather childish of me and geetha to have
missed on this. returned home and had lunch again at bliss and moved to new
accomodation D'sawah a hill view hotel. They also had good veg food for dinner.
24th Jan
Tried to see sunrise from upstairs there but again not
lucky. Taxi was booked earlier itself who [romptly arrived at 9.30 to take us
to smanyek.en route at candidasa had a lovely viw of sea. purchased some small
momentos to our kin and reached semanyek Budhastay homestay rooms. Lunch at
SASA italian restaurant of course it was magarita pizza. very tasty.evening
planned for a sunset point and traffic forced us to abanodn that and we were
taken to potato head beach which was posh to the core and sunset was lovely
there. Very crowded but well managed by the club staff. Booked a cab back to
hotel and had dinner at a warung(darshini type) right opposite our stay. good
night!
25th Jan
After breakfast at the same warung started to Uluwatu
temple by uber. It was very hot and sunny. View from the temple was just
awesome. Here people must wear some dhothi type thing kept at the entrance to
cover their lower body if they have not done so. Monkeys had a haytime
here....and we also had a taste of it when a monkey suddenly snatched geetha's
one slipper and started biting at it sitting atop a small tree there. Couple of
people tried to retrieve that slipper and a lot of people enjoyed taking pics
of it. A chinese visitor gave me a candy and asked me to throu it at the monkey
and it will drop the slipper. Thanks to a staff of the place a well torn but
still usable slipper was back. Booking uber here was very difficult...and later
found it was not permitted at this side of the island. Mr.Made was the cab
driver who finally came and making sure that he is not linked to uber ...we
asked him to take us to that big GKW cultural park. He promptly dropped us and
asked if we need him to wait. No we said and went to the ticket counter .....it
is 100000 per head...and four of us ...no way...and it was almost raining ...no
transport available.....hungry....and angry.....now same Made stops his vehicle
and asks 'want to come?'. ONG it was godsend. We eagely boarded and he took us
to our stay place after stopping and waiting for a price at Indian Tandoor for
late lunch. He also promised to pick us next morning for airport drop sharp at
6.30 AM. We had a calculated dinner at the opposite restaurant and as it was
raining started packing things up. Good night!
26th Jan
Early getup bath and we are ready at 6.30 and our cab
also arrives. We reach quite early at airport and as we had bread and jam ready
for breakfast finished that in the airport had a cuppa and after a couple of
security checks we were ready to fly back home via singapore. Jetstar did not
give water even in the flight ...said 4 dollars for a bottle of it. In
singapore we had more than 4 hours to spend....had a south indian thali and
uthappa at the vegetarian foodshop there. Spent sometime at butterfly park
there and relaxed watching endless arrivals and departures of different
flights. Our Jetair flight to bangalore was delayed for nearly an hour. After
much speculation were happy to have much needed food with sweet and coffee.
Landed at near 12AM. booked an Uber which was scheduled for nearly half-an-hour
late. At last reached home had a
drink(badam milk) and hit the bed by 2AM.
awesome coverage of the week long trip and informative. useful for future visitors to that part of the world. Hope u enjoyed though tired.
ReplyDeleteyou could have added few photos also. without pickles food does not taste
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