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An estimated 4 million (and counting) tourist are expected to land on the island of Bali for this year and for a reason!

May 14th – May 19th

Our Hotel in Tanjung Benoa, Nusa Dua – Club Bali Mirage

The gorgeous sea view from our room

Where to stay in Bali

As our tour guide puts it: Nusa Dua, dubbed the Beverly Hills of Bali attracts the middle to upper segment and it’s strongly recommended for those who want want a relaxing environment or a romantic trip in Bali.

Shopping in Bali Collection in Nusa Dua

Can you believe this is actually a restaurant?? USD25 for 15 minutes up in the air!

See how blue the sky is?

Seminyak, Ubud, Sanur and Denpasar offers a much more quiet enviroment and suited for those who seek nature.

Kuta on the other hand, caters to a different crowd all together ranging from middle to those who are on a budget. Some hotel are as low as USD10 per night.

A run down of the places we visited

A quick note – do not be put off by the brochures you find in the airport upon arriving. It is mostly quoted in Dollars ranging from USD 25-30 per tour catered to the European and Japanese tourist. 67% of the Balinese are in the tourism industry, therefore, every person on the street who comes and chat you up is most likely a tour agent who will offer you affordable tours. The key is to bargain!

We had a 12 hour tour in our own private car with guide/driver cost us approx RP300k (RM105).

Barong dance in Jimabaran – approx 30 minutes drive from Nusa Dua

Bali Batik

Unknown to alot, Bali is also known for it’s Batik. We made a quick stop at Bali Bidadari in Denpasar to witness batik in the making.

Wood Carving in Ubud

The town of Ubud (north of Denpasar), with its art market, museums and galleries, is arguably the cultural centre of Bali.The most intricate designs in the world probably come from the talented village of Ubud in Bali. Balinese kids learn to carve at such a young age and it’s evident with the long rows of beautiful wood carving shops in Ubud.

Silver and Gold Jewerly

These are very cheap in Bali. Hubby picked out a silver ring that only cost RP100, approx RM35. How cheap is that!

Check out me bling yo

Bali Coffee @ Tapak Siring

Free drinks sampling:

The famous Gunung Batur in Kintamani

The best restaurant to dine in that overlooks Gunung Batur is Restaurant Batur Sari. Terrible tourist-trap buffet, but has the most amazing views of the Volcano.

And I’ve decided, if heaven looks anyting like this, I’m going to start being a better person from now on.

On the way down from Gunung Batur, our guide also made a quick stop at Ubud Market. Try to avoid shopping in Kuta as prices are catered for westerners. For a more affordable shopping experience head to Sukawati or to Ubud Market.

Ulawatu Hindu Temple

Uluwatu’s famous Pura Luhur temple dates back to the 10th century and is perched high on the cliff top over looking the Bali south west tip. It’s a wonderful romantic spot to view the sunset followed by an hour of Kecak dance performance.

And incase you didn’t already know, 93.18% of Bali’s population adheres to Balinese Hinduism.

Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot Hindu temple is a spectacular sea temple built on the top huge bard rock and attacts alot of tourist due to its uniqueness. Some say Tanah Lot offers the best sunset view while some say Uluwatu does, choice is yours!

KUTA = PARTY

Kuta is perhaps the only town in Bali that offers the hustle and bustle of city life. There are rows of shops, malls (eg: Centro, Discovery and Matahari), spas and just like any city – it is noisy, crowded and dirty. Here you’ll get mostly teenagers from all over the world looking to spend time on the beach during the day and get sloshed during the night, surfer dudes and budget travellers.

I didn’t quite fancy Kuta much but one thing I’ll assure you that’s fun in Kuta – the clubbing.

Unlike Nusa Dua that does not have a single club/pub in sight, Kuta offers exciting entertainment outlets with the most popular one being Bounty Club and Paddys.

We were there on Friday and Saturday and holy shit, alcohol is cheap @ RP30,000 (Buy 1 Free 1 – Happy Hour at Bounty) which is approx. RM10 for two freaking drinks! I really loved Bounty Club mainly because they have a few sections where clubbers can move around. Screw that, I like it for its cheap alcohol!

I call the musicians ‘let’s smoke weed and make music’ and guess who’s playing? (minus the weed that is)

Friday Night Foam Party:

The scene when everyone’s tipsy and majorly friendly. Check out the friendly gweilo in green:

Can you believe we both got sloshed at only RM40 per night!! Absolute heaven.

What to Order in Bounty

Red Illusion and Local Beer

ALL MINE for only RM17!

Don’t be fooled by the kiddie Wendy Bear tumbler. This was the most popular drink in Bounty! 4 of these babies will get you to where you want to be It’s a combination of arak Bali and some other stuff I don’t remember…but it tastes like yummy orange juice! AND it got us dancing on stage.

A point to note:

Do becareful of drug pushers. While we boarded a cab after clubbing, a drug pusher got into the cab with us and asked if we wanted some weed. After a firm no, he got down and our taxi driver told us that alot of japs and aussie kids come to bali to do drugs. And if you get caught by the cops, bail is set at USD60k.

Bali Bombing Memorial Site

Just 2 minutes walk from Bounty lies a permanent memorial which was built on the site of the destroyed Paddy’s Pub on Legian Street during the Bali Bombing in 2002 that claimed many lifes. Paddys has since moved next to Bounty. We quickly offered our prayers to those who lost their lives here. May their souls rest in peace.

Food

We love experiencing the flavours of different food but I got to say that Balinese / Indonesian food are somewhat limited in choices. Dining in Bali in general is inexpensive. You can expect a bill between RM20-30 for two in a fancy restaurant.

A must Balinese authentic dish

Ayam Betutu

Sate Lilit

This is absolutely delish and is made of fish. You’ll hardly find this on the menus so you have to ask!

For the best sate lilit in town try Coco Bistro in Nusa Dua and R.aja’s at Seminyak.

Nasi Goreng

Mi Indonesia

Sate Ayam

A restaurant worth checking out in Kuta is Warung Made (pronounced warung ma-deeh) Thank you zoakies for that recommendation. Place was crowded with foreigners and food was good!

And if you’re into pork, Babi Guling is a Balinese speciality and most of the time requires a day advance order. Didn’t have that since I’m not a fan of porkie dishes.

Shopping:

Bali is renowned for its extremely affordable paintings, sculpture and their Balinese furniture. Besides that, some of the items worth to buy are Balinese Coffee, silver, gold, batik and beads – which are very cheap.

But certainly one of the most well kept secret that not many people know, including our driver is Geneva Handicraft in Kerobokon. Here you can find 4 floors of massive amounts of handicrafts at the cheapest possible price.

And I can’t believe I”m sharing it with you guys.

Polo By Ralph Lauren

Widely found here at every corners and is extremely affordable, at least 50% cheaper than KL.

For the women: Body & Soul, probably the only shop around that offers very pretty clothes.

Spa

Now what’s a vacation without a good massage to keep you relaxed after a long day of walking. Avoid heading to spa in hotels or the fancy ones as they charge in US dollars. A foot massage in a simple spa will only cost you RP60,000, (approx RM21) for 1 hour. How cheap is that?? And you bet we had a foot massage every single day. Body massages on the other hand only cost RM25-30 and a hair creme bath is a must try for the ladies.

Language

Balinese are an impressive lot. They mostly speak 3 languages, mainly Bahasa Bali, Bahasa Indonesia and English.

Getting around Bali is fairly easy if you speak in Bahasa as both languages are some what similiar. Although certain words do differ as such:

Liburan – Holiday
Enggak – No
Apotex – Pharmacy
Bisa – Can Eg: Bisa tengok menu
Permissi – Excuse me/Can I?
Sore- Night

And please, drop the malaysian slang when you’re there. They do not understand our stupid slang damnit!! Noticed alot of Malaysians in Kuta were using their usual laas, aiyaaa and horrr when speaking with the locals.

Oh and pleaseeee put aside RP150,000 (approx RM52) for service charge in the airport on the way home. I don’t know what the ’service’ charge is for!! I never knew such a thing existed and I didn’t see this information on any of the forums. We went to the airport broke so we had no choice but to pay in Ringgit and were charged RM70 for it instead!

Overall it was probably the most romantic trip I’ve been on so far with my husband. Bali definitely brought out the romantic side in him so Bali gets a huge thumbs up for couples or honeymooners who want to spend quality time with each other.

As the Gule (Bali slang for whites) says – Bali is a paradise on earth.

We’ve decided that we’ll be back again to explore more on Bali some time soon!

Total Damage: RM2k (for flight and hotel) + RM 2.1k spending money for two.

Bali trip done and over.

Next Destination: Australia in August – now that’s a lot to save up in the next 3 months! Really hoping for a decent bonus, sigh.

I’m back from Bali but I’ll post the pics up soon.

In about 24 hours from now, barely recuperating from the amazing Bali trip, my husband will be off to Singapore for 4 days on a business trip. I wish I could so go with him but I’m running short on bloody annual leave. Arrgh!

And yes, I’ve contemplated pulling a sickie but 4 days of faking sick will just look so bad and well fake, wouldn’t it?

I told him 4 days apart means another 4 days of holiday for me

But not really…..

I’m going to miss him. Terribly.

I don’t think we’ve been apart from each other except when he went to Spain last year.

Ah well, guess I’ll be spending extra long hours at the office then. Now that’s going to be the first!

Routines are the unnecessary evil in any relationship or life for that matter. The only thing that is almost familiar in life is the routine that we endure everyday.

While some are comfortable with the familiarity of everyday life, a handful of us hate to be stuck in a routine rut.

Being married sometimes, inevitabley puts you in a routine. And it’s something you have to adhere too because now, every decisions spur-of-the-moment will need your other half’s approval or the exact sentiments to say the least. While being single gives you the freedom and the choice to be very spontaneous, being married on the other hand gives you a gentler degree of spontaneity (depending how cool your partner is).

For now, because my hubby is easy going and leaves the planning to me, we don’t normally stick to our usual routine. There are movie dates, clubbing, house parties, meeting up with friends, lil weekend gateaways – things that we used to do back when we dated.

Although a routine would be hard to break with an arrival of a baby, it’s safe to say we will never be stuck in a routine rut in the next 2-3 years to come.

That said, we’re breaking the cycle and are off to beautiful Bali tomorrow morning as millionaires. See you next Monday!

STY EYE!!

Yup, my poor baby has a bad case of sty eye on his rightie eye. I swear I didn’t punch him *although it may look like it*

It’s been a few days already but it got REALLY bad yesterday. He could hardly open his eyes. I called in for emergency leave so I could take him to the clinic and take care of him

Just looking at him makes my eye hurt. Ouch. Hope it goes away soon.

Since I was on leave, I managed to whip up a decent breakfast for the both of us.

French Toast – yummy yummy

My weekend starts tonight!

We’re headed back to Ipoh and then to Penang for some errands and clubbing so Penang folks….look out for us. It’s been ages since I last went to Penang. Wonder if it’s true that DVDs are only RM4 there? Hah, guess I’ll soon find out.

Have a splendid weekend folks.

The Mrs Blogs, OUT!

Finally managed to get the remaining pics from our India trip from DIL (that’s daddy-in-law, duh) since we were back in Ipoh for the weekend.

Btw can’t say I LOVE Ipoh yet since I’m more accustomed to the lifestyle of KL, my hometown but I noticed that there are ALOT of botiques, lol. And for that reason, Ipoh’s cool in my books

Anyway, more pics from the India trip, enjoy!

Yummy vegetarian food.

Kailari Heritage Hotel

Awww, isn’t this the cutest?

The cute little puppy we made friends with

The food on board. Not the best but we survived it.

Click here for more on my India Trip

Ah, looking at these pics are making me miss our trip to India. Am seriously looking forward to our Bali trip in 5 weeks time.

I sniff two Birthdays:

Oh yes I do! and it’s justttt around the corner.