Bali Day 4 - 29 Jan 2012

29 Jan 2012 (Sun):

Our last day here in Bali. We woke up 730am,or rather Lionel woke up that early & went out onto the balcony. He was looking around for animals across from us but did not find any. I told him the animals were still sleeping. I fell asleep.

Much later, i was awoken by Daddy who said we wld be late for our breakfast if we do not hurry. I looked out of the balcony & saw rhinos, deers & zebras. Both the kids were excited & tried to feed them the carrots that were provided in our room. But the animals were too far; none of them were right before our eyes.

Made picked us up at 9.20am. As usual, we were late again. We went towards Tanjong Benoa Beach - there were many water sports activities; para-sailing, banana boat, flying fish, jet ski, etc... we played none of those. Instead, we took a speed boat & went to the nearby Turtle Island. We paid 125,000IDR ~ SGD$17 or USD$14.

On the way, the boatman stopped the boat & gave the kids slices of bread to feed the hungry fishes below.


The bottom left pic u see of a turtle is 68 years old - the oldest at Turtle Island.


Other animals we saw on the island - eagles, bats, snakes. This bat was shy & kept on hiding behind its wings until i poked it gently. It spread it wings wide open & stared at me. Haha...


Daddy being playful here..

Daddy asked Made if he knows where to buy dried sea products such as shrimps, ikan bilis, salted fish, etc... We went to a local dish market. The fisherman were just pulling in & they unloaded crates after crates of fishes, prawns, octupus, mussels, etc...


The market even sold fruits, vegetables, eggs & sundries.

Our lunch at Malioboro's , Tuban. This is far more delicious than our lunch on the 1st day. After lunch, we made our way to the airport. And becos Made (our guide) was so good & he provided excellent service, we gave him a little more than the agreed on rates.

We load our luggage onto the trolley & went into the departure hall, bidding farewell to Made. We got his namecard & Made told us if we decide to come back to Bali again or if we got friends coming to Bali, let him know & he'll be all ready. Definite, Made. We will recommend you.

This concludes our 4 days holiday in Bali. Till then...

Bali Day 3 - 28 Jan 2012

28 Jan 2012 (Sun):

Can't believed its the 3rd day & 2nd last day of our holiday here in Bali. Time flies when you're enjoying yourselves.

This morning, we head out to Mari Rive Safari Lodge @ Gianyar. http://www.marariversafarilodge.com/

Its a short half an hour - 45mins drive from Kuta. We booked a Twiga Suite Room & whatever is included in the booking were only applicable for 2 adults. So for dinner & breakfast the next day, we got to pay additional for the kids. Even for the safari package, we need to pay for the kids too.


We left our luggages with the recep & went over to the Safari Park but not before making a booking for the night safari which starts at 7pm. Costing 675,180IDR in total for 2 adts & 2 kids ~ SGD$93 or USD75. Its a ripped off & i'll tell you why later.

We proceeded to the safari park & bought admission for the 2 kids @ USD35 per kid which is the Jungle Hopper Package. With inclusions to Safari Admission, freshwater aquarium, animal educational show, elephant educational show, animal encounter, water park & fun zone big 5, it was another major ripped off.

The animal educational show - no tickets need to be shown. Just find urself a seat.

And the mention of the Fresh Water Aquarium, its just a few water tanks showcasing different fishes & variety. No one's ard to verify ur ticket at all.

We went to see elephants having a bath. I was properly given a bath too. Luckily, i was not taking any photos at that moment & had the camera behind my back. Naughty elephants!! Daddy had a big laugh, asking why i chose to stand near them.

This is the elephant educational show. Its abt hw the elephants used to roam around freely in their habitat when humans took over. At the end, it goes to show elephants are harmless & they can live & be harmonious. Again, no one was ard to collect any tickets. At this point, we wondered if what we had paid earlier was worthwhile????


The kids requested to feed the elephants. And we bought the bananas.





A video of the animal educational show & elephant feeding. Again, i combined the 2 separate video clip into 1.

White tigers. We were just in time for its feeding. There were 2 of them & they were a comical pair.

The keeper hung a raw piece of chicken on a pole & 1 tiger showed off it skills by climbing up the pole. However it got stuck halfway & accidentally dropped the chicken. The other one ran towards it in glee & was seen carrying the chicken further & settled down to have a wonderful meal. The one who was stuck up on the pole managed to free itself & came down. You should have seen its look. Kinda like saying: " All that hard work for nothing. " Haha.

Well, not to worry, he got another whole chicken as well to feast on.

Can you guess whose tail was Lionel pulling on? The Komodo Dragon of cos. (its fake lah)

Pictures with an orang utan. I was holding the ticket in my hand in case the photographer wanna see it but again, there wasnt a need to. $$$$ flew away in a hurry.

We had our lunch at Uma Restaurant, the only one around. With nothing much to choose from, we settled for Grilled Chicken x 2 & one order of their Ham & Cheese sandwich. Total bill including drinks came up to: 209,000IDR ~ SGD$30 or USD$23.

Camel riding.

We took the tram ride & saw more of the animals. The walking track ended & we have to go onboard the tram to see more.

After the end of the ride, we took the kids swimming & splashing in the water park & the so called fun zone. Its close to 530pm and they weer beginning to pack up. The ticket counter was closed & we do not even need to show our admission tickets. At this point, both daddy & i cannot help but lamented & grumbled. We should have only purchased the admission tickets.



We went back to our rooms for a shower & abit of relaxation. Our night safari journey does not start till 7pm. We took a walk around & found the pool.

Across the pool, you can see zebras & deers, turkeys & chickens. I supposed the red bungalows we saw were the Kifaru Family Suite rooms.

We fed carrots to the zebras & after a visit to the lion's den, that ended the night safari journey. You recall i said this night safari thingy was a ripped off. After paying so much, we saw only 2 different type of animals & the lions & lioness were not even active. And you know what, it was the same lion & lioness that we saw outside while we were having dinner at Tsavo Lion Restaurant. Fot those of u considering staying at this Mara River Safari Lodge, i wld suggest 1 night would be more than enough. There was basically nothing to do in the evening at all.

It started to rain heavily at around 9pm. We were lucky to have seen everything & were preparing for bed. In our cozy room ( the air con was defintely stronger here & so shiok), we watched tv & the kids learn their spelling & did their homework. All of us promptly fell asleep at 10pm plus.

The Tsavo Lion Restaurant where we had our dinner & breakfast the next morning. Meals were not included in our package except for breakfast the next morning. But even that, we got to pay additional for the kids too. We settled our bills upon check out the next morning.

Dinner: 616,oooIDR ~ SGD$85 or USD$68. Breakfast for the kids: 102,300IDR ~ SGD$14 or USD$11.

Made (our guide) would be picking us up at 9am tomorrow morning but we have no plans to go anywhere. Daddy wanted to do sea walking but you have to be minimum 7 years old for children. So Made suggested going to Turtle Island.

We would be leaving via Air Asia back to Singapore & our flight is leaving Bali at 5.40pm so which means, we need to check in at 3.40pm.

Bali Day 2 - 27 Jan 2012

27 Jan 2012 (Fri):

Before i start, i remembered waking up at 3am for a visit to the toilet when i realized the air con was much cooler. So it did not only required 45mins but at least a few hours for the air con to realised its not doing its job. Hmmp!!!

We were down for breakfast at 8.10am when were supposed to meet Made at 8.30am. He patiently waited for us. We felt embarassed. We drove straight to Ubud. The journey took us approximately 1.5hrs.

We made stops along the way for visits to the batik weaving centre, the gold & silver smith carpentry, the wood carving manor & of course the painters house.



We stopped for lunch @ Naughty Nuris (forum & website recommedation). Er...we had an early lunch, bearing in mind we only ate our breakfast hours ago.


They served their specialty dish - spare ribs, marinated in their special sauce & bbq. But not the traditional way of using charcoal. I thought it was until Daddy pointed out the gas cylinder below the pit. Alamak!

Costing: 85,000IDR for the spare ribs, 35,000IDR for the pork satay, 25,000IDR for Nasi Campur ( Made's lunch) & some other small items. Total bill: 212,750IDR ~ SGD$30


We passed by this Ubud market along the way to Naughty Nuris, so after lunch, daddy requested Made to drive us to the market. We felt that this market would allow us to do some bargaining & purchase. Our actual itinerary was to drive up to Kintamani.

The items we bought... Made was surprised we bought so many stuff - ornaments, clothings & small souvenirs for family members. Hahaha... Singaporeans really know how to do shopping.

Pura Tirta Empul. Admission was priced at 15,000IDR per adt. No charge for children. This place was featured, if i remembered correctly, on a Taiwan travel documentary show, hosted by 小鸭子 - 世界那么大 or izit 世界正美丽... watever.


Do as the locals do. Daddy almost made a blunder here. He changed into his swimming shorts & was about to step into the waters when he was stopped by the people there. You have to put on a sarong, no shorts or mini skirts allowed. Opps!


A little introduction about Tirta Empul: A long rectangular pool carved of stone, filled with koi & fed by the sacred spring via 12 fountains. Woshippers first made an offering to the temple, then climb into the main pool to bathe & pray. Pura Tirta Empul is located in the village of Tampak Siring & is accessible by public transportation. There are also many souvenirs sold outside the temple.


Next stop, a visit to a coffee plantation, Bali Pulina. Have you seen before a luwak? A cat-like creature, the civet. They consumed the coffee berries & becos they cannot digest the beans, it is passed out. The beans are then gathered, washed, dried, roasted & brewed into what you have a world's most expensive coffee. Souce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

The plantation also allowed visitors to taste 8 different kinds of coffee like the ginseng coffee, vanilla coffee, barley coffee, chocolate coffee, etc... Both kids love the vanilla coffee & insisted to buy some back for their grandpa. However, when we looked at the pricing & the packaging, we were put off. A small packaging of only 1 standard size would yield only 12 small cups. (like the one shown in the above picture). My fil would defintely prefer using the traditional way of making coffee. 3-4 big spoonfuls of coffee powder mixed with water & filtered thru the filtration bag.

But for the memory of it, we bought 2 packets of ginseng coffee ( 130,000IDR each), 2choco coffee (
110,000IDR each), 2 vanilla coffee (110,000IDR each) & 1 oraganic lemon tea (my favourite as i do not drink coffee). Total bill: 860,000IDR ~ SGD$119.... GULP!!! & Double GULP!!!

The time passed by so fast, you lost track of it. Dinner approaches & we have Dirty Duck dinner on the menu. ( also another recommended dish). We asked Made (our guide) to join us but he said he wanted to go for prayers & asked us to enjoy our dinner. He gave us a card number which showed 89. So once we finished our dinner, we can get the security to helped us called for him.


Taking in the sights around the area. A paddy field is just right behind the eating grounds & the scenary was perfect. Birds chirping, the sun setting & the weather was perfect. We were thankful for good weather for these 2 days & prayed that the good weather continues. ( Becos prior to arriving in Bali, i checked the internet & it shown daily heavy thunder storM)

You can either choose to sit at the table with proper chairs or at those long tables with cushions. We chose the latter. So Balinese! Haha..

It was only 6pm but it was already packed with tourist. Go early to secure a table & "secure" the duck.


We ordered poached fish, crispy mushroom, gado-gado, nasi kuning, brumbun duck (name of their mocktail) & of cos the crispy dirty duck. Total bill: 408,870IDR ~ SGD$56

How did the name came about? When this restuarant was built, the owner thought long & hard for a name. One monsoon morning, a flock of ducks from across the rice field ran quacking & squawking into the restaurant & across the tables & floor. They left their muddy webbed duckprints all over the place. So these "Dirty Ducks" were the restaurants' 1st guests.

Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck) was opened in 1990.

After having our dinner, Daddy suggested walking down the streets outside the restaurant for a little shopping. We thought of calling our guide later & we thought it should be fine. 45 mins later, we saw our guide, Made crossing the streets, calling out to us. When asked hw he knew where we were, he replied he was wondering why his card number, 89 was not called after 1.5 hours. Numbers 87, 88 & even 90 was already announced but not 89.

He made a check with the restaurant & was told we had already left. Fearing for our safety, he went around looking for us. Gosh! We felt so embarrassed & we apologised profusely. When asked hw he saw us inside this shop ( i was buying a belt), he said he saw Rachel skipping on the steps with Daddy from afar & he rushed towards us.

Made checked with us on our dinner & we replied it was good. He asked if we like to do more shopping & he said Kuta would be a better place as the shops were still open & brightly lit. Compared to Ubud here, most of the shops closed early & street lightings were dim. There were no electricity on some parts of the roads even due to a black out.

Made sent us back to Kuta & we dropped off outside the Discovery Mall. We thanked him & apologised once again. He will be back tomorrow morning to pick us up at 9am.

The famous Hard Rock one cannot missed. We did another 1.5hrs of shopping when the kids gave in & asked to be carried. We saw this horse carriage & both kids were trilled. We paid 100,000IDR ~ SGD$13 for a short trip back to our hotel.


A video onboard the horse carriage. Pardon the shakiness as the horse was sort of running when the road was cleared of traffic.


Our rooms for the past 2 nights. Yikes...haha...our things were all over the place. Tommorow, we would check out & we will be staying at the Mara River Safari Lodge.

Lights out!