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!