Bali Trip Day 2

The main attraction for our second day of Bali trip was the majesty Kintamani Volcano and Batur Lake. Kintamani is located in Kintamani sub district, Bangli Regency which is 3 hours by car from the place we stayed, Kuta. Kintamani is the most favorite tourist destinations in Bali with the active volcano of mount Batur and beautiful lake. The volcano has erupted about 24 times since year 1800 and still active up to now. Lake Batur is the biggest lake in Bali and functioning as irrigation source to all farmers around it. The best time to visit Kintamani is from morning to 2pm as the area will be surrounded with heavy mist after 2pm.


The first day in Bali(ya first day as we arrived at night =)) started with a buffet breakfast in Maxi's Hotel Restaurant. The variety is not much, but the food tasted good for us. On the local dishes, they had nasi goreng, fried mee, chicken, baked potato and also mixed vegetable and also keropok =) But I still prefer their selection of western breakfast which is toast with jam, honey, butter and also variety of egg eg. omelette, scramble or telor mata kerbau =D Yummylicious. I would stuffed myself with the breakfast every morning together with 2 glassess of fresh juice because no one know when exactly is our next meal.

Maxi Hotel Restaurant

Maxi restaurant, overlooking Kuta street

We completed our breakfast at 9.15am and waited for our driver, Jhony to arrive. He had agreed to meet us 9am in the morning but it was already 15 minutes past 9 without the sight of him. When I was just about to make a call from the receptionist desk, a young man came to greet me, saying he is the brother of Jhony. We followed him to the his van and off we go exiting the busy Kuta town. The route to Kintamani took 3 hours, with the average speed of 50km/hr. All the road is Bali is relatively small to compare to Malaysia and most of the vehicles on the road were van,van and van. Alright, and also motorcycles (a lot!) of the local. So, 3 hours, we though we might have some time to sleep in between but we were wrong because there were so much of attraction on the road. Temples, Balinese house, stone craving, wood craving, furniture stores, and also street sellers. They even had people that sell you newspaper during traffic light wait, not local newspaper mind you, they were selling foreign newspaper. I saw Apple Daily, wei, from Hong Kong ler....and also our Sin Chew Daily. So convenient can!

In less than 1 and half hour, our van make a stop at Batik Shop at Gianyar. We knew our driver might get commission from there but he said we can also choose not to buy from there instead, to take a look at the temple behind the shop. So, we went in and the first thing that got our attraction(the gals) was this strange looking bag made of coconut. How creative! The variety of Batik clothes was plenty for women and men too. I bought a blouse for Mum and a dress for myself. The price was quite reasonable as every item in this shop will have a discount of 50% if we present them the sticker that our driver gave us. If you would like to buy Batik clothes, this shop is a good choice, better than other place in term of price and quality. The price might be a little higher, but the quality is obviously on a higher side.

Bag Kelapa =D

Tell me I look nice in that can? ~Rp52000

The small temple behind the Batik shop

Garden behind Batik Shop

Next, we went to Pasar Sukawati. Hooray for the girls, our first and second destination were shopping!!!!!!!!! Sukawati is the best place to buy souvenir at a price you will never get in Malaysia. One key point you must own is to thick up your skin to bargain endlessly until you get the price you want ^_^ At the end of the trip, we girl regretted because we were too kiam siap during the this stop, we all concluded we should had buy more during this stop. Really, there are really alot great bargain in Sukawati. Sighs, girl and shopping is inseparable.

Sukawati Market, wooden craft




Sukawati Market, Mirror

The next stop is Goa Gajah. The entrance fees is Rp6000 per person and we required to wear their sarong because all of us were wearing shorts. I guess it was a sign of respect to the temple. Nothing much here except the entrance to the cave looks like a stone craved elephant.

Getting down to Goa Gajah

Entrance to Goa Gajah

See, I tell you that we have no time to rest eventhough Kintamani is 3 hours drive from Kuta. The road getting narrower and bumpier as we getting closer to Kintamani. Our driver was kind enough to help us to avoid paying villager toll by using the other way, which the narrowest and bumpiest rocky road I had encountered in Bali. Thanks to him, we managed to get a view of orange/mandarin plantation for the first time in my life. After some rocky affair, we were finally welcomed by a superb scenery of the volcano from afar. As we getting closer to the volcano, the wind got stronger and cooler too. 6 of us got "wa waa waaa wahhhhhhhhhh" all the way to the volcano. Alex even joked that he gonna to suicide if his DSLR battery failed this time =D Kintamani is best to be visited in the morning to 2pm due to heavy mist in the afternoon. We reached Kintamani at 2pm but we were lucky because it rained prior to that. So, we got a clear view of Kintamani yay! The wind there was so cold that we shifted from sitting outside to inside of the restaurant.

On the way to Kintamani

Kintamani Volcano

My Flying Hair

Group photo at Volcano

Lunch @ Kintamani Rp70k

Another view of Kintamani

We were brought to Coffee Plantation. Here is famous for its Kopi Luwak, which is also the premium on of coffee. If you haven't get to guess it, kopi luwak is actually is the the coffee seeds that were not digested by Musang(i dunno wat musang is called in Engrish). It is said the Musang will only choose the best coffee to consume and the enzym in from his digestion system will bring give the coffee seeds a better texture. Each small bottle of Kopi Luwak cost approx RM50. Now I am regret because didnt get one for SuperDad. Aiya. I am so stingy I know. Aiksss...

Japanese girl in coffee plantation =D

Coffee plantation, coffee sampling but I sampled the Ginger tea instead

The next stop was Holy Spring Water Temple, Tampak Siring. There were two holy water pool inside where a lots of the locals do their prayer here. We were tempted to dip inside the icy cool pool but we didnt get to do it because we did not have any extra clothes along. Anyway, to show our kiasu-ness, we did washed our feet and hands and face there to get some prosperity. We shopped a little outside of the temple. The seller was desperate to let go their goods that they will normally cut down the first price they ask for to more than half. Also, when you are leaving, be warned to not to take any banana from the lady seller no matter how she persuade you to try on it. You need to pay for that.

Statue before entering to Tampak Siring



Another sarong wrapping session



Locals waiting their turn for fresh holy spring water



Wash away the bad stuff and get prosperous =D

>

Victim of banana lady =D =D Rp10, 000

This is tegalalang. Their hill paddy aka padi bukit. Nothing much we did here except to just take a photo. This type of paddy field view is almost everywhere except Kuta, so nothing too special here.

It was almost 6 pm when we left Tegalalang. Our last stop was Ubud, the center of cultural art of Bali. All the shop lots were either selling wood craft, paints or clothes. We stopped at Ubud Market which was going to close their business soon. I managed to grabbed 3 sundresses in fast action bargaining =p at the price of Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000 each. Satisfied. Tell me where I can get such type of dress in KL for just RM12. Ohooohoooo. A good pat for myself. Next, our driver drove us to the Oh-So-Famous Bebek Bengil Crispy Dirty Duck of Ubud. Sadly, no picture of the Crispy Dirty Duck was taken but it was good, really yummy you must try stuff there. The dinner cost us approx. Rp70, 000 (RM28) each. The food worth every cents of it to compare to any food we ever had in Bali. The only trade off here was the distraction of the mosquito during the indulgence might be irritating as Bebek Bengil is situated inside the paddy field oh did I mention the sceneric paddy field view as our wallpaper of the restaurant. Thumbs up.

Prosperous Alex, after dipping into Holy Water =D

Bebek Bengil

Fried Calamari

Juicy BBQ Pork Ribs

So our second day ended with dinner at Bebek Bengil, Ubud. We were actually so a little panic when we saw no sight or our driver waiting for us outside the restaurant. Alamak, takkan is because it's over time, he had gone home. God Bless, he was actually instructed to park his van at a designated car park nearby. Some guy with walkie talkie that was connected to the carpark helped us to notify our driver to pick us up in front of the restaurant :) What a good service.

One and half hour drive and we were back to our hotel in Kuta. We girls put our stuff and off we went to shop hunting at Kuta town. Girls being girls.

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Chat a sex

Was doing some testing some chatting feature on some random networking site. This is farnehhhh. Obviously an idiot trying to initiate a sex chat, booohoho but am I idioter to entertain him. Haha. Sorry Boss, I must post this up even it is working time now =D

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Bali Trip Day 1

Harlo everyone, I miss Bali a lot. I seriously love Bali and definitely will be there again sometime.

12 September 2008, after planning for so long(9 months), finally our long waited vacation came true. We met each other at LCCT at 2pm, had our lunch at Mc Donald (set of Foldover Chicken costs Rm13), checked in our luggage and wandered around LCCT before proceeded to the boarding area. We were the last few to step into the plane and the path to it was freaking hot ok. Anyway, no matter how damn so hot was it, our happiness were not affected because we knew that a great holiday is waiting 5 of us 3 hours ahead. Yes, only 5 of us because TheBusyEngineer-Mr.CC was stuck for his work in Phillipines.

#1 Our Flight AK 904 to Den Pasar

The Air Asia plane was better than what I expected, eventhough it felt more like a bus. Okla, airbus, tiny airbus. The room for my feet was fine, or either i do not have a long feet :p Relieved that the seat needed to be 90 degrees straight only during ascending and descending. Fuh. Else, the three hour flight will be restless.

#2 First time boarding on flight :)

The plane touched down at Denpasar airport at 7.15pm, which was 30 mins ahead the scheduled time. Not bad not bad. I switched on my handphone but no signal is detected because I forgot to activate it before leaving KL. Passport got stamped while our check-in luggage came out in no time and we headed off to exit the arrival hall.

As we passed the airport gate, we saw lots of local's driver waiting for their tourist. At one end, I saw "Esther, Jhony is here!" Yay, that was our driver waiting us there holding my name :) He carried my luggage and leaded us to his van.

His white mitsubitshi van gave me a little dissapointment because it looked old, but the feeling did not last long after Jhony started to talk to us. We passed by some village lookalike place where we had the thought that the local goes to bed at 8pm. Really, I do not tell lie, all the shops were closed and no one was seen walking on the street.

Everything changed after we entered the lively Kuta town. The situation was totally different in Kuta town, where all the shops was still operating and lots of tourists were still walking on the street. Lots of topless white man. DROOLS. Roxy. Billabong. RalphNLauren. Polo. BodyNSoul. Dolcec&Gabbana. and Guardian, yah, they have Guardian pharmacy too. All looked so Malaysia, no culture shock at all. Maybe except that there were lots of Mat Salleh around.

In 20 minutes, we reached our Home for 5 day, Maxi Hotel . The first impression of Maxi Hotel logo gave me was that it looks like some donut outlet. Haha. The narrow entrance to the hotel which only allows one way drive is only suitable for walk-in but our driver was keng enough to send us to the door that leads to lobby of the hotel. Bravo.Keng-ness =D

#3 Maxi Hotel, Jl Legian Kuta, the only entrance to the lobby

#4 Lobby checking in
From left: Alex, Hanni,Hou Gor, Ah yau and Me (mana CC?)

For this 3 stars hotel, we need to pay thousands, in fact is 670 thousand of rupiah for our 4 nights stay. Okla, is equivalent to RM250 for 5d4n. Our plan to share 2 beds among 3 of us failed when we were charged extra bed for each room. Sigh.

After settled the payment, we marched ourself to our room. Room 25 for the XY gene and room 26 for the XX. The room was good, pretty big enough for 3 of us to rest well and the bathroom come with a bath tub. Yeah yeah, you guess it right. I soaked in the bath tub for 30mins before I went to bed every nights without fail.

#5 Twin super single bed for standard room

#6 Bathroom

Placed our passport inside the safe and off we went to Kuta street to hunt for our dinner at Warong Made's which had been recommended online.

#7 Kuta Street at night

#8 Statue along Kuta street

#9 Art gallery at Kuta Street

The infamous Warong Made's was quite free when we reached. It was either we were real late for dinner or it was low season of Bali. Without wasting any time, we went upstair and took our seat at a round table, overlooking the whole restaurant in dim light. It felt warm there.

I ordered Nasi Campur and avocado juice. The must try when in Indo Nasi Campur and also the unforgotten avocado juice from Bumbu Bali Puchong but to my dissapointment the said juice was unavailable :( Other than that, we ordered Satay Babi as side dishes for sharing. Ya, you heard me no wrong, Satay Babi is available in almost all restaurant. And the word Babi was everywhere in Bali. Babi is not a rare word in Bali as 90% of Balinese are Hinduism :)

#10 Made's Cafe

#11 Waiting for dinner

#12 Nasi Campur 20k rph

#13 After Dinner, cosy ambient

The night was still young in Kuta even after we finished our late dinner. Shops were seen operating late to 11pm. Not far from Kuta Beach, we went into Crocs, everyone knew it was my favourite. The price was almost the same after conversion and the designs were almost the same. But the difference was the were a lot a lot of accesories were on sell. I made a mental note to revisit on the last day, mission failed :( In fact now only I recall of that forgotten mental note :((

#14 Crocs outlet near Kuta Beach

Then we took a round inside the ever so high-end in term of price Hard Rock Outlet. I basically just flipped around some T-shirt that will costs me a finger before headed to the nearest exit. I think I can never understand what is the hoo haa about Hard Rock. It is just overrated.Sigh.

#15 Hard Rock Outlet

After visiting the Kuta Beach, we passed through a narrow street mean for only motorcycles on the way back to our hotel. I doubt that if any car can pass by this street which I guess is Poppies Lane 1 or 2. Maybe it is a single direction street, the motorist do not doubt a second to speed their bike along this street. Scary :-s

We passed by our hotel and walked to the other end to visit the bombing site which was originally the most happening bar in Kuta. And opposite of it was the memorial for the victim of the bombing. That was the last spot we went to before calling it a night to rest in our hotel.

#16 Bombing Memorial

Coming up-- Volcano trip :) Happy Weekend everyone. Bye

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We were happy there...

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Am Back

from holiday in Bali

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Food that make me *happy*

My sis tapau-ed a KFC Meltz for my supper last night. It is not as good to compare with dine in, but I still love it. Crunchy Nanchos with some fried slices of chicken dressed with the tomato alike(but not) sauce. I am meltingzzzzz....
I guess I am pretty easy to be satisfied when it comes to food. A simply display of these food will be more than enough to make me drools.

1. McD Breakfast, Sausage Mc Muffin with Egg
2. Big Apple Donuts, Pink Panther :)
3. Prawn Crackers, but doc said I am probably allergy to seafood especially shrimp, blended one OMGGG
4. BBQ Meal, oh I suddenly miss Waterlily
5. Pomelo (fruit ==food??)
6. Keropok, shit it's sinful blended fish again
7. Papa Beard Creamy Puff
8. Hoi Tong Steamboat Buffet anyone?
9. Nacho's Chips
10.Chili's Triple Play
11.Uncle Bob Crispy Chicken Fillet
12.Hot Banana Fritters
13.Bumbu Bali Nasi Goreng Campur *drools*
14.Mango Pudding
15.Strawberries with cream
16.Seafood platter, with lots fried calamari
17.Ba Gua
18.Satay Celup, cross fingers the plan is on
19.Roti Pisang, how can I missed this?
20.Mille Crepes topped with Strawberry, cross fingers again
21.Crabs, crabs, and crabs I don't care
22.Satay
23.Many many more which I cant think of now, I am certified a foodholic with a ever growing inches on the waistline. Yay to food.

On a random remark, I found out recently that I no longer fond of consuming ice blended beverage. Mainly it is because it will make me feel bloated like a balloon. Iced sweet drink is the limit for me now. Cold drink has become an option while warm water is a necessity. Cheers to growing :p

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Hero and Zero

Under the most lovey-dovey light,

Gene XX said "You are my HERO"

Gene XY replied " You are my ZERO"

=D =D Why are men like that? So unromantic and laughable lols

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Merdeka and Rupiah is not cheap

Hi, how's everyone? Happy Independent Day, belated =D I was back at home for Merdeka holiday. Had a great time, gathering with the whole family, long long time never felt so noisy at home already. The first time after Chinese New Year that everyone still awake at the living room instead of bed, talking and making fun of each other, HAppiness.... Even though we do not have mansion, we still enjoy being under one old roof, close enough to each other. That is togetherness. Mum was busy the whole holiday just to supply us with food food and food. She made Yong Tau Foo and mooncakes, she was nagging all the time that no one helps her, but still she willingly to make all those, just because we were all back. Hehe, i love you mother! On Sunday itself, we made ourself barbeque, hoho, and I invite a few friend to join too. Now I know what is the benefit of having more siblings, BBQ invitation is never a problem =D In fact we do not need to invite at all lols.

On a different note, 7 days to Bali. Yeah. My first oversea trip, also first time boarding on plane, such a ulu people I am =( What's the feeling of boarding huh~ Mum said I will felt if I am deaf because the air plane engine is damn loud. Should I buy an earplug? Some said Air Asia had a pathetic room for our feet. Is it so? Sigh. Why am I so curious as this is my virgin honeymoon trip like that wtf. Bah...biarla, Ulu will remains ulu =( I checked on Rupiah exchange rate earlier this week, oh why am I so sui that Malaysia Ringgit kept dropping. Rugi rugi.....It was only 3.44 half year ago and now it increase to 3.92, holy peak somemore. What a lost in investment (as if I am investing,boo). Also, AA cannot bring liquid one ar? Mineral water also cannot? Aiks, will I die of thirst? I do not want to buy RM10 mineral water le... Anyone teach me how to drink a lot and not get dehyrated fast. Tq.

Sales, Sales, Sales but NO MONEY! *back to economy mood :'(*

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Rihanna Umbrella Special

Somebody sing to me

"mumbles... Kau boleh duduk di bawah payung aku...
payung...yung...ayungg..yunggg....yung.."

xD xD
u make my day Rihanna :)

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Responsibility

I am shocked. What should I do? Is pretending not to know a good solution. Things had been done. Confronting will only make me a piece of shit.

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Onion head and leppit

My sis sent me this during last MSN conversation. She said I am old fashion because I do not ON my MSN all the time like all others do. I only on YM! Dont really have much friends in MSN pun. I am getting outdated.Sigh. WHatever la, this is so lovely. Presenting onion head

"Paiseh leee..bu yao ma.."

"Ohohohoh"

"muakss muaks"

"I am not onion head la, I am leppit, stupid!"

"Relax relax...."

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愛自己多一點

你不是 很了不起 嗎?
不是無所谓嗎
为什么 想 其 時 還 會 哭
为什么 要 自己 受 委屈
你 好 傻o
你忘 了快樂是愛自己 多 一點嗎?
再愛自己 多 一點吧...

你 累 了 吧

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Friday update

[update]
I missed the firework from Team Spain b'coz it RAINed. I-dont-care-I-will-be-there-this-coming-friday-night-no-matter
-what-even-if-there-will-be-thunder-storm-yes-I-am-stubborn-donkey
[/update]


It's friday. The I longed for but I don't feel excited as usual, and that is strange. For once I felt Friday is overrated. Emo.Emo. Emo still, even listening to my favourite I'm Your by Jason Mraz. Aii...why am I like that?

On the different note, am very looking forward for this month to end. Yay, I am going to Bali. BALI BALI BALI BALI BALI. Leave approved, time to go money changer. I have so many thoughts in my mind right now and it is hard to arrange it into sentence.

Am setting off to Melaka tonight. The third one for this year, but it doesn't matter me much. Different accompany, different feelings.

Spain Team performing this coming Sunday. I lap fireworks! If you happen to be in PICC, wave to me. I will be camping on the middle of the bushes of PICC hill. My best spot for the show, in term of vision and audio, but make sure to wear long pant, it is not fun scratching my feet in the midst of the shoots =D

Happy Weekend.

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Another dream

It was some sort of house warming party, at an acquaintance's place. In fact, a place that we had never been for such celebration. Weird enough, all those familiar faces at a not so familiar place but I am sure I know this place. It was him again. The feeling was so close, as if time had been stopping from that few years before. But, we were chatting about present. How confusing is it? A person you had never talked to, left alone emailed to for so long suddenly appear to be in your circle of current friend. How did these few person I had long not keep in touch with appear so familiar in my dream. Am I missing him? Am I thinking of them? Should I drop by and say a Hi after all these years. Weird, weird, weird. Why am I always dreaming of him? A long forgotten him.

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Malaysia International Firework Competition 2008

Friends,
MIFC is here again! I went to the first session by Malaysia Team, it was fantastic! Fast fast march to Putrajaya PICC for the best view k. Tomorrow, 16 August 2008(Sat) , the firework performance is from China. Do not worry about the traffic jam, there are ample of space for you to park your car nearby PICC. Once you reach PICC, you will be directed to the carpark and there is the place you going to go woohaha with the intense firework. Happy Weekend!

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Being a staff of Resort World Bhd a.k.a Genting Highlands Part 2

The previous post ended at the orientation, for 3 days. I was asked to report myself to the HR on the fourth day so that they can bring me to my workplace, if I do not know where yet. So, we, ya, there was another guy also to report to the same workplace. The two of us waited impatiently while chit chatting a bit on our background. Wow, Joe was a captain in the karaoke in Singapore, he had lots of amazing story that I had never heard. The person in charge came and we two waded to the workplace.

The first thing I noticed at the new workplace was the handsome supervisor(I thought), he briefed us on the regulation and made us sign some on some paper. And we were brought to the bar counter and we will be runner on the first day of work. If you havent get me, runner has the task exactly the same as waitress. When order came, from an order machine, the bar tender will make the beverage and we need to put it on the tray, poke a straw in and off we go to the guest room and serve the drink. And one lousy rule there was, every each time we served something to a room, we need them to make a signature on the receipt. One word, STUPIDITY. Oh, did I mention the bar tender that day was friendly and good looking too =D

Basically, the staff was divided to 4 groups:A,B,C and D. On the first two days I was placed with group A, all those friendly people. They loved to talk. I like to work with them. The also reminded me to not to offense anyone from Group C, which consists of all "old bird", staff that had been working there for more than one year. So the Group C was the big brother in the workplace la. Everything was fun, until we(the newcomer) were asked to attend another group briefing. I was so shocked that I am placed to Group C. Die, die , die. And while that was announce, i caught a glimpse stunned face on the face of people around too. I felt like being pushed to HELL. I better watch my back :-(

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