SIC: 3d2n in Bali for first time (my experience)

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The trip came kinda out of the blue as my dear suggested to go to Bali for pool villa (pool villa was my suggestion although I thought it will be after marriage kind)...

The trip wasn't planned as thoroughly as our previous trips due to our heavy workload prior to the trip. Bali is huge too and 3 days is not insufficient to cover all that we wanted to do.

Anyway, I saw this groupon and informed my bf (then) who said it seems to be a good deal since it includes air tickets.

So he went ahead and bought 2 groupons. He chose KLM instead of Qatar for a more favorable timing. As we started planning, plotting on google map, getting closer to the day we are flying, he confirmed with the agent (i think) and he said bad news.

Villa Nunia was under some maintenance/ construction so we were redirected to The Jineng Villas (this was situated further away from some of the places we had wanted to go, but closer to 2 of the places in the list too). In short, our plan (own custom itinerary) had to be modified.

Oh more bad news, bf (then) tried to book taxi driver Ketut but Ketut was fully booked so had to think of something else. Even though I shortlisted Krishna in my list , I wasn't that keen due to some reviews saying he is a heavy smoker and I preferred a smoke-free driver. So he called other companies and managed to get one quoting 400,000 rp for 8 hours.

I didn't do any sea sports, nor massage/spa (<- too short time, want to eat more ). Flight was in late afternoon, return flight was at night. I have got about 2 days roughly.

 

[eflash]

First up: KLM flight meal

The achar like thingy (salad) tasted horrible to me, normal chicken rice achar tasted better. The rest I did manage to finish, in-flight meal is not as unpleasant as I have read.

There is bun and juice (orange/tomato/apple) too.

Here is the menu.

 

[eflash]

Oh and the villa had free pick-up services from airport to villa

The place was really big... swimming pool, kitchen + dining table + living room + TV in one room with air-con, and beside it, a toilet with basin, shower facilities and toilet bowl. Next to that toilet is the main room (bed + tv + study table + dressing table + wardrobe + toilet with jacuzzi bathtub, basin, shower facilities - rain shower & normal, toilet bowl).

Generally very nice service; there is a buggy to take us and our luggages (only backpacks) to the villa even though it is a walk-able distance.

Specifically, the bed is quite hard compared to my bed at home (my bed hardness: 4), the toothbrushes provided are really hard (hurts the teeth), the conditioner is very hard to get out of the bottle & not moisturising enough, there are negligible stains on the bedsheets (2 small stains i think), quite a bit of ants at the basin in main room toilet and water isn't that warm. End of complaints - the good outshines the bad la...

 

[tenz1204]

How much did u pay for the trip?

 

[invisible999]

Thank you, you posts are always interesting to read. Couple of questions:

- After the experience - would you take the same trip again for the same amount of money or it did not worth it?
- How much time do you think one would need for Bali?
- The most positive/negative experience from the trip and how to avoid negative one?

Thanks.

 

[eflash]

How much did u pay for the trip?

$50 sgd
the rest all my bf (then) paid... later at the end i will put the breakdown

 

[eflash]

Thank you, you posts are always interesting to read. Couple of questions:

- After the experience - would you take the same trip again for the same amount of money or it did not worth it?
- How much time do you think one would need for Bali?
- The most positive/negative experience from the trip and how to avoid negative one?

Thanks.

1. It depends, same trip as in? I don't see myself repeating exactly what I have did since has experienced. It shouldn't be the same amount of money because I would actually wanted to go further eg. island hopping.

Worth ah? er... my fiancé enjoyed himself a lot, while I am not so much of a person for culture (leaning more towards animals, nature, activities and food), so hard to compare worth a not - I do have some enjoyable moments there.

2. depending on what is the priority on what you would like to do (I actually thought of visiting Komodo island... that will take 3 days, so I have to stay in Bali for perhaps a week or so?)

3. will address that qn near the end of my trip memorial...

 

[eflash]

My fiancé's (he proposed in the departure area) initial idea for day 1 evening was to put our stuff in villa and head down to Ultimo to have supper.

Idea ruined because we were full from the in-flight meal and tired from the flight so we just stayed in villa and happily swam.

Next morning breakfast was provided by the villa (included in the groupon)

Breakfast supposedly start serving from 7am but my fiancé booked a driver to fetch us at 7am for our custom tour (I wanted to see Mt. Batur and coffee plantation with luwak - quite simple itinerary) so the breakfast was brought forward to 6:30am. Villa staff were quite accommodating.

Yea the pic was really taken at 6:30am, not sure why my camera displayed 8:54am, but point being the sun rise was really early there.

 

[eflash]

Mt Batur

Taken from a distance, not actually climbing or being at the base of the volcano and still have to pay entrance fee... -.-

Entrance fee: supposedly 15k x 2 person but the guy has no change for 50k so charge us 10k nia lol
wind was really strong at the viewing place, even though the Sun was up and shining brightly the place was quite cooling due to the high altitude.

 

[eflash]

Coming up next:
Coffee plantation - not exactly (we are going to kinda like a mini exhibition - display sort of a small sample size)

I have many photos so I used a collage to summarise part of them.

There are also other spices selling here. I need the brochures aww... but is not with me (will update later).

We were given free samples of coffee and tea.

The coffee shown in the previous photo followed the order list above.
Every cup tasted so nice, hard to choose. Oh, except if you don't like espresso then maybe Bali arabica coffee is not so nice (same goes for luwak coffee).

How can we not try the famous luwak kopi lei? Even though need to pay 50,000rp ~ $6.41sgd for a cup, taste wise er.. if you like espresso, is more fragrant but bitter.

I was a bit disappointed, cannot pet pet the civet cat as they are nocturnal animals (even the animals on display were sleeping). This place use wild luwaks to make luwak kopi and they are in the plantation, not at the mini plantation, neither were they force-fed or kept in cages.

The guide explained that force-feeding will result in partial fermentation which is not so nice.

 

[mr_voodoo]

Interesting read...


Congrats on being engaged !

 

[invisible999]

Question regarding money

- did you use rupiah all the time or mix it with $ too? Also
- how did you get rupiahs? Did you exchange money before leaving or did you do it on arrival?
- If latter - did you use money exchanger or ATM?

 

[eflash]

Question regarding money

- did you use rupiah all the time or mix it with $ too? Also
- how did you get rupiahs? Did you exchange money before leaving or did you do it on arrival?
- If latter - did you use money exchanger or ATM?

use rupiah at all times, dun use USD (the exchange rate will not be favourable)

change at (i think) the arcade there - bf (then) told me he become millionaire

 

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Our next stop was makan since I wasn't really attracted to temples BUT my fiancé wanted to go, so a temple was slot into our itinerary.

The spring temple (above) and the president's palace next door (below)

 

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Inside the temple,which you need to pay entrance fee and get sarong and an orange cloth to tie around the waist.

The driver told us each spring is labelled for different purpose - such as drive away bad dreams, for the "good brothers" <- these few have no queue.

The water originated from the ground - spring water (is not geothermal hot spring)

The blue patch can see water spewing out from the ground, very clear and nice.

There are many dragonflies around too.

Oh to go in to the water to get blessed, iirc, need to give offerings and need to wear shirt (i was wearing halter spaghetti dress) so never get into the water. Females are advised not to enter when having menses too (similar to Chinese culture).

There is a Koi pond in there too, with many people buying food to feed the kois.

 

[eflash]

Coming up next: Lunch @ Ibu Oka

Yes this is quite salty but fragrant too. I like the fried meat (the orange thing at the top left corner) called 'gorenggang' and my fiancé liked the roasted pork skin (kulit). We shared one serving, thinking that maybe we can try Dirty Duck later but it turns out that Dirty Duck wasn't so near and not really along the way. That became our lunch.

The coconut juice not as nice as the Thai coconut juice, but it has more juice just not as sweet.

The menu and that there are 3 outlets - we went to Jalan Raya Teges.

Note that there are many vendors touting at the gate, just kindly reject and move on unless you really want to buy (that will encourage even more vendors touting?)

 

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After lunch, the driver brought us to Tegenungan Waterfall as my fiancé suggested along the way.

Even when we did not venture to the waterfall area (can touch water) etc, there was still entrance fee to be paid.

The time spent there wasn't long and the weather being hot made me longed for the villa's air-con.

I spotted a praying mantis on the way back to the car.

 

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We didn't head back to the villa immediately as my colleague had requested me to buy Starbucks mugs for her, so we asked the driver if there is any outlet along the way. He brought us to Sunset star mall.

On the way, I managed to snap some shots of Balinese cows. The driver slowed down for me to take the shots.

Cute right? The Bantengs are smaller than cows seen in Malaysia. Along the whole trip, there were many dogs and chickens seen. Cats are not a common sight. Cows mostly appeared near the evening/night time.

 

[eflash]

After the driver/guide recommended to us a spa (we said we need time to think about it as it wasn't cheap - the package that my fiancé eyed), he drove us back to the villa and my fiancé paid more than the agreed rate (happy about the service provided).

The driver all along the way helped me open car door, paid tips for carpark attendants, paid the toilet fee when my fiancé went to the toilet, helped us take photos and engaged us in interesting conversations along the way. Conversations like which waterfall is nicest - apparently the nicest one is far, then we also talked about the national nature reserve park at North-west of Bali, Bali mynahs etc, so the service is great.

I took a short rest at the villa (apparently slept less than 4hrs the previous night - not sure is due to the harder bed or excitement from being engaged or not used to wearing a ring).

We then asked the villa staff to help us book a cab to Naughty Nuri for a late 2nd lunch, or early partial dinner?

 

[eflash]

The menu, all in thousands of rupiahs and not inclusive of taxes.

We had lemon tea, tuna steak and of course the pork ribs

I had ordered this medium-rare, tasted not bad, but not as good as the ribs.

Hoho, my fiancé had this and I koped a lot from him (passed him some of my tuna steak in return). The portion of the ribs was big so if I had ordered the same, there will be too much food. We were planning to go Potato Head bar after this.