The Popping of the Bali Cherry.

Tammy and I went to Bali this week for 4days. A fully paid holiday with my aunt Irene and cousin Sheila. That's the best thing about unmarried aunties and uncles. hee.We went by Qatar Airlines - which is not bad at all. Each seat had a personal tv with your choice of movies, tv series, drama, music videos, radio,etc...and the food wasn't too bad either.As you can guess, we were pretty psyched that day in the plane.

BALI!ooooohhOur tour package allowed us free hours when we arrived, so we walked on the coastline and peeked into Hard Rock Hotel . I must say the in-house band was really good, actually. Indon singers are mucho better than....well,their cousin country.Ok call me ulu, but I always find it fun to see how McDonald poses in different countries.
Like in Thailand, he does the wai thing, palms together at chest.
Well, in Bali he surfs. lol

2nd day the six of us (including a honeymooning chinese couple) were vanned to see a Barong dance. This was a total rip off because there were only two dancers who actually did some form of dance. The rest were masked and just ran across the stage, making fools of themselves.
Then we were brought to the typical 'cultural' houses. The kind that doesn't excite Malaysians who can get the same things here anyway. There was a painting house with...paintings. and a silver-gold place where they made jewelery.

We also got to try the local coffee at this plantation..Next stop was the still-active volcano. Mount-something. erheh.You can sorta see the contrast between the blackened old lava and new growth. 1st eruption was 1920s, second 1960s, so I'd stay away these next 10years yknow..AND HERE WE HAVE the buffet lunch that gave me diarrhea for the next 3days. BOOOOO

We tried this small fruit called tamarillo (not sure how to spell). Sour
Second day was another mesh of tourist places like temples for the king...

temples near mountains..
temples near valleys..
temples near lakes...

Of course, there was a bit of shopping, where this cutie kept trying to share her plasticine-like food with me.

These three rabbits sho cute, like an oreo - black white black

But Tammy and I couldn't really find much to buy here because they were all typical cultural things that you can get in KL too..=(3rd day we went to the TANAH LOT temple. This was more interesting because it's a natural rock temple by the ocean. very pretty scenes.

Tour guide watching me take pictures of ducks at Tanah Lot: "Malaysia no ducks?"

-_-

what. they were cute mah..and how often do you see ducks at the ocean??

The waves were really pretty (and big).

Tanah Lot templeWe didn't go inside the temple, the main point is just that it's a pretty scene la.
There were so many tourists though, we had to LINE UP to take this picture..

The Chinese couple who were on the same tour with us. Poor things had to wait and wait for us everytime my aunt and cousin took their own sweet time to shop and whatnot at each stop.

See, we're not the only posers.

This huge bat (more than a foot high, probably 3 feet wide) greeted us on the way out of Tanah Lot.
I think bats are quite creepy to watch. Especially their movement under their wings.

At night, we went again to Hard Rock Hotel, this time to chill out and enjoy the music properly.I liked the setting of the stage actually. Must be darn syiok to perform up there. Then we walked about in the hotel looking for cam-whoring spots......

There were many. hee. (more in the album)

Oh, forgot to show you where we stayed.

It was a 4star hotel, All Seasons Legian Hotel. Not too shabby, as someone would say..

Tammy and I are upset that our plan to shop on the last day did NOT WORK OUT at all. We had nicely saved our money for that day, and .....argh.We saw all the tourists had gotten their hair done there, and my aunt asked if Tammy or I wanted to get it done too, but Tammy said why waste money when Joni can do better..*poyoface*see, mine not boring braids, got points of interest..lol

Anyway, here's the main Kuta beach, where people body surf and whatnot.
quite a big beach, nice and clean..

Cool surfing man.

Poser-girls trying to look cool.

The random guy who took this pic was so hot - i was tempted to ask for a pic with him.LOL
but then he walked back to his modelish wife/gf. -_-

Kuta beach trip was on the LAST DAY can you believe it. Go all the way to BALI and see the beach ONCE. sigh.

But we did have a 2hour spa-massage session on the last day..While waiting for An.Irene and Sheila to finish bathing post-spa...

Ohhhh, on our last evening we visited the prettiest scene of the whole trip.
A semicircle cliff with a temple at one end. We went to both these cliff-tips. gorgeousss.

Waited til sunset when we were supposed to watch a "Kechak fire dance with more than 100 men".

The choir of men basically chant that the entire hour.. kechak kechak chak chak kechakcheckchakcheckchak..while ugly masked characters try to dance out a story.After dinner, we headed to the airport and were on our way home..

Still quite upset about the lack of shopping..all I got were some..
Slip-on beaded belts.2 summer dresses to share with Tammy..more beaded earrings/necklaces..
and Pirated DVDs at RM4 each. Buy 10 Get 6 free. haha.

Bottom line, we had a good break, and we're happy that our passport pages now include Bali, Indonesia too=)P.S. More pictures that Tammy and I took, click HERE