Bali Day 2

We woke up at 8:30am I think. The whole point was to get down for breakfast at 9am. I guess we finally made our way down a little later than that, but we didn't miss much.

Breakfast only consisted of a narrow range of food consisting of noodles, rice, bread and cereals. Luckily for me, I wasn't particular about breakfast as long as I did get some.

We proceeded to ask the receptionist a bombardment of questions ranging from where to go, how to get there and prices for transport. We got her to help us book transport to Tanah Lot for later that afternoon, and a reservation at a spa under the same hotel group. We were even given a 5 min free neck and shoulder massage just for being at the hotel.

We set aside day 2's morning and early afternoon for shopping and taking a stroll down the beach. We left the hotel and checked out a couple of DVD stores. They carried movies like Chicken Little. You get the drift huh? A whopping 10,000 Rupiah per DVD, which translates into $2 a piece. We were drooling already.

We decided to hold off such buying and continued on our little stroll down the street. We got convinced to sign up a White Water Rafting thingy with one of the booths 'cos YL absolutely wanted to do that (or snorkel).

I tell you ah... I'm no good with water. Any water related activities I usually try not to participate, but as much as I'm the scaredy cat, I cannot help but want to try out stuff I've not done before too. So there, I tagged along, and therefore missed a chance to take the long horse ride package. The fella at the booth thought I was 15. Eeks. I don't look that young do I?

Anyway, we left the booth, and that was when we saw these lined up along the road.


Poor little ponies were in the sweltering heat waiting for people to pile onto their cart and drag them along. But I wanted to take it. It was the closest I could get to a horse ride.



This little pony took us around the area where we stayed, past the shopping and the beach. Something like giving us a virtual map of the place for our brain. He showed us the remains of the 2nd bomb blast, which really were pretty much ashes.
We even asked if the pony was tired and whether it could take the weight of 3 of us. Our nice "driver" said that the pony's strong and not to worry. We still were very sympathetic to it. Hope that what we paid to the driver goes to the pony too.

He dropped us off where we could do some shopping and got along after we took photos with the pony. Photos in the other camera so I'll post them much later.

We finally got to the beach and enjoyed this beautiful sight. Never in Singapore.


We saw a few amateur surfers, took more photos with the other camera and continued walking along the streets in the name of shopping.

By the time we got back to the hotel, our transport was already waiting for us to bring us to Tanah Lot - the place famous for the beautiful sunset and a temple in the cave.

We didn't buy much. All the shops sold the same stuff, so we landed up with only a couple of cheap tops/bottoms. The good stuff were the Billabong and Roxy stuff. Pretty things I couldn't afford. We threw our stuff in the hotel room and off we went to Tanah Lot.

It was a one hour van ride which I stayed awake throughout. The other 2 slept well. I'm just not good with falling asleep on transport. Blech. I saw the many paddy fields and some beautiful lazy cows.

When we finally arrived, the place was like a huge marketplace for tourists. Plenty of locals selling their wares and tourists all lapping them up. We walked on and tried not to pay too much attention to the stuff. We weren't really interested in souvenirs and stuff we'll probably never use.

We did however see this Polo Ralph Lauren store. Obviously they weren't genuine - the price said it all. Still, the store had the Polo signage, was air-conditioned and displayed its items like the actual one. I managed to pick up a pair of long pants for work for 95000 Rupiah. Divide it by 5.8 and you get the cost price. Yep. That's how much most of my clothes cost.

We walked on and there was this store that actually displayed their pet bat out for all to see. If you wanted to feed it, there was a donation box for you to fill up.

Beautiful thing. Damn I miss the zoo.

More animal action when we finally got nearer to the rocks (where the temple was).

These 2 cats were going at it real good. They just finished 1 round and I didn't get the camera in time to capture it. Then they went behind the rocks and did a round 2. haha! Horny cats.

Ok, nothing new. Once upon a time you could see that in Singapore. Now not enough cats to show humans how to do it.

Then there were the ducks or geese. I think they're geese.

Check out what you don't get to see in Singapore - real waves.

Beautiful sight to behold. Nice strong wind, and the water was extremely cold. How did I know? Standing there to take the photo did you not think the wave wouldn't have reached me? Ok lahz, only kenna up to my ankles.

It was high tide so we couldn't go near the cave, but this is what we could see from where we stood. Probably only a few metres away but no way we would be able to walk through the water to get there.

A great capture of the huge splash against the rocks. And I'm in it! HAHA! Credit to YL or Evon..

Actually ALOT more photos taken here lahz, but all in the other camera so too bad. When I get them and I'm free then I'll post bah.

Then came the sunset.

So breathtaking that we went down to get a closer look. Where else but at the rock where you can see a couple standing in the above photo.

YL and I were furiously snapping away before the sun set completely on that rock. She even helped another couple to snap. She was so proud of her phototaking skills and bragged about how she captured the most beautiful moment of their trip in Bali. BAH.

Still, I can't wait to see how the photos turned out. We had to risk being blown off the rocks 'cos of the strong wind, and the slippery surface of the rocks, plus we both got our legs all wet 'cos a couple of big waves splashed up the rock. Yep. The waves were THAT strong and huge. Evon kept her safe distance. It's the 2nd time she's there.

We intended to get dinner, but got too caught up getting souvenirs for our colleagues and family. We got them all at one stall. Practically bought half of everything he had sia. Spent quite some time there 'cos he had to write so many names with that soldering iron thingy he had. Oops. heehee...

Obviously we just wanted it settled at 1 shot so we didn't need to keep a lookout for more. Heehee! Lazy or whatever, I think it's only practical. And mind you we only bought useful stuff like keychains and photo frames horz! At least can use right?

Our transport was waiting for us when we got to the waiting point. It was etremely dark. Lucky enough the shops still had some of their lights on else we'd be lost in the darkness.

We asked our driver where he could drop us off for food (our 2nd meal for the day) and he said there was a local small eatery that had good nasi goreng. Adventurous us decided to go for it despite the bird flu and all.

Turns out it was really good nasi goreng and possibly the first time I had to eat rice with my hands. Good chicken I say. Thin, but good. Cheap some more. Heehee!

We walked back to our hotel and nearly got lost... We also had a hard time trying to cross their roads. When we finally made it back, we counted our remaining cash, packed our stuff for the day and prepared for the next.

There was a part I missed about the first night and that was the menu. There were 2 interesting drinks there: Sex on the Rocks, and Slow, Comfortable Screw.
I do not know much about cocktails so maybe there really are such drinks but damn, we had some good laughs over those 2.

Anyway, we turned in soon enough. This trip was about getting away, relaxing and also to catch up on rest. Day 2: Mission partially accomplished.