I Love Bali Day 3

Dear Diary,

It was day three and still no souveniers bought. We needed souveniers, lots of them. Utara took us to Krishna souveniers center for a short leisure shopping. They had a variety of food, clothes, keychains, scarves, keychains.... you named it, they had it. Yay it was what we really needed. Everything in one single place.

Pura Taman Ayun was next on the to-visit-in-Bali list. It was a praying ground for the royalty. A very well kept garden surrounded the temple. Stupas with different heights are seen from outside the temple walls. These stupas each represented the kings and princes. The king would sit on one of the high stage during ceremonial prayers. After prayers, the king would be entertained with different performances by his people. However, this grand tradition seemed to have died out. They only have one last king in the reign. Sad to see how time can kill the tradition / cultures of most civilization.

It was lunch time again by the time we finish going around Taman Ayun. Another moment I anticipated. Time for some Babi Guling. The stall was by the roadside. The babi was served with rice, very much like the char sao (bbq pork) rice we have here in Malaysia. But it tasted very much different, it was simply delicious. Basically, the dish consisted of one port satay, one deep fried pork skin (with some hair still attached to the skin), some pork meat, green dark chopped vegetable and a bowl of soup. All for 18000 rupiah per pax. I liked all except for the skin.. was imagining the hair brushing my tongue. Ok that's enough details. I'd better not spoil your desire to try this delicacy in Bali.

We then headed to Bedugul temple, floating temple on a hill lake. According to Utara, Balinese people pray to lakes, rivers, mountains, seas... hence why they have all these temples located by these locations. When we were at Bedugul, the weather started to change. It rained for the first time during our Bali trip. You can see all of us (including other tourists) ran for the nearest shelter. The rain did not stop us from exploring the place though. Lucky thing i had my trustworthy umbrella with me. By the time the rain was gone, the whole place was filled with mist. Very much like the weather we would get in Genting. It was cooling, refreshing and somehow with the mist, the whole place seemed to have a mysterious feel to it. Really enchanting.

We were in Tanah Lot for sunset watching by 3 pm. There were so much to see before the sun set. The tide was low enough for us to walk up to the front of the temple. We did a lil walk around the rocky part of the seaside. The were small deep holes between the rocks. Fishes and snails were trapped in these holes. They amused me. I was like a lil 7 year old girl yelling out with excitement every time i spotted sea creatures in these holes. It worked all the time. We found hundreds of bats clinging on the walls near a cliff here. I don't think many would have noticed it. The path to the cliff was slippery and dangerous. I didn't know how Be managed to talk me into walking there with him.

The tide came in really fast. There was this one time we were almost pulled in by the waves. I panicked and screamed my lungs out. My legs froze on the spot I was standing. I was afraid with one wrong step i might fall in one of the deep holes between the rocks. Fortunately, the wave rolled back to the sea as fast as it came in. We ran to safety asap. *phew*

We chose a beautiful spot to wait for the sunset. It was so romantic.

We had dinner in Warung Wahaha. They served really good pork ribs. Highly recommended. The settings were very romantic too. Near the restaurant was a spa centre. A good body massage and spa was what we really needed after a long tiring day. It was a two hour long session.

♥ Jin & Jo ♥

I Love Bali Day 2

Dear Diary

Day 2

*Good Morning Bali* We had breakfast in the hotel. Utara was waiting for us at the hotel lobby by the time we finished our food. First stop, Barong dance. It was a performance that narrated the fight of good against evil. The good was represented by Barong while the evil was represented by Rangdha. The story was confusing at first but we managed to grab the contents of the whole show bits by bits. *Look Be, the ang mos seem so lost. Hehe. At least we are not the only confused ones*

Then we went to Gunung Sari for buffet lunch. That's where the restaurant overlooked a young volcanic mountain is located. The last eruption of the volcano was in 1999 if I remembered correctly hearing from Utara. *Some FUN facts about Bali during our trip from Utara* I never thought I'd be this close to a volcano. Where to run if the volcano erupts again? *oh pls oh pls don't blow out any lavas. Not now. Not while we were eating our lunch*

Our next stop was to have coffee in a small hidden hut. It was something out of the ordinary. The coffee served was known to be one of the most expensive coffee in the world. The best coffee seeds (from natural selection) were collected from the stool of the wild Musang.They called it Luwak coffee. *Musang poo poo?? (hesitate) Sip... Yumm Thumbs up*

Feeling very refreshed after the coffee tasting session, we headed to Pura Tirta Empul. It was a temple where the holy spring water was located. People of all ages... children, adults, young, old, pregnant women... all came together for a dip in the water in the hot afternoon sun. The water has healing powers as so it was told by the legend of the Indra God.

Then we were taken to a paddy hill. The sproutlings were just planted, so there wasn't anything spectacular about the place. Standing there, looking out at the outskirts, you will realise how Indonesia is not much different from Malaysia itself; where the staple food is rice. The people led a simple life, mostly living as full time farmers. During their pastime while waiting for the harvesting season, they would do art crafting to earn some side income.

Sukawati was a haven for shopaholics like ME. Cheap clothes, accessories, souveniers, wood carvings, flowers, all were found there. That's the place to go for the best bargains. Too bad we were late. Most of the shops were closing. We managed to take a short stroll around their marketplace. Many people were swarming to buy flowers for their daily prayers. The sweet fragrances of the colourful flowers were everywhere.

Are those for me Bebe?

♥ Jin & Jo ♥

I Love Bali Day 1

Dear Diary,

Day 1

How can one be nervous about something and anticipate it at the same time? I was looking forward to the Bali trip, it has been booked for over a year now. Yet I was still nervous to venture to a new place abroad, with him. It was our first real vacation. Bali island, a lover's paradise in Indonesia. 3 hours flight away from Kuala Lumpur. The Ngurah Rai international airport is located by the shore down south of Bali. We reached there at night. We couldn't see anything much from the plane. But there was this girl who was yelling out to her relatives aboard the same plane. ' Auntie Uncle can you see that we are above the sea?' Be and I was trying hard to visualize the plane flying close to the sea as it was too dark to see anything in the first place.

When we reached the airport, our driver from Indonesia, Utara was waiting for us at the entrance with a board tagged 'Mr Chin'. We hopped into the van with our heavy luggages and our first destination was to our reserved hotel, Bali Surgawi. Its exterior was exactly the same as the photos on its website. But one thing we didn't realize was, it was not facing the main street. That night the hotel was full and our room was located on the third floor. Third floor with no lift. WHAT?!?! It was like climbing up the stairs to my dormitory room during freshman year. We were huffing and puffing by the time we reached our room, climbing the stairs with our heavy luggage wasn't easy.

The next thing on our mind was DINNER. We were hungry as we had one super late dinner. Thanks to Airasia for the delayed flight, as usual. Day one ended.

♥ Jin & Jo ♥

Bukit Tinggi~~ 'French Village'

Dear Diary,

     Be and I got lost on our first trip to Bukit Tinggi. Being all too dependant on the GPS for directions isn't a brilliant idea. We ended up reaching our destination after noon. French-themed buildings were built on the lil town of Bukit Tinggi. As I walked around, the place reminded me of the scene where Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) sang her song by the fountain. Beautiful as it is, the town was filled with friendly folks. We played pool and painted on some Plaster of Paris. We were so occupied with these two activities, we missed the chance for a japanese tea ceremony in Malaysia's largest Japanese Garden uphill. But we did hike up the hill and walked around the man-made garden before dusk. There was a Japanese pond between two small huts. Hungry Japanese carps swam to the corner of the ponds as we walked pass them. We sat in the smaller hut while listening to the water flowing down the river stream. It was romantic and relaxing. We dined in one of the pizza restaurant before heading back home. It was another trip worth remembering.

Love Jo.

Nail Art

Dear Diary,

Out of boredom, I decided to start a new craze of my own.... NAIL ART. I only wanted to protect my nails from breaking too often initially *thanks to my laboratory work which increases the chances of my nails breaking short* See, this just proves that I really do work... *giggle*

      I started putting base coats for my nails. My satisfaction did not end there. I wanted something more than just protective layers on my nails. Colours after colours of nail polish were being tested. Somehow it is not a norm to have arrays of colours on one's nails when one is in the engineering campus. My lecturer even commented 'Macam hantu' which means 'like a ghost's' in malay. But it never stopped there. Evon noticed my nails one day and decided to join me in my craze for beautiful nails. She bought numerous items for nail decoration and held a paint-a-nail session in my house one night. Fake plastic nails scattered all around the table as we happily exchange ideas for new nail art. Even the guys (Pat and Zhong Xian) were extra delighted to spare some ideas of their own.

My very first collection of fake nails 

Love Jo.