Bali, Indonesia 2015 - 6D5N [Part 1]

Assalamualaikum

and hello readers!

Well today's update is all about my recently 2015 family vacation

we chose Bali, Indonesia as our first international vacation

It's going to be a very long entry and i hope you are willing to bear with most awesomeness photos of us

Vacay duration : 7 January 2015-12 January 2015

   

4 main things need to settle up before traveling to Bali

1. Get familiar with Bali map and get to know what you can do in here,

google it! there are so many blog/website that give a good and reliable update about Bali.

2. Booked your flight ticket at least 3 months earlier from the date you wish to go.

There might be awesome discount that might make your jaw drop like hell!

and luckily MAS was doing awesome promotion at the time i'm purchasing the tickets. wohoo!

3. Once you get familiar with Bali map, then u can choose where u want to stay during your holiday.

As of me i choose 2 places to stay which are 2N at Ubud and 3N at Jalan Legian, Kuta. 
Once you already decided where to stay then u can directly go to any hotel website to booked for the hotel.

and me, i chose to booked our stay at Trivago.com. Easy cheesy!

4. Last things you need to settle up before traveling to Bali is, booked for your own Supir (driver) 
whom going to drive you wherever places you wanna go during your holiday from the day you 
reached Bali until your departure, and our supir is from Isme Tour.
We get to know our supir from my officemate. thanks gal!

5.  Plan for your itinerary or you can just follow your supir itinerary. 
As of me, we choose to plan our own Bali trip!
7 Jan - arrival, free and easy
8 Jan - Lovina Beach, Bedugul
9 Jan - Ubud, Kintamani, Besakih
10 Jan - Nusa Dua, Pandawa Beach, Uluwatu
11 Jan - Kuta, Seminyak, Jimbaran
12 Jan - Free & easy, departure




Various things need to pack up

suitable shirts/pants/dress for vacation

spare shoes/heels/sandal

camera + charger / polaroid

mobile charger + plug universal adapter

make-up bag & toiletries

passport

Indonesian rupiah

(Just change RM 100 or RM 200 to rupiah and the rest change at Bali itself, more save!)

1st Day - 7 January 2015

We took taxi from Shah Alam to KLIA and it charged us (RM130/mpv)

Reached KLIA by 10.00am, ample time to do luggage check-in, breakfast and all before departs

Departs to Bali at 12.25pm

Arrived Bali at 3.25pm and this is the main arrival gate of Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali Indonesia

the gate itself so damn overwhelming!

Can u see someone holding my name with eyes closed? haha

His name is Jarwo, he was not originally from Bali, he is Javaness

He start to work with Isme Tour in the past few years, his cousin brought him here and introduce the job

and today he is our supir!

Nothing much to do on the first day, since we stay at Ubud so what we can do is just night street walking

What i can tell about Ubud is, the place is not muslim friendly

as of me, when we arrived at the hotel and ask for the pray direction (qiblat), the reception don't even know what qiblat is

and when we go for night walking searching for the halal restaurant, we unable to find even one and more worst was when we asking one of the balinese girl who working on the area regarding halal restaurant and she don't even know it and ask us back "halal? what is halal?"

luckily nowadays we are living in the technology era where you can use your android/iphone to search for qiblat

and luckily we found 24hours shop where we can buy cookies and bread for dinner.

2nd Day - 8 January 2015

This is the most exciting part of being here in Bali

Hunt the Java sea dolphin. Only 100,000rp per person.

The place was known as Lovina Beach which located at the North of Bali

It takes 3 hours mpv mode from Ubud to Lovina.

Since the suitable hours to hunt for the dolphin is during sunrise, hence we have to take off from Ubud at 4 early in the morning!

When we reached Lovina beach at 7am, the places seem quite and i just wondering where everybody?

or only me and my family here?

are we the first person reached?

without thinking any further, we just took the boat and leave to the middle of Java sea

not so far, just a few kilometers from the beach, 1 hour go and back.

and once we reached the place where we can see dolphin

there actually so many people who already standby to hunt for the dolphins! i am totally wrong.

so now the adventurous begin! now we just wait for the dolphin jump up on the surface

can u see the dolphin, well that is my best shot!

Next destination is adventure the Bedugul district

Bedugul and surrounding areas is situated in the mountains north of Kuta and Ubud.

It is about a 2 hour drive from Kuta (1 hour from Ubud) and this is the first pura (temple) we visit.

The Ulun Danu pura is a water temple on Bali, Indonesia.

"The temple complex is located on the shores of Lake Beratan in the mountains near Bedugul.

Built in 1663, this temple is used for offerings ceremony to the Balinese water, lake and river goddess

Lake Bratan is known as the Lake of Holy Mountain due to the fertility of this area.

Located 1200 m above sea level, it has a cold tropical climate." - Wikipedia

is that cool?

3rd Day - 9 January 2015

Since Bali is known as "Land of Goddess". Hence there are lots of Pura "temple" can be visit off

Their pura was so unique and the architecture so damn mesmerizing!

So this is Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave and the bathing temple, which was located near Ubud.

Built in the 9th century, it served as a sanctuary.

Nothing much to do here, it's not recommended to visit this place

nothing, yes nothing much! Just a Goa Gajah entrance and that it!

not worth at all

and you need to pay for the fee of cos, around 15000rp per person

Next visit is to the Tegalalang Rice Terrace

this is once said as a famous tourist objects in Bali situated in Tegalalang Village north of Ubud Bali

featured by the amazing rice terrace set the cliff.

"Tegalalang Village is located on 600 m above sea levels covered by good temperature

where most of the villagers as a farmer."- Wikipedia

It was hopeless! it was not so amazing

say u can see in above picture, there only the terrace lot with no paddy at all

i do not know if the harvest month just passed but friend of mine said,

there's no paddy at all, it was neglected and the activity no longer play the part

and end up, the terrace was left drying and dying. so sad.

well just smile for the picture and still such a disappointment

From Ubud to Tegalalang and now we are at Kinatamani

have a great lunch facing the great great Batur Volcano Mountain and this is my favorite spot in Bali!

"Mount Batur (Gunung Batur) is an active volcano located at the center

of two concentric calderas north west of Mount Agung, Bali, Indonesia.

The first historically documented eruption of Batur was in 1804, and it has been frequently active since then.

The substantial lava field from the 1968 eruption is visible today when viewed from Kintamani,

a town that straddles the southwest ridge of the greater caldera.

The lake, Danau Batur, is the largest crater lake on the island of Bali and is a good source of fish.

On September 20, 2012 UNESCO has made Mount Batur Caldera a part of the Global Geopark Network." - Wikipedia

Last spot of the day is visiting the largest pura in Bali which known as Besakih

the view Subhanallah! so beautiful like no other places

but it is very super expensive for you to enter the place

it will cost you 100,000rp/person and also another 50,000 for the bike

for you to go up to the temple, you can take a very long walk or ride a motorcycle

since we have a full day activities and this would be our last visit for the day

so we decided to take a motorcycle, at first we thought that the motorcycle was free

as we thought 100,000rp/person was inclusive motorcycle

but actually there are NOT!

so whether we like it or not, we have to pay extra for it.

"The Mother Temple of Besakih, or Pura Besakih, in the village of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung in eastern Bali, Indonesia, 

is the most important, the largest and holiest temple of Hindu religion in Bali,

and one of a series of Balinese temples. 

Perched nearly 1000 meters up the side of Gunung Agung, it is an extensive complex of 23 separate 

but related temples with the largest and most important being Pura Penataran Agung. 

This is built on six levels, terraced up the slope. 

This entrance is an imposing Candi Bentar (split gateway), 

and beyond it the even more impressive Kori Agung is the gateway to the second courtyard." - Wikipedia

TO BE CONTINUE
Click for Part 2