Day 3 of my inaugural Bali holiday was a bit more laid back. No talking over crazy loud vans, volcanos, rice paddies and children trying to put a stick in your bike spokes. We even got to sleep in a little! We also finally got to see Kuta Beach in the day light, walked around the shops, did some shopping, sweat, ate at the infamous Warung Made, sweat, walked around some more, sweat and went back to our hotel in preparation for our spa date at COZY’s.

Here’s a review of Cozy’s (good luck with the translation)

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g297697-d1484904-Reviews-Cozy-Kuta_Bali.html#REVIEWS

It got 4/5 stars. Why Cozy stands out from the numerous other Spas Bali has to offer is their to-the-point massages. Sure esthetics count but if you’re not one of the easily influenced-judge-by-book kind of people then Cozy is for you. Believe it or not, in my 29 years this was my 2^nd ever(professional) massage. The first time was in a fairly swanky (esthetically pleasing) spa in KL. I still don’t know what to think of massages. I still feel tensed and it all still hurts more than it is relaxing but I did enjoy Cozy’s more than I did my first massage. Don’t count on me for any tips!

After Cozy’s it was a trip down to Denpensar town (ie – non touristy area) where we had their famous “chicken”. While America freaks out about finding a fried chicken head in a McDonalds meal – this place is known for their chicken, fried head and all!

We moved from our hotel in Kuta to a quieter bungalow in Seminyak not too far off. The Sura Bungalows are right in front of Seminyak Square. The square isn’t too happening (it’s still quite new) but it does have a few nice places to eat (of middle – high range) and a gourmet supermarket which has everything really. Bali veterans will tell you it’s worth it to rent a bungalow/villa rather than a hotel. I couldn’t agree more really. We had our own pool – well we actually shared with the 3 other bungalows but no one ever used it so it was kinda like having your own pool. We had a flat screen TV, DVD, kitchen, stove, cutlery, fridge and even our own RENT-A-CAT…well the friendly neighborhood cat. Did I mention one of the TV channels played ONLY sitcoms from the 80s and 90s – ie Seinfeld, Growing Pains etc… etc.. Needless to say Day 4 was all about chilling in and beside the pool. Watching television, reading, sleeping….

After a day of not doing much cept living the leisure life  the next day was an early one and with our rental car and driver to take us around. We played with Monkeys at the Monkey Forest Ubud sanctuary, ate at the infamous Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck) Restaurant, took in the sights (and shopping) in Ubud and ate Nasi Padang after a long day. Ubud is about and hour ++ away from Kuta (depending on traffic) and its Bali’s major “arts and crafts / culture” hub. While there we stopped by the Antonio Blanco art gallery.  He’s known as the “Dali of Bali” because a) he’s from Spain b) he looks like Dali and well “Dali of Bali” sounds nice rolling off your tongue! The Blanco museum is actually quite interesting – beautiful gardens and landscape and you even have a photo op. with two big birds that sit clawing on your arm. Blanco’s work itself is quite visually pleasing – that is if you like fantasy portraits of beautiful women in the buff! The entrance fee was kinda steep (for an art gallery which I think for the most part should be free) – IDR 500,000 but you get a welcome drink, a photo op and in general appreciate this subjective thing called “art” (note no photography is actually allowed INSIDE the gallery but I saw no problem outside)

After the long drive back to our villa it was nice to dip in the warm pool and kick back.

On our last “full” day in Bali we couldn’t leave without trying one of the water sports. I’m not sure what beach we went to for that but they are all located on one stretch of beach http://www.balistarisland.com/Bali-Adventure-Sightseeing/Bali-Marine-Sport.htm I tried parasailing and that was AWESOME. You’re actually up in the air for 5 minutes or less. Definitely tooooooo short. I also tried the fly fishing boat ride but meh it wasn’t as exciting as parasailing. Also the dude who did the fly fishing was sleazy. Actually 99.9% of the guys working at those water sport places are sleazy – and they do it in both a direct and sneaky way.

Not too far off from all the recreational water activities, nestled away from traffic is Dreamland Beach. It’s one of the better looking beaches in Bali. It ’s actually quite beautiful! Apparently a few years ago it was a hidden secret and only surfers looking for a good wave knew about it. It’s still quite peaceful as you have to walk quite a bit to get to it but you still can’t get away with people trying to sell souvernirs and other trinkets. Also, they are building a resort there so in a couple years time there’s bound to be a lot more traffic. Go there while you can – while it’s still a “dream”.

While in Bali, for the ultimate historically cultural experience, you have to see the Kecak Dance and the only place to see it is at Uluwatu. They perform it right before and into sunset so the setting is absolutely WOW. At one point I was so into the sunset I forgot about the dozens of half naked men chanting “kecak kecak kecak kecak kecak….”.

Our flight wasn’t till the late afternoon on day 7 so we still had a few hours to do some last minute shopping for Salak Fruit and Bali lace. On the way we also got to see an impressive 6 foot tall brass penis. What Bali has with penis’s is perplexing but you will see them everywhere! Penis bottle openers, keychains and plain ol’ wooden penis sculptures. By this time, food poisoning had kicked in and I was feeling pretty awful not even penis could cure me! (ho ho it was a stupid pun!)

Minus soaring hot temperatures, the persistence (and annoyance) of Bali shop keepers, the general sleaziness of the place and my upchuck finale’ – it was good times. Sorry for the anti-climatic sentence.

Bali has become somewhat of a household name for the nearby regions. If you haven’t been to Bali, you were considered one of the few “virgins” – hard to come by nowadays anyway you look at it. My Bali purity was defiled last month where the “Island of Gods” had me, used me, abused me and bruised me for 7 days. Two weeks later I’m still paying the price.

See, the thing is I’ve been to many beaches, mainly in Malaysia and Thailand and while the serenity and feel of “resort” is still preferred in those places, I found Bali to be the naughtier more intriguing sister. As a first timer, my travel companion and I decided we’d spend the first few days in Kuta. We stayed at the Tune Hotels because we read good things about it and to top it off it was affordable and very central. My thoughts on that: – meh, ‘ok la’ and yep.

The alleyway leading to the Tune Hotels

We arrived in the evening that first night and ran into some room problems. An hour and then some later they finally sorted things out and put us in another room. The thing about staying at a “no frills” hotel is – well it’s NO FRILLS which means you pay for luxuries like air conditioning (while having a fan is a necessity there so that was free). The power shower was pretty AWESOME though. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to wake up early just so I could have a power shower. Anyway, after settling down a bit and chewing our nails to a bloody pulp trying to figure out the ridiculous counts of money they use we ventured the streets of Kuta. Unfortunately we headed in the direction where all the clubs and bars were and all we wanted was a proper place to eat. Although it was only a 15 minute walk, it felt longer with the heat and the constant harassment from people trying to get you to buy, try or say hi. We finally settled at a quaint hotel restaurant with no fan and I had a chicken burger and carrot juice. I know, totally exciting but it was only the first night  and we had an early morning ahead.

One of the streets in Kuta. Take note of the the police van for future reference!

Kuta fashion..ho ho!

Carrot juice - for some reason I kept ordering juice everywhere I went and I think it was one of the contributing factors to my food poisoning

I was recommended by a friend to go on the Bali Bike Baik tour. It’s a full day tour and they pick you up from your hotel and take you to Mt. Batur where you have this underwhelming breakfast but overwhelming view of an ACTIVE volcano (side note – while at the volcano, I got a text message from a friend asking me if I was alright cause apparently there was an earthquake in Denpensar (nearby) during the the wee morning hours!).

Mt. Batur - an active volcano in Kintamani that thankfully didn't erupt while we were there.

Later they take you to this Balinese coffee plantation where they have “grow” this special kind of coffee called LUWAK. “Grow” meaning they feed coffee beans to Civet cats and have them shit the beans out and voila LUWAK..or shall I say, LU-YUCK. People do drink it and it cost a lot too.

Civet cat poo that is later dried and "roasted" to make coffee

Poor civet cats that are fed only coffee beans to make this famous LUWAK coffee

For the actual cycling part of the tour, we went to this little village/ town and got to past some temples and lots of rice paddy fields. Despite them advertising the tour as a “downhill bike tour” – it’s all white lies as there was a good chunk of it that required us to go uphill. It all works out cause after sweating and roasting out like some duck/lamb/pig – we were treated to a pretty awesome lunch at the tour owners home.

The evening later wrapped at the very hip, happening and expensive Ku De Ta. No photos here but interesting (if not long winded) conversations with a bunch of “JOANNES”. Also, they only serve two kinds of beers – San Miguel and Heineken – WTF?? (side note – Bali Hai is the beer to drink while in Bali)

[days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 - to be continued....]

I’ve just comeback from a 6 night/ 7 day holiday in Bali, Indonesia. I’ve never been there before but needless to say it was everything I expected and a bit more. Unfortunately I fell victim of food poisoning my last day there and went through 2 air sickness bags on the flight back. I hate yacking and when I do it’s pretty loud – the stares I got on the plane re-affirmed this. After getting my bowels and such sorted, I’ve come down with the flu and staring at a computer screen when I don’t have to sickens me. I will get around to it…eventually.

In other news, I’ve joined the world of COUCH SURFING. My profile can be seen here.  I know right, another “social networking” site >.<

I have a travel predicament I have to make in 6 days. Qatar Airways has a special deal flying from KUL to a few destinations I’d really like to go to. My travel dates would be end of April into May but it might be too soon – unless this couch surfing stuff takes off.

We arrived in London on my 29th Birthday (10/10) and by the time we got to our hostel it was late. By the time we all freshened up, it was later so in the end we ate a late dinner at this restaurant Punjabi @ Covent Garden. The food was excellent though and the bottle of white wine cheaper than an appetizer . How adult of us no? No crazy birthday antics though and no conversations with taxi drivers about Jupiter and all that. Pretty low key and I think everyone was tired anyway.

The next morning Cece & Carly were flying back home. After spending a week with those girls (and I mean almost every waking minute with eachother!) it was sad to see them go. Carly teared up and I did too..sigh. If all goes well I’ll be back in the US again next year “The seas parted ways and left em’ to be!” (Seas = C&C and EM’ = M&M) ha ha I know I’m so special. So yeah it was just Marie and I for the rest of the day. We were waiting for Aash to call me back so he could give us directions on how to get to his apt for us to store our shit for the rest of the day. In the meantime though we made friends with the tube guy at the Royal Oak station. I dunno what we talked about but he liked us enough to offer his office for us to leave our luggage in while we got breakfast and all. In return though we got him some breakfast and he gave us a surprise big bear hug as we made our way to Aldgate East/White Chappel to meet up with Aash.

Aash lives off Selby Street @ White Chappel. His living room view is a cemetary where people died of Bubonic Plague (refer to past reference of Bubonic Plague). White Chappel is also where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. Lots of awesome history if you ask me! We didn’t have time to have a personal tour of the area but he did take us to the only ‘farm’ in London town aka Spitalfields City Farm. Well, we actually just walked by it cause we were answering the call of hunger… LUNCHERS @ Casa Blue on Brick Lane. Casa Blue is a nice cozy… cafe (?) There aren’t really any proper tables to eat on. Lots of beat up couches and places to lounge. It’s a place to snack and drink basically. Food was good though! I think we ordered their special platter and this special cocktail mixed with energy drinks and other stuff…it was called thai something or other (not the actual name but it had the word ‘thai’ in it). It was really good and before you know it, a bunch of people I’ve met in various stages of my life grouped together drinking from a fishbowl, in harmony. Aww….  Eventually we moved from Casa Blue to the Vibe Bar (hazy recollection of events!) and then finally to this bar/club that was in a warehouse – right behind the RootMaster ‘bustaurant’. Finally about 10 p.m. or so I had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight back ‘home’ – beligerent, sad and a tad confused. It’s a good thing the airport officials a) allowed me to sneak in an extra 5KG for my check-in luggage b) allowed my overweight carry on luggage on board. All good in the hood. Stansted airport officials aren’t assholes after all…well when it’s close to midnight that is! (A reverse Mogwai!?)

So that concludes uSUK Tour 2009… “tour” because it was like going on tour. I was constantly with people and I imagine being in a band ur always around people and at times they get on ur nerves and also it’s hard to get some “alone” time etc..etc.. It was also very tiring but all worth it. It certainly did not SUK (as in uSUK – blah baadd wordplay sorry). Now that I’ve been “home” for nearly 2 weeks, I’m enjoying some time alone doing absolutely nothing. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking which I did little of when travelling. Soooo.. you know how that goes.

Now for some pictures to accompany this post:

Cheers! And it’s back to ‘mai’ random ramblings whenever I feel like it!

….. continued from sCAUGHTland pt.1

Early the next morning we drove out from Edinburgh and made our way to and through the Scottish highlands via Inverness with a final stop at Lochness. Driving there was fun! Lots of nice scenery to take in, fun music and of course good company! Once we got to the actual ‘highlands’ there were stops where we could pull the car over to take photos and stuff. It was insanely cold though!

(L-R) Maya, Carly, Marie, Cece

Some castle we spotted while driving up in the highlands

View of the road whilst driving in the highlands

We saw lots of sheep, horses, cows and HIGHLAND COWS!~ They are sooo cute! Marie thinks they look like a young Kurt Cobain.

** images of Highland Cows taken from here

We had the opportunity a few times to pull over on the side of the road and take photos with the farm life but were kinda racing against time and could only probably afford one actual stop

The drive to finally reach the Inverness information centre (which is 30 minutes away from the Lochness tour place) took about 3 ½ hours from Edinburgh.. While at the Inverness Information Centre (the one in the south cause apparently there are more than one Information Centres in Inverness) we got our selves together..stretched a bit, went to use the loo and guess what we saw?!

I guess no one will understand this as it was an ongoing joke throughout the whole trip. Something to do with some guy who coughed on the tube in London and some lady going totally ape shit on him accusing him of spreading the Bubonic plague!

Anyway, when we finally arrived to the Loch Ness Tourist Trap Centre and waited a bit before jumping on board a bus that would drive 5 minutes down the road to the dock where we road the NESSIE HUNTER with our skipper Howie. It was an uneventful ride on the water. No signs of Nessie, cept some ripples the waters created which could have passed off as something. The water was really dark, black even. I learned a thing or two as to why the water is so dark. For one, the water is full of tiny floating pieces of brown coal. Also the hills (and trees?) surrounding Lochness may have something to do with its colour. Whatever the reason, I would hate to ‘accidentally’ fall in and not be able to see underwater. I have a super phobia with dark waters… I even get into a bit of a panic attack when I go snorkeling in clear blue water and I can suddenly see a big drop down there and no sight of an ocean bed (I also felt kind of claustraphobic during Finding Nemo when Dory hit her head somewhere and sunk down into abyss like waters…..ack) Right, anyway – during out boat tour we all got to stir the boat once. Marie made a full donut even!

We headed down south again about 5 ish or so. It was starting to get dark and our hellish drive to Glasgow begins! No street lights about 90% of the time. Lots of one lane roads with oncoming traffic in the opposite lane and no divider in between. Also, once it got completely dark, we couldn’t even seen the beautiful highlands and it was kinda like driving into an abyss (in relation to my phobia for things dark and not being able to really see anything) – also lots of signs for sheep & cow crossings) Not to mention I was completely knackered by the end of the day so Carly volunteered to drive for a bit. Bless her little heart hehe

Driving back took longer than getting there. We had to make a couple stops plus a dinner & gas stop in some town (crap the name of the town escapes me but we stole a Christmas menu from there so I’ll have to correct myself later). When we’re not totally pressed for time it’s kinda awesome “getting lost” and discovering new things – like this town. Not a non-white person in town! They musta thought I was an alien! But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed is that I’m pretty sure most pubs/restaurants in most cities and towns in Scotland have a pact with www.naughtyvend.com – “Naughty toys for girls and boys” !

Restaurant/Pub we ate at in the town of which the name escapes me!

We finally arrived in Glasgow at around 10 something and compared to where we’ve been sleeping since our trip, our Bed & Breakfast was like a 5 star hotel! McLays we LOVE you! J And since it was going to be my birthday, the gals gave me the double bed!  Albeit kinda late, I still wanted to check out what Glasgow nightlife had to offer. We were a stone’s throw away from Sauchiehall Street - one of the main shopping/business streets in Glasgow. By the time everyone “settled down” it was close to midnight. Cece and I walked about but all the pubs were closed and we felt we were dressy enough to attempt entering any clubs. There was this one indie club we wanted to check out (it was all lime green and dimly lit) but they were closing too! Lots of ladies were walking about barefoot holding their 6 inch stilettos. People were in alleys puking. Lots of people hanging outside of kebab and pizza places eating their post-clubbing food…. It was a sight to take all in although weren’t fortunate enough to actually participate in any of the debauchery. Glasgow def. has more “charm” than Edinburgh. I guess any place that’s kinda dodgy has ‘charm’. Take for example Baltimore – aka CHARM CITY! Dodgy as hell but charming all the same!

Crappy mobile phone shot outside of some club in Glasgow

The next morning after a good night getting McLay’d we all woke up in time to have breakfast. It was good but I was hoping to try some HAGGIS. No dice! Maybe I had to ask, or maybe they ran out since we were kinda late …..  We had a couple hours to kill before dropping the rental car off so we took a map of one those drop on/off bus tours and followed the route – just to get some sights and scenery. I’d love to go back to Glasgow – well Scotland in general! Two days there is like watching a trailer for say Lord of the Rings or something (the trailer looks good but the movie is EPIC!) …

Back to London town, my first official day as a 29 year old (gasp)… And for record purposes, it was Carly and I that got stopped by airport security this time. They randomly asked us to fit our bags into the bag sizer thingie and well, it couldn’t fit so we had to pay 30 friggin pounds! Happy Birthday to me! We celebrated on the plane later with rum straight up and a pear cider…. Hello again London…

Last uSUK Tour 2009 post is next….