Travel and Living!

After a sumptuous heavy breakfast, we decided to do some unplanned last minute shopping around Jimbaran town. The cab driver offered to fetch us around and since the shops are scattered all over the town and we did not really know where we were heading, we obliged.

We were looking for shops selling wooden crafts, potteries and local handicrafts. However, due to the driver’s limited understanding of English and Sam’s limited Bahasa Melayu vocabulary, we were driven to shops selling almost the same type of handicraft items catered mainly to tourist at high prices. When we were about to give up on our aimless drive, a few shops selling specialized local crafts caught our attention. We ended up purchasing a table lamp ($40) that comes with a white lamp shade and a wooden base with a frangipani white stone tile on the front. We also bought a small magazine rack ($10) made of bamboo and leather.

We returned to the hotel very pleased with our purchases, but it was a challenge packing all the bulky odd size items which could not fit into our trolley bags. As we had to check out of the hotel by 2 pm, we left our baggage with the concierge.

For the rest of the day, we just swam and sunbathed by the infinite pool, and relaxed by the Jacuzzi at the spa. We would have loved to hangout at the other pool by the beach, but it would have been a far descend down the cliff and even more tiring climb back up.

At around 6 pm, we headed to the hotel entrance to collect our baggages and waited for a taxi . The taxi arrived, but we had much difficulty getting our painting into it. The painting could not fit into the trunk or the rear seats of the sedan. In the end, the concierge offered the hotel transport (an MPV) at US$25 which we have no choice but to accept.

At the airport, we managed to check in our bulky items. We had good front row middle-aisle seats on the flight. At Changi airport, all our baggages could fit into the taxi, and the big painting occupied the rear passenger seats. We wanted to get a Maxi cab but they were not available. Sam got into the front passenger seat. As for me, I had to take the last bus no. 36 and got home past midnight! That's our memorable holiday adventure.

Labels: Bali

It was a nice day to sleep in, a great weekend, a lovely resort, a real holiday! But… we had to wake up for our breakfast as the buffet closes at 10.30 am.

Ritz Carlton serves a wide spread of international buffet breakfast, including Chinese dim sum, Japanese tempura and sushi, western ham, bacon, sausages, cereals, and local nasi campur etc. Chefs were on stand by to cook your choice of eggs, pancakes or waffles. I was fascinated by the bowl-like wooden percolator that was used for filtering the tea leaves from the tea.

After a heavy breakfast at the outdoor pavilion, we went about exploring the hotel which has a huge compound and two private beaches. On the edge of the cliff is a glass Chapel on lush grassland overlooking the Indian Ocean. There’s also a two-tiered outdoor infinity pool, water slide, Fitness centre and Spa complex. Hotel staff were seen busy preparing for an outdoor function.

Later, we took the hotel shutter to the other secluded beach. The view from the top of the cliff was awesome. There were very few guests at the beach. We spent about 2 hours basking in the sun, listening to our phone mp3 and caught up with our reading and nap.

We had earlier called to book a 3 pm slot with Anika Spa located at Tuban Area near Kuta beach. After a shower in our hotel room, we waited at the lobby for our free transfer to the Spa. We got a 50% off the list price with our boarding pass privileges. The Spa offers many different types of treatments, and we selected a 2 hrs 'Spa Treatment' at US$55 (before discount) consisting of:

Labels: Bali

Finally, a long-awaited resort holiday! We wanted to make full use of our expiring KF miles and booked this flight half a year back. After much consideration, we still found the Bali trip to be of best value given our limited miles.

At the airport while waiting to board the plane, we bought some skincare product from the duty free shop and benefited from the GSS. The SQ flight to Denpasar took 2.5 hrs from 0935 hr to 1205 hr. There were limited choices for the in-flight movies-on-demand. I caught the French movie ‘Priceless’ and I must say that it is a pretty good romantic comedy.

At the Denpasar airport, the car rental company were delayed in picking us up due to some confusion with other bookings. After half an hour or so of waiting, they provided us with a Toyota SUV and a driver who could speak very little English. For a whole day rental at US$45, we were just happy to be driven around.

First thing we did was to head to Ritz-Carlton at Jimbaran. There were a number of security guards and a German shepherd police dog guarding the gate to the hotel. They scanned our car thoroughly before letting us through. The hotel itself is a long drive in at about 5 km away. At the hotel, we were welcomed with a garland of fresh white frangipanis and a cocktail drink.

Our plan after checking into the hotel was to head to Ubud town to shop for our house. Along the way, we were distracted by a crowd and loud sales banners at a surf shop. We stopped to check out the factory outlet store that carried brands like Rip Curl, Quicksilver and Roxy, and Sam bought himself a weekend shirt.

We continued our journey to Ubud which is about 1.5 hrs away, and eventually arrived at a huge art gallery (Semar Kuning I) housing many nice local paintings. We were attracted to many of the paintings but did not commit to buy any as it was only our first visit to an art gallery since arriving in Bali.

Next, we proceeded to Ubud Market and that’s where I remember making good bargaining purchases during my last visit. This time, we bought 2 pairs of sandals, a rattan basket and 2 small white frangipani stone tiles. Unfortunately, we had only an hour to look around as the shops were closing. It was almost 6 pm and getting dark as the sun sets early. Would have loved to do some Christmas shopping but really did not have the time. We also missed out on the rows of arty-farty shops lining outside the market. Sigh…

As we looked around for paintings, our minds were still thinking about the ones we saw back at the first art gallery. So we returned to the gallery but there were no more visitors and it was kind of closed. But the staff still welcomed us and took us around. We finally decided on a modern abstract art with yellow-orange background and what looks like houses. The painting is huge at around 1.2 by 1 m in size. We tried to bargain but the staff was reluctant to budge, so we paid S$130 for it. We also requested to keep the frame intact, and they wrapped it nicely in a hard cupboard. We managed to fit it into the trunk of the SUV, but we figured that we might have some difficulty bringing it back home! :)

Next, we requested the driver to take us to a restaurant that serves good authentic local cuisine. He took us to Indus Restaurant in Ubud (Jln Raya Sanggingan www.casalunabali.com/indus.html). We ordered nasi campur, Balinese tapas and a chocolate brownie for dessert. The food was delicious and the ambience excellent with a live jazz band serenading throughout dinner. Unfortunately, we did not know that we were surrounded by breathtaking views of the hills till we read about it later.

We arrived back at the hotel at around 10 pm. And we have decided that the next time we visit Bali, we would stay in Ubud. We had stayed at Kartika Plaza near Kuta beach the first time, Melia Bali at Nusa Dua the last time, so we had enough of the southern coast.

Labels: Bali