Bali - Day 1

The much anticipated date, May 2, 2009 finally arrived and Connie, Becky and I were on our way to KLIA that morning...our flight to Denpasar, Bali was at 9.50am...Connie stayed over at my place so we checked-in together..but Becky stayed with her sister and she was quite late for check-in...Connie said that if Becky missed her flight this time round then she wasn't meant to go on holidays with us (Becky didn't make it for our Bangkok-Phuket trip last October due to her parents concern over the Bangkok unrest)...anyhow, Becky made it in time and we boarded the plane which was full of tourists like us...

The flight was quite uneventful except for the noisy Americans on my right...then there were the quieter French couples on my left...mostly i spent my time reading "Twilight", the recent vampire movie that hit the cinema, which was adapted from Stephenie Meyer's book...it's my mei mei's book...but i needed something to read on vacation...

We landed at the Ngurah Rai Airport at Denpasar about 12.50pm...Bali and Malaysia shares the same time zone...yea!! no worries about jetlag....got into a bit of a sticky situation at the Health Check Desk...thanks to the Swine flu alert...coz i always get sniffy after a flight...but managed to pass through la...so off we went to collect our luggage and we're out...it was pretty hot..the weather i mean...and i can actually understand the language the people are speaking in...it's as if i never left home..hehe...

So we took an airport cab to our hotel at Seminyak (which cost us Rp 70000)...as in Bangkok, all the cabs were what i called middle-class luxury cars...Toyota Vios, Honda Civic, etc...and everyone else drove a 4-wheel drive or a six-seater...apparently cars in Bali cost only half of what they do in Malaysia...how affordable....

We finally reached Seminyak Suites, the hotel where we'd be staying for the next one week...it was quite deep inside, away from the main road...just the way i like it...quiet...the room was cozy and clean...has a balcony with nice view...the hotel has a pool in which we had many night swims...well, actually the reason why we only swam at night was because they were actually doing construction work around the pool during the day...









After checking in, while waiting for dinner, Connie and I decided to walk around the vicinity of our hotel...the narrow alleys can be quite hazardous since they only allow one car to pass through at a time...but there was a certain quaint feeling about walking along narrow alleys where many private villas are situated...we found an apparently abandoned villa with its door ajar..so we took a peek inside and we were amazed by how luxurious the villa was...own private pool and all...if only i can afford one...we also saw a private villa which was named "villa sedap malam"...hmm..nice place for a honeymoon...

Dinner was at Jimbaran Bay...the hotel provided us transport to take us to a particular restaurant there...so we had seafood for dinner...while enjoying the sunset....it was really beautiful...and we even saw the runway where we landed, which stretched out into the sea...well, dinner wasn't exactly gourmet standard...and it was pretty expensive...but it was probably because i was stupid enough to order live prawns instead of dead ones...the former cost twice as much as the latter but would have probably tasted the same after they were grilled anyway...and the fish had skin that tasted like rubber..the only thing good was actually the Balinese sambal..yummy!!..no matter..the sunset made up for what lacked in dinner....









After dinner, there were a group of male musicians/perfomers going around serenading couples with nostalgic love songs...or so we thought...coz they ended up at our table as well...they sang 2 songs for us..Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours"...and "Careless Whispers" by i don't know which 80s group... music wasn't too bad but the singer needs to improve on his lyrics..Connie unwittingly paid Rp 100000 (divide 3000 for the RM equivalent) for their tips...and i realized that that was actually more than what we paid for our airport taxi...sigh...we needed to get used to the zeros...

Connie and I went for our 1st night swim in Bali in our hotel pool...very relaxing and therapeutic.. the water was warm enough...and it's nice to be gazing at the night sky while floating on the water...after the swim and bath, i settled down on my couch (where i spent my 1st 2 nights in Bali sleeping on) and continued reading "Twilight" till sleep beckoned...